Established in 1986, Canadian Feed The Children (CFTC) is an independent, non-faith-based, registered charitable organization with its headquarters in Toronto, Canada.  CFTC envisions a world where children thrive free from poverty. Working with local partners internationally and in Canada, the organisation’s mission is to enhance the well-being of children and the self-sufficiency of their families and communities. CFTC builds community capacity and helps create opportunities for long-term, sustainable food security and access to quality early childhood care and primary education in Bolivia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti and Uganda, as well as in Canada.  Programs in Canada are focused on food security and nutrition in Aboriginal communities, where the organisation funds school and community-based feeding and healthy eating education programs.  www.canadianfeedthechildren.ca.

CFTC has been operational in Ghana since 1999. CFTC Ghana has been implementing the Climate Change Adaptation in Northern Ghana Enhanced (CHANGE) Project since January, 2013, with initial funding from the Canadian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs Trade and Development (DFATD), working with local partners in the three regions on Northern Ghana. The CHANGE project is implemented in 17 communities in three districts to build capacities for adaptation and resilience against the impacts of climate change on food security, agriculture and livelihoods. Though funding from DFATD ended in March, 2014, CFTC continued implementing the Project with its own funds, with the Project due to end in December, 2015.

The CHANGE project comes to end in December 2015 and CFTC is seeking to carry out an end of project evaluation to assess the achievements, successes, challenges and impact of the project.

Job Description

Terms of Reference – End of Project External Evaluation, The Climate Change Adaptation in Northern Ghana Enhanced (CHANGE) Project 2013-2015

Objective of the Consultancy

Canadian Feed the Children’s (CFTC’s) Ghana Country Office is seeking to hire a consultant to carry out an end of project evaluation for its Climate Change Adaptation in Northern Ghana Enhanced (CHANGE) Project, which has been implemented over the past three years (2013-2015) in one district/municipality in each of the three Northern Ghana regions – Northern, Upper East and Upper West.

The CHANGE Project’s ultimate goal is to improve the adaptive capacity and increase resilience of smallholder women and men farmers to the impacts of climate change on agriculture, food security and livelihoods through the three main integrated approaches:

•   Building adaptive capacity so that implementing partners, extension agents and farmer and community-based organizations are trained and able to provide to smallholder women and men farmers in 17 communities, in three regions of northern Ghana, increased access to information about climate change and its effects, and strengthened capacity to implement adaptive measures;
•   Implementing adaptation actions so that smallholder women and men farmers in these same communities can practice climate-smart agriculture to increase productivity and farm income in an environmentally sustainable way; and
•   Sustaining women’s livelihoods in a changing climate so that smallholder women farmers in these same communities have a reduced risk of climate change impacts on livelihoods.

The Project is implemented with Farm Radio International (FRI) as coalition partner. Implementing partners are the Rural Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS), TradeAID Integrated (TAI) and Tumu Deanery Rural Integrated Development Program (TUDRIDEP), respectively in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions. Project technical partners are the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), University for Development Studies (UDS - ICEIR), Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet), CARE International (Ghana) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA).

The end of project evaluation will measure the achievements against the CHANGE project outcomes and outputs as well as assess the overall impact of the Project. The evaluation will also capture lessons learned from all stakeholders as well as challenges and experiences to inform future project designs, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This will require the consultant to use appropriate methodologies to gather relevant data on key project indicators, conduct analysis and assessment thereof and document the projects impact.

Specific Objectives

•   Review and analyse the broader Ghanaian and local (regional, district and community) contexts, including socio-economic status and household conditions, with reference to the CHANGE Project’s ultimate outcomes in the areas of adaptive capacity, implementation of adaptation actions and rural women’s livelihood and relate these to baseline results on CHANGE Project indicators.
•   Collect quantitative and qualitative data on output and outcome level indicators of the Project and analyse the level of achievement of these indicators in relation to baseline, midline and initial end-line surveys conducted.
•   Assess the overall impact of the Project, whether planned or not, on both targeted and non-targeted project beneficiaries.
•   Collect general successes (including success stories), lessons learned, and challenges across all stakeholders of the Project.
•   Provide recommendations based on findings to inform future project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
•   Compare and analyse the projects progress against baseline and climate vulnerability and capacity assessment (CVCA) conducted at the inception of the project.

Scope

The end of project evaluation is intended to provide CFTC with detailed analysis on project performance indicators and information on the Project’s achievements, successes, impact and challenges. It will include gathering and analysing relevant information from secondary data sources (e.g. documents, census data/socio-economic statistics from government, and reports from multi-lateral and international/national organizations) and collecting quantitative and qualitative data from primary sources such as project direct and indirect beneficiaries, partners, relevant local government departments, as well as other collaborators through surveys, interviews and focus group discussions in the areas where the Project was implemented.

The end of project evaluation will be conducted in the three (3) regions (Northern, Upper East and Upper West) where the Project was implemented. This comprises of three (3) District/Municipalities, one in each of the 3 regions and a total of 17 project communities.

Methodology

Both primary and secondary data will be used during the end of project evaluation.

•   Qualitative and quantitative data collection tools such as individual interview questionnaires, focus group discussions, direct observation and key informant interviews among others will be used to obtain primary data from direct and indirect project beneficiaries, implementing, technical and coalition partners and relevant govt. departments.
•   Secondary data sources will include key project and other documents and required literature from CFTC country office and other relevant agencies.

All data, qualitative and quantitative, collected through the assessment must be disaggregated by location, age, sex and vulnerability; that is, separately for women, men, girls and boys, and other vulnerable populations. The consultant should propose/develop a tool or template that will be used to collect such information. The consultant will propose a detailed strategy outlining his/her method of data collection, analysis and reporting including beneficiary sampling procedures, data collection plan and methods of data analysis, etc. CFTC Country Office would make available to the evaluator relevant data and information on the project from baseline, midterm and end of first phase evaluation conducted on the Project. The CFTC Senior Advisor for Food Security and Environmental Sustainability in Toronto, Tamale based country office staff and project partners will support in the entire evaluation process.

The consultant is expected to work in close consultation with the CFTC Head Office Programs Team and Ghana Country Office and in collaboration with CFTC Partners throughout the study.  CFTC and its partners will prepare the field visits for the consultant and data collectors ahead of time. CFTC and partners’ staff will ensure that girls, boys, women and men and other relevant participants are prepared and ready to participate in interviews and Focus Group Discussions or data collectors.

Period and duration of Evaluation

The evaluation is expected to be conducted over a three month period from October to December, 2015. It is expected that the end of project evaluation process will comprise approximately 40 days of fulltime work. This excludes days used for recruitment, negotiation and contracting.

Qualification Required & Experience

•   Good knowledge and experience in the areas of food security, climate change adaptation and livelihood improvement projects in Africa, preferably in Ghana.
•   Demonstrable experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative evaluation in Africa, particularly in West Africa.
•   Knowledge and experience with DFATD food security, environmental suitability and gender priorities and of standard evaluation processes.
•   Track record in developing and conducting baseline and end of project research studies or evaluation using varied approaches.
•   Experience in data collection and analysis and reporting using participatory tools and processes.
•   Excellent and demonstrated understanding of ethical issues in research
•   Experience in working with a multi-cultural team of professionals
•   Ability to write high-quality, clear, concise and analytical reports in English

Location: Northern/ Upper East and Upper West Regions

How To Apply For The Job

We invite interested individual consultants, consulting teams and companies to submit the following application documents:

•   Expression of interest outlining how the consultant(s) meets the objectives, and their understanding of the TOR and methodology;
•   A proposal explaining proposed methodology and strategies to conduct the evaluation including , proposed activities schedule or work plan with timeframe;
•   Financial proposal detailing itemized fees, data collection and administrative costs, including all taxes and other fees;
•   Copy of CV of the consultant(s) who will undertake the evaluation;
•   At least two previous clients and their contacts for reference;
•   One recent example of similar baseline, research or evaluation report written by the consultant;

Please send expressions of interest to Edward Akapire, CFTC Ghana Country Representative,

eakapire@canadianfeedthechildren.ca

Please also copy:-

jobs@canadianfeedthechildren.ca

Closing Date: 30 September, 2015