End of Project Evaluation for children and youth project in Nairobi, Kenya At Horizont3000

HORIZONT3000 is an Austrian Organization for Development Cooperation. The organization specialises in the assistance, coordination and monitoring of projects and programmes as well as in the provision of technical experts in countries of the global south. HORIZONT3000 is looking for a consultancy team that conducts a Final Evaluation for the Project “Accelerating protection, empowerment and equal opportunities for children and youth project in Mukuru Slums – Nairobi, Kenya”. The full Terms of Reference can also be accessed here.

Project Description

The Kenyan NGO Mukuru Slums Development Projects (MSDP) with support from HORIZONT3000 and with funding from the Medicor Foundation and DKA Austria have been implementing a 3 year project ”Accelerating protection, empowerment and equal opportunities for children and youth in Mukuru Slums, Nairobi“ since January 2021.The project contributes to the socio-economic empowerment of youth, parents/care givers and rehabilitation of children at risk as key factor for political stability, good governance and economic development. Specifically, the project seeks to reduce the number of children and youth living in the streets by addressing the push and pull factors, and providing opportunities and alternative livelihood support. Project size is 218,000 Euros.

Project intended results:

1. 300 street-connected children (290 boys, 10 girls) reached. Out of the 300 rescued children, 240 boys will be rehabilitated and 180 boys out of the 300 rescued will be successfully reintegrated back to their caregivers
2. Promote and enhance life skills among 4830 children and youth to realize their full potential (2021-2023)
3. Socio-economic empowerment for 525 caregivers and youths (18-25) for increased livelihood options
4. Increased community capacity in public involvement, policy dialogue and participation in development in 7 Communities (Villages)
5. MSDP’s institutional capacity to serve the community is strengthened

Target Group:

The project directly targets 5808 persons (2759 male/ 3049 female), 300 Street connected children, 4830 children and 525 youths (18-25years) and caregivers and 140 community dialogue participants.

Purpose of the Evaluation

The purpose of the evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Accelerating protection, empowerment and equal opportunities for children and youth in Mukuru Slums project has impacted the target beneficiaries and wider community, establish its relevance, efficiency and sustainability.

Specific objectives of the Evaluation:

1. To establish the impact of the project on the beneficiaries during the implementation period.
2. To assess the effectiveness of the project.
3. To determine whether the project is efficient, sustainable and replicable and
4. To propose recommendations to HORIZONT3000, MSDP and project stakeholders for further replication and effective project implementation.

Scope of the Evaluation

The evaluation covers the project implementation period 2021-2023 and will be conducted in Mukuru Slums, Nairobi. The evaluation is expected to take 15 days effective 1st week of November, 2023.

Evaluation Criteria – Objectives

1.To establish the relevance of the project for the beneficiaries during the implementation period:

The consultant will establish the extent to which the objectives of the project are consistent with beneficiary requirements and the project contribution to the National development objectives.

2. To assess the effectiveness of the project:

Assess the extent to which the project’s immediate results were achieved. Assess whether the project approach produced demonstrated successes and in which aspect did the project have the greatest achievements? What were the supporting factors to the success? Show the areas the project had the least achievements and why? What lessons could be learned? Etc.

3. To determine whether the project is efficient, sustainable and replicable:

Determine whether the project resources (funds, human resources, time, expertise, etc.) were allocated strategically to achieve outcomes? Were resources used efficiently? Generally, were the results achieved commensurate to the costs? Could the same results be attained with fewer resources?

Determine whether the project results are durable and can be maintained or even scaled up and replicated by project partners after HORIZONT3000 and donor assistance has been stopped.

4. To value the impact of the project on the beneficiaries:

Determine the positive/negative long-term effects produced by the project (reintegration, improved livelihoods of parents/caregivers, results of vocational training/integration of youth in job/ apprenticeship) effects of drama/sports, and impact of health education)

5. Propose recommendations to HORIZONT3000, MSDP and project stakeholders for further replication and effective project implementation

How should the stakeholders build on or replicate the project successes/ achievements? How should the project constraints or failures be overcome? Propose alternative strategies that could be more effective in achieving the project’s objectives etc.

Design and Approach

HORIZONT3000 will rely on the consultant(s) to come up with the appropriate methodology, tools and approach which will be fine-tuned and agreed upon during the inception meeting. However, the methodology should promote participation of beneficiaries and key stakeholders and be appropriate to the project context. Besides, the consultant will be provided with the relevant project documents namely, Project description and Annual reports to conduct desk study.

Key considerations:

• Data should be collected and interpreted in a gender-disaggregated manner.
• Desk analysis of project documents, interim reports
• Data collection on project indicators for comparison with baseline and monitoring data
• Conduct individual and group interviews / focus groups with representatives of the target groups (boys, girls, men and women), MSDP project team,

Work schedule: Key phases of the Evaluation

• The inception report should be submitted by 1st week of November, 2023
• The draft report should be submitted by 1st week of December, 2023
• The final report should be submitted by the 3rd week of December, 2023

Please refer to a more detailed work schedule here.

Deliverables

Inception Report:

The Inception report should follow the following structure:

1. Background, purpose and objectives
2. Evaluation design and approach
   2.1 Methodology
   2.2 Evaluation matrix
   2.3 Data collection tools
   2.4 Data analysis
   2.5 Limitations, risks and mitigation measures
3. Quality assurance and ethical considerations
4. Work plan
5. Annexes

Draft report:

The draft report follows the same structure as the final report.

Final report:

It must be written in English (max. 30 pages, without annexes) including an executive summary (max. 5 pages). The evaluation report must be structured as follows:

1. Executive summary
2. Introduction
3. Background and context analysis
4. Evaluation design and approach
   4.1 Methodological approach
   4.2 Data collection and analysis tools
   4.3 Limitations, risks, and mitigation measures
5. Findings according to evaluation criteria
6. Conclusions
7. Recommendations
8. Annexes

Estimated working days: 15 days

Coordination

The general coordination of the review including the selection, contracting and feedback processes is assumed by Mrs. Ulrike Bey (ulrike.bey@horizont3000.at), programme coordinator Kenya at HORIZONT3000.

Requirements for consultants

A consultant (team) with local expertise and good knowledge of the project area is preferred. The team must be able to offer the following expertise

• Evaluation of projects with relevant and proven experience in the informal settlement context;
• Expertise/experience in children and youth (street life) programming, human rights-based approaches and sufficiently equipped in participatory approaches
• Gender mixed team
• Fluency in English for all team members
• Fluency in Kiswahili is an added value
• The team leader must have minimum 5 years’ working experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis as well as managing of evaluation teams proofed by a track record.

The team’s composition must be detailed and explained in the technical offer, as well as the division of tasks between all team members and their added value.

Budget and payment terms

The maximum budget available for this evaluation is EUR 5000,–

The payment will be distributed as follows:

• 50% on signing the service contract
• 50% after validation of the final report by HORIZONT3000