Location: Phnom Penh
A.1 EVALUATION CONTEXT:
Since 2016, four Belgian university NGOs including ECLOSIO (currently Ucoopia, the NGO of the University of Liège), Louvain Coopération (Louvain-la-Neuve), FUCID (Namur) and ULB-Coopération (Brussels), have decided to implement a common program financed by the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation Belgium (DGD) for a period of 10 years, from 2017 to 2026, under the name of Uni4Coop. Uni4Coop's specificity is to contribute to development by mobilizing the human and scientific resources of the university community.
For the program 2022-2026, Uni4Coop proposed a fully integrated program between Louvain Coopération and Ucoopia in Cambodia. This joint program will enable the two organizations to join forces, strengthen each other, promote exchanges and better capitalize on practices, and generate new expertise at the crossroads of research and development.
The Uni4Coop office in Cambodia is located in Phnom Penh. It coordinates a local multidisciplinary team. The thematic areas of intervention are sustainable food systems, food and economic sovereignty (support to family farming, agroecology transition, income-generating activities, rural entrepreneurship, farmer organization) and health (with a focus on non-communicable diseases and a special emphasis on mental health).
Within the outcome of Sustainable Food Systems (SFS), Uni4Coop was granted a PArTNER project (2022
– 2026) which aims at “generating economic and social changes in rural farmers families and improving the food market through agroecology transition and gender equity in agriculture”. This outcome was jointly developed by LC and Ucoopia and their Cambodian partners. It intends to contribute to SDG 2 “End hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” (main), to SDG 1 “End poverty in all its forms everywhere” (secondary), to SDG 5 “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” (secondary) and to SDG 8 “Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all” (secondary). It is consistent with the national policy of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and with the objectives of the Joint Strategic Framework (JSF) 2022 – 2026 developed by all Belgian Non-Governmental Cooperation Actors (NGCAs) active in Cambodia.
Field-activities are carried out by key partners including (i) the Tramkak Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (TrUAC) in Takeo province, (ii) the 4 Agricultural Cooperatives in Battambang province, (iii) and 3 Agricultural Cooperatives (ACs) in Kampong Thom province, (iv) the Ecosystem Services and Land Use Research Centre (ECOLAND) of the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA), and Development and Partnership in Action (DPA) organization. In addition, several other higher education institutions, NGOs, networks and consultants are collaborating to implement different interventions.
The SFS outcome supports family farming systems by strengthening their resilience functions as food providers for the Cambodian society. The intended approach combines the increase of agricultural productivity through agroecological practices, the increase of revenues, and the improvement of the socio-economic environment. This is to be achieved through:
- The promotion of Farmer-to-Farmer-led (F2F) extension systems, technical and managerial innovations, and co-investments in agroecological production assets;
- The creation of value-addition and the reach to remunerative markets by upgrading sustainable and inclusive value-chains of agroecological products;
- Supporting farmers representatives’ initiatives to address constraints and opportunities during dialogues with the private sector and the government, to promote gender-inclusive governance models, and to foster policies in favour of small-scale farmers;
- Raising consumer awareness of healthy food intake and promote quality standards and control systems to improve sustainable consumption patterns, with an emphasis on the role of women as agents of change; and
- Improving knowledge management to foster and disseminate innovations and results and to influence policies in favour of agroecological transition.
A.2.1 OBJECTIVE:
Accountability:
The DGD requires that the Outcomes they are co-funding are evaluated at the end of action, specifically regarding Impact and Sustainability on the level of the Specific Objective (SO). As with any action coming to a conclusion, another important criterion to prioritize is effectiveness. Other OECD DAC criteria may be addressed on parts of the program, in specific questions, not forgetting the contribution to the Joint Strategic Framework (JSF), to mainstreaming gender and environmental aspects.
Learning:
Beyond its accountability function, the final evaluation offers an opportunity to draw valuable lessons for Uni4Coop. A secondary objective of this call for expressions of interest is to assess issues specific to our Outcome, such as the main drivers and obstacles encountered, or lessons transferable to other projects or contexts.
A.2.2 PRIMARY USERS:
The final evaluation is a duty of accountability to the DGD, the main donor. The underlying objective is to reflect on partnership relations; the partners of this program will be the privileged users. UNI4COOP and JSF: conclusions and lessons learned will be shared among other ACNGs. The results of the final evaluation will also be shared with other cooperation actors and the general public through the websites of LC and Ucoopia and the DGD website.
A.2.3 PERIOD COVERED BY THE EVALUATION:
The final evaluation will cover the entire duration of the PArTNER project from 2022 to 2026.
A.3 TYPE OF EVALUATION:
This is an external conventional end-of-program evaluation to be carried out in all areas covered by the project.
A.4 GLOBAL APPROACH
This is an external evaluation. The theme on which this Final Evaluation focuses was retrieved from common interest elements between LC and Ucoopia in Cambodia and at Uni4Coop level.
The Scope of Work (SOW) stated below will be reviewed by the evaluation team and the evaluation steering committee in order to achieve the desired results and objectives at a feasible and measurable level.
A.5 DESIRED METHOD AND TOOLS:
The choice of the methodology is left to the evaluator, including in terms of the time to be given to each question. The proposed approaches stated in the previous table are merely suggestions.
The evaluator will propose information gathering tools and a methodology based on his/her particular professional knowledge. An outline scoping report, drawn up after the preparatory meeting for field work, will determine, by mutual agreement, the evaluation methods and tools that will be used during the field phase and their justification. The evaluation should involve a representation of key partners and participating populations at different levels. Uni4Coop (Ucoopia and Louvain Cooperation) encourages the use of innovative methods of data collection and stakeholder consultation.
A.6 SKILLS REQUIRED
It is envisaged that the assignment is carried out by an evaluation consultant or team with profound knowledge of the agricultural sector and extensive proven experience in Cambodia.
The consultant or a team of consultants should meet the following requirements:
- Strong experience with the evaluation of international development/donor-funded projects, both midterm and final evaluations;
- Team leader has developed a minimum of 3 evaluations or other relevant studies in the past 5 years, preferably in Cambodia;
- Experience with the evaluation of capacity development interventions in the agricultural sector. Common practice of participatory evaluation methods;
- Knowledge of the area of intervention and experience in working with local Cambodian context in the field of environment, agroecological practices, agribusiness development, farmers organizations and relevant policies and strategies;
- Sensitivity to the themes of gender and environment;
- Excellent written and spoken command of English, the notion of Khmer language is an asset.
The maximum budget available for this evaluation is 14.000 Euros including tax.
All costs related to data collection (e.g. enumerators, field assistants, survey implementation, or other data collection expenses) must be included in this package.
Other costs related to the evaluation, particularly physical events or meetings organization (if there are any) for additional data collection or data verification purposes that require a large number of participants which could not be covered by the consultant, will financially be covered directly by Uni4Coop following our internal policies. Uni4Coop will approve such cases only when we deem necessary.
A.8. TERMS OF THE EXPERTISE:
A.8.1 STEPS FOR SUBMISSIONS OF APPLICATIONS
The consultant selection process will follow the 2 steps below:
Step 1: Open Call
The applicant (Individual consultant or legal entity) is required to submit only:
1. A motivation letter for this assignment;
2. CV(s) of the consultant(s). For legal entity, CVs of the proposed key person who will undertake the assignment, highlighting relevant experience with similar evaluations and contacts of referees from the previous evaluations; and
3. A short understanding note responding to this ToR, as well as how the context and the evaluation questions were understood.
The project team will evaluate the applications and notify qualified applicants if they will proceed to the next step. Only shortlisted applicants will be notified and proceeded to step 2.
Step 2: Shortlisting
Each selected applicant will be invited to have an individual meeting with the project team to understand better about the PArTNER project and the supports from the project team when conducting the evaluation before being asked to submit the:
1. Technical proposal: describing methodological approaches to answer the questions and objectives set out in the ToR, and detailing the tools for collecting information, the profile of involved persons, indicative timetable of the evaluation;
2. Financial proposal: detailing proposed budget for the evaluation in euros including tax of the service.
A.8.2. DOCUMENTS TO REVIEW
After being passed into Step 2, the project will make the following documents available to the consultant(s):
- Annex 1: PArTNER CAMBODGE ANX19 - Complete Document
- Annex 2: JSF Cambodia
- Annex 3: Mid-term review and managerial response
After being selected for the evaluation, the consultant will get further access to:
- Project’s Annual Reports;
- Reports of Baseline, Midline, and Endline Assessments;
- Partnership management and evaluation tools developed as part of the project and previous projects; and
The consultant may ask to consult any document she/he deems useful (partnerships agreements, reports, list of groups and participating stakeholders, etc)
A.8.3. MODALITIES FOR CARRYING OUT THE FIELD MISSION
- A framework meeting in Cambodia, following which, she/he will draft a scoping note in case the mission outline needs to be reviewed on the basis of the knowledge of the documentation that will be given to her/him and the first exchanges conducted both in Belgium and in the field.
- Restitution meetings with the local team and project’s partners/collaborators.
- A debriefing meeting (including online facilities) at the end of the field mission, organized with the main actors, including LC/Ucoopia team members.
- A post-submission meeting of the interim report, organized with the steering committee. This will allow for adjustments before the final report is submitted.
- A managerial response meeting following the submission of the final report.
- A post-evaluation meeting when the managerial response has been formulated on the basis of the final evaluation report, the location of which will be agreed on time.
Please send CV and cover letter to
Email: veata.mey@uni4coop.org , christophe.goossens@ucoopia.org
Phone:
Website: https://louvaincooperation.org/en/jobs-et-stages
Please mention "www.Cambodiajobs.Biz" where you saw the ad when you apply!
