CALL FOR EVALUATORS OF CRUDAN PROJECT At Christian Rural and Urban Development Association of Nigeria

CHRISTIAN RURAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (CRUDAN)

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR EVALUATION OF THE CRUDAN PROJECT

PROJECT TITLE: IMPROVING THE CAPACITY AND RESILIENCE OF NIGERIAN COMMUNITIES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, CONTINUATION

PROJECT NUMBER: A-NGA-2020-0350.

1. INTRODUCTION
   1. Background to the organization

The Christian Rural and Urban Development Association of Nigeria (CRUDAN) is a Christian, non-profit, Non-Governmental Organization. It is a membership organization that has as its members- Churches, Christian Organizations, and individuals that are engaged or interested in development work in Nigeria.

It has the main goal of promoting the growth of the church in Nigeria by assisting her rural and urban development work that is part of her witness. CRUDAN serves the church all over Nigeria in Wholistic development work.

The Organization was formed in 1990, following the merger of two Christian organizations that operated independently in the country; namely: Christian Rural Advisory Council (CRAC), founded in 1965 in the northern part of Nigeria, and Christian Rural Fellowship of Nigeria (CRFN) operated in the Southern part of Nigeria which was established in 1953.

CRUDAN began operation in 1991 and was officially registered by the Federal Government of Nigeria on 7th December 1992.

The current project period started on the 1st January 2021 and will end on 31st December 2023. The overall goal of the project is to sustainable livelihoods enhanced for poverty reduction in Nigerian communities.

Specific project objectives

• Churches, MOs, CBOs/FBOs and communities are contributing to the improvement of living conditions in the communities, with special emphasis on gender equality and the participation of youth.
• Trained Churches, MOs, CBOs/FBOs and communities contribute to improve the resilience of communities in unsafe and/or insecure situations.
• Churches, MOs, CBOs/FBOs and communities systematically call for political representatives to assume social responsibility.

The agreed indicators to measure the extent of achievement of the objectives are:

Project objective 1.

Churches, MOs, CBOs/FBOs and communities are contributing to the improvement of living conditions in the communities, with special emphasis on gender equality and the participation of youth.

Indicator 1.1. At least 70% of the trained Churches, MOs, CBOs/FBOs and communities have successfully implemented community-driven targeted development interventions to improve living conditions in the communities.

Indicator 1.2. At least 10% of the community-driven targeted development interventions are either carried out by young people or predominantly benefit young people.

Indicator 1.3. At least 40% of the trained participants are implementing measures to reduce gender inequality in their Organisations, Churches CBOs/FBOs and communities.

Project objective 2.

Trained Churches, MOs, CBOs/FBOs and communities contribute to improve the resilience of communities in unsafe and/or insecure situations.

Indicator 2.1. 70 % of the participants trained in disaster risk reduction/ preparedness carry out lobbying and advocacy activities for improved disaster control by official government agencies.

Indicator 2.2. At least 50% of the participating trainers in the areas of trauma treatment/conflict transformation systematically train other members of their organization, church, CBOs/FBOs and communities.

Indicator 2.3. At least three case studies per year show improved need-based responses in risk situations by the trained organizations.

Project objective 3.

Indicator 3.1. At least two initiatives per year, in which various trained participants have joined together to form interest groups, demonstrate a collective demand for social responsibility at relevant political levels.

1. Current environment of operations of CRUDAN

CRUDAN operates in Nigeria with Headquarters in Jos, Plateau state and five offices in Northwest, Kaduna, Northeast Yola, Central, Abuja, Southeast, Enugu and Southwest, Ibadan.

The need to improve the capacities and resilience of Nigerian communities for sustainable development cannot be overemphasized. This is because the Nigerian communities are bedeviled by a high level of poverty caused by several factors like poor understanding and ignorance of basic livelihood in communities; increased vulnerability to conflict and insecurity and poor peacebuilding mechanisms, extreme corruption in governance and poor networking platforms for coordination of and promotion of shared learning and exchange among communities, partners and other major stakeholders.

The project during this period faced major challenges. The first is the heightened insecurity in the country and the increased kidnappings especially on Nigerian roads making travelling easily a challenge. For that reason, some of the project areas could not be accessed. Secondly, high inflation was experienced within the project years leading to poor financial value for the project. In respect of staffing, the organization engaged an Internal auditor in 2022, and in January 2023, we had one key staff, directly responsible for the implementation of the project, retire from the organization; the Executive Director.

The evaluation is to provide feedback regarding successes, failures, and learnings for stakeholders like the Board and CRUDAN members to know the impact of CRUDAN activities and how far CRUDAN has achieved its desired goals in line with the Long-Range Plan.

The evaluation is also to meet the donor’s requirements; Brot fuer die Welt – The Protestant Development Service Germany and to serve as a basis for developing another proposal and review of the sixth phase 2021 -2023.

1. OBJECTIVE OF THE EVALUATION

The main purpose of the evaluation is to assess the implementation of the project, “Improving the capacity and resilience of Nigerian communities, continuation” which started in January 2021 and ends December 2023. The main idea is to strengthen accountability and increase learning.

The specific objectives to be achieved are:

1. To assess the performance of the project based on the objectives and indicators set to be achieved between 2021 – 2023.
2. To provide useful baseline data for next phase project design in line with contemporary issues and youth and women development strategies and Initiatives.
3. To assess the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, impact, sustainability and coordination of the project.
4. To analyse the strengths, weaknesses, successes, failures, opportunities and constraints, for future directions of programmes and strategies.
5. To analyse the sustainability of the project.
6. To assess partnerships, collaboration and networking and the impact of these partnerships towards achieving the project objectives.
7. To identify and document lessons learnt and challenges faced.
8. To develop recommendations based on the findings and support and advice the implementation of the recommendations through an action plan.
9. KEY QUESTIONS

Aspect 1 – effectiveness

Has CRUDAN been effective in achieving its intended objectives in the key strategic programme areas?

Areas for consideration include:

• the achievement / likely achievement of the project outputs;
• the achievement / likely achievement of the project purpose;
• the contribution / likely contribution towards the project goal;
• the major factors (internal and external) influencing the achievement / non-achievement of the project objectives.
• The extent to which the target groups were reached?
• the effectiveness of CRUDAN’s monitoring system in measuring the change in MOs as a result of its programmes and the impact on MOs’ beneficiary groups as a result of their programmes.

Aspect 2 – impact

What impact has the project had on beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries?

Areas for consideration include:

• the intended and unintended results (social, physical, environmental, economic, cultural, and spiritual), both positive and negative, of the project on direct beneficiaries
• How many people were reached? By what kind of activity? and how often?
• how did the project change the situation of women and men and their relationships?
• the major factors influencing the impact of the project on beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries.

Aspect 3 – relevance

How relevant is the project to the priorities and policies of the target group, the communities, the local church and others?

Areas for consideration include:

• the validity of the project objectives; did we plan the right thing?
• the relevance of the project with the needs and vulnerabilities of the target group;
• the current status and service needs of members (individual and corporate) and their level of satisfaction with the quality of services provided by CRUDAN;
• the use and enhancement by the project of the existing skills, knowledge and coping strategies of the target group;
• the relevance of the project to the mission and role of the local church in working alongside local communities;
• the contribution of the project to strengthening the local church and the communities;
• the consistency of the project with the vision, values, strategy and resources of its partners;
• the contribution of the project to strengthening the capacity of member organisations;
• the major factors influencing the relevance of the project to the priorities and policies of the target group, the local churches, and Bread for the World.

Aspect 4 – efficiency

Has the project been efficient in achieving the intended objectives?

Areas for consideration include:

• the cost-efficiency of project activities;
• the achievement of objectives to time and to budget;
• comparison of the implementation of the project with alternatives;
• the major factors influencing the efficiency of the project.

Aspect 5 – sustainability

Will the benefits of the project be sustained after the end of the project?

Areas for consideration include:

• the continuation of project benefits if donor funding were to reduce;
• the ability to generate and mobilise current contribution local resources from Churches and Church related institutions;
• the ability to access funds and support from other sources (including the private sector);
• the major factors influencing the sustainability of the project.

Aspect 6 – coordination and coherence

How has the project been integrated with the activities and priorities of other agencies and organisations, Community Based Organizations and other major partners like FBOs, Women groups and Youth groups, etc.

Areas for consideration include:

• the linkages and relationships between the target group, the local church and communities, Government and other agencies and organisations;
• the coherence of the project with national and local policies;
• the major factors influencing coordination and coherence of the project with the activities and priorities of other agencies and organisations.

1. EVALUATION DESIGN AND METHODS

The Evaluation Design

The evaluation will be done by an external evaluator who would be supported by a team of 1 male and 1 female. The team Is expected to travel round to the zones, however, where travels are difficult to achieve, phone calls, google meet and zoom meetings can be used in addition to travel to nearby areas to conduct Key Informant Interviews (KII) and Focus Group Discussions (FGD), with selected stakeholders.

Data Collection Methods:

• Among those to be interviewed will be:
  • Board members
  • The Management Committee
  • Programme Management Team
  • Support staff team
  • Facilitators/Program Officers
  • Representatives of the church and community (Religious and community leaders)
  • CRUDAN Member Organisations
  • Project beneficiaries

Specific methods to be used include, semi structured interviews and Key Informant Interviews.

• Key Informant Interviews: Key informant interviews to be conducted with Board, Management, Beneficiaries, Church and Community leaders.
• Focus Group Discussions: To be conducted with women and youth groups and other identified groups within the project stakeholders.
• Document and Data Review: The review of the secondary data is to form the background information, for any of the information gathering, and to see what has been achieved. The following documents and records will be analyzed:

1. Partnership Agreement;
2. Activity reports
3. CRUDAN Proposal for Phase VI (2021-2023);
4. Annual Plan 2021 – 2023;
5. Annual reports 2021 – 2023;
6. Annual budget 2021 – 2023;
7. Financial reports 2021 – 2023;
8. Audited reports 2021-2022

Further information could be obtained from:

1. Minutes of Annual General Meeting; 2021-2023
2. Minutes of Board meetings; 2021-2023
3. Constitution of CRUDAN;
4. CRUDAN Newsletter editions 2021 – 2023;
5. Membership Registration 2021-2023.
6. CRUDAN policies
7. CRUDAN Human Resource Policy
8. CRUDAN Long-Range Plan 2020 – 2025;

The Approach

The approach of the evaluation will be by an External person who will use his own team of 1-2 persons to conduct the evaluation.

Analytic Plan: The evaluation team will develop the analysis plan during the team planning meeting. All analysis will be geared to answer the evaluation questions. Quantitative data will be analyzed primarily using descriptive statistics. Thematic review of qualitative data will be performed, connecting the data to the evaluation questions, seeking relationships, context and interpretation to better explain what is happening and the perception of those involved. Qualitative data will be used to provide substantial quantitative findings, provide more insights than quantitative data can provide, and answer questions where other data do not exist.

Field visits.

Field visits will be carefully planned because of insecurity in the country. All travels should be advised by the CRUDAN security focal person.

Coverage: The evaluation will cover the five zones of CRUDAN.

Sample size: A sample size of CRUDAN member-organisations in the five zones will be identified. In addition, non-CRUDAN member-organisations, partners and collaborating organisations (who may or may not have benefited from the services of CRUDAN) will be visited for the purpose of triangulation and verification.

A sample size of twenty (20) Member-organisations out of 50 Active Member Organizations, fifteen (15) Individual Members out of 60 active members will be used. Others are four (4) Partners, three (3) members each from the Board, Management, Support staff and Zonal Program Officers will be interviewed during the evaluation exercise.

Proposed Dates

June 5th – June 23rd 2023.

1. MANAGEMENT OF EVALUATION

The Lead Evaluator has overall responsibility for the evaluation and will liaise with the Executive Director for all contacts, queries, and all other logistical arrangements. CRUDAN will provide a list of all necessary information required and make necessary arrangements for locations to be used as well as facilitate and make all practical arrangements for any visits or interviews. Locations and areas to be used will be selected by the evaluation team.

The Evaluation Team Leader and the Executive Director will be responsible for coordinating the work and activities of the evaluation team.

The Human Resource Manager will be responsible for logistical arrangements, contacts and providing necessary materials required for the team.

1. EXPECTED OUTPUT

The evaluation team will produce an inception report and a draft final report of findings, and recommendations in English which will have a maximum length of 30 pages single-spaced Times New Roman type font size 12 (excluding appendices). A soft copy of the report should also be provided via email. The report will have the following sections:

1. Executive summary
2. Introduction to the evaluation (including strategic plan component and project component, description of main areas of project).
3. Description of the execution of the evaluation (especially methods applied)
4. Findings
5. Lessons learnt
6. Best Practice
7. Recommendations
8. Conclusions
9. Appendices (appendices will include the terms of reference, the survey report, desk itineraries, all secondary data reviewed, samples of the questionnaire and survey formats).

Other Information

The Lead Evaluator will be required to undertake the following activities which contribute to the above TOR:

1. Leads the evaluation process throughout the period stipulated and is responsible for ensuring the final report is completed based on the TOR and reflects the findings and recommendations agreed by the evaluation team.
2. Agrees with the evaluation team the process and key questions to be used in the interviews of the respondents.
3. Ensures that the views of the respondents are adequately captured.
4. Ensures that all the issues identified in the desk review and field visits are appropriately presented and that relevant recommendations are developed.
5. Facilitates the evaluation team to agree on the evaluation recommendations.
6. To produce a final draft evaluation report and submit to CRUDAN within 2 weeks of the completion of the evaluation. The report so produced will be the property of CRUDAN.

7. PROPOSED SCHEDULE

S/N Issues Dates

1. Deadline Tender ———————————- June 5

2. Selection of Evaluator—————————– June 6

3. Contract details and clarification ————– June 7

4. Inception meeting with evaluators ———— June 8

5. Field visits

6. Travel/Submission of inception report ——– June 12

7. Conduct Interviews ——————————– June 13-16

8. Return from field visits ————————— June 16

9. Reporting ——————————————- June 19-23

10. Submission of Draft Report ——————– June 21

11. Submission of final report ———————- June 23

1. SELECTION OF LEAD CONSULTANT

The ToRs will be sent to experienced evaluators who will send in their CVs after which a selection will be done based on criteria with some of the following: number of years involved in development work, number of evaluations done with similar organizations, familiarization with the environment of the project.

Qualification of the External evaluator:

The External Evaluator will be a person:

• experienced in leading such types of evaluation with not less than 10 years’ experience in the field.
• with Masters’ Degree holder in a development field, social science, economics or in a similar field
• with experience in participatory methodology
• with knowledge in both quantitative and qualitative data collection
• with excellent analytical skills and the ability to summarize disparate information a clear and concise manner
• with excellent research and data collection methodology skills
• with special knowledge on outcome and impact assessment
• with gender competence
• experienced in working with civil society structures in Nigeria and with the church

Content of the Evaluator’s offer

-CVs of all evaluators involved

-Technical/specific proposal (5 pages)

-Outline of the planned evaluation procedure

-Short explanation and justification of the methods to be deployed

-Financial proposal

-Complete cost estimate including both the fee as well as any ancillary costs to be incurred like transport, accommodation, etc.

How to apply

Offers for the consultant are to be sent through email to [email protected] and copy [email protected].

Deadline- 5th June 2023 12noon.

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