Consultant for External Evaluation of “Disaster Risk Reduction In Central Highland Of Vietnam”

I.Introduction

The district of Krong Bong, located South-East to Daklak province, is about 60 kilometers away from its provincial capital city of Buon Ma Thuot. It borders Krong Pack and Eakar districts to the North, Lak district to the South, Krong Ana to the East and M’Drak to the West. The district has a total population of was 80,784 people, who live in the 13 communes and a township - Krong K’Ma.
The district has a total natural land of 1.257,49 square kilometres. It has a quite road network linking itself to Buon Ma Thuot City and other parts of the province.   

Being one of the five poorest rural districts in Dak Lak province, the district’s poverty rate in 2009 was around 20%. It is also necessary to add that about 70% of this fall amongst ethnic minority households in remote communes. The district is situated in a valley along the Krong Na River and is surrounded by mountain. Between April and October, the area is prone to floods, flash floods, landslides and typhoons. The rest of the year the area is vulnerable to droughts and fire hazards. The damages cause by disaster push the local people further into poverty; damaged infrastructure and costs to the local economy undermine the core development achievements in the region much loss to human lives and property

Since July 2011, the Project “Disaster risk reduction in Central Highland of Vietnam” has been implemented in 12 villages of 4 communes, Hoa Phong, Hoa Le Hoa Tan and Khue Ngoc Dien in Krong Bong district, Dak Lac province. The project areas are places where flood occurs regularly, seriously influencing on local socio-economic development.

Svenska PostkodStiftelsen Foundation and ActionAid International in Viet Nam funded to this project with a a total budget  is: 1,250,000 SEK. The duration of project is within 12 months of implementation.

Up to now, all the project activities have been carried out and have achieved the expected objectives with remarkable the indicators. This external evaluation is a part of the project and is proposed to implement by external consultant to evaluate the quality of project implementation.

II.Project Objective

1. Advance the knowledge of the vulnerable communities and local authority on disaster preparedness measures.
Expected results are: In 12 villages in 4 communes, communities will be organized and capacitated to analyze their vulnerability and actively prepare themselves to reduce the impact of hazards with following indicators:

- 20 community Participatory Vulnerability Analysis facilitators have been recruited and trained.
- Participatory Vulnerability Analysis process has been conducted in 12 villages in 4 communes of project areas.
- 70 percent of villagers have participated in Participatory Vulnerability Analysis activities.
- 80 teachers have actively mainstreamed Disaster Risk Reduction components in their teaching.

2.Strengthen resilience of vulnerable communities against future disasters
Expected results are: In 12 villages in 4 communes communities will be organized and capacitated through rescue teams to cope with future disasters below specific indicators 

- Village rescue teams and village Disaster Risk Reduction committees have been formed and trained in 12 villages.
- Village level Disaster Risk Reduction plans have been developed in 12 villages.
- Training and equipments have been provided for rescue teams in 12 villages.
- One rescue drill has been conducted at commune level for rescue teams to practice their trained skills.
- Village level Disaster Risk Reduction plans are disseminated to 1,000 households in 12 villages and local authorities in 4 communes.
- 1-2 small scale disaster mitigation constructions have been constructed in the project area.

III.Purpuse of the  review

The consultant will cover the documentation of good practices regarding to the transparency and accountability among concerned parties, especially of ActionAid Vietnam and the project management unit towards community where the project activities are implemented; Lesson learn of DRR practices with detail steps.

It is proposed that good lesson learn, experiences happened through out the projected villages will be documented and shared to wider audience at state, national and international forums. As for JANI network, the documentation would be shared with the network members to contribute to the best practices publications and dissemination process at the national level.

Therefore, the review team will focus on the below activities:

- To evaluate activities of the project since starting implementation up to the end
- To evaluate the transparency and accountability among concerned parties, especially of ActionAid Vietnam and the project management unit towards community where the project activities are implemented.
- To evaluate the Budget management and expenditure of DA18 PMU
- To learn about and review the allocation and utilisation of resources or project impacts on target groups as well as the way that project activities have been actually carried out.

IV.Evaluation consultant:

As the activity is an external evaluation, AAV and SPI DA18 will hire external consultant, who have high knowledge, skill in the filed of disaster reduction. The external evaluation team will cooperate with AAV PO and SPI DA18 during the mission time. The consultant ‘s work result will be review and approved by Mr.  Dao Ngoc Ninh, Emergency – Food Security Advisor.
The AAV HROD will take the responsibility of choosing experts for this activity

V.Scope of work

The process will require the review of related documents including project document, work plans, financial proposal and expenditure reports and etc. The field work trip should be conducted to project sites of at least 6/12 villages, eight primary and secondary schools in four communes of Khue Ngoc Dien, Hoa Phong, Hoa Le and Hoa Tan of Krong Bong District. Other interview with key informants, project stakeholders, community members are required. A final report and documentation package will be submitted at the end of review period.

VI. Time frame and working methodologies

It is estimated that the documentation process will require about maximum 10 days including the local and national workshops. The work schedule including the methodology will be defined based on discussions between the consultant and the project team prior to the commencement of the consultancy service.  The design of the process will be approved by ActionAid Vietnam prior to implementation.

In working with the local partners, the consultant is expected to be proficient in using a range of participatory tools for data gathering and analysis, including quantitative and qualitative survey techniques, conducting key informant interviews and leading small group presentations.

VII.  Work plan: the draft work plan is as follows:

- Desk study:  This includes briefing with the project team and/or implementing partner; discussion with AAV’s manager & DIPECHO team on a design for the documentation process; and study of materials

- Field  Study: The consultant will spend time in the field to meet and talk with community partners and stake holders at village, commune and district levels. Time needs to be arranged for working with AAV’s partner staff at SPD 18 (Krong Bong Program Management Unit DA18) who involved in co-implementation of the project activities. Also the consultant is expected to have a discussion with JANI network members in Hanoi on good practices they have developed in there respective projects.

- Report: It proposes to take 2 day for data processing, analysis and draft report preparation. 

- Debriefing:  Brief presentation of the findings and results.

- Finalization of the report: For finalizing the report package to be provided in both English and Vietnamese.

VI. Reporting

The report package of the documentation process and result is written in a straightforward manner in English and Vietnamese.

The report structure shoud contain:
- Excecutive summery maximum 1-2 pages
- Content page
- Table of content

Main body of the report should contain
- Background of the study
- Methodology
- Main finding including an analysis of good practices traditional and practices developed by the project. This will include the all processes of project activities
- Conclusion and recommendations

Annex:
- Evaluation schedule, Minute of  brief presentation of the findings and results, and three case study will be required

An electronic copy of each report (diskette or CD ROM, Word 7.0 format or a more recent version) including all annexes must be submitted together with the reports' hard copies in both English and Vietnamese.

VII. Deadline to receive application

Interested applicants should send their application by Monday, 4 June 2012 to the following address:
Bui Duc Hao, Programme Officer
ActionAid International Vietnam
Central Region Office: Floor 1, VIB building, 27 Nguyen Tat Thanh St., Buon Ma Thuot city, Dak Lak province
Tel: 0500 3509665
Mobile: 0935 024 990
Email: [email protected]