Consultant for Final Project Evaluation

1. Introduction

The SIEED and ECCODE Projects, funded by European Union (EU) and CARE Denmark, is implemented by CARE International in Viet Nam in Dien Bien Province (for SIEED Project) and in Thai Nguyen Province (for ECCODE Project), over an 53 month period.

The SIEED project objective is that: Poor rural producers participate in and benefit from Vietnam’s economic growth post World Trade Organization (WTO) accession.

The ECCODE project objective is to: Contribute to poverty reduction for the rural population of Thai Nguyen province by ensuring access to economic resources and influence over decisions that affect their lives

An end of project evaluation is required at this time for both projects.  The results of this evaluation will be reported to project participants, host government, other development partners, donors, CARE Denmark and relevant CARE members.  The findings contribute to CARE’s accountability and will be used to improve the quality of future activities, the design of future projects, and CARE Vietnam’s long term program design and quality improvement. Lessons learned and good practice identified will be highlighted, and used for future program design.  The evaluation will include a focus on gendered results, and where relevant, women’s empowerment.

2. Background

2.1. Social inclusion in economic enterprise development (SIEED) project

Dien Bien province has a population of around 432,000 people, with 20 ethnic minority groups accounting for 80% of the total population (provincial statistics from 2005). The Thai and H’mong groups make up 40% and 31% of the total respectively; other main groups are the Kho Mu, Lao, Khang, Dao and Ha Nhi. The Kinh-Hoa account for 20% of the population and are mostly settled in Dien Bien city and Muong Lay town. Principal problems currently faced by the province include poor application of new technologies to improve the quality of agricultural products (53% of the land in Dien Bien is barren and substantial investment will be needed to make it productive), poor processing capacities for agricultural products with low investment in and little replication of profitable models, poor progress in forest socialisation and in the adoption of farm-forestry models with tree crops such as fruit trees, and poor access to markets and market information to improve targeting of products exported from the province.

The Social inclusion in economic enterprise development project acts through the development of market-led approaches and interventions to add value to production and processing undertaken by the poor, while at the same time maintaining or enhancing environmental quality. Enabling poor women and men to form interest and collaborative groups, and supporting these groups to develop and adopt new productions and technologies, will lead to business opportunities and better capture of revenue in lower levels of the value chain. Equally, improved quality and business service provision to the processing and marketing sections of the value chain will allow improved revenue capture by other actors, resulting in an overall win:win situation.

The Project overall objective is: Poor rural producers participate in and benefit from Vietnam’s economic growth post World Trade Organisation (WTO) accession.

Specific objective 1: Poor farmers in 10 remote northern mountains communes benefit equitably from marketing of selected products regionally and nationally and sustainable farm/forest production systems. 

Specific objective 2: Community Centre Development (CCD), Women’s Union (WU) and Farmers’ Union’s (FU) capacity to support community groups and their access to markets improved.

CARE works in partnership with Dien Bien Centre for Community Development (CCD) and collaborates closely with the Women’s Union and Farmer Union. Rural Development Department and Extension Station, Cooperative Alliance also participates and support in project implementation.

The SIEED project field activities started from July 2008. Through project activities such as village process mapping, farm/forest survey, the project identified various local products, which had potential for further improvements in agriculture techniques and local markets, such as soybean, black bone chicken, rattan etc. The project also supported poor farmers to form different groups for better training, production and responding to markets.  

2.2. The Thai Nguyen Women’s economic collaboration for development (ECCODE)

The Thai Nguyen Women’s economic collaboration for development (ECCODE) project is funded by EU and CARE Denmark. CARE in Vietnam works in partnership with Thai Nguyen provincial Women’s Union, Thai Nguyen Cooperative Alliance and the Centre for Advancement of Community Empowerment and Partnership (ACEP, a local NGO in Hanoi) for project implementation in 8 communes in Dinh Hoa district, Thai Nguyen province.

The overall objective of project is “To contribute to poverty reduction for the rural population of Thai Nguyen province by ensuring access to economic resources and influence over decisions that affect their lives”.

The specific objective of the project is: “12,000 poor women and men in eight communes in Thai Nguyen province have improved their income and influence on economic decision-making through membership of rural cooperation groups”.

The expected results of the project are:

- Interest groups, collaboration groups and “new-style” cooperatives are formed and supported to pursue production and business opportunities.
- The management and technical capacity of local organizations to undertake demand driven cooperation group development activities, credit services and policy feedback are enhanced.

The project strategy focus on women and ethnic minority people is intended to address the gender and ethnicity imbalances in the poverty situation. The means to achieve this is to directly target the women and ethnic minority people for group formation.

The project adopt and promote market-based and demand-based approaches to service delivery. This entails raising incomes through promotion of market linkages and activities. The role of the project and the role sought for partner organisations in the longer term is that of providing business development services. To establish a healthy incentive structure for joining groups and participating in project activities, the project will avoid direct subsidies. For example, it will establish linkages between groups and sources of credit and increase the capacity of existing cooperative credit institutions.

The project strengthens local development structures by working in partnerships with local organisations. The project will apply systematic capacity development measures, starting with self-assessments of strengths and weaknesses involving staff and management of the organisation. Formal training will address both the technical or operational capacity needs as well as issues of organisational governance and managerial capacity building. Participatory monitoring and evaluation and adaptive management will be promoted through the project monitoring and evaluation system.
ECCODE project field activities started from August 2008. Different surveys and assessments were carried out including baseline survey, livelihood opportunities survey, capacity assessment and development for Thai Nguyen WU, Thai Nguyen CA and Dinh Hoa agricultural station. Various groups are formed and supported for implementing their business/production plans based on results of the livelihood opportunity survey and local farmer needs such as rice, tea, fish production, bee keeping group etc.

During the last 4 years, both SIEED and ECCODE projects have undertaken various reviews including a project internal mid-term review, EU ROM mission reviews (annually). Given he fact that quite a lot of documents, reports and data including 4 ROM review reports for each project are available, the final evaluation will focus mainly on project results and sustainability, as recommended by the EU ROM review last year. Other aspects of the final evaluation such as Relevance, Effectiveness, and Efficiency will be assessed mostly through further analysis of findings from the ROM mission reports.

3. Objectives and Scope of the evaluation

1) To assess Project results and sustainability, as well as factors that have promoted or constrained their realisation. Areas of assessment should include but is not limited to the following:
- Verification of achievements against log-frame indicators
- Livelihood changes, their sustainability, scale and outreach
- The added value of forming various types of collaboration groups to the lives of individual farmer household’s, especially related to market linkages and collective action on economic development.
- Women’s empowerment in economic decision making within their family and beyond their family/at group/community level.  
- Changes in access to services by beneficiaries and their perceptions of relevance and effectiveness (eg. credit, agriculture extension services, farmer-to-farmer services, local VNGO/mass organisation and other service providers). 
- Project methodologies: incl. Farmer Field School training, group formation and organizational strengthening, credit provision, partner capacity building.
- Assessment of lessons learned from the Action and how this learning has been/will be utilised and disseminated.

2) Further analysis of findings from previous reviews and other project reports on other aspects including Relevance, Effectiveness, and Efficiency.
3) Monitoring and learning: The effectiveness of project monitoring and learning processes and its perceived result in terms of supporting project management 

4. Methodologies and tasks

4.1    Methodology

The evaluation will require information from a variety of resources including: (a) Project staff; (b) Project documents and other records including monitoring data, ROM reports; and (c) Field observation and interview of beneficiaries; (e) Partners and other relevant stakeholders;

This information should be gathered and reported using methods that provide accurate, representative and appropriately detailed information. Conclusion must relate clearly and directly to the data and analysis presented in the body of evaluation report. 

The evaluation should include both quantitative and qualitative information. The choice of specific methods and sampling procedures will be determined by the team in conjunction with the CARE Vietnam and project management team.

4.2 Key tasks

The consultant will be responsible for the following sequence of tasks
- Design the team's working approach, including data gathering procedure, field schedule and process.
- Review all necessary documents.
- Undertake an initial briefing with the project staff before the evaluation for obtaining staff inputs.
- Implement the agreed evaluation activities.
- Draft a preliminary evaluation report that includes lessons learned.
- Present findings at a final wrap-up meeting for the evaluation with CARE Vietnam in Hanoi and incorporate feedback into the final report.
- Finalize the evaluation report after receiving feedback from participants

5. Outputs and Format

The evaluation will result in the following outputs:

Final Evaluation Report follows relevant format (which will be provided) with the content covering all scope of work as in section 3. The above reports will be submitted in hard copy as well as in electronic form containing the text and tables of the reports in Microsoft Word and other popular software like Microsoft Excel. The report will be prepared in English.

6. Consultant

The final evaluation requires 1 international consultant. The consultant should have expertise in project evaluation in Vietnam in areas of rural collaboration for economic development and market linkages, and gender/women empowerment.

7. Preparation and Logistical Support

CARE Vietnam will facilitate the consultant's work through the provision of all required logistical support such as translation, accommodation in Hanoi, transportation to/from/within project area, and documentation as well as arrangement of meetings and field visits.

8. Itinerary

The evaluation will cover a total of 18 days for 2 projects starting from July 2012. Detailed itinerary will be discussed with the consultant during recruitment process.

*** Child Protection:

CARE International in Vietnam is committed to protecting the rights of children in all areas we work around the world. Applicants are advised that CARE International in Vietnam reserves the right to screen candidates to ensure a child-safe environment. Further information can be found in the CARE Vietnam child protection policy.

Interested candidates should send a full CV in English and stating the position title to email: [email protected]. Closing date to apply for this position: 24 June 2012

The short-listed applicants will be contacted for interviews. Please no telephone contact after submitting the application.