TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR PROJECT END TERM EVALUATION

PROJECT TITLE: EMPOWERING TEA COMMUNITIES IN KENYA PROJECT

1.0 About ActionAid

ActionAid International Kenya (AAIK) is a non-partisan, non-religious development organization that has been working in Kenya since 1972 to end poverty and injustices. ActionAid International Kenya is among the leading anti-poverty agencies in Kenya having a presence in 22 counties working directly with over one million people living in poverty and exclusion. AAIK is unapologetic in Advancing Women’s Rights and ensuring that Women Living in Poverty and Exclusion are at the centre of its work. AAIK commits to work with Women, Children, and young people living in poverty and exclusion to claim and realize their constitutional rights through working within four main pillars of the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA); empowerment, solidarity, campaigning, and alternatives. AAIK is committed to undertaking all its work in a manner that does not put children or vulnerable adults at risk. All contractors and consultants are informed of their contractual and moral responsibilities to safeguard children, young people, and vulnerable adults in all areas of ActionAid’s work.

2.0 Summary

This Terms of Reference outlines the agreement between the consultant and ActionAid International Kenya to successfully undertake the end evaluation of the Empowering Tea Communities in Kenya Project (ETC). The assignment will be undertaken within a period of 5 weeks from the inception date. The ETC project started in April 2022 is scheduled to come to an end in June 2025. ETC is a multistakeholder partnership project involving ActionAid Kenya, Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), Taylors of Harrogate and Lavazza Pro, and working closely with the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), tea companies, development organisations and County Governments to implement the project in Kenya in 3 tea growing counties namely: Murang’a, Nakuru and Meru counties. The project targets smallholder tea farmers and informal workers with a goal of promoting their rights to decent work, freedom from violence, access to basic essential services and improved financial livelihood options for the tea communities. A baseline evaluation was undertaken at the start of the project to inform indicator targets. A mid-term evaluation was undertaken in year two to assess progress and generate learnings for adjustment in year three. The aim of the end evaluation is to assess project relevance, effectiveness, impact, efficiency and sustainability in accordance with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) evaluation criteria, making comparison with the baseline evaluation findings. An Outcome Harvesting Exercise is underway, the results of which will feed into the impact section of the end evaluation by detailing the changes achieved by the project. The evaluation will further generate lessons on best practices and recommendations for design of similar interventions in the future.The consultant is expected to use a rigorous mixed method approach that is consistent with that applied for the base line evaluation to allow for comparison of findings across the key outcome indicators.

3.0 Context and Background

ActionAid in partnership with Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), Taylors of Harrogate and Lavazza Pro is working with Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), tea companies, development organizations and County Governments to implement the Empowering Tea Communities (ETC) project in Kenya in 3 tea growing counties namely: Murang’a, Nakuru and Meru counties. The project targets smallholder tea farmers and informal workers with a goal of promoting their rights to decent work, freedom from violence, access to basic essential services and improved financial livelihood options for the tea communities. The project targets to deliver on five main outcomes related to:

• Promoting respect and protection of human rights.
• Fostering an enabling environment for empowering women and girls to realize their right to freedom from violence.
• Improving access to gender-responsive public services for smallholder farmers (SHF) and informal workers in the tea sector.
• Improving the financial livelihood of smallholder farmers and informal workers; and
• Developing a sustainable model for scale-up for successful sustainability of established results.

The ETC project is in its final year of implementation and an end term evaluation is scheduled to assess project impact, relevance, effectiveness, performance, and sustainability towards achieving the project’s overall goal. The project will further generate lessons and recommendations to act as evidence for decision-makers to understand progress to date against various key result areas. The evaluation will document milestones achieved and demonstrate how this can be attributed to the interventions of the ETC Project. The exercise will further assess to what extent the project responded to the needs of the target rights holders and priorities for accountability purposes and to inform future programming.

4.0 Objectives and purpose of the End Evaluation

The review will include the following objectives:

4.1 The overarching objective:

The key objective of the end evaluation is to determine the extent to which the project achieved its objective plans. It will comprehensively assess the project’s performance in terms of relevance, effectiveness, impact, efficiency and sustainability according to the OECD evaluation criteria. It will examine project achievements, challenges, and lessons learned and attribute these to the project’s interventions, ultimately providing insights and recommendations to inform future interventions based on the project’s results and experiences. The evaluation will also assess the project’s theory of change by evaluating the change approaches/pathways adopted by the project, the results observed and if the project assumptions were correct?

4.2 Specific Objectives:

Specifically, the review will be guided by the following objectives:

• To assess the project’s effectiveness, impact, efficiency, sustainability, and relevance of the project
• To examine the project’s achievements, challenges, and lessons learned and attribute these to the project’s interventions
• To assess the project’s theory of change by evaluating the approaches/pathways to change adopted by the project the results observed and if project assumptions were correct
• To ultimately document best practices and draw recommendations to inform future interventions based on the project’s results and experiences.
• To measure change by assessing the progress towards results, based on a comparison of indicators identified during the baseline
• To document achievements realized under each outcome and to identify any innovative approaches applied by the project team in the implementation of the project
• Assess to what extent the project has integrated gender mainstreaming and suggest measures to strengthen gender approach in the future.
• To document any notable developments by focusing on the perception of change among key stakeholders involved in the project and the replicability of the project.

4.3 Expected use of the evaluation

The evaluation findings will provide accountability to stakeholders as well as providing evidence-based information on what works best for achieving specific outcome changes in the project. This is important for future project designs both internally within ActionAid and externally and to further inform engagements with policy decision makers. The findings will therefore be shared with stakeholders and the wider development community to create a better understanding of what has worked, and what needs to change for future funding cycles, planning processes and lessons sharing from the pilot phase**.**

5.0 Scope of the Study

The assignment will be undertaken within a period of 5 weeks from the inception date. It will be conducted in the 3 target counties namely, Nakuru, Meru and Muranga and strictly guided by the outlined objectives in section 4.2 above.

5.1 Methodology

The evaluation will be participatory, involving all project partners and stakeholders. The consultant will be required to produce a comprehensive mixed-method methodology (explaining how each OECD criteria will be assessed, the data sources, and how the methodologies will complement each other). It should also indicate how the findings of the Outcome Harvesting assessment being undertaken separately will feed into the impact section of the evaluation. The methodology will ensure that the outcome and output findings of the end evaluation are compared with the baseline and the methodology is consistent. The consultant should use the Results framework in the attached spreadsheet to capture data including all updated (in red) indicators. It willalso give a detailed work plan for delivering the assignment which includes defining clear evaluation questions, selecting appropriate data collection methods like document review, surveys, interviews, and focus groups, analysing data against project objectives, comparing baseline and final results, identifying key lessons learned, and providing actionable recommendations for future projects, all while considering stakeholder perspectives and the overall project context.

In summary, the evaluation should meet ActionAid’s quality standard requirements which can be shared on request but in practical terms, the standards require the evaluation and evaluator to consider the points highlighted below:

• Community voice and representation: The evaluation must reflect the voices of the communities, including men and women in the project. The rights holders should be consulted as part of the evaluation and their voices included in the evaluation report as direct quotes and case studies. In line with ActionAid’s mandate, the evaluation should prioritise the views of people living in poverty and exclusion and should further apply a feminist approach to analyse inequalities.
• Feedback: As a minimum, the process should ensure feedback on key findings and recommendations given by communities, duty bearers at the county and national government level, project partners, and different stakeholders in the Tea Sector including KTDA, engaged in the evaluation
• Transparency and Ethical Standards: The evaluators must disclose to the communities engaged in the evaluation what the purpose of the exercise is and how information given by the community will be used. ActionAid’s ethical standards for research and data collection should be followed, including a risk assessment covering security risks to communities. As a minimum, the evaluation should “do no harm”
• Women’s rights: Women’s rights must be respected in all evaluations. The evaluation should explore how women have been affected by an intervention and the effect on gender relations. Women’s voices must be heard during evaluation. The timing and location of evaluation activities including the composition of the evaluation team should be designed to maximise the ability of women to participate in the evaluation
• Transparency about methodology: The evaluation should include a detailed and transparent discussion of the methodology used and key decisions taken in designing and implementing the evaluation. This should include information about sampling (approach to sampling, numbers of people/communities covered including representation), what tools were used and why, methodological limitations and gaps.
• Disaggregated data: Data must be disaggregated in as much detail as possible. As a minimum this means disaggregation by age and sex. Where possible data should also be disaggregated by other relevant factors such as disability, as indicated in the log frame.

5.2 Evaluation questions

Key evaluation Questions to be answered include but not limited to:

i) The extent to which the project intervention addressed community development priority needs: did we do the right thing?

ii)The extent to which the project has made progress towards its intended objectives?

• What has been achieved so far?
• What are the major changes and challenges experienced in achieving intended objectives so far?

iii)The extent to which the project has yielded the expected results during the implementation period?

If there were delays in the implementation of some of the activities, what is the explanation for it?

iv)How effective has communication between the project team, the project partners, the donors, and the target communities been, and how has it impacted the delivery of the project?

v) Were resources allocated strategically to achieve the intended outcomes of the project? Was there a need to adjust the different budgets to meet intended outcomes?

vi) How has the project built the necessary capacity of people and institutions at the community level? What measures should be put in place to enhance the capacities of project partners in a potential future phase of implementation?

vii) Were there any feedback mechanisms and reporting procedures for project rights holders and how accessible are they to the rights holders?

viii)What measures were taken to enhance the visibility of the project’s added value in enhancing collaborations with other partners i.e. government entities, KTDA, and community-level stakeholders

ix)Did the project address gender equality issues and did it consider all the needs and priorities of women and other special interest groups during implementation and safeguarding aspects?

xi) What approaches have been taken to ensure the sustainability of key outcomes?

xii) What are some of the lessons learnt and emerging best practices identified during implementation for: building an enabling environment for SHF and informal workers in the tea sector to be aware of and to demand their rights, protection, and access to public services; creating space for farmers (SHF and informal workers) to organise and advocate for their rights (including their right to live in an environment free from violence, and right to access public services) and creating an enabling environment in the three project’s location for SHFs and informal workers to access alternative sources of income?

xiii) As a recommendation from the evaluation results, what would be a sustainable model for the ethical tea community in Kenya?

Indicator based questions

Outcome level

Outcome 1

1.1 What number of policies upholding, protecting, and respecting SHF and workers’ human rights are being enforced/implemented by the project ‘ disaggregated into location, policy type, and level (national, ward, county)

1.2 What specific actions have been taken by key decision makers at the National Ward or County to improve SHF and informal workers’ rights (e.g. children’s department, gender department, local administration, judiciary)?

Outcome 2

2.1 What proportion of female farmers (SHF and informal workers) are reporting feeling safe in the workplace and in their community?

2.2 How many female survivors of violence have been supported to access medical, psychosocial, and legal support?

Outcome 3

3.1 What proportion of farmers (SHF and informal workers) and their families who say they have access to quality gender-responsive public services?

3.2 What are the number and specific actions that have been taken by duty bearers to advance access to gender-responsive public services (housing, education, health, water, security)?

3.3 How many farmers (SHF and Informal workers) are linked/referred to gender-responsive public services and access them?

3.4 What number of out-of-school children under 18 years have re-enrolled in school in the project locations?

Outcome 4

4.1 What proportion of farmers (including SHF and informal workers) have more than one income-generating activity?

4.2 What proportion of SHF and informal workers report an increased income?

Output level

Output 1.1 What is the number and specific safe, secure, and functioning mechanisms that have been set up to raise and address grievances, human rights, and GBV violations in the three project areas?

Output 1.2 How many local stakeholders have been trained on relevant laws and policies related to violence against women and girls and to deliver gender-responsive public services?

Output 2.1. Number of farmers participating in advocacy platforms to advocate for their rights (human rights, rights to live free from violence, right to access quality gender-responsive services

Output 2.2. How many SHFs (trained by the project) have a good understanding of their right to access public services?

Output 2.3 What number of workers and SHFs (trained by the project) have a good understanding of their human rights and rights as workers?

Output 2.4 How many learning visits were held for women to learn from existing women’s movements?

Output 3.1 What is the number and specific community engagement forums held to discuss farmers (SHF, and informal workers) rights to live in an environment free from violence (women), and to access public services?

Output 3.2 What are the number and specific stakeholder engagement forums between tea communities (including SHF and informal workers) and local stakeholders to discuss farmers’ rights?

Output 3.3. What are the number and specific advocacy demands/ actions emanating from community-led change plans (e.g. petitions and/or memoranda developed and presented to relevant authorities)?

Output 4.1. The number of functional saving and loan groups have been established (or strengthened)?

Output 4.2 Number of SHFs and Informal Workers who have skills to establish and run businesses

Output 4.3 What proportion of SHF and informal workers are accessing financial support to establish new income-generating activities (IGAs)?

Output 5.1 Number of support initiatives identified to support a sustainable model for scale-up of the project

6.0 Call for expression of interest.

AAIK is looking for a consultant to undertake and deliver on the task highlighted in section 4.0 of this ToR.

• Management of the Consultancy

AAIK will provide overall guidance and supervision of the task in collaboration with the Programme Management Team from AAUK, ETP, and KTDA. The overall accountability of this work rests with the Programmes and Strategy lead at ActionAid International Kenya. The consultant(s) will work closely with the Programme Coordinator of the project, AAIK MEL Coordinator, Project Officers, and the Safeguarding Officer with the guidance of the Programme Manager for Resilient Livelihoods and Emergencies and the Programme Manager for Women Rights and Governance. Official transport shall be availed where possible, and/or travel expenses reimbursed based on actual and realistic costs. However, the consultant shall seek consent from AAIK, before incurring travel expense(s), if not provided with official transport. Accommodation shall be provided by AAIK at the venues of the assignment.

8.0 Roles and responsibilities

• The Programme Manager, Resilient Livelihoods and Emergencies- Will provide overall leadership and oversight in the process.
• The Programme Coordinator- Will provide the overall management of the process in close coordination with the MEL Coordinator. The Programme Coordinator will also provide the consultant with relevant documents such as reports, M&E framework for the project, logical framework, the project proposal and the baseline report.
• The Project Officers- Will support the Consultant to carry out field visits and will organise community meetings where possible. They will support the consultant to access the community and hold key informant interviews.
• The MEL Coordinator – Will work closely with the consultant and Programme Coordinator in revising the M&E framework based on findings from the endline evaluation

9.0 Expected Timeframe

The assignment is expected to be carried out within a period of 6 weeks starting from 25th April 2025. The timelines will be as follows but timeframes can be slightly adjusted where need be.

Deliverable

Timelines

1.Inception report -To be submitted by April 25th 2025

2. Refined evaluation Questions-To be submitted by April 28h 2025

3.Develop Data collection tools-To be completed by April 28th 2025

4.Field visit-To be done between 2nd and 10th May 2025

5.Draft Evaluation Report -To be submitted by 16th May 2025 for review

6.Validation exercise with project partners-To be undertaken on 26th May 2025

7.Final Evaluation Report & Evaluation Summary Report-To be submitted by May 30th 2025

8.PowerPoint presentation summarizing findings of the end-line evaluation -To be submitted by May 30th 2025

• Expected deliverables.

The Consultant will be required to submit the following:

• An inception report: The consultant will share the inception report that details the study design (rationale, methodology), data collection tools, and a detailed work plan to be approved by AAIK.
• Refined evaluation questions- The consultant will develop a detailed analytical framework of questions and sub-questions based on the evaluation questions highlighted in this ToR which will be consistent with the result framework.
• Develop Data collection tools: Develop the data collection tools and have them approved by AAIK.
• A PowerPoint presentation summarising the preliminary findings and recommendations to be presented to AAIK and the project partners
• Development of draft evaluation report: The consultant will prepare a draft evaluation report with details of findings, recommendations, and lessons learnt. The consultant is expected to provide four rounds of reviews by the project partners before the final report to allow for comprehensive feedback.
• Validation workshop: Hold a validation meeting for the draft report with relevant project partners.
• Final evaluation report: The consultant will share a final evaluation report incorporating comments from the validation in both hard copy and soft copy (MS Word document, PowerPoint slides). The endline evaluation report must not exceed 30 pages, (excluding annexes) as a Word document written in clear and concise English with minimal jargon.

The report will include:

• Cover page (title of the endline evaluation report, date, name of consultants, photo)
• Contents table
• Executive summary of no more than 2 pages outlining the purpose of the end evaluation, main points of analysis, key findings, conclusions and recommendations
• Introduction benchmarking the progress of the project against the baseline findings.
• Purpose and objectives of the end evaluation
• Methodology/approach, tracking of indicators.
• Major findings (data analysis, including gender analysis)
• Lessons learned, challenges, ways to mitigate challenges, and maximise lessons learnt and recommendations.
• Annexes: details of data collection tools, schedule of field visits and meetings; list of people interviewed; bibliography of key documents consulted; ToR for the evaluation
• Evaluation summary report. This is a document of about 2 pages that gives a summary of the evaluation findings. The template will be provided by AAUK MEL specialist.
• Conduct a review of the Empowering Tea Communities Project M&E frameworks developed and their efficacy
• A PowerPoint presentation summarizing key findings and recommendations that can be used to disseminate findings within ActionAid and with external stakeholders. The consultant and team are required to make a presentation of key findings and recommendations to the AA Kenya, AAUK, ETP and KTDA project team.
• The raw data (all transcripts, quantitative data, data collection tools) must be handed over to ActionAid together with the evaluation report. Where photos are included, these should be provided to ActionAid in high resolution JPEG format and catalogued by ActionAid on Stories hub according to our photo guidelines. The evaluation team must ensure photos are obtained in line with ActionAid guidelines on consent. Diagrams/flowcharts/infographics developed by the evaluation team can be included but the original artwork should also be submitted as separate files along with the evaluation. Note ActionAid reserves the right to modify artwork as appropriate. All deliverables must be based on evidence collected during the process e.g., photos, case studies, qualitative and quantitative data.
• Budget

The consultant is expected to provide a tentative budget for this assignment.

• Key reference documents

The consultant is required to adhere and comply to the AAIK Safeguarding Policy , Child Safeguarding Policy, Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Policy and Sexual Harassment, Exploitation, and Abuse (SHEA) at Work Policy. The consultant will also be required to uphold the highest level of Research Ethics Standards while conducting the evaluation. The consultant will be guided by the project documents including the logframe. All relevant documents will be sent to the consultant via email prior to commencement of the assignment and will be expected to sign a declaration form indicating commitment to adhere to the policies.

13.0 Consultant qualifications

We are looking for a consultant with the following key skills and capacity. These criteria will be used to assess applications alongside applicants’ technical proposals.

13.1 General criteria:

• A master’s degree or work experience in social sciences
• At least 5 years of experience in developing and carrying out monitoring and evaluation (MEL) systems, baselines and evaluation design from a feminist lens with diverse knowledge in mixed methods approach
• Proven experience in applying participatory approaches to designing and delivering baselines and evaluation reports.
• Demonstrable expertise and experience on women’s and girl’s rights, GBV and gender equality, HRBA and a good understanding of the tea sector.
• Experience and willingness to work in the Geographical areas of Ngere, Kionyo and Olenguruone Tea Factory.
• Proven cross-regional experience would be preferable
• Excellent facilitation skills
• Proficient in English and Swahili

13.2 Technical criteria

• Experience in qualitative and quantitative methodology, methods, tools and analysis and visualization.
• Experience in participatory and community-led approaches
• Demonstrable knowledge and skills in development and use of digital data collection methods and tools for data collection and analysis.
• Evidence of strong downward accountability mechanisms used with project stakeholders/research participants to actively share results and learning.
• Evidence of use of ethical considerations and methodological measures that respect the rights of all stakeholders
• Evidence of successfully designing and managing large-scale, rigorous and robust research processes and evaluations.
• Evidence of producing clear, concise and high-quality reports in English

14.0 Application process

All applications should include the following documents:

• The CV(s) of the lead consultant and the team of applicant(s)
• A covering letter or expression of interest – highlighting relevant experience and skills to the specific End Evaluation, and the reasons for interest in the work
• A brief technical proposal with a cover letter demonstrating how the evaluator or evaluation team meet the consultant experience and expertise specification. (1 page Cover letter and 3 pages maximum or the proposal) on:
• Understanding of the assignment
• Tools and methodology proposed to achieve the work
• Sample size design proposed (overall)
• Roles and responsibilities within the team
• Enumerators training (what it will cover)
• Timeline for the work
• Expected limitations
• A separate financial proposal with a clear distinction between fee rate and expected logistics costs (3 pages maximum)
• Examples or links of similar work / baseline reports/ outcome harvesting evaluation reports/ end of project evaluation reports
• The names of at least 2 previous clients to contact for references.

How to apply

Applications will be submitted via email to [email protected] on or before 18th April 2025.