CALL FOR TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL PROPOSALS

Mid-Term Evaluation of the Championing Nutrition and Gender Equality (CHANGE) Project – Ethiopia

Background

Children Believe, a Canadian child-rights international organization, invites qualified consultancy firms, universities, research institutions, and individual consultants to submit Technical and Financial Proposals to conduct the Mid-Term Evaluation of the Championing Nutrition and Gender Equality (CHANGE) Project in Ethiopia.

CHANGE is a five-year initiative (April 2023 – August 2028) funded by Global Affairs Canada and implemented by Children Believe in Ethiopia and Ghana. In Ethiopia, the project is being implemented in Gidan, Gazo, and Angot Districts of North Wollo Administrative Zone, Amhara Region.

The project seeks to improve nutrition outcomes for the poorest and most marginalized populations, particularly women, adolescent girls, and children, through gender-responsive nutrition interventions, strengthened health and nutrition services, climate-smart food production, and community resilience-building initiatives.

Purpose of the Evaluation

The Mid-Term Evaluation aims to assess progress toward the project’s intended outcomes and outputs, measure achievements against baseline values, identify implementation gaps and challenges, and generate evidence-based recommendations for the remaining implementation period.

Specifically, the evaluation will:

Assess progress in nutrition, maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), and gender equality outcomes.
Measure performance against key indicators in the approved Performance Measurement Framework (PMF).
Examine changes in community knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to nutrition, health, and gender equality.
Assess women’s leadership, decision-making power, and control over productive resources.
Evaluate the effectiveness of gender-responsive nutrition and health services.
Analyze stakeholder capacity and coordination in delivering community-based nutrition interventions.
Generate lessons learned and recommendations for improved project implementation.

Key Evaluation Focus Areas

The mid-term evaluation is intended to be results-oriented and impact-focused. It will assess how far the CHANGE project in Ethiopia has progressed across its results chain, from activities and outputs to outcomes and early signs of impact. Since the evaluation is taking place at the mid-point of implementation, it may not be able to make final impact claims. However, it will assess whether the project is making progress towards improving nutrition, maternal and child health, gender equality, women’s leadership, household practices and service delivery in targeted communities.

The evaluation will therefore not be limited to activity delivery or immediate outcome reporting. It will examine whether the project is producing meaningful changes for women, adolescent girls, children, households, communities and service systems. Particular attention will be given to changes in knowledge, attitudes, practices, access to services, quality of services, women’s participation in decision-making, control over resources, household support for nutrition and care, and the capacity of local stakeholders to sustain project results.

The evaluation will generate evidence across the following core result areas:

Ultimate and higher-level results: progress towards improved nutrition, health and gender equality outcomes for women, adolescent girls and children in targeted communities.

Intermediate and immediate outcome areas: changes in women’s leadership, household decision-making, access to and control over resources, use of gender-equitable nutrition practices, strengthened integrated nutrition and health services, and improved capacity of stakeholders to deliver gender-responsive community-based nutrition activities. Immediate Outcome 1100: Improved women’s leadership and control over resources for community and individual gender-equitable nutrition practices.

Immediate Outcome 1200: Strengthened gender-equitable integrated nutrition and health services for the poorest and most marginalized, especially women, adolescent girls and children.

Immediate Outcome 1300: Improved effectiveness of key stakeholders to provide gender-responsive community-based nutrition-specific activities for women, adolescent girls and children locally.

The evaluation will also examine implementation quality, inclusion, safeguarding, stakeholder coordination, sustainability and adaptation in access-constrained or shock-affected contexts.

The main target audiences and data sources will include:

Women aged 15–49 years.
Caregivers of children under five years.
Men aged 15–54 years, particularly in relation to household nutrition, care practices, gender-equitable decision-making and support for women and children.
Adolescent girls, where they are directly reached through project interventions.
Community leaders and community structures involved in nutrition, gender equality, WASH, food security and social behavior change.
Health facility staff and community-level health workers involved in MNCH, nutrition, CMAM, counselling, outreach and referral services.
Government officials and frontline service providers, including district health officials, WASH officials, agricultural extension workers, gender officers and other relevant decentralized departments.
Community health facilities and selected health center catchment areas supported by the project.

Scope of the Mid-Term Evaluation

The mid-term evaluation will assess progress of the CHANGE project at the mid-point of implementation, comparing results against baseline and end-of-project targets. Key focus areas include nutrition, maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), WASH, food security, gender equality, women’s empowerment and community systems strengthening. The evaluation will examine both implementation progress and outcomes, including changes in knowledge, practices, service access, quality of care, decision-making, leadership and sustainability.

This exercise will be conducted in Ethiopia’s Amhara National Regional State, North Wollo Administrative Zone. The project districts are Gidan, Gazo and Angot. In line with the current adjusted beneficiary distribution, project activities and interventions are distributed as follows: 40% for Gidan District, 35% for Gazo District, and 25% for Angot District. Within each district, relevant health facility catchment areas and project communities will be selected to guide community selection, beneficiary sampling and fieldwork.

The main target groups will include:

Women aged 15–49 years
Caregivers of children under five years
Men aged 15–54 years
Adolescent girls reached by the project
Community leaders and community structures
Health facility staff and community health workers
Government officials and frontline service providers

The sampling design and data collection plan will be finalized in consultation with the selected consultant and key stakeholders, using a combination of random and purposive sampling to ensure adequate representation of beneficiaries, service providers and key informants.

Methods / Approaches and Key Issues for the Mid-Term Evaluation

The methods to carry out this mid-term evaluation will desirably be mixed method, combining quantitative and qualitative tools and techniques, to assess progress, results and gaps at the mid-point of the project. The qualitative component will adopt a participatory approach in order to outline changes in knowledge, skills, abilities and practices. The methods will consider both quantitative and qualitative data sources, comprising primary and secondary data, and will be adapted to the evaluation objectives as needed.

The evaluation will generate evidence on progress across the project’s immediate outcome areas, namely: Improved women’s leadership and control over resources for community and individual gender-equitable nutrition practices (1100); Strengthened gender-equitable integrated nutrition and health services for the poorest and most marginalized, especially women, adolescent girls, and children (1200); and Improved effectiveness of key stakeholders to provide gender-responsive community-based nutrition-specific activities for women, adolescent girls, and children locally (1300). It will also assess progress in the relevant output and indicator areas in line with the approved project logic and Performance Measurement Framework.

The following research techniques will be considered:

Primary Sources: Surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and structured observations. The detailed sampling design, sample distribution and data collection plan will be developed jointly with the selected consultant and agreed with Children Believe and the relevant CHANGE teams, to ensure adequate coverage of target groups, stakeholders and service delivery points relevant to the mid-term evaluation.

Secondary Sources: The mid-term evaluation will also include a desk review of existing reports such as district level health and nutrition statistics, regional reports, baseline findings and other relevant reports in Ethiopia.

Design of the data collection tools: The instruments corresponding to the methodological techniques for collecting primary and secondary information will be developed by the selected consultant and approved by Children Believe.

The study will adopt a participatory and inclusive approach, as well as an appropriate range of data collection and analysis methods, by creating in-person and/or virtual platforms or acceptable group-level discussion forums to listen to the voices of children, women, men, local implementing partners, local government stakeholders and other relevant actors involved in the implementation of the project as beneficiaries, partners, collaborators or supporters.

5.1 Data Collection Plan

The mid-term evaluation data collection plan will include a combination of existing and primary data collection as stated above. All data collected during the study must facilitate disaggregation by sex, age and any other relevant variables agreed for the evaluation. The data collection plan shall include estimates for survey, focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews (KIIs), and structured observations to be conducted. The detailed data collection and sampling plan will be further refined at the inception stage together with the selected consultant.

The mid-term evaluation team will be required to adhere to Children Believe’s Child Safeguarding, Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, and Data Protection and Privacy policies throughout the assignment.

All available secondary data, such as reports and relevant quantitative data, will be provided by the Children Believe country office.

Deliverables

Expected outputs of the mid-term evaluation will include an analytical narrative report of approximately 30 pages, excluding annexes. In addition, all relevant statistical datasets, preferably in Excel or other agreed formats, from the field study should be submitted by the external facilitator/consultant.

The expected deliverables are:

Inception report, including refined methodology, evaluation matrix, work plan, and proposed sampling design.
Draft data collection tools for approval.
Cleaned datasets and relevant field documentation.
First draft mid-term evaluation report.
Final mid-term evaluation report incorporating Children Believe feedback.
Presentation of key findings and recommendations.

Task	Duration (maximum days)	From	To
Inception and preparation, including refinement of methodology, tools and sampling design	5	TBC	TBC
Data collection	15	TBC	TBC
Data analysis and draft report writing	10	TBC	TBC
Review of draft report, feedback and finalization	5	TBC	TBC
Final report submission	-	TBC	TBC

Note: Dates would be decided with selected consultant(s)

Duration

The work will be conducted over a period of approximately three months from the signing of the contract by engaging a lead consultant, consultancy firm or university for facilitation and harmonization of the assignment, assisted by the Children Believe country team, as appropriate.

Qualification and Experience Required for Research Firm / Consultants

A post-graduate degree, preferably MPH, MD or PhD, in relevant social sciences fields including public health, nutrition, international development, management, sociology, social work or any other relevant discipline.
At least ten progressive years of experience conducting participatory evaluations, reviews or assessments of complex health, nutrition and MNCH-focused programmes for like-minded organizations in the sector.
Applied experience in the thematic areas of health, in particular nutrition, maternal and child health, and gender in Ethiopia.
The consulting team should include a Gender Expert, preferably with experience in the health and nutrition sectors.
Knowledge of Canadian humanitarian aid and charity sector environments as well as donor environments, desirably Global Affairs Canada, European Union, UNICEF, other UN agencies and private foundations.
Excellent English writing and speaking skills.
Working experience or grasp of conceptual, cultural and diverse environments in the health and nutrition sectors of Ethiopia.
Ability to cope with stress, hardship, patience and flexibility, and willingness to work additional hours in order to meet tight deadlines.

Submission RequirementsThe submission must consist of:Technical Proposal

An abstract of not more than 300 words, briefly highlighting context and objective(s), the proposed methodology and data sources.
The research methodology, with a maximum of 15 pages, clearly showing objectives, brief context analysis, proposed data and methods, timeline, expected outputs, and approach to development of the sampling design.
Resume of the lead consultant and the entire team involved. CVs should not be more than 5 pages and should highlight education levels, evaluation experience, publications, and other relevant information.
Sample of recent evaluation work (assessment, review, baseline, mid-term or other relevant reports).
The lead consultant will be responsible for ensuring that a complete application is submitted to Children Believe. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.

Financial Proposal

Fees per day in Ethiopian Birr.
Indirect expenses of the consultancy such as mobilization and logistics of the consultancy team, logistics of the participants, material requirements, and related field costs.

Legal documents: -

Qualified consultants/firms must: Present a valid and renewed business license for Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2017/18 E.C. and other applicable legal documents.

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