Call for Consultancy for End Term Evaluation for Supporting Drought-Affected Communities Through Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) for Health in Kenya - Kenya Red Cross Society

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

END-TERM EVALUATION

SUPPORTING DROUGHT-AFFECTED COMMUNITIES THROUGH CASH AND VOUCHER ASSISTANCE (CVA) FOR HEALTH IN KENYA.

DOCUMENT RELEASE DATE: 8th May 2023

LAST DATE FOR RECEIPT OF PROPOSALS: 24th May 2023

TIME: 11:00HRS

TENDER NUMBER: PRF12331

SUBMISSION METHOD: Email to tenders@redcross.or.ke

TENDER OPENING VENUE AND TIME: Virtually via Microsoft teams at 1200hrs

  1. Summary of the End-Term Evaluation
    1. Purpose:

The primary purpose is to conduct the end-term evaluation for the Supporting Drought-Affected Communities Through Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) for Health in Kenya Project in Garissa and Marsabit Counties. The end-term evaluation seeks to provide relevant data and analysis against the Project indicators and understand the impact of the project interventions.

Partners

Norwegian Red Cross, Kenya Red Cross Society and County governments.

Duration

30 days

Estimated Dates

15th June – 15th July 2023

Geographical Location

Garissa (Dayere ward -Balambala sub- county and Benane wards – Laghdera sub-county)

Marsabit (Obbu ward – Moyale sub-county, Dukana ward- North Horr Sub County and Korr Ngurnit ward – Laisamis sub county) Counties.

Target Population

Most vulnerable drought-affected community members, stakeholders (County Government Representatives & Partners), Project Staff and Volunteers.

Deliverables

Inception report and tools, Draft and final report plus all data sets.

Methodology

Quantitative and Qualitative methods.

Evaluation Management Team

KRCS M&E team and Project representatives and Norwegian Red Cross Representatives.

  1. Background Information

In May 2022, 162’137 children under 5 in Kenya were estimated requiring treatment for severe acute malnutrition. The rate of childhood immunization in Kenya has increased, with at least 80 per cent of children having received all the recommended vaccines. In contrast, two per cent of children have not received any form of vaccination according to the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey report released, Vihiga County leads in immunization coverage at 96 per cent. In Marsabit county, the proportion of children under one year who were fully immunized was less than 30% as well as the percentage of deliveries conducted by skilled birth attendants which also remains low below 30%. Counties with low immunization rates include Turkana (60pc), West Pokot (49pc), Wajir (49pc), Mandera (29pc), and Garissa (23pc). Thus, Garissa and Marsabit still falls within same range in immunization coverage. This intern reflects the GAM rates for the two counties with most of the sub-counties having more than 20 especially the target wards included.

Somalia (which also has similar project supported by Norwegian Red Cross) had around 1.2 million children under the age of 5 years at risk of acute malnutrition, with only 11% of 12-23months children are fully vaccinated. Maternal mortality rate was 692/100’000 and 79% of deliveries were done at home without skilled birth attendant. Emergency health needs and growing malnutrition situation was proposed to be addressed through use of cash assistance combined with health technical intervention for the vulnerable population in Kenya and Somalia. The focus was on improving the conditions for children under age of 5, pregnant and lactating women. Several organizations were already providing food relief assistance and CVA for food. NorCross assessments which were done during the implementation phase through monitoring visits were observed to be increasing household expenditures due to drought, diseases outbreaks, shortage of water and increased food prices. This was also backed up by the post distribution monitoring findings where the need increased due to the drought condition during the time. This was also impacted by the decrease in the purchasing power and increased copying mechanism.

In July 2022, Norwegian Red Cross (NorCross) conducted an assessment focused on understanding the emergency health needs and the impact of drought on health conditions in Kenya and Somalia. Through the monitoring visits by KRCS, some health issues were still existing with some considerable high incidences. This includes malnutrition cases and other vulnerabilities where the larger community tends to appear vulnerable due to the factors like food insecurity especially in the midst of the ravaging drought in the 1st quarter of the year 2023. Health needs resulting from drought emergency are not addressed by households due to lack of financial resources and transportation barriers facing the affected areas.

During the implementation period, many families were employing the copying mechanisms in the areas supported with larger part of the community members remained unsupported. The livelihoods were most affected due to drought especially those communities living in Garissa and Marsabit having pastoralism as the predominant livelihood. Some were forced to move while others becoming more vulnerable due this effect hence affecting the health seeking behavior and led to increase in malnutrition and making the malnourished being more susceptible to morbidities. Despite these challenges, there were many actors in the locality to address these issues as the need increases.

With funding from Norwegian Red Cross, the Kenya Red Cross Society has been implementing a Cash for health project in the 2 counties of Marsabit and Garissa allowing the targeted community members to access appropriate, timely and quality health care services they needed. The project started in November 2022 and was to end in April 2023 running for 6 months. However, the project received an extension of 2 months thus was planned to end in June 2023. The target of the beneficiaries was geared towards health facilities (tier 1 to tier 3) where the 3 vulnerable groups were to be identified. The project targeted three cohorts of vulnerable community members identified as pregnant and lactating mothers with nutritional needs, malnourished children and elderly aimed at improving drought affected communities' health through provision of Cash to access health services). The assessment was done at the facility level where from the 3 cohorts the most vulnerable ones were identified in terms of caseloads and the considerations of other factors like distances, adverse drought impact and severity in line with malnutrition project targeted 4,300 beneficiaries in 2 counties (Garissa 1820 and Marsabit 2480) with all of them reached through the project. It was designed to address emergency health needs of women and children facing financial barriers to access health services in drought affected areas.

    1. Project Objectives

The goal of the project was to contribute to the reduction of malnutrition rate among drought affected populations.

The specific objectives were:

  1. To assess the health situation and immediate risks of the affected population.
  2. To disburse Cash assistance to targeted households to enable access to health services or commodities.
  3. To provide community-based health and nutrition promotions to the target population.
  4. To improve access to health and nutritional services for the targeted households.
    1. Key Project Stakeholders

The project was implemented in close coordination with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Kenya Cash Working Group which KRCS is co-chairing. It was planned to go through the same process with the other targeted areas to ensure smooth collaboration with MoH and integration and complementarity of the project with other activities in the two counties.

At the community level, the programme was implemented by KRCS volunteers’ and the community health volunteers (CHVs) supervised by the Community Health Assistants (CHAs) with links to the health facilities structures. The programme staff worked closely and coordinated with the volunteers, community health assistants (CHAs) and the relevant MoH staff to ensure close monitoring of the health and nutritional status of the beneficiaries on a monthly basis. Community members: women, men, boys, and girls, including those with disabilities were also important stakeholders at the community level.

  1. Evaluation Purpose & Scope
    1. Purpose.

The end-term evaluation seeks to provide relevant data against the project indicators, to understand the impact of the project’s interventions. It will also bring out issues that were affecting the project implementation and things that aided the success of the project as well as looking into the impact of the project.

The specific objectives of the end-term evaluation will be:

  1. To measure project achievements against log frame indicators and compared to baseline findings.
  2. To understand whether shifts in knowledge, attitudes and social norms around health seeking behaviors occurred amongst the target community/population as a result of the project interventions.
  3. To examine the extent to which to target population accessed the conditional Cash assistance and prioritized health related commodities and services.
  4. To highlight the sustainability measures in place, lessons learned from the project and make practical recommendations for improvement of future projects.
  5. Key Questions

The end term evaluation is expected to answer the following key questions:

    1. Measuring against indicators and targets
  • What are the endline values for indicators (section 5.1) as per the project plan?
  • Did the project achieve the targets?
  • Are they meaningfully different from baseline?
    1. Shifting knowledge, attitudes, and norms
  • In what ways has knowledge, attitudes and social norms of the target communities/populations served improved, stayed the same or worsened? This will include the health seeking behaviors among the supported community members. It revolves around the number of times people visits health facilities (defaulting, ANC and PNC visits, skilled delivery among others.
  • To what extent can these changes be attributed to project interventions?
  • To what extent were KRCS branches able to apply the recommendations from the random assessment of markets (RAM) and post distribution monitoring (PDM)?
  • Were there any unexpected negative effects of the project? Which ones?
    1. Service access and utilization
  • How were CHVs and health workers trained as part of the project able to apply new knowledge and skills?
  • Did the provision of Cash assistance contribute to improved access to health facilities?
  • To what extent was the project able to improve health seeking behaviors of the targeted community members (including pregnant and lactating women and people living with disability)?
  • To what extent were the target community members able to utilize the conditional cash transfers on health /water commodities and services.
  • In what ways were project interventions inclusive or not inclusive to people with disabilities?
  1. Survey Methodology

The consulting firm will propose the most suitable study design, sampling methods, sample size, data collection and analysis approaches that is suitable end term evaluation. This should be clearly outlined in the bidding document/proposal and if qualified to oral stage to have further discussion with the evaluation management team. The consulting firm will also propose targeted respondents to interview or data sources that can answer the log frame indicators and provide comparable statistics to document any changes.

Methodology should consider triangulation of findings, adequate and representative sample size for the targeted beneficiaries with clear sampling methods. All the log frame indicators should be given operational definition in the bid submission. Data analysis plan should be embedded indicating how the indicators will be analyzed and presented. The evaluation will use the following literature and any other for reference and to inform the evaluation process further:

  • Project proposal and log frame.
  • Facility assessment report
  • Existing project reports by the time of data collection.
  • Random assessment of market (RAM) and post distribution monitoring (PDM) reports.
  • Documents, policies and frameworks by partners, county, and national government

The project indicators are shown in the table below: -

Goal, Outcomes, Outputs & Activities

Indicators

Goal: Contribute to the reduction of malnutrition rate among drought affected populations

GAM rate disaggregated by county

Proportion of first ANC visits recorded within the period against the expected 1st ANC visits (Coverage)

Proportion of pregnant women attending 4 or more ANC Visits (Quality)

Proportion of registered mothers who had postnatal contact with a health provider within 2 days of delivery

Outcome1. Immediate health and nutritional needs of drought affected populations are met.

1a: Number and percentage of children with SAM/MAM <5 with improved access to nutritional requirements as a result of the CVA project/intervention

1b. Number and percentage of HH reporting improved access to medical services due to the CVA project

Output 1: Cash assistance provided to at risk groups of women and children facing financial barriers in need of health care services

1.1.1: Percentage of pregnant women who received CVA and have access to nutrition commodities and water

1.1.3: Percentage of pregnant women enrolled as beneficiaries accessing ANC services

1.1.4: Percentage of lactating women enrolled as beneficiaries accessing PNC services

1.1.5: Number of enrolled malnourished elderly persons accessing nutrition and chronic care services

Activity 1.1: Conduct Stakeholders inception meeting, and ratification of beneficiary selection criteria

1.1.1a: Number of Stakeholder participating in the inception meeting

1.1.1b: Number of inception meetings conducted

Activity 1.1.2: Do mapping and registration of beneficiaries in the targeted wards

1.1.2a: Number of vulnerable persons registered based on vulnerability and criteria identified.

Activity 1.1.3: Conduct a Health and market assessment.

1.1.3a: Number of health and market assessments conducted

Output 1.2: Targeted households receive conditional cash transfers and vouchers to purchase health /water commodities and services so that income is maintained where income sources are disrupted because of need for health

1.2a: Percentage of beneficiaries utilizing cash on health, nutrition and water services/commodities

1.2c: Percentage of community members who demonstrate understanding of the selection criteria

1.2d: Percentage of community members who report being informed of the cash transfer process and criteria

Activity 1.2.1: Conduct beneficiary targeting, registration and data verification

1.2.1a: Number of targets beneficiaries registered

Activity 1.2.2: Cash transfer to the target beneficiaries

1.2.2a: Number and percentage of targeted beneficiaries who received cash assistance

Activity 1.2.3: CEA Activities - Conduct community feedback meetings for feedbacks and any complaints in relation to the project

1.2.3a: Number of people reached through CEA engagement

1.2.3b: Number and percentage of beneficiaries reporting satisfaction with the cash transfers

Output 3: Community-based health and nutrition promotion is provided to the target population

Number of health promotion sessions conducted in the target areas

Activity 1.3.1 CHV Sensitization on CBS

1.3.1a: Number of sensitization sessions conducted for the CHVs

1.3.1b: Number of CHVs and KRCS volunteers sensitized

Activity 1.3.2: Monthly follow ups on beneficiaries by CHVs

1.3.1a: Number of follow ups conducted (follow up cycle)

1.3.2b: Number of pregnant and lactating mothers, HH With children under five, and HH with malnourished elderly reached during the follow up sessions by CHVs).

Output 1.4: Targeted households have improved access to health and nutritional services

Percentage of registered beneficiaries who report having been able to access healthcare services through the cash assistance provided

Activity 1.4.1: Conduct post distribution monitoring

1.4.1 a Number of PDMs conducted within the schedule

Activity 1.4.2: Final evaluation

1.4.2: Number of evaluations conducted

  1. Quality & Ethical Standards

The consultant shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that the evaluation is designed and conducted to respect and protect the rights and welfare of the people and communities involved and to ensure that the assessment is technically accurate and reliable, is conducted in a transparent and impartial manner, and contributes to organizational learning and accountability. Therefore, the evaluation team shall be required to adhere to the assessment standards and applicable practices as recommended by International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

  • Utility: Assessments must be useful and used.
  • Feasibility: Assessments must be realistic, diplomatic, and managed in a sensible, cost-effective manner.
  • Ethics & Legality: Assessments must be conducted in an ethical and legal manner, with particular regard for the welfare of those involved in and affected by the assessment.
  • Impartiality & Independence: Assessments should be impartial, providing a comprehensive and unbiased assessment that takes into account the views of all stakeholders.
  • Transparency: assessment activities should reflect an attitude of openness and transparency.
  • Accuracy: Assessments should be technically accurate, providing sufficient information about the data collection, analysis, and interpretation methods so that its worth or merit can be determined.
  • Participation: Stakeholders should be consulted and meaningfully involved in the assessment process when feasible and appropriate.
  • Collaboration: Collaboration between key operating partners in the assessment process improves the legitimacy and utility of the assessment

It is also expected that the assessment will respect the seven Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent: 1) humanity, 2) impartiality, 3) neutrality, 4) independence, 5) voluntary service, 6) unity, and 7) universality.

  1. Qualifications and Experience for Consultants

The lead consultant must possess the following qualifications:

  1. A master’s degree in public health/social science/gender studies specialty, community health and health systems strengthening or related field.

  2. Proven experience in participatory and results-based M&E. Knowledge and practical experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods.

  3. Must have led in at least five participatory evaluations. Experience of conducting end-lines, monitoring and assessment work in the target or similar communities (preferred)

  4. High level of professionalism and an ability to work independently and in high-pressure situations under tight deadlines.

  5. Strong interpersonal, facilitation and communication skills

  6. The team must have a statistician able to analyze quantitative and qualitative data as well as key technical team members in to handle specific components of the project evaluation

  7. Firm/bidder must have experience in participatory data collection methods and using mobile phone technology for data collection, monitoring and reporting

  8. The lead consultant must have strong analytical skills and ability to clearly synthesize and present findings, draw practical conclusions, make recommendations and to prepare well-written reports in a timely manner.

  9. Availability for the period indicated.

  10. Management of the End Term Evaluation.

    1. Duration:

The end term evaluation will be conducted between 1st to 30th June 2023 from contract signing to delivery of the final report.

    1. Deliverables:
  1. Inception report detailing the evaluation design, sampling methodology & sample frame, evaluation tools, agreed budget and work plan.

  2. Copies of original and cleaned data sets with codebook. The raw data, the database which has been cleaned (both qualitative and quantitative, including original field notes for in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, as well as recorded audio material), should be submitted together with the report. A simple inventory of material handed over will be part of the record. KRCS will have sole ownership of all final data and any findings shall only be shared or reproduced with the permission of KRCS.

  3. Draft end-line evaluation report that will culminate in the final report with the following elements and as will be guided by KRCS:

    1. Table of contents
    2. Clear executive summary with among others major findings and summary of conclusions and recommendations.
    3. The objectives of the end line, methodology and any challenges encountered in the field.
    4. A presentation of the results and discussion of the same (including analysis) according to evaluation questions.
    5. Conclusions
    6. Recommendations.
    7. Report annexes.
  4. A power point presentation highlighting key results and discussion from the end-line evaluation will be presented at a feedback meeting with stakeholders to be held after completing the draft report.

  5. Final Evaluation report - submit 10 well designed and bound hard copy and one electronic copy of the report by the agreed timeline. The specifications for the hard copies will be guided by KRCS M&E team.

    1. Evaluation Management Team

The evaluation management team shall consist of KRCS MEA&L Unit representatives, KRCS program Manager and Norwegian Red Cross Representative. They shall ensure that the deliverables agreed upon and approved in the inception report are achieved on time. KRCS MEA&L representative will be the chair of the team.

Role of KRCS (Project and M&E team)

  • Lead the recruitment and evaluation process
  • Coordinate the evaluation implementation process
  • Review of assessment products including the inception report tools, and reports
  • KRCS will organize logistics for the assessment team
  • Avail data collectors within agreed criteria
  • Avail all necessary documents for desk review
  • KRCS will be the link between the community, stakeholders and the consultant and will organize all the data collection activities (identifying respondents and setting up appointments)
  • Will be the custodian of all data generated from the assessment
  • Organize dissemination forums as necessary.

Role of Norwegian Red Cross.

  • Participate in the TOR development.
  • Review and give feedback on all evaluation products.
  • Provide any relevant tools for assessment (i.e., social norms tools and questions)
  • Fund the activity budget.
  • Final approval of the report.
  1. Application Requirements

Application materials shall include:

  • A written response to this TOR in terms of a proposal detailing the technical understanding of the task, proposed methodologies of the evaluation, expected activities and deliverables, proposed work plans with schedule, and financial bids. See Annex 1
  • Detailed CVs of all professionals who will work on the evaluation. If there is more than one contractor on the proposed evaluation team, please attach a table describing the level of effort (in number of days) of each team member in each of the evaluation activities. See Annex 3
  • Professional references: please provide at least three reference letters from your previous clients and full contact details of the referees (working and active email & phone number).
  • 2 Sample reports of relevant previously completed assignments.

Please also note that the people whose names appear in the team composition template MUST be the ones to undertake the evaluation. As such, they MUST be the ones to appear in person if the proposal moves to the interview stage.

  1. Submission of proposal.

The Technical Proposal MUST be prepared in conformance to the outline provided in Annex 1 while the financial proposal shall conform to the template provided in Annex 2. The team composition should conform to Annex 3.

Bidders should provide softcopy technical and financial proposal in two separate folders clearly marked “Technical Proposal” and “Financial Proposal”. The subject of your email should read “Tender No. PRF12331- Call for Consultancy for End Term Evaluation for Supporting Drought-Affected Communities Through Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) for Health in Kenya Project”

The proposal should be addressed as below to reach the undersigned (by mail) through tenders@redcross.or.keby Wednesday, 24th May 2023 at 11:00 AM.

Chairperson, Management Tender Committee

Kenya Red Cross Society

P.O Box 40712 – 00100

Nairobi, Kenya.

ANNEX 1: TECHNICAL PROPOSAL FORMAT

  1. Introduction: description of the firm, the firm’s qualifications, and statutory compliance – 1 Page.
  2. Background: Understanding of the project, context and requirements for services, key questions – 2 Pages.
  3. Proposed methodology: Indicate methods to be used for each indicator and highlight any areas where indicators may need adjustment. The targeted respondents should be indicated for each indicator. Proposed detailed questions should be indicated. Detailed sampling procedure and sample size determination needs to be described. – 5 pages.
  4. Firms experience in undertaking assignments of similar nature and experience from the geographical area for other major clients (Table with: Name of organization, name of assignment, duration of assignment (dates), reference person contacts – 2 pages.
  5. Proposed team composition (as per annex 3) – 1 page.
  6. Work plan (Gantt chart of activity and week of implementation) – 1 page.

ANNEX 2: BUDGET TEMPLATE

The consultant shall only quote for the items below as KRCS will manage all other related costs (logistics and payment of enumerators)

Item

Unit

# of Units

Unit Cost

Total Cost (Ksh.)

Consultancy Fee (for the whole assessment period)

Per day

Office expenses (Printing, photocopy, binding, communication costs etc.)

Lumpsum

Grand Total

ANNEX 3: PROPOSED TEAM COMPOSITION TEMPLATE

Name of Team Member

Highest Level of

Qualification

General Years of Experience related to the task at hand

Roles under this assignment

ANNEX 4: TENDER ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

A three-stage assessment procedure will be used to evaluate all proposals from bidders. The total number of points which each bidder may obtain for its proposal is:

  • Technical Proposal 50 marks
  • Oral presentation 40 marks
  • Financial Proposal 10 marks
  1. Mandatory Requirements.

The proposal shall ONLY be evaluated on the basis of its adherence to the following compulsory requirements, this applies to both local and international firms or individuals.

Document/ Requirements

Tax compliance certificate

Certificate of incorporation/registration (only applicable for firms)

PIN certificate

Proceed to next stage (Yes/No)

  1. Assessment of the Technical Proposal

The technical proposal shall be evaluated on the basis of its responsiveness to the TOR. Specifically, the following criteria shall apply:

Evaluation Criteria

Maximum Points

Bidder’s score

Remarks

  1. Background: Description of the consultant/Firm’s Qualifications, Understanding of the project, context and requirements for services

10

  1. Proposed Methodology: The proposed methodology MUST provide an indication of its effectiveness and added value in the proposed assignment.

20

  1. Firms Experience in undertaking assignments of similar nature and experience from related geographical area for other major clients:
  • Provide a summary and supporting information on overall years of experience, and related technical and geographic coverage experience.

10

  1. Proposed Team Composition: Tabulate the team composition to include the general qualifications, suitability for the specific task to be assigned and overall years of relevant experience to the proposed assignment.
  • The proposed team composition should balance effectively with the necessary skills and competencies required to undertake the proposed assignment.
  • Lead Consultant Qualifications – should be as per the TOR
  • Provide CVs for key Consulting team including Statistician/Data Analyst.

5

  1. Work Plan: A Detailed logical, weekly work plan for the assignment MUST be provided.

5

TOTAL SCORE

50

The firms/consultants that attains a score of 35 and above out of 50 in the technical evaluation will be invited to proceed to oral presentation.

  1. Oral Phase Assessment

At the oral phase, the following criteria shall apply:

Criteria

Maximum points

Bidder’s Score

Remarks

Understanding of the assignment.

5

Clear and scientific methodology: samplings, data collection, understanding indicators, respondents, tools, data analysis etc.

15

Presentation of previous similar assignment (Consultant will be required to show/present at least 2 previous completed assignment reports at the oral stage and at least two reference letters)

10

Preparedness and participation of teams. Attendance of team members listed in the bid and whose CVs are availed.

10

Total Score out of 40

40

From this stage, the technical and oral assessment scores are combined. The firms/consultants that attains a combined score of 70% in the technical & oral assessment will be invited to proceed to the financial stage.

  1. Assessment of the Financial Proposal

The Financial Proposal shall be prepared in accordance to Annex 2. The maximum number of points for the Financial Proposal shall be 10% (10 points). This maximum number of points will be allocated to the lowest Financial Proposal. All other Financial Proposals will receive points in inverse proportion according to the below formula:

Points for the Financial Proposal being evaluated =

(Maximum number of points for the financial proposal) x (Lowest price)

Price of proposal being evaluated

A total score obtained including both Technical, Oral and Financial Proposals is calculated for each bidder. The bidder obtaining the overall highest score shall be awarded to undertake the task.

How to apply

Bids should reach tenders@redcross.or.ke on or before 24th May 2023 at 11.00 AM. Bids received after the above-specified date and time shall not be considered.

Bidders should provide softcopy technical and financial proposal in two separate folders clearly marked “Technical Proposal” and “Financial Proposal”. The subject of your email should read.

“Tender No. PRF12331 - Call for Consultancy for End Term Evaluation for Supporting Drought-Affected Communities Through Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) for Health in Kenya Project”

The proposal should be addressed as indicated above to reach the under signed by 24th May 2023 at 11.00 AM for the tender to be opened at 12.00 Noon: