Terms of Reference (ToR) To Develop Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Learning (MERL) 39 views

Background

Roots Ethiopia is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization incorporated under the Wisconsin Statutes in the United States of America. Its principle office is 14 Longmeadow Circle, Madison, Wisconsin, 53717 or such other places in the State of Wisconsin, as the Directors may deem appropriate.  Roots Ethiopia is registered as a Foreign Charity by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia with Agency for Civil Society Organizations (ACSO), under Registration No. 3847. It works together to improve schools, educate children, and enable livelihoods. These are community priorities, so they’re our priorities.

Roots Ethiopia operates in a wide variety of settings in a large geographic area in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS), particularly in 17 selected Woredas (districts) located in Kembata-Tembaro, Hadiya, Wolayta, and Alaba zones with diverse sets of partners and beneficiaries.

In Sep. 2017, in order to respond to critical educational challenges facing rural primary schools of the selected Woredas, the organization has signed an operational agreement with regional Bureau of Education (BOE), Bureau of Finance and Economic Development (BOFED) and Bureau of Women Children and Youth Affairs (WCYA), initially for a period of three years. Over the past three years, it has been implementing three core components aimed at reducing the obstacles that inhibit school children from realizing their educational potentials and development goals. The three project components were learning resource project (LRP), school sponsorship program (SSP) and Self-help groups (SHG).

As a result of this project intervention, 200 students were supported through SSP, 240 women were supported through SHG and more than 36,899 students were benefited from LRP component. However, due to the absence of MERL system and MERL expert in the organization, RE Roots Ethiopia have not been able to fully capture its overall achievements, outcomes, impacts, successes stories and lessons learnt. As a result, there is little existing information and limited capacity to collect data in our organization. The Board of Directors (BoD) and RE Country Office understood and learnt from the organizational capacity assessment conducted recently that without a clearly defined MERL system and performance measures, it is unlikely to know what RE project has achieved and whether its implementation is effective.

Therefore, RE has decided to hire and a consultant to develop a comprehensive monitoring, evaluation, reporting and learning system for the projects being implemented.

Purpose of the call

The purpose of this call is to invite interested consulting firms or individual consultants with relevant qualification and experience to develop MERL system including data collection tool  and train RE’s Addis and field staff on the developed MERL system.

 Roles and specific tasks of the consulting firms or Individual Consultant

The consulting firm or individual consultant will have the following roles and specific tasks.

• Submit technical proposal for the assignment;
• Take part in meetings and/or introductory orientation sessions organized by Roots Ethiopia for the execution of the assignment;
• Prepare inception report on the content and methodologies of the MERL system development;
• Review relevant documents that helps develop the MERL system including project proposals, quarter and annual reports, etc.;
• After the approval of the inception report, develop the MERL system;
• Submit the draft MERL system and present to RE team in Addis and HQ;
• Submit the final MERL report after incorporating the comments provided by RE team.
• Deliver MERL training to RE staff.

Cost of the assignment (financial proposal/offer). This will account for 30% of the total selection criteria. The cost should be in Birr inclusive of all costs.

The individual consultant or consulting firms are expected to possess equipment such as laptops necessary for implementation of tasks.

Deliverables

The consultant/s are expected to prepare and submit the following:

• Inception report within 5 days after signing contract agreement;
• Draft MERL system 10 days after the approval of the inception report;
• Final comprehensive MERL system including data collection tools for all project components ( LRP, SSP, and SHE);
• Deliver MERL training for RE staff ;
•  and training report

Consulting firms or individual consultant can work from home when preparing the MERL system but required to meet RE staff as required and deliver the training in a specified training venue arranged by RE Country Office.

The duration of assignment and delivery of the MERL training will be maximum of 25 working days

Conflict of Interest

In order to ensure the impartiality of consulting firms or individual consultants, the consulting firms or consultants should be independent from the institutional structure and staff of Roots Ethiopia Country Office, and other parties involved. Each consultant will be required to sign a declaration of conflict of interest. The selected consulting firm or individual consultant must demonstrate appropriate ethical conduct and must respect the confidentiality of the information and documents to which they will have access to.

Coordination, Reporting and Liaison

The consulting firms or individual consultant/s will be working under the supervision of the Interim Executive Director or the CD with the overall guidance to be provided by RE Senior management team (SMT). Coordination, reporting and liaison will be undertaken through the Interim director or the CD.

Selection procedure and requirements

Selection of consulting firms or individual consultant will be based on the following criteria:

Relevant qualification and experience and technical proposal. This will account for 70% of the assessment score. Consulting firms or individual consultants shall be selected based on evidence of their experience in undertaking similar assignments. Having expertise in monitoring, evaluation, reporting and learning (MERL) and demonstrated experience in developing MERL system is mandatory. Applicants may be assessed based on information/evidence in their application and interview with short-listed candidates to ensure that they possess the required skills and sufficient professional experience.

Technical proposal

The technical proposal should be sound with clear objectives, strategies and relevant methodologies. It should also show the content and relevance of the methodologies and tools that will be developed. The technical proposal should also have an indicative work plan that shows how the allocated working days/ timeline for the different components of the work.

Education and Experience

A minimum of Master’s Degree in social sciences, particularly in development studies, economics and/or statistics is required. High level training on MERL and a thorough knowledge of MERL is a must.

The consulting firm or individual consultant must satisfy the following specific criteria:

• At least 8 years relevant professional experience;
• Demonstrated experience in developing MERL system  and providing MERL training for local and international NGOs;
• Fluency in speaking, reading and writing in English and local languages.