Consultant (After Action Review (AAR) (Kabul, Afghanistan) | Afghan Job Center

Job Description

1. Scope and Lines of Inquiry

Scope:

The AAR will cover the entire project implementation duration i.e. from 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2021. The AAR will address questions of relevance, effectiveness or efficiency which can be answered through existing data and NRC staff reflections in attempt to assess performance on the project objectives, including employment, basic social services and resilience, legitimate and capable government, inclusive political processes, rule of law and human security. The AAR will look into data collected from partners on outcome level to understand how far the project have contributed to the overall project impact of ‘REDUCING ROOT CAUSES OF ARMED CONFLICT, INSTABILITY OR IRREGULAR MIGRATION’. The geographic focus will be the three project provinces, Badghis, Kunduz and Herat. In addition, it will assess the effectiveness and efficiency of consortia’s governance and management structures.

Disclaimer: The original project goal and objectives were drafted before the new government change. It is important to conduct desk review on the current context to understand how the recommendations will still be useful and applicable to today’s context.

Lines of Inquiry:

The AAR will assess programme performance against the Standard OECD/DAC Criteria in two main scopes: Scope A: Relevance/ appropriateness – to what extent were the project objectives valid given the changing context in Afghanistan? Were the consortium’s activities the most appropriate to meet existing needs? What changes (if any) are required to increase the relevancy and appropriateness of similar intervention? Especially with the new political and security context. Effectiveness – to what extent were the objectives achieved? What were the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the project objectives? What constraints have there been in developing and delivering activities that has affected the project’s effectiveness? Were the assumptions in the ToC in fact in place throughout the different project period? Efficiency – were the activities cost efficient? Was the project implemented in the most efficient way compared to alternatives? Scope B: Over and above the standard DAC Criteria, the AAR might collect some data from staff in order to address coordination aspect of the consortia through answering the following questions:

How does the consortium function as an entity? How successful was the coordination, management, and information sharing among partners? How much flexibility was needed and was given across partners in order to achieve harmonized guidance notes, selection criteria, and other operational manner In practice, how integrated was the response? How did the different services provided by the consortium different members complement each other for end recipient (beneficiary/entity)? What can be improved for future consortium initiatives?

Methodology: The AAR methodology will be developed by the consultant and presented in the inception report including an AAR matrix and then the Steering Committee (SC) of the final consortium evaluation will agree upon final methodology. The AAR will include revision of existing primary data collected by the partners throughout the duration of the project, as well as relevant secondary data available externally. For consortium coordination measurement (Scope B), The consultant should conduct interviews or workshops to collect some qualitative data. Revision of project background documents: Background documents, such as the Project proposal, log frame / theory of change, budgets, annual plans; review of project databases and documents (beneficiary selection databases, complaint, response, and feedback mechanism database, beneficiary overlap tracking databases), etc. Minutes of consortium meetings, monitoring reports and tools, progress reports and donor reports. Revision of Relevant Secondary Data: Contextual updates which capture the situation before the fall of previous government, but still tackle the status quo and the situation today to be integrated into primary data collection and analysis; Revision of Organizations Primary data: End-line surveys, mid-term evaluation, outcome monitoring exercises.Ad hoc FGDs, learning exercises, review workshops. Key Informant or Semi Structured Interviews: Interviews with key ARC Consortium staff in Afghanistan including area and field offices. AAR Follow up and Learning:

The findings will be used to adjust programme plans for other current and future similar potential consortia projects. A dissemination plan will be developed to ensure that important learning is shared with internal and external stakeholders.

Managment of the Evaluation: The person responsible for ensuring that this evaluation/review takes place is NRC’s employed Consortia Manager. An Evaluation Manger has been appointed to internally coordinate the process and will be the evaluation team’s main focal point. An evaluation Steering Committee (SC) is established by ARC Consortium members, with the following members:

Steering Committee Chair: NRC M&E Manager Evaluation Manager: M&E coordinator – Consortia Steering committee members: MEAL Manager – DACAAR MEAL Manager – IRC M&E Adviser – NRC

The Steering Committee will oversee administration and overall coordination, including monitoring progress. The main functions of the Steering committee will be:

Establish the Terms of Reference of the evaluation; Select evaluator(s); Review and comment on the inception report and approve the proposed evaluation strategy; Review and approve the evaluation tools including (Interview questioner, FGD form, Survey form, etc.) Review and comment on the draft evaluation report; Approve of the final report; Establish a dissemination and utilization strategy; Follow up on the evaluation action point (if necessary).

Deliverables and Reporting Deadlines: The consultant will deliver, based on an agreed upon work plan: An AAR inception report (using NRC’s standard template), with proposed methodology, sampling, evaluation matrix, report outline. A draft AAR report (using NRC’s standard template). A final AAR report and presentation of maximum 40 pages (excluding annexes) in English including executive summary, key recommendations and supporting analysis. The recommendations shall be linked directly to data provided and reviewed and referred to directly within the report sections. Generic recommendation extracted from other products will not be accepted. Timeframe: The evaluation will start in 05-June-2022 with an initial briefing and document preparation. The consultant would then be required to conduct a review of the provided documents and submit an inception report. Following approval of the inception report, primary data collection will be conducted in the three selected provinces in Afghanistan and with key staff/stakeholders in Kabul and those three province. The evaluation consultant is also expected to conduct a validation and learning workshop with relevant stakeholders in Afghanistan prior to analysing the data and drafting the final report. Key dates for the evaluation will be as follows: By 05 June 2022: Submission of all relevant data and information to consultant By 07 June 2022: Submission of an inception report and report outline to steering committee By 09 June 2022: Steering committee comments on inception report and report outline. By 14 June 2022: Finalization of interviews and data collected for scope B. By 19 June 2022: Finalization of analysis and submission of the first report draft. By 22 June 2022: Steering committee comments on first draft. By 23 June 2022: Final AAR Workshop By 28 June 2022: Final AAR Report draft after consolidation of comments and workshop notes.

Background

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent humanitarian organisation helping people forced to flee. We work in crises across more than 31 countries, providing emergencies and long-term assistance to millions of people every year. We stand up for people forced to flee, advocating their rights. NORCAP, our global provider of expertise, helps improve international and local ability to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from crises. NRC also runs the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre in Geneva, a global leader in reporting on and advocating for people displaced within their own country.

Employment with NRC may lead to employment in or deployment to Regions, Countries, Areas or Offices that may be host to considerable health, safety and security risks. NRC takes this very seriously and we have procedures in place to reduce known risks, but will never be able to take away all risks.

NRC is an equal opportunities employer and aims to have staffing diversity in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, nationality and physical ability.

Purpose of the AAR and Intended Use:

Overarching Purpose:

The primary objective for the AAR is accountability to the donor and the implementing agencies as well as to establish the extent to which the programme has achieved the project objectives and how relevant was the intervention to people’s needs.. The AAR will also inform organisational learning through exploring how the response operated, where it succeeded and important challenges is. The consortia model of implementation is increasingly becoming a requisite for multiyear funding, and findings from this AAR will contribute towards organisational learning for the concerned partners, the donor community and the humanitarian and development sectors on best practices for coordination, management and working in consortia. How Will the AAR be Used: At the micro level, the AAR findings will be used to adjust programming strategy for the similar other consortia being implemented by the consortia members. At the macro level, the AAR will contribute to the growing body of knowledge on working in consortia and will inform design of future consortia programme. For the similar current consortia, a management response will be developed once the AAR report is published (internally) where the Consortia Management teams will outline concrete steps towards implementing relevant recommendations. The AAR report will also be shared externally with the donor for accountability. Who Will it be Used By: The primary users of the AAR will be the ARC consortium members, including NRC, SC/IRC and DACAAR. The secondary users include other projects in the country by the consortium members, Regional and Head offices, the Dutch MFA, other humanitarian partners and donors supporting similar work within Afghanistan and in the region, and with the other ARC consortium operating in Afghanistan. The AAR will also be shared externally with relevant interest groups and will be used to inform programmes and strategies by interested stakeholders in Afghanistan and other humanitarian contexts.

Job Requirements

Evaluation and Consultant Team:

NRC seeks expressions of interest from individuals/consultancies with the following skills/qualifications:

Proven practical experience in project/programme evaluation specifically After Action Review (AAR); Experience and understanding of Afghanistan context. Minimum 5 years of experience with quantitative and qualitative research and experience; Technical understanding of rule of law and livelihoods programmes; Experience of evaluating consortium managed programmes; Ability to analyse, synthesize, and to write clear reports; Good knowledge of the NGOs management in general and familiarity with organizational development. Contextual knowledge, familiarity with IDPs and returnees and having local languages skills. Female and male team members for collecting data from both male & female beneficiaries/interviewees. Adequate knowledge of the humanitarian, political and socio-economic situation in Afghanistan.

Important Terms and Disclaimers: Minimum requirement is experience with external evaluation and after action review for at least 5 years in Afghanistan. The assignment needs to be completed within 3 weeks starting from day of signing the contract. We expect the consultant full commitment on a daily basis rather than on a weekly basis. In other words, the consultant might need to work over the weekend to reach the deadline. The daily rate allocated will be 190 $ per day over the period of 25 consecutive days. If the consultant does not finalize the needed tasks within the agreed period, the consultant will be provided with additional 5 days free of charge. The consultant will be responsible to address any substantial comments from the consortium that might need the consultant’s immediate action or addressing beyond the original 25 days. Interviews will be done on a rolling basis and the consultant is needed to start immediately upon selection and issuing of contract or decision paper.