Consultancy for the mid-term evaluation of Med_Up Project

MedUp! project is approaching now the end of the second year of implementation (completing a half of the four-year intervention period). Therefore, to assess whether the project is successful in achieving its targets and results, there is a need to undertake a comprehensive evaluation exercise to evaluate the project’s performance by looking at practices and ways of working at regional level and in each country of implementation. The Mid-Term evaluation is intended to assess whether targets and results (together with the performance’s indicators reported in the logical framework) can be achieved within the project timeframe, if the implemented regional approach is functional to meet project objectives and to get useful learnings from the implementation during the first 24 months of the project. For this purpose, Oxfam Italia is looking for a Consultancy Firm with solid experience in conducting assessment exercises of complex programs in the MENA region.

Purpose

The MedUp! Mid-term Evaluation aims at assessing the a) Relevance, b) Coherence, c) Effectiveness, d) Efficiency and e) Sustainability of the project against its overall objective and the main outcomes. Furthermore, the Mid-term Evaluation has the objective to assess the effectiveness both of the regional and national strategies, to highlight key learnings coming from the direct implementation of the project in target countries and so to provide operational recommendations for the Regional Management Unit and for the National Management Units to strengthen the capacity of the project to deliver effective activities.

The evaluation purpose is focused on both accountability and learning. Therefore, the main evaluation questions are the following:

1. Assessing relevance means understand to what extension the intervention objectives and design respond to beneficiaries’, regional, country, and partner/institution needs, policies, and priorities, and continue to do so if circumstances change. Questions to consider are: To what extent are the objectives of the program still valid? Are the activities and outputs of the program consistent with the overall goal and the attainment of its objectives?

1. Assessing coherence means analyse the compatibility of the project with other interventions in a country, sector or institution. Questions to consider are: To which extent other interventions support or undermine the project, and vice versa? Which are the synergies and interlinkages between the project and other interventions carried out by the same institution/government, as well as the consistency of the project with the relevant international norms and standards? Which is the consistency of the project with other actors’ interventions in the same context?

1. Assessing effectiveness implies measuring the extent to which the project achieved, or is expected to achieve, its objectives and results, including any differential results across groups. Questions to consider are: To which extent the project has already achieved its objectives and results or is likely to achieve them in both output and outcome levels? What have been the achievements and challenges of the MedUp! project, both at regional and national level? What enabled the achievements? What kind of measures the project adopted in order to put in place the strategy at regional level? What were the major factors influencing the achievement (or non-achievement) of objectives? How has Oxfam and MedUp! partners responded to challenges? What has been the effect and value of the activities to support partners to promote social entrepreneurship? What SESO, social enterprises, national and subnational authority, partners and project / regional management units learnt from the project implementation and from the ecosystem? How has the initiative influenced the appropriate stakeholder community, and what capacities has it built? What has been done to address the structural barriers that hinder women social enterprises in the different countries?

1. Assessing efficiency means measuring the extent to which the project delivers, or is likely to deliver, results in an economic and timely way. The focus of this assessment should be less on cost-efficiency (in comparison to alternative approaches to achieving the same outputs) and more on process-efficiency. Questions to consider are: Were activities cost-efficient? Were objectives achieved on time? What has been effective in engaging/influencing communities, government at different levels & other stakeholders to strengthen social business?

1. Assessing sustainability means measuring the extent to which the net benefits of the intervention continue, or are likely to continue. The project needs to be financially, economically, socially, environmentally, and institutionally sustainable. Questions to consider are: To what extent the benefits of a project continue after donor funding ceased? What were the major factors that influenced the achievement or non-achievement of sustainability of the project? How have partners’ capacities for influencing social business changed? How are the perspectives and priorities of women and young people addressed across all the project activities? Is there evidence that the project is likely to grow – scaling up and out – beyond the project life?

For further information please carefully read the Terms or Reference attached.