Terms of Reference – Evaluation Rwanda

Terms of Reference:Evaluation Rwanda

1 GeneralInformation

1.1 Background

KOLPING INTERNATIONAL forms a world-wide network with more than 400,000 members in more than 60 countries. Within the association, the members actively participate in a socially just transformation of society.

KOLPING INTERNATIONAL Cooperation e.V. (KIC) is an organisation specialised in development cooperation. The aim of the work of KIC is to actively fight poverty through the building of sustainable social structures in form of self-help groups (Kolping Families). The main subjects of its work are vocational training programs and the promotion of small enterprises through income-generating projects in the craft sector and the field of agriculture. In Africa, a major focus is on rural development, with activities to increase agricultural output, distribution of livestock, rural microfinance and introduction of appropriate technologies. Un- or underemployed people in an urban environment are targeted through vocational training and the promotion of savings and credit-groups.

For more than 30 years KIC has been supporting the implementation of projects financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in Germany as well as other complementary projects through donations, which are promoting a generation of own income at the National Kolping Society.

Funding is provided from the Funding of Societal and Socio-structural Policy Measures, the main objectives are:

• Thecreation and consolidation of democratic structures in partner countries based on the participation of all population groups, particularly women and men, on a basis of equal rights;
• Thepromotion of autonomous, ecologically sustainable, and socially equitable economic development; and
• Theintensification of regional and international understanding and peaceful cooperation

This financing instrument corresponds to the undersigned commitments of the Millennium Declaration, Paris Declaration, Accra Agenda and Addis Ababa Action Agenda referring to development and cooperation.

The Kolping Societies design and implement three-year projects through access to the Federal Ministry funding.

1.2 About Rwanda Kolping Society Project

The National Organization and project partner in Rwanda is Rwanda Kolping Society (RKS), which is a non- profit organization with headquarters in Kigali. The Kolping Society RKS contributes to the fight against poverty for socially and economically disadvantaged people in the project. This is done through the creation and development of self-help organization through which people are mobilized and empowered to carry out self-help projects.

With 6,594 members in 128 Kolping Families, the democratically structured membership organization has grown considerably since its foundation in 2008. Almost 90% of the population lives from subsistence farming. Since the start of the BMZ funding in 2017, savings and credit groups have been set up in practically all self-help groups and training measures to improve productivity have been introduced. The aim of the project in Rwanda is to empower smallholder households to improve their productivity, production and standard of living. In this way, the objective is to combat income poverty among the smallholder population,enabling them to permanently improve their productivity and tap into additional sources of income. As a result, the vulnerability of people is reduced and their resilience improved.

1.3 Projects in Rwanda

The following projects have been funded by the BMZ since 2017:

2017– 2019AF II2016.2603.9/SEK0007

Overall objective: The project contributes to reduce poverty and hunger among the rural population by improving the peasant farmers’ productivity and through the set-up and development of self-help groups.

2020-2022AFII2019.2603.9/SEK0007

Key project objectives:

• Increaseof the productivity of the beneficiary small farmers’ households by disseminating efficient and ecologically sustainable methods in agriculture and livestock
• Developmentof a network of savings and credit groups which gives beneficiaries access to investment capital
• Empowermentof beneficiaries to carry out income-generating activities outside
• Accessto water for households through sustainable use of rainwater
• Improvingthe health situation of the beneficiaries
• Strengtheningof the self-help association as responsible organization for activities and the social structure

2023–2025AFII 2022.2603.9/SEK0007

Overall objective: By improving the production of smallholder households and by developing and establishing a self-help association, the project contributes to reducing poverty and combatting hunger among the rural population of Benin, Burundi, Rwanda and Togo.

The key project objectives are:

• Increaseof the productivity of the beneficiary small farmers’ households by disseminating efficient and ecologically sustainable methods in agriculture and livestock farming
• Developmentof savings and credit groups, which gives beneficiaries access to investment
• Empowermentof beneficiaries to carry out income-generating activities outside agriculture
• Accessto water for households through sustainable use of rainwater
• Improvingthe health situation of the beneficiaries, g. by constructing latrines to improve hygiene, by building wells to provide access to drinking water, and through training.
• Strengthening of the self-help association as responsible organisation for activities and component ofthe social structure

2 Evaluation Objectives,Criteria and Key Question

2.1 OverallObjective

The external evaluation shall measure achievements of the projects and assess their results and impact. Based on the findings, the evaluation shall contribute to promoting best practices and adapting intervention strategies and policies.

2.2 Specific Objectives:

• Toassess the DAC-Criteria of Rwandan projects towards the rural development (Agriculture, savings & credits, Water)
• Toassess the organization: intervention model, technical follow-up (knowledge transfer g. in agricultural sector) and communication with stakeholders and headquarter
• Toassess cross-cutting issues such as gender perspective, environmental protection and climate

2.3 Key questions

• Howdo the projects impact on the micro, meso and macro levels? What recommendations for actions are there for a stronger integration of the macro level in the work of RKS?

DAC-Criteria Relevance

Fromtoday’s perspective, to what extent has the project in Ruanda addressed the identified needs and priorities (e.g. poverty, democracy promotion) of the target group/communities? How have gender issues been addressed?

Arethe agricultural and water projects designed to meet the specific challenges and opportunities of the target area?

Did the partner succeed in establishing cooperation with other partners? What synergies has thiswork led to?

Froma technical, organizational and financial point of view, to what extent have activities/measures proved to be appropriate for target achievement, also with respect to being sustainable?

Effectiveness

• Whichof the goals set attained by the project have been achieved and which not?
• Whatare the key factors for success or failure that have contributed to the effectiveness of the projects?
• (Havethe originally defined project goals and their respective indicator in Rwanda been realistic?)

Sustainability

• How do Kolping members support the organization’s development? What do they do to attractnew members?
• What were the most important activities that contributed to attract new members? What wereactivities that had no or little impact on membership growth?
• To what extent is/are the target group/s able and willing to sustain the project’s positive impactsin the long term, without further support? (e.g. ownership, acceptance, assuming responsibilities, resources and self-help).
• To what extent are the target groups and the Kolping partner in Uganda able to adapt sufficientlyto external changes and unexpectedly occurring situations? (Resilience)

Efficiency

• Aret he resources used cost effectively in order to achieve the desired results?
• Havethere been enough resources deployed to ensure a timely implementation of the programmatic work?
• Potatoproject: how can the project be organised/set up to be (more) profitable?
• Haveproject goals been attained economically?
• From a business perspective, do the project’s costs and benefits stand in reasonable ratio to eachother? Have achievements, outputs, the created capacities and potential been appropriately utilized?

QuestionsonOrganization

How is the organizational structure to be assessed?

2.4 Cross-cuttingIssues

Assessmentof the project regarding the promotion of gender equality

• Werethe specific needs and interests of women and men equally addressed?
• Didwomen and men contribute equally to shaping the project?
• Dowomen and men benefit equally from the project?

Assessment of the project regarding the promotion of the environment and climate change in therural area

• Whatenvironmental-friendly practices were applied?
• Whichexpected and unexpected positive and negative environmental impacts are notable?
• Isthere a crisis management for natural disasters? What crisis management measures are being implemented or planned?
• To what extent does the project help to strengthen people’s resilience, especially inrelation to climate events? How do the information channels within the Kolping Families and the Association work with regard to this topic?

 3 EvaluationMethods

The evaluation shall be implemented as following:

• Analysis of primary data
• Analysis of secondary data, g. reports, strategy papers, assessment of other documents
• Data collection, e.g. written questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, group interview orstandard questionnaires (data have to be collected and analyzed gender oriented!)
• Abasic methodology concept is to triangulate the applied
• Theevaluation team should use the methods for the assessment as part of the inception
• Highestparticipation of important stakeholders should be
• Considerationof the DAC standards
• Considerationof the Micro, Meso and Macro level of the project
• Theconsultant should use methods that can ensure partners’

4 EvaluationTeam

The evaluation has to be carried out by an independent organization/ institution/ private company. The team comprises of an international evaluator and one local evaluator, one being the evaluation coordinator of the Team.

5 Required Qualifications

The evaluation shall have the following qualifications:

• Proven experience in evaluation and evaluation workshops
• Promoting societal structures, civil society, vocational training, agriculture
• Verygood report writing
• Evaluation methods with participatory approach
• Professional experience in the (German) development sector, preferable with SSF (Sozial strukturförderung)
• Political,social, cultural and economic knowledge of context in Rwanda
• Professional knowledge of English, and one person with knowledge of Kinyarwanda
• Evaluation management

Kolping Rwanda is organizing the logistic, facilitating the implementation of the evaluation.

6 TimeframeandOutputs

The evaluators are responsible for following outputs to be handed over by the deadlines.

7 Proposal content

If you are interested in conducting the evaluation, please send your proposal in English to Lara Karsten larakarsten@kolping.net (subject: Evaluation Rwanda) by 24th of November 2024 with following information:

• Professionalqualification (CV with 3 references)
• Methodologydescription
• Planning
• Costs