Website: https://www.kilimotrust.org/
Terms of Reference for Consultancy Assignment – End-Line Evaluation of the R-YES Project in Rwanda
Background information
Kilimo Trust (KT) is a not-for-profit organization working on agriculture for development and the creation of employment opportunities in Rwanda and across the East Africa community region. For the last 20 years, Kilimo Trust has been implementing inclusive and sustainable market-led agricultural value chain development projects in the region (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda). In Rwanda, Kilimo Trust is registered as a local NGO under the Rwanda Governance Board. Our Mission is to make agribusiness a transformative tool for wealth creation, food, and nutrition security for smallholder farmers and other value chain actors. KT implements agribusiness projects on behalf of and/or in partnership with Development partners, Government agencies, and Private sector companies.
Since 2005, Kilimo Trust has implemented over Fifty Agribusiness Projects in East Africa as a Regional organization. In Rwanda, Kilimo Trust is registered as Kilimo Trust Rwanda under the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) as a local NGO.
The Rural Youth Employment Support (R-YES)/ Menya Wigire Project is a 5-year initiative (2020 -2025) implemented by Kilimo Trust in partnership with Rwanda Polytechnic (RP), Rwanda TVET Board (RTB), and Rwanda Youth in Agribusiness Forum (RYAF) with funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Visa Foundation, and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to build technical and entrepreneurial skills for sustainable youth employment (wage and self) in agribusiness. R-YES Project targets to support 1,200 youth (50% female) from 16 target districts including: North (Gicumbi, Rulindo, and Musanze), West (Nyabihu, Rubavu, and Rusizi), South (Nyanza, Ruhango, Gisagara, Kamonyi and Huye), and East (Nyagatare, Kayonza, Rwamagana, Ngoma, and Bugesera).
Goal and Objectives: The goal of the R-YES project is to create sustainable employment (self and decent wage) opportunities for 3,000 youth (50% female) in agribusiness (12,000 directly and 1,800 indirectly).
Project Objectives:
- Building integrated agribusiness capacities of rural youth
- Generating empirical evidence of the developed and tested models to inform policy to drive scaling up of the models to create jobs for
The R-YES project aims at delivering the following transformations:
- A robust system that empowers and nurtures youth for self and wage employment in agribusinesses that ensures the protection of natural resources so that they continue to provide required environmental/ecosystem
- New youth-led agribusiness enterprises are emerging, thus providing an avenue for self-employment and stimulating labour demand for wage
- Holistic wage-seeking R-YES graduates absorbed in evolving agribusiness labour
- Policy improvements and scale-up of proven models by governments and other development partners
Scope of Work
The R-YES project is seeking to hire a consultancy company/firm or an individual consultant to undertake a comprehensive end-of-project evaluation to inform Kilimo Trust and its stakeholders on the performance of the project. The evaluation will start with the project goal, objectives, outcomes, and outputs (answering the indicators of the log frame).
The information generated will inform all stakeholders and beneficiaries on how the project focus, scope and strategies were achieved (or lack of it) during project implementation.
After measuring the project’s status of meeting its objectives and results, an assessment of the evaluation criteria should be made to:
- Assess the achievement of expected results of the R-YES project as well as to capture the unintended outcomes of the project.
- Assess the extent to which the project objectives and design were suited to the priorities and needs of the target beneficiaries (youth, smallholder farmers, and agribusinesses) and aligned with national and regional
- Evaluate the degree to which the project achieved its intended objectives and results, including employment creation, agribusiness development, and capacity building of
- Identify and analyze key success factors on how well the project resources (financial, human, and time) were utilized to achieve results, and whether the project provided value for money in delivering its outputs and outcomes.
- Assess the broader effects of the project on beneficiaries, including improvements in youth employment, agribusiness growth, and smallholder farmers’ access to services and
- the likelihood that the project’s benefits and outcomes will continue beyond its funding period, including the sustainability of agribusiness hubs, partnerships, and policy
- Identify best practices, lessons learned, and key success factors that can be used to scale up or replicate the agribusiness hub model in other
- Assess and document the coordination and synergy between project stakeholders, including Kilimo Trust, consortium partners, government agencies, and the private sector, to determine how effectively they worked together to achieve the project’s
Specific Objectives of the Assignment
The end-line evaluation will examine R-YES implementation against the hereunder criteria by addressing the following questions on relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, value for money, sustainability, scalability and replicability, coherence and partnerships, and review of project risks and assumptions. The Consultant will develop a more detailed analytic framework of questions and sub-questions to conduct the review. The end of project evaluation will assess the following key areas:
Relevance: This criterion assesses whether the R-YES project addressed the key challenges of youth unemployment in agribusiness and whether it was aligned with Rwanda’s national priorities, as well as the strategic goals of IFAD, BMZ, Visa Foundation, and Kilimo It will assess whether the integrated agribusiness hub model was an appropriate and effective solution for creating youth employment and whether the targeted youth (16-35 years old) found the training and incubation services relevant to their needs.
Effectiveness: Measure the outputs and outcomes generated by the program to date in relation to the stated goals, objectives, and desired In particular, the evaluation will assess the effects of the project outputs in relation to achieving the expected outcomes. Key effectiveness questions include:
- What are the key project outputs and outcomes, and to what extent did the project activities contribute to the outcome and the desired impact?
- What is the effectiveness of project activities to the targeted beneficiaries? Which activities were most useful?
- What are the benefits of the beneficiary’s experiences and perspective regarding program effectiveness?
- Did the R-YES project make a difference to the youth and the wider farming communities?
- To what extent did external factors influence the output and outcomes of the project?
- To what extent did the project secure the commitment of the project partners and build up community (at youth agency level), District and National ownership?
- To what extent did the project ensure that the interests of women and people with disabilities were fully considered in developing project outputs and conducting project activities?
Efficiency: This measures how well the project utilized its financial, human, and material resources to achieve its The evaluation will assess:
- Whether project activities were delivered on time and within
- The cost-effectiveness of the agribusiness hubs in producing trained and employable
- Whether the training, incubation, and mentorship models used in the hubs were the most efficient way to support youth employment
- Value for Money: The Consultant will be expected to clearly show how Kilimo Trust and partner investments in the R-YES Project provided value for money both socially, financially, and To what extent did the implementation of the R-YES Project integrate and apply value for money principles?
- What were the outcomes? How did the project perform in terms of timeliness and cost efficiency? Was the project cost-effective? What was the value for money?
- Were all program activities implemented as planned? In cases of deviation from the original plans, what were the reasons for deviation?
Impact: This evaluates the broader, long-term changes brought about by the R-YES project, including:
- The overall increase in employment rates among rural youth in
- The extent to which the project improved incomes for young agripreneurs and wage
- The impact of youth-led agribusinesses on local economies, including increased demand for agricultural inputs, services, and
- The effect on smallholder farmers, who were expected to benefit from innovations and services from empowered youth and increase their access to better markets, inputs, and other technical support from hub-trained youth.
Sustainability: This criterion examines whether the project’s impact will continue beyond its funding period. Key questions for consideration by the consultant shall include:
- Are the agribusiness hubs financially sustainable and able to continue supporting youth without external funding?
- Have partnerships with public and private sector actors, financial institutions, and policymakers been strong enough to ensure long-term sustainability?
- Will trained youth continue running their agribusinesses successfully beyond the project lifecycle?
- What policies or strategies have been developed to integrate the hub model into national youth employment programs?
- How effectively has R-YES built the necessary capacity of partners (people and institutions, implementing partners)?
- How effective have the project-built systems and structures for local ownership and capacity of youth skilling, coaching and mentoring?
- To what extent did the R-YES projects address the issue of business linkage among rural youth?
- What could have been done differently to ensure sustainability of project outcomes?
Scalability and Replicability: Since R-YES is part of a larger IFAD-led African initiative, this criterion assesses whether the integrated agribusiness hub model can be expanded or replicated in other The evaluation will identify:
- Which aspects of the project worked well and could be scaled up?
- What challenges hindered scalability?
- Are there lessons learned that can guide similar future programs across Rwanda and
- What could have been done differently to enhance effectiveness, efficiency, and learning?
- How can Kilimo Trust do things better in the future, for future programming or replication?
Coherence and Partnerships: R-YES was implemented through a consortium including Kilimo Trust, African Agribusiness Incubators Network (AAIN), Rwanda Youth in Agribusiness Forum (RYAF), and Rwanda Polytechnic (RP). This criterion assesses:
- How effectively did these partners collaborate to implement the project?
- Whether partnerships with government agencies, financial institutions, and agribusinesses were leveraged to maximize impact.
- The extent to which the project complemented other national youth employment programs and
- Assess and document how IFAD and Kilimo Trust grant management approaches helped or hindered the smooth implementation of the What could have been done better?
- How was the process of implementation working, including the formation of business consortia, capacity building interventions, Market linkages, and development and usage of R-YES knowledge products and others?
- Was there a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of all parties involved?
- To what extent did the project receive adequate technical and administrative support from project administrators and funders? If not, why?
- How effective was communication between the project team, Partners, and donors? – What areas require improvement?
- How effective were the management arrangements, including internal monitoring, evaluation, and learning of the project?
Expected Deliverables
Under the direct supervision of the Team Leader Quality Assurance and Resource Mobilization and support from the KT Rwanda Team Leader, the consultant will provide the following deliverables to project management in a timely manner:
- Inception Report: The consultant is expected to submit a detailed report on how the End of project evaluation will be carried out from his/her point of The report will outline a detailed description of their methodology and tools, expected output, format of final report and a budget breakdown of costs and detailed work plan for the entire exercise. The draft interview guides will be submitted for review at this stage.
- Preliminary Report and Presentation: A stakeholders’ workshop comprising of Kilimo Trust Management team and representatives from R-YES project partners and other stakeholders for findings validation will be organized to present the preliminary At the end of the workshop, a report incorporating comments by stakeholders from the workshop will be submitted by the consultant.
- Final Report: This will entail a detailed report of the end of Project evaluation that incorporates feedback from KT and The report should clearly identify the positive attitudes and best practices that need to be enhanced and the negative attitudes and poor practices that need to be addressed for improvement in the future. This report should incorporate specific, simple, and achievable recommendations and, more specifically, for learning and improvement. For every Outcome and Result area, the consultant will present summaries of lessons learned, especially focusing on what went well and why and what did not work well and why. In addition to the longer version of the report (30-page maximum, excluding annexes), a 5-page summary/brief shall be prepared and submitted as part of this deliverable.
Participation and Use of the Evaluation Findings:
The Consultant/Firm will be expected to design the evaluation to be inclusive of the youth and other direct beneficiaries; IFAD, BMZ, Visa Foundation, all other stakeholders, and relevant governments departments so that their views form the core assessment of the project. Equally, as indicated in the deliverables above, draft reports will be shared back with the beneficiaries and stakeholders so that they can contribute and shape the findings, recommendations, and use of the evaluation. The primary users of the evaluation report will be project beneficiaries and therefore its form and presentation should be conscious of their needs.
Timeline
The evaluation is expected to take place between the months of May and June 2025.
However, the consultant will propose the total number of consultancy/billable days that s/he will take on the assignment. The final report is expected to be ready by the last week of June 2025.
Qualifications and Experience
- A minimum of a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, statistics, or any other related
- A minimum of 5 years’ experience conducting evaluations and performance reviews and studies of projects in Agribusiness value chain development and experience in conducting surveys, analyzing, synthesizing, and presenting information/Reports is a
- The lead consultant must possess considerable evidence of academic and experiential background in research methodology, evaluation design and Preferably the team should also have academic and experiential background in Agribusiness and Value Chain development, Market Linkages, Business Development, or related fields.
- A solid and diverse experience in research, monitoring and evaluation of projects and/or Programmes at national and/or regional Previous knowledge of conducting and documenting lessons learned sessions is essential.
- Have working experience in the East African Community
- Evidence of having formed a multi-country team capable of working across EAC borders with diverse stakeholders.
- Application Procedure:
Interested and eligible consultants or firms should submit the following:
- Expression of interest or cover letter addressed to the Human Resource Manager of Kilimo
- A detailed technical proposal including work plan and methodology for the
- Financial proposal highlighting cost breakdown unit price together with any other expenses) related to the
- Personal CV(s) of leading technical personnel proposed for this assignment, highlighting qualifications and experience in similar tasks; and
- Three work references from past clients/firms for whom you have produced similar assignments in the past three years.
- Samples of similar impact evaluation
- Firms should also provide a company registration
- Company registration
- Tax Clearance Certificate Mode of application:
All required documents must be written in English and submitted electronically in one folder to recruitment@kilimotrust.org not later than 17th April 2025 before 5 pm EAT. Late submissions will be rejected. The Prospective Consultant MUST indicate in the Email subject:” Terms of Reference for Consultancy Assignment – End-Line Evaluation of the R-YES Project in Rwanda “
