TOR: End line Survey of the Project

Terms of Reference

For

End line Survey of the Project

"Strengthening Voice and Accountable Governance in the Mithila Belt of Madhesh/Terai"

1. Introduction

This terms of reference (ToR) is prepared to outsource a professional service from consulting firms/consultant to carry out an end line survey for the project "Strengthening Voice and Accountable Governance in the Mithila Belt of Madhesh/Terai" being implemented by Nepal Madhesh Foundation and funded by the Governance Facility (GF). The selected firm/consultant will be assigned to carry out quantitative and qualitative survey among the beneficiaries of the project implementing districts. 

Nepal Madhesh Foundation (NEMAF) is a Madheshi civil society organization with expert knowledge on the issues of Madhesh/Terai. NEMAF was established in 2007 by a group of likeminded youths. NEMAF envisions an environment where Madheshi people can exercise their civail, political, socio-cultural and economic rights and where they can live in peace and harmony. The mission of NEMAF is to strengthen social harmony and to gradually eliminate all kinds of discrimination from Madheshi society. Its goal is to contribute to a socially, politically and economically developed and socially harmonized Madhesh by creating a critical mass of effective civil society in Madhesh.  It has been implementing the project "Strengthening Voice and Accountable Governance in the Mithila Belt of Madhesh/Terai" from 15 December 2015 to 14 December 2018 in support of Governance Facility. 

This project aims to improved status of people of Madhesh/Terai for two outcomes: one each focusing on the demand (right holders) and the supply (duty bearers) side. i) Right holders engaged in and benefitted from improved overall accountability and inclusive social change; ii) Responsive and equitable services delivered by the service providers (for detailed results-chain please refer to the Logical Framework). It focuses on strengthening and mobilizing Civil Pressure Groups (CPGs)and capacitate and engage duty bearers (limited to School, Health Facilities and VDC  at VDC level) to improve overall governance and accountability in 20 VDCs of 5 districts (Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari and Sarlahi) in the Mithila Belt of Madhesh/Terai region. The project commenced on 15 December 2015 and shall end on 14 December 2018.

The Theory of Change of NEMAF conceives that if the problems of weak governance and weak rule of law which have resulted in high levels of corruption and poor service delivery, unequal power relations and caste/gender-based violence in communities are addressed, and a critical mass of citizens and organizations are empowered to improve governance and promote social change in the Madhesh/Terai, then the status of people in Madhesh/Terai will be improved. 

NEMAF has adopted a human-rights based approach. It acts as an interface between the right-holders and duty-bearers. Working with citizens, especially with women and the excluded groups, NEMAF supports their capacity to claim their rights and make local bodies and other service providers more accountable. Strengthening the capacities of the service providers i.e. the duty bearers to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the right-holders, has been the working strategy of NEMAF. 

In order to evaluate in the following progress, the project intends to carry out the end line survey in the last year in order to evaluate the project. Moreover, the project also aims to capture the perceptions of citizens relating to access to services, rights and entitlements, social accountability and governance in general in the targeted areas. 

2. Objectives of the survey

The overall objective of this study is to understand the views and attitudes of both demand and supply sides about services, rights, entitlement, accountability and good governance in general. It particularly aims to explore current trends and patterns of delivery of rights and entitlements, experiences of men and women and DAGs in terms of access to basic services, people’s access to accountability mechanisms and development activities. 

The specific objectives of this study are to:

• Capture the percentage of citizens reporting improved confidence in their ability to exercise their rights and roles;
• Trace the number of citizens accessing basic services;
• Figure out the percentage of citizens' expressing timely delivery of entitlements by service providers;
• Measure the percentage of people expressing that accountability of public bodies has improved;
• Find out the number of complaints recorded by citizens about quality of service delivered by selected government agencies;
• Further assess the percentage of citizens reporting that their complaints were addressed in satisfactory manner;
• Elicit the accurate number of staff members of selected government service providers expressing improved knowledge and skills;
• Assess and describe the results and effectiveness of the SVAG project- intended and unintended, positive and negative, as well as the major factors that influenced results,
• Assess the overall perceptions of good governance, accountability, corruption, transparency of the VDC level institutions;
• Status of the girl's education in the working area. 
• Status of the people access to health post in the working area. 
• The survey would serve as a comparative analysis of the previous assessments of NEMAF. 
• What worked and why? What could be better?
• How has it worked and what is other actor’s (e.g. GOs, donors, I/NGOs) contribution?
• Extent to which the projects are able to meet their purpose.
• What could be the potential areas and proper theory of change for future intervention?
• Key lessons learned by the interventions.

3. Audience of the end line survey

The main audience of the end line evaluation includes the NEMAF board and staff that are responsible for supervising and implementing the project. Also wanting to see the report would be Governance Facility (GF) Nepal, the funding organization for the SVAG project.

4. Scope of work

The scope of work involves the following tasks:

4.1 Structuring the assignment

• Attending a meeting to be organised by NEMAF and GF to fully understand the context and scope of the assessment as perceived by NEMAF. 
• Review of the project documents, RBM&E Framework, baseline and midline reports and others, to develop methodology for the assessment, including operationalization of the important concepts to be used, list of methods to be used and development of instruments needed for these methods, and development of a field plan.
• Prepare an inception report and agree with NEMAF and GF on the methodology, instruments and timeline, including fieldwork plan and final deliverables.

4.2 Data collection

The consulting firm/consultant will collect data in line with the ToR and project document through a variety of quantitative and qualitative method as per required for the above mentioned specific objectives.

4.2.1 Review of Secondary Sources of Information (Background Documents) 

In addition to the documents mentioned under subsection 4.1 (second bullet), the Consultant will go through the following documents as appropriate:

a)Previous NEMAF survey reports and other related publications of NEMAF;

b)Publications and documents relating to governance, right holders, duty bearers, school, ward/rural municipality/municipality/sub metropolitan city, and health facilities relating to access to services and accountability; 

c)Other relevant literatures

4.2.2 Design data collection, survey instruments and data analysis: 

• Design survey instruments and guidelines (with operational definitions for enumerators) or reference manual for the survey team in coordination with NEMAF, 
• Pilot testing (pre-test), revision and finalization of the survey instruments in close coordination with NEMAF and GF;
• Preparation of a detail survey implementation plan including a clear timeline
• Generate the framework for processing the data and developing a database 
• Prepare a Data analysis plan 
• Recruit and train field staff to effectively conduct the survey and other related activities
• Coordinate, conduct and supervise the activity across target locations in the selected districts 
• Oversee data collection, coding, entry, cleaning, analysis and interpretation of data

4.2.3 Analysis 

The Consultant will ensure that various stakeholder perspectives of quantitative data are incorporated in the survey. Use of a multi-method approach means that the Consultant will triangulate findings from various methods, develop his/her analysis and provide a sound evidence base for the study. The analysis will basically focus the areas as mentioned in the objectives. 

4.3 Consolidation of Findings  

• Preparation of a draft report, addressing each of the issues highlighted above. 
• Finalization of the report, including an executive summary, after incorporating comments and feedback from NEMAF, GF and the stakeholders.

5. Duration

The assignment is expected to commence in November have to be completed by first week of December, 2018. The budget of the study can be offered as a package.

6. Training: 

The contracted firm/consultant will be responsible for designing and providing appropriate training to the survey team (enumerators, data processing personnel, etc.) on administration of the data collection instruments, data entry formats and protocols, data cleaning, quality assurance, and other related procedures. 

7. Collaboration with NEMAF team: 

The contracted firm/consultant will co-operate fully and respond to any requests and queries from this NEMAF Team. NEMAF team members will be involved in various tasks at different stages of the process.

8. Deliverables of the Assignment

The assessment will have following deliverables:

A) Inception Report: To be prepared and submitted to NEMAF within a week of signing the contract. The inception note should contain for the following: 

• Final draft of the survey instruments in Nepali/Maithili (to be translated later for inclusion in the report) 
• Plan for pretesting the instruments 
• Training plan for the survey team 
• Process map indicating steps for data collection, data entry& cleaning, data analysis and quality control 
• Survey implementation plan with timeline and milestones 
• Complete survey team with all positions and number of individuals for each position clearly mentioned. 
• A draft template for the final report 

B) Draft report: To be prepared in standard format and submitted to NEMAF after completion of fieldwork and analysis, in English, with tables and methodology details in annexes. 

C) Final report and data files: To be prepared in standard format and submitted to the NEMAF after incorporating feedback received on the Draft Report from NEMAF and Governance Facility. The Final Report should be accompanied by four digital copies of the processed data files, codebook, and associated materials.

The individuals/firms can submit their detail proposal mentioning the budget along with the incorporation certificates, tax clearance certificates, and company profiles (for firms) and CVs (for individuals) by or before October 29, 2018 to: 

The Executive Director

Nepal Madhesh Foundation

Lalitpur, Nepal

Email: applyvacancy421@gmail.com