Agriteam Canada wishes to engage a qualified consultant to undertake the end-of-project summative evaluation of the Small Scale and Micro Irrigation (SMIS) project.

1.   Project Description

With funding from the Netherlands and Canada, the SMIS project aims to support the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (MoANR) with the implementation of the adopted Small-Scale Irrigation (SSI) Capacity Building Strategy. The objective of the SSI Capacity Building Strategy is to undertake infrastructural, institutional and human resource capacity building which will help the country to optimize the efficient use of water resources with improved land management of smallholder irrigated agriculture development. The SMIS project focuses on three key components, namely: (1) small scale irrigation (SSI) capacity development (CD); (2) CD of Agricultural Technical Vocational Education and Training (A-TVET) Colleges; and (3) promotion of Micro Irrigation (MI). Through its national office and four regional offices, the SMIS project supported the Small-Scale Irrigation Directorate (SSID) within the MoANR and four Regional Bureaus of Agriculture and/or Water Resources with the implementation of its SSI Capacity Building Strategy. The objective of the SMIS project is to ensure that all concerned public and private institutions within each of the four regional states (Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, SNNPR) have the institutional, human and technical capacity required for gender-responsive and participatory identification, planning, design construction and management support of sustainable SSI systems and MI schemes in a coordinated manner and according to adopted integrated watershed-based approach. The SMIS results chain consists of the following intermediate outcomes:

1.  Improved planning, design and construction of gender-equitable and sustainable SSI and MI schemes by public and private institutions.
2. Improved management of gender-equitable and sustainable SSI and MI schemes by water user associations (IWUA) and individual users respectively, with support from key public institutions.
3. Improved water, soil and crop management practices for irrigated crops adopted by (male and female) farmers.

See Appendix A for additional project information, as well as the project’s website at:

www.smis-ethiopia.org.

2.   Purpose and Objectives of the Summative Evaluation

The main purpose of the end-of-project evaluation is to determine the overall effectiveness and sustainability of the SMIS project, and of the results achieved in supporting the MoANR and regional partner institutions in Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Tigray with the implementation of the SSI Capacity Building Strategy. Specifically, the objectives of the evaluation are to:

1.  To assess to what extent the program has achieved its stated expected results as per the project’s logic model and performance measurement framework;
2. To assess to what extent the results achieved have contributed to the EKN’s food security program objectives as per the EKN’s Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.
3. To assess if the outcomes of the SMIS project have been relevant to the on-going focus on SSI and MI development in the country;
4. To assess the likelihood of sustainability of interventions based on the approaches used by SMIS;
5. To assess the extent to which the results, technologies, tools, knowledge products and best practices developed in the SMIS project are being adopted and implemented by SMIS’ partner institutions;
6. To determine the project’s contribution to strengthening capacity of regional PIs for developing SSI and MI schemes and relevant irrigated agriculture support services;
7. To assess the sustainability of the SMIS interventions in capacity development of ATVETS as Centers of excellence in IWM.
8. To determine to what extent the project has responded to gender inequality related challenges and supported the advancement of gender equality and women’s empowerment in relation to project components; and
9. To provide concrete recommendations for future intervention programming related to SSI and MI schemes.

This evaluation will also give special attention to the issues of climate change. It will assess how the project is contributing to environmentally sound and also to resilient (climate smart) SSI development.

3. Evaluation Team and Management

The evaluation will be co-managed by an EKN delegate, a GAC representative, the SMIS Project Director and the SMIS National Monitoring and Evaluation Expert (NMEE), who will assume overall responsibility for the conduct and integrity of the evaluation on behalf of Agriteam Canada. The SMIS ICTA and the NCTA will have operational oversight responsibility for the evaluation. The evaluators will report directly to the SMIS Project Director.

4. Proposed Methodology

The evaluation will make use of a variety of methods which will be proposed by the consultant(s). Primarily the summative evaluation is expected to employ a mixed-methods approach using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Evaluator(s) are expected to triangulate methods as well as sources of information in order to determine and validate findings.

5.  Deliverables

The evaluators are expected to deliver the following:

Evaluation Inception Report and Work Plan:  a detailed inception report outlining the detailed evaluation matrix with questions and sub-questions, methodology, team composition and level of effort of each team member, evaluation schedule, ethical considerations, a set of data collection tools, etc.

Presentation to Stakeholders of Preliminary Findings: the evaluators will prepare and present their preliminary findings to the relevant stakeholders (SMIS PD and ICTA, EKN/GAC/MOANR etc.) within three days of completing the assessment activities.

Draft EOPE Report:  A draft report for review by the SMIS PD, SMIS NPMU, EKN/GAC and the MoANR-SSID in high quality English, including evaluation findings summary table.

Final EOPE Report: Within five days of receiving consolidated comments from EKN/GAC and the MoANR-SSID, and SMIS NPMU on the draft report, a final report will be submitted, including executive summary and all raw data collected.

6.  Role and Responsibilities of Consultant

 The consultant will conduct document reviews, design the evaluation protocol and data collection tools, analyze results and ensure quality of deliverables.  She/he will also implement in-country evaluation activities including regional missions and site visits in accordance with Do-No-Harm principles during a pandemic and/or post-pandemic situation.

Site to be visited:

The consultant will visit selected sites from the following zones and woredas in discussion with the NPMU;   Oromia ( East wollega, Buno Bedelle, Jimma, and North shoa zones and selected woredas), Tigray ( North west, Central, Eastern and Southern zones and e selected woredas) Amahara ( WEST GOJAM, Eastern Goja, Awe zone, South Gonder, Central Gonder) SNNP ( Sidama, Gedeo , Silte, Gurage, Hadeya, Wollita, Gamo Gofa, Debu Omo, Segen peoples, Kafa, Bench maji, Skeka and konta special woreda)

Consultant/Experts’ Requirements

The ideal consultant for this summative evaluation will have relevant technical qualifications and experience i.e. extensive knowledge and experience in irrigated agriculture and food security. S/he will also have extensive experience in designing and conduction summative evaluations of international development assistance projects in Ethiopia.

The consultant should also have experience in monitoring/evaluating SMIS-related types of development projects (irrigation, agriculture, capacity development). S/he must have excellent writing, presentation and communications skills. Expertise and experience in the design and use of remote data collection methods and tools would also be useful. S/he must be a citizen or resident of Ethiopia and be willing and available for travel to different sites within Ethiopia between July and September 2020.