RWANDA: MONITORING, EVALUATION, LEARNING (MEL) CONSULTANT
JOB DETAIL
RWANDA: MONITORING, EVALUATION, LEARNING (MEL) CONSULTANT
INTRODUCTION TO GGGI
The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) is a treaty-based international, inter-governmental organization dedicated to supporting and promoting strong, inclusive and sustainable economic growth in developing countries and emerging economies. To learn more please visit about GGGI web page.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
Rwanda is among the fastest-growing economies in Africa. This is aligned with increasing of urbanization rate and population growth. Such growth has resulted in an increase of waste generation in the country while a sizeable portion of it remains improperly disposed of causing adverse impacts to both the environment and public health.
The country is recognizant of the challenges and has put forward different measures in place to ensure sustainable waste management. It has adopted different enabling environments and development agendas that will lead it to carbon neutral by 2050. To support the country realizing set priorities, GGGI is implementing a Waste to Resources: Improving Municipal Solid and Hazardous Waste Management in Rwanda. The project is aimed at mitigating climate change through improved municipal solid waste and e-waste management. This will be done by applying circular economy principles in waste management.
The project is led by the Government of Rwanda’s Ministry of Environment and is funded by the Ministry of Environment, Climate, and Sustainable Development of the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The initiative is a 3-year project that aims to achieve three outcomes: A) Separation and valorization of organic and plastic waste to minimize waste landfilled at the Nduba landfill in Kigali, B) Improved collection rate and management of e-waste in Kigali and Secondary Cities, and C) Improved policy and regulatory environment and enhancement of capacity through skills development and knowledge exchange.
As per the above outcomes, the project has numerous outputs and activities that will lead to its achievement. Among the ongoing activities include the introduction of infrastructure demonstration, community behavior change, capacity building, and policy gap analysis and recommendations. These will continually help the government of Rwanda achieve its long-term development agenda of becoming a carbon neutral thus ensuring waste diversion from the dumpsite.
The project implementation is reaching its final year of implementation. To evaluate the progress made so far and to document lessons learned and adaptation after two years and three months of implementation, GGGI Rwanda seeks to recruit an external consultant to conduct the mid-term review evaluation of the implementation of the waste to resources: Improving Municipal Solid and Hazardous Waste Management project. The mid-term review will assess the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, impact, and outcomes for 2 years and 3 months of the project implementation with considerations of the cross-cutting themes of gender equality and social inclusion.
The evaluation is also expected to provide mid-line data to be compared to existing baselines data and annual progress data collected on key performance indicators to access the progress. The mid-term review will assess the logic between overall project goals, outcomes, outputs, and activities and propose the necessary adjustments and review of the intervention logic.
The mid-term review will also document challenges, lessons learned, good practices, and provide recommendations for maximizing impact and outcomes, and potentialities for project replication in City of Kigali and scale up in secondary cities. The findings will support internal learning, strategy review and adaptation for effective implementation of the reminder of the project. The mid-term evaluation will be of interest to GGGI and its stakeholders including policy makers, and development partners.
OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The main objective of the project mid-term evaluation is to contribute to the quality enhancement of the remaining final phase of the project implementation, as well as inform and guide the replication and scale up of sustainable waste management practices. Obviously, the review will assess the progress of the project towards its goal, its efficiency and effectiveness, plus its management (administrative and financial).
The review is expected to highlight successes as well challenges of the project, and where relevant provide specific recommendations for improvements.
The specific objectives of the mid-term review and evaluation will be to assess the project relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, as well as project and risk management.
- Document intended and unintended impact and outcomes achieved so far towards achieving strategic objectives.
- Assess mid-term achievement/progress towards achievement of each project outcomes.
- Provide mid-term data to be compared with available baseline data to assess the progress of key performance indicators.
- Document challenges, lessons learned and good practice to inform project review and adoption.
- Review existing results frameworks/MEL plan to assess the logic sequence between project impact, outcomes, outputs indicators and activities.
- Assess the allocation of resources, coordination of activities, and overall efficiency of the project.
- Evaluate project internal capacity (human resources, financial management, governance structures, and technological infrastructure) and identify any gaps or areas that need strengthening to ensure effective implementation of the waste to resources project.
- Formulate and provide recommendations for organizational strengthening and sustainability, strategy adaptation and maximizing impact.
- Conduct need assessment and opportunities to scale and replicate the best practices in City of Kigali and Secondary Cities. Establish a baseline information for secondary cities.
DELIVERABLES AND PAYMENT SCHEDULE
The scope of the review is limited to the implementation of the project from the period of the signing of the agreement (June 15, 2021) and September 30,2023. The review will assess the progress of the project towards achieving its goal.
The Mid-term Evaluation will be based on the Theory of change, vision and mission of the organization as highlighted in the project. The data will be collected against the project expected outputs, outcomes, and impact. The evaluation will adopt a consultative and participatory approach. The mixed methods will be used to collect and analyze the relevant data.
In general, the approach and methodology will be:
- Conduct a desk review,
- Collect primary data through intensive semi-structured interviews with key informants of the project stakeholders,
- Field visit to the waste to resources sites,
The mid-term review will be based on seven evaluation criteria: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, risk management and lesson learned.
Relevance:
- To what extent the project was and still relevant to the context of waste management in Rwanda?
- To what extent the project is aligned to the national legal and policy framework like National Strategy for Integrated Solid Waste Management Strategy, National Circular Economy Action Plan and Roadmap and, National Strategy for Transformation (NST)
- To what extent does the project contribute to the achievement of the capacities of the stakeholders?
- Have the activities and outputs of the project contributed to the achievement of the objectives?
- Are there indications that activities and outputs achieved are likely to contribute towards achieving intended impact?
Effectiveness:
- Is the project achieving its purpose and producing the expected outputs?
- Is the project’s financial and administrative management effective in reaching the objectives of the project?
- Are there any factors (internal, external, operational) influencing the achievement or non-achievement of project objectives?
Efficiency:
- Are the project activities cost effective and has planned targets been achieved on time?
- How did GGGI adapt to changes in the context of and emerging challenges during the implementation of the waste to resources project?
- Is the waste to resources project implementation in the most efficient way compared to alternatives?
Impact:
- Are there measured impacts as a result of the project? What is the likelihood of achieving the goal of the project?
- What unintended results (positive and/or negative) have been generated so far by the implementation of the project?
- Are the interventions leading to other changes including “scalable” or “replicable” results?
Sustainability:
- To what extent GGGI has established processes and systems likely to support the continued implementation of the waste to resources project?
- Did the organization put in place mechanisms to mobilize additional resources to continue implementation of the waste to resources project?
- What gaps have been identified so far that could hamper the growth and sustainability of GGGI?
Risk assessment and mitigation measures (both project and financial management risks):
- How well are the identified risks in the project document monitored and handled/mitigated?
- Is there any risk(s) identified during the implementation of the project and what was the degree of the risk (s) in affecting the project implementation?
- Assess any risks of financial management systems at all levels?
Lessons learnt, challenges and recommendations:
- What gaps identified and challenges were faced in the project implementation and which mitigation measures were used to address these challenges?
- What are the best practices and lessons learned which should be considered in the review of project implementation for the remaining part of the project?
- Which additional or new approaches and strategies should be employed to sustainably broaden and/or deepen the impact of the project?
- What are the key recommendations proposed to GGGI and its stakeholders to maximize impact of the project?
The review is expected to last 118 days spread over four months for report writing and submission. The days will be counted from the date of contract signature. The workplan and timelines will be revised by GGGI jointly with the consultant during the inception report review and planning meeting to fit into the proposed duration of the assignment. The review is expected to start October 16, 2023.
The schedule will be:
- Preparation and presentation of the inception report- 5 days (after award of the contract)
- Desk review – 15 days
- Interview with stakeholders in Kigali- 15 days
- Field visits to the project interventions sites and opportunity assessment – 28 days
- Draft, presentation initial findings and validation – 25 days
- Submission of the final report – 30 days
Expected Deliverables
The evaluation will be both an objective and consultative/participatory approach, and is expected to involve the following elements:
- Inception Report,
- Draft Report,
- Debrief to key project stakeholders (Project technical working group),
- Final report.
Report structure
The mid-term report will be simple, concise, and accurate with at least 50 pages maximum including annexes. The report will be expected to be structured but not limited to the following manner:
Acronyms
Executive Summary
- Introduction and brief background
- Context analysis
- Methodology
- Major findings
- Relevance
- Coherence
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Impact (including major accomplishments to date)
- Sustainability
- Overall assessment
- Gaps and Challenges, mitigation measures
- Good practice and lessons learned including opportunities to scale and replicate the best practice.
- Recommendation for improvement
- Establish a baseline information for waste management in secondary cities.
Annexes:
- Terms of reference,
- List of documents assessed,
- List of persons interviewed,
- Evaluation matrix,
- Reviewed and updated logical framework with baseline, targets, and mid-line data,
- Dataset for qualitative and quantitative data collected,
- Sample data collection tools.
- Project draft proposal for replication or scale to either secondary cities and City or Kigali respectively
PAYMENT MODALITIES
GGGI will sign a consultancy contract with the successful consultant/evaluator. The payment modalities will be as follows:
| S/N | Deliverable | Percentage (%) |
| 1 | Approval of the inception report | 20% |
| 2 | Approval of the draft report | 40% |
| 3 | Debrief to key project stakeholders (Project technical working group), Approval of the Final Report and corresponding deliverables | 40% |
The Consultant shall submit the Final Report which should reflect the outcome of all activities prepared by the consultant. The report should also give recommendations for further activities to be carried out to secure a long-term sustainable development of the measure.
- All relevant technical papers, reports, and other documents prepared from the start to the end of the assignment shall be attached to the Final Report.
- The Consultant shall submit the report in electronic versions readable by a Microsoft Office application.
- All outputs must be in English.
- The final report must be approved by the GGGI with the agreement of the project technical working group. The Consultant shall consider the comments and necessary revisions proposed. Within 14 days from the receipt of the comments or modification proposal from the GGGI, the Consultant shall prepare and submit the final versions of the report.
EXPERTISE REQUIRED
The description of required expert may be split into following parts:
- Qualifications and skills: PhD or master’s degree in development evaluation, policy analysis, civil engineering, environmental engineering, waste management engineering or related science.
- General professional experience: 5- 8 years relevant experience
- Specific professional experience: Strong experience in conducting evaluation/assessment including final evaluation of projects.
- Overall understanding of the Rwandan context, legal, political landscape.
- Have strong experience in documentation of evidence-based case evaluations.
- Experience collecting quantitative and qualitative data. Skills to set up questionnaire.
- Proven record of delivering profession outputs (2 samples of previous similar assignment will be required)
- Fluent in English and Kinyarwanda.
- Excellent understanding of MS Office
- Excellent analytical, oral and written communications skills.
- Ability to prioritize responsibilities and work independently.
- Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
- Rwandan nationals preferred.
ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION
Date to close is Korean Standard Time (KST). Applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered Application. Cover Letter, and CV must be sent in English. A consortium, or a firm may not be engaged for the individual consultant assignment.
