I. BACKGROUND / PROJECT DESCRIPTION 

The Programme for Accelerated Community Development (PACD) model provides a vehicle for a multi-sectoral approach to addressing poverty and inequality at the community level and will help the government to respond to social demands through a partnership with development partners to ensure accelerated, multi-pronged, participatory, and accountable delivery of services particularly to far-to-reach populations.

The programme will be a critical response to the government’s strive for inclusive development, greater equity, and social justice in line with the aims and aspirations of the National Development Plan and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It focuses on 4 key sectors; water, electricity, rural roads, and women’s economic empowerment which has two sub-components; labor-saving devices and exotic livestock breeds.

The strategy for the project is to identify and target beneficiaries based on their needs identified by them. Such needs are identified in several ways:

1. Community needs
2. Regional needs identified in the strategic plans of Local Governments (LGA)
3. Sector-specific needs to be identified by technical ministries and agencies of government

All these different needs identified with different objectives in mind need to be collated and harmonized regularly (annually) and used as a basis for community outreach and engagement to identify and prioritize the most urgent needs as a basis for the PACD annual programme.

The PACD is also in line with the National Development Plan NDP (2017-2021), the SDG’s and the UNDAF outcome 1, PACD served as a critical response to the government’s quest to realize its inclusive development agenda, promotion of greater equity and social justice in improving living conditions and eradicating poverty.

The Pilot phase of the project which spanned from December 2019 to December 2021 has reached out to 89 communities and provided them with access to basic socio-economic services including access to water, electricity, labor-saving devices, and the introduction of exotic livestock breeds, and mechanism. To this end, the project wants to conduct a comprehensive impact assessment study as an evaluation to measure the extent to which the project attains its outcomes, and impact; contributes to the aspirations of the National Development Plan (NDP) and UNDAF Goals.

II. SCOPE OF THE WORK

PACD pilot phase ran from 2019 to 2021 and even though the project was granted an extension period from January to December 2022 to tie up loose ends of the Pilot Phase, coincidently this extended phase also coincided with the final implementation year of both the National Development Plan and the UNDP’s Country Programme Document (CPD) both of which were extended to the end of 2022. This warrants the capturing of success stories of PACD Phase 1 to showcase achievements for further funding for Phase II and the demonstration of the ability of the model to bring in quick transformation and development for hard–to–reach communities in rural Gambia.

This Impact Assessment would be carried out within the overall provisions contained in the UNDP Evaluation Policy and line with the Evaluation Plan of UNDP The Gambia. PACD is commissioning this Impact Assessment to capture evaluative evidence of the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, national ownership, lessons learned, challenges, and sustainability of the current project, and recommend changes that would be used to strengthen the existing project (bridging phase) and set the stage for the preparation of PACD II. This Impact assessment serves as an important accountability function, providing national stakeholders and partners in The Gambia with an impartial assessment of the results of PACD support. 

This Impact Assessment covers the period 2019-2021 of the PACD implementation.  It would be conducted in May 2022, given enhancing programs while providing strategic direction and inputs to the revision needed.

A further focus of the Impact Assessment will be on the extent to which monitoring, and risk management were undertaken throughout the period and whether the M&E system was adequate to capture significant developments and inform responsive management. The Impact Assessment will assess how Lessons Learned are being captured and operationalized throughout the period under investigation

The Consultant will assess PACD’s overall intervention logic, including an assessment of the appropriateness of the objectives, planned outputs, activities, and inputs as compared to cost-effective alternatives. The Consultant is to verify, analyze, and assess, where relevant, the integration and impact of a cross-cutting issue in the PACD Model notably gender mainstreaming, equity considerations, access to resources, etc. The evaluation will follow the policy procedure and structure as per the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) guidelines for evaluations:

Guiding evaluation questions outlined in this ToR should be further refined by the Consultant and agreed upon with PACD Team and UNDP Management.

III. EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES  

The Consultant will proceed through the following phases. The deliverables for each phase are as follows.

1. Impact Assessment Inception Report (10-15 pages maximum): Following the desk review and before the drafting of the inception report, preliminary discussions with the PACD team should be initiated after the desk review. The discussions will focus on the survey tools, and methods to be used for the evaluation before the assessment starts. The inception report should include a matrix presenting the questions, data sources, data collection, analysis tools and methods to be used.   The inception report should detail the specific timing for activities, and deliverables, and propose specific project visits and stakeholders to be interviewed.  The inception report will be discussed and agreed upon with the PACD team before the Consultant proceeds with meetings. The Consultant will also propose a rating scale so that Performance rating will be carried out for the four evaluation criteria: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability
2. Data Collection: The Consultant would conduct field data collection with the relevant stakeholders, CSOs, partners, and beneficiaries, and report on any setback during the process. All data sets have been submitted to the UNDP.
3. Impact Assessment Debriefings: Immediately following the assignment completion, the Consultant wound conduct a preliminary debriefing on the findings.
4. Draft Report (within an agreed length): PACD and key stakeholders would review the draft report and provide an incorporated set of comments to the Consultant within an agreed period, addressing the content required (as agreed in the ToR and inception report) and quality criteria as outlined in these guidelines. The draft report will be shared with stakeholders and presented in a validation workshop, that UNDP will organize.
5. Evaluation Report Audit Trail: Comments and changes by the Consultant in response to the draft report should be retained by the Consultant to show how they have addressed comments.
6. Final Evaluation Report: Feedback received from sessions should be considered when preparing the final report.

Complete and detailed Terms of reference (TOR) of required consultancy are provided in attachment.

Please submit your Technical and Financial proposals to: bids.gm@undp.org no later than 23 May 2022

Email subject: “INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANT FOR EVALUATION OF THE PILOT PHASE OF THE PACD”