For detailed information, please refer to the attached IC Procurement Notice and Annex 1

Introduction 

This is the Terms of Reference (ToR) for -the Midterm Review (MTR) of the full-sized UNDP-supported GEF-financed project titled Integrated Sound Management of Mercury in Kenya’s ASGM (IMKA)  (PIMS5877) implemented through the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which is to be undertaken in 2022. The project started on the 05 July 2019 and is in its third year of implementation. This ToR sets out the expectations for this MTR. The MTR process is following the guidance outlined in the document Guidance for Conducting Midterm Reviews of UNDP-Supported, GEF-Financed Projects http://web.undp.org/evaluation/documents/guidance/GEF/mid-term/Guidance_Midterm%20Review%20_EN_2014.pdf 

A team of two independent consultants will conduct the MTR - one team leader/International Consultant (with experience and exposure to projects and evaluations in other regions globally) and one team expert/National Consultant, from Kenya. 

This ToR is for the National Consultant and an Assistant to the team leader for the task.

Project background information 

In Kenya, total mercury releases to the environment are estimated at 31 tonnes per year, of which 6.8% (~.2.1 tonnes Hg/year) originates from the country’s Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) sector (MENR, 2012). Mercury concentrations in sediments collected from rivers in Migori ranged between 30 and 2,380 μg/kg . Rivers in this region ultimately drain into the Lake Victoria and Lake Turkana, which provide dietary fish for domestic consumption and export.  

Kenya lacks a dedicated law on mercury, which makes it difficult to control the handling and movement of the chemical. Nevertheless, it is a signatory to the Minamata Convention on Mercury since 10th October 2013 and is working towards its ratification. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry lacks information on mercury production, supply, import, export and usage, and although many miners are aware that mercury has negative effects on health, none have heard of anyone being diagnosed with mercury poisoning.
 
Kenya’s entire mining sector contributes 14.2% to the GDP and employs about 200,000 people . The ASM sector was expected to contribute 3% in the year 2017 and 10% of the GDP by the year 2030 . Kenya’s ASGM sector is largely informal, unregulated and until its recent recognition by the Mining Act No. 12 of 2016, illegal. 

Among the barriers to development of the ASGM sector cited by miners, technology constraints and access to finance are the most critical. Financial access is reportedly a major deterrent to access to formal credit markets by small businesses. Weak and poorly administered miners’ cooperatives and organizations are often not up to the task of pooling capital and sharing the cost and effort of pursuing licenses and permits that could provide them with the legitimacy and bankability to access credit for transformative and mercury-free technologies. Financial entities (banks, microfinance institutions, and other lenders) are reticent to risk thus avoid providing loans to ASGM. This is compounded by the paucity of ASGM production records that would enable lenders to evaluate ASGM loan applications and to develop financial products that are tailored to the ASGM sector. Improving financial access is critical if miners’ capacity is to be enhanced to adopt safer and alternative mining technologies that will in improving efficiency and production.

The objective of the project is to reduce/eliminate mercury releases from the Kenyan ASGM sector.  The project will support 6 ASGM communities in Kenya to reduce mercury use by 0.5 metric tonnes per year (mercury reductions will likely start in year three (3) of the project), resulting in a total of 1.5 tonnes of mercury avoided over the duration of the 5-year project. Strategies to be employed to address the development challenge and achieve the Objectives will be:

Component 1. Strengthening institutions and the policy/regulatory framework for mercury-free ASGM
Component 2. Increasing the access of mining communities to finance to enable the procurement of mercury-free processing technologies
Component 3. Increasing the capacity of mining communities for mercury-free ASGM through the provision of technical assistance, technology transfer and support for formalization
Component 4. Raising awareness and disseminating best practices and lessons-learned on mercury phase-out in the ASGM sector. 

The project is designed to achieve the Long-Term Impact, or Global Environmental Benefits (mercury free artisanal and small-scale gold production) through mining policy and legislation development and the formalisation of ASGM operations in Kenya.

SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ANALYTICAL WORK

The MTR will assess progress towards the achievement of the project objectives and outcomes as specified in the Project Document and assess early signs of project success or failure with the goal of identifying the necessary changes to be made in order to set the project on-track to achieve its intended results. The MTR will also review the project’s strategy and its risks to sustainability. 

MTRs are primarily a monitoring tool to identify challenges and outline corrective actions to ensure that a project is on track to achieve maximum results by its completion. The primary output/deliverable of a MTR process is the MTR report. The MTR report will be submitted to GEF as a mandatory requirement for all GEF-financed full-sized projects (FSP). 

The MTR report must be completed and submitted to GEF secretariate with the 2nd Project Implementation Report (PIR) in 2021

The MTR team will assess the following four categories of project progress

i. Project Strategy

ii. Progress Towards Results

iii. Project Implementation and Adaptive Management

iv. Sustainability

The MTR team will include a section of the report setting out the MTR’s evidence-based conclusions, in light of the findings.

Recommendations should be succinct suggestions for critical intervention that are specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant. A recommendation table should be put in the report’s executive summary. See the Guidance For Conducting Midterm Reviews of UNDP-Supported, GEF-Financed Projects for guidance on a recommendation table.

The MTR team should make no more than 15 recommendations total.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES (National Consultant - Specialist)

1) Provide input for International Consultant (IC) as a team leader in development of MTR Inception Report In particular, the MTR National Consultant should: 

a) Consult with the PMU to develop itinerary of MTR visit or virtual interview, taking into consideration guidelines on-site visits and stakeholder consultations provided. 

b) Prepare an evaluation question matrix to be used in conjunction with that prepared by the IC and focused specifically on those consultations that will take place during field visits. 

2) Keep update with actual itinerary and invitation list of stakeholder meetings. 

3) Maintain an up-to-date comprehensive list of persons met by the evaluation team (all meetings, including those held by zoom, skype, or otherwise virtually). 

4) Review the project reports as indicated by the IC & provide inputs for MTR report. 

5) At outset of assignment, IC brief on updated institutional/policy/ legislative framework relevant to the project and on key relevant in-country initiatives (national and state government programs/ campaigns), NGO activities, and donor-supported projects).

6) Summarize each undertaken consultation ensuring that important data is recorded that allows for detailed, evidence-based observations and conclusions to be drawn. 

7) Engage with IC in review and analysis of important information gained during the day's meetings during regularly scheduled twice weekly zoom or skype calls 

8) Engage with IC in the analysis of evaluation findings 

9) Participate as requested by the IC in the preliminary presentation of evaluation findings 

10) Take photos of site visits for inclusion in the evaluation report 

11) Fill in information gaps as needed following the drafting of the Evaluation report by IC

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

The MTR team shall prepare and submit:

• MTR Inception Report: MTR team clarifies objectives and methods of Midterm Review.

• Presentation: Initial Findings.

• Draft MTR Report: Full report (using guidelines on content outlined in Annex B in the ToR) with annexes.

• Final Report*: Revised report with audit trail detailing how all received comments have (and have not) been addressed in the final MTR report.

*The final MTR report must be in English. If applicable, the Commissioning Unit may choose to arrange for a translation of the report into a language more widely shared by national stakeholders.

For detailed information, please refer to the attached IC Procurement Notice and Annex 1

Proposal should be submitted by email to: [email protected] no later than 17:00 Nairobi, Kenya Time (GMT +3) on 28th February 2022 

Please quote “KEN/IC/0010/2022 - IWT Midterm Review - National Consultant (Specialist)” on the subject 

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:
1. Proposal:
(i) Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work
(ii) Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work 

2. OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP CONFIRMING INTEREST AND AVAILABILITY – ANNEX 3
3. Financial proposal – ANNEX 2 of  OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP
4. Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references
5. Academic Certificate