RESILIENT SYSTEMS FOR FOOD AND NUTRITION (KUNGAHARA)

Terms of reference to conduct project review - Learning and Insight Generation

Background 

CARE is a leading humanitarian and development organization seeking a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. We work around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty, and achieve social justice. CARE International aims to be a global force and a partner of choice within a worldwide movement dedicated to ending poverty. Globally, CARE and partners through its vision of overcoming poverty by 2030, intends to support 200 million people from the most vulnerable and excluded communities to overcome poverty and social injustice. This is through 6 impact areas of promoting Gender Equality, Climate Justice, Humanitarian, Right to Health, Right to Food Water and Nutrition and Women Economic Justice. 

Project Overview & Target Groups

CARE Austria, together with CARE International in Rwanda (CARE Rwanda), in partnership with DUHARANIRA AMAJYAMBERE Y’ICYARO (DUHAMIC-ADRI) are implementing KUNGAHARA: Resilient Systems for Food and Nutrition, running between 1^st January 2024 and 31^st December 2026, funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Austrian Development Cooperation. In line with the EU’s global objective of the KUNGAHARA Call for Proposals, the overall objective of the project is to strengthen resilient food systems and nutrition security in Rwanda. To tackle the different factors hindering food availability and nutrition, the project enacts locally-led and owned change at every stage of the food system – production, aggregation, processing, distribution and consumption – through two complementary supply and demand outcomes:  

Outcome 1: Equitable, sustainable, inclusive, productive and nutrition sensitive agricultural value chains in Gicumbi, Rulindo and Gakenke districts are strengthened; and  

Outcome 2: The consumption of diverse and nutrient rich foods by vulnerable households, in particular women and children, in Gicumbi, Rulindo and Gakenke district is increased.   

The project is targeting smallholder farmers and will use a holistic set of interventions to enhance food systems in a sustainable manner, equipping women and youth farmers ‘groups and cooperatives within the selected environment and nutrition-sensitive value chains with the skills, connections, and support to improve production and access to markets, and as a result, nutritious food availability and increase in its consumption.  

The project’s target groups include: 

• 31,000 Smallholder farmers/Household members
• 90 Farmer Promoters (selected among smallholder farmers)
• 150 Nutrition Champions (selected among smallholder farmers)
• 60 Market actors
• 825 Members of local authorities and nutrition-related stakeholders

Objective of the assignment 

This assignment aims at reviewing the implementation of the KUNGAHARA project and documenting project learning and insights to inform adaptive management, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability planning. Specifically, this assignemnt aims:

1. To assess the effectiveness and early signs of impact of the project’s interventions and its sustainability across the food system.
2. To capture and document key lessons learned, innovations, and challenges encountered during project implementation.
3. To produce a learning brief that can be shared with relevant stakeholders.

 Review focus

The review will focus on more in-depth insights into community-level changes, the level and participation and effectiveness of interventions and most importantly the extent of changes in project activities and output indicators categorized in in the following areas:

1. Agricultural production (e.g., crop yields, farming techniques, sustainable practices),
2. Market access (e.g., market linkages, market prices, access to buyers), and
3. Nutrition consumption (e.g., diversity and frequency of nutrient-rich foods consumed)

Methodology

Approach

The review and documentation process will be participatory, involving key stakeholders at all levels of the project. The consultant will use a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative techniques to capture a rich and nuanced understanding of the project’s progress and acomplishements at activity and output levels. Qualitative outcome level indicators will also be assessed by this review. The methodology will be designed to ensure that insights are drawn not only from project data but also from the experiences and perspectives of the key actors involved, including smallholder farmers, project staff, and local stakeholders.

 Data collection methods

The consultant will employ the following data collection methods:

• A desk review of all available project documents such as project quarterly and annual reports, project logframe and project description document will be conducted.
• In-depth Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) will be conducted with key participants.
• Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) will be organized with different groups comprised of project participants by different categories in each district and considering various project value chains.

 Data Analysis

The consultant will use qualitative techniques of data analysis to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the project’s progress:

• Thematic analysis will be used to identify key themes, patterns, and trends in the qualitative data.

Insights will be clustered around the following core areas:

• Intervention delivery and engagement levels such as attendance and participation rates
• Strengths/successes or weaknesses/improvement areas of the project models such as Farmer Field and Business School (FFBS), Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (CVCA), Village Nutrition Scores (VNS), Community Score Card (CSC) and Social Analysis and Actions (SAA) focusing on what worked, did not work and why
• Challenges faced by project stakeholders and the solutions implemented
• Lessons learned from local-level implementation
• Innovations and best practices that have emerged during the project

Expected tasks & roles

Responsibility of the consultant/firm 

The consultant(s) will be responsible for setting up procedures and guidelines to:   

• Develop and present an inception report and tools to CARE team for inputs and feedback.  
• Finalize and submit the final inception report. 
• Train enumerators for the data collection exercise.  One component of the data collection training should include procedures on safely managing disclosure of any safeguarding issues/cases of safeguarding.  
• Conduct data collection including pretesting of tools in the 3 districts covered by the project. 
• Ensure that datasets are clean, complete, and consistent.  
• Conduct qualitative data analysis and produce required reports
• The consultant/firm will be liable to secure any prior visa or approvals that might be required to conduct the assessment. 
• The consultant shall be liable for ethical procedures including obtaining informed consent from respondents. 
• All documents and data collected will be treated as confidential and used solely to facilitate analysis. 
• All training and logistics cost for the enumerators including transport and data collection materials during data collection will be covered by the consultant. 

Responsibility of CARE  

• Assume all the responsibilities pertaining to the consultant hiring process. 
• Ensure that all necessary documentation is availed to the consultant.   
• Facilitate initial connections of the consultant with different stakeholders.  
• Overall data quality control, technical review and approval of deliverables.
• Provide any other technical or operational support to the consultant as needed for example review of the questionnaires and participating in the selection and training of enumerators. 

Expectations & deliverables

The consultant is expected to produce the following deliverables:

1. Inception Report – detailing the methodology, data collection tools, and work plan
2. Final Report – A comprehensive report integrating findings from all methods, project implementation status, early results, challenges, and recommendations (Max. 25 pages, excluding annexes)
3. Learning Brief: A concise document summarizing the key lessons learned and actionable insights (Max.4 pages)

Ethical Approaches & Data Disclosure

The approach must consider the safety of participants at all stages of the assessment. The bidder will need to demonstrate how they have considered Prevention of Sexual Harassment, Exploitation, and Abuse (PSHEA); through the different data collection stages, including recruitment and training of research staff, data collection and data analysis and report writing. Bidders are required to set out their approach to ensuring complete compliance with international good practice with regards to research ethics and protocols. The consultant must show how they will comply with the Rwanda data privacy and protection law. 

Supervision

The task Manager for this work will be the Quality Assurance Specialist with support of the Impact Measurement Team Leader. The Consultant is also expected to liaise closely at the design stage and subsequently with other key personnel in CARE. 

Timeline

The  duration of assignment is 15 working days upon signature of contract

Professional Skills & Qualifications 

Qualifications: bidders are required to clearly identify and provide CVs for all those proposed in the Evaluation Team, clearly stating their roles and responsibilities for this assessment.  The lead consultant should have advanced degree demonstrating thematic and/or research qualifications and a minimum of five years of experience in delivering rigorous program evaluations.  The consultants’ proposed evaluation team should include the technical expertise and practical experience required to deliver the scope of work and progress evaluation outputs with regards to: 

• Study design: the team should include skills and expertise required to design, plan and conduct qualitative research 
• Relevant subject matter knowledge and experience: knowledge and experience required on conducting research with youth, small-holder farmers in the agriculture sector, disability, gender equality and social inclusion
• Evaluation management: manage a medium-scale and complex research process from end-to-end including baseline studies. 
• Primary research: gender-sensitive design, management, and implementation of primary quantitative and qualitative research – this could include the design of longitudinal household panel surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups, participatory qualitative exercises with youth, etc. 
• Country experience: it is particularly important that the team has the appropriate country knowledge /experience and ability to interpret findings from a contextual perspective, as required to conduct the research. 
• Qualitative data analysis software: a range of qualitative data analysis software and techniques for impact modelling and analysis; highly proficient user of ATLAS Ti or other similar software.

 Proposal evaluation criteria

The technical and financial proposal will be assessed using the below criteria: 

Application Procedures

The application file should contain the following documents: 

• A technical proposal (maximum 15 pages, excluding annexes), with a clear timeframe and a description of the proposed methodology detailing how the deliverables will be achieved, and the team credentials for similar assignments. 
• Detailed Curriculum Vitae of the proposed team to carry out the assignment with clear roles and functions. 
• A financial proposal detailing the various costs associated with the delivery of the above services, in PDF format and must be a separate document from the technical proposal. 
• Evidence of the consultant’s experience in doing similar assignments: Copies of similar assignments (with evidence for good completion of the previous similar assignments); 
• Submit at least 3 references with their contacts and addresses.  
• Bank account information including the scanned copy of blank check or document from the bank confirming bank account information (name, account number, swift code, …) 
• Consultant firm profile; VAT registration certificate; RRA tax clearance certificate; RSSB tax clearance certificate (when applicable). For applicants without registration in Rwanda, submit the above requirements from the country of registration as applicable.  

Interested consultants or consultancy firms are requested to submit their offers not later than July, 13^th  2025 at 5 pm local time to the following e-mail address: rwa.procurement@care.org, with mention of “Consultancy to conduct KUNGAHARA Project review in the subject line.