Democratic Republic of the Congo: consultancy team to develop the project’s baseline study

Within the framework of the CISPE stabilization programme in North-Kivu and Ituri provinces in DRC, IOM is recruiting a consultancy team to develop the project’s baseline study. This research involves measuring and verifying both quantitative and qualitative data in order to assess the baseline values at output level (and where necessary at outcome level). These results are expected to be delivered per territory (7 in total) from early November 2016 till end December 2016.

On the basis of the study’s results, the consultancy team will need to host “restitution sessions” with project beneficiaries in all seven researched territories

This consultancy involves significant travel in the field, as well as desk research in the home station.

If successful, the consultancy team will be retained for the two subsequent monitoring studies in early 2018 and early 2019.

Objective and scope of the baseline study

The baseline study is intended to provide the Consortium partners with detailed baseline data on the current situation of key project indicators and to enable outputs (and outcomes where relevant) to be measured over the course of the Project.

The theory of change highlighted in CISPE’s framework link the objectives, outcomes and outputs of the Project according to two pillars. As the CISPE Project is implemented within the framework of the International Security and Stabilization Support Strategy (ISSSS or I4S) - the CISPE consortium has aligned its results framework on ISSSS’s monitoring and evaluation strategy. This means that some of the outcomes and outputs of CISPE’s results framework originate directly from ISSSS’s monitoring and evaluation framework.

The monitoring of the programme will be performed in support and contributing to the broader monitoring of the ISSSS by l’Equipe d’Evaluation pour la Stabilisation (EEST), an independent M&E unit which is currently based inside MONUSCO’s Stabilization Support Unit (SSU).

The ISSSS is supported by a joint secretariat of SSU and the government’s STAREC (Programme pour la Stabilisation et la Reconstruction des zones sortant des Conflits Armés à l’Est du Congo) programme. This strategy has been endorsed at the national level by the DRC’s government and receives support from the broader international community.

The main objective of this baseline study is to collect baseline data on output (and outcome where relevant) level in the results framework of the CISPE program. In this baseline study, the consultant(s) will be focusing on the output level for Pillars 1 and 2 (and outcome where relevant) but will measure both outcomes and outputs for Pillar 3.

Methodology and scope of work

The methodology of the baseline study needs to be developed in a way that it is repeatable, as two other monitoring studies will be conducted before the end of the programme (in January 2018 and February 2019). In addition, the methodology needs to be comparable between the two provinces and needs to be complementary to other stabilization monitoring efforts as managed by EEST.

The study design and methodology will be discussed and agreed upon with the Consortium partners before the start of the data collection process. The consultant(s) will use different data collecting methods: desk review, direct observation, quantitative surveys, (semi-)structured interviews, focus groups… to establish a baseline for the project’s key indicators at output (and outcome where relevant) level.

In order to collect the necessary baseline data for the CISPE indicators, a detailed monitoring tool (framework) needs to be developed. This monitoring tool needs to identify for each indicator:

• Which consortium member(s) is/are related to this indicator?

• Which activities are related to this indicator?

• Is this indicator applicable to both Ituri and North-Kivu?

• Is this indicator applicable to all chefferies/secteurs/groupements of the CISPE intervention areas, or a selected number only?

• Which structures/key actors are linked to this indicator? How?

• Which specific data should be collected to measure this indicator?

The development of the monitoring tool will be based on the M&E framework produced by the project partners. The framework consists of 36 indicators (some originate from the ISSSS M&E strategy) that are used to measure the outcomes and outputs of the project.

• The first pillar has 14 indicators, of which 7 stem from ISSSS

• The second pillar has 7 indicators, of which 4 stem from ISSSS

• The third pillar has 15 indicators.

Please note that the data related to some outcomes and outputs will be collected through the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and analyzed by ISSSS’s partner, EEST.

Furthermore, the monitoring tool will identify:

1. Which monitoring data will be collected by the four consortium members themselves and how this information links with the outputs/indicators of the results framework (e.g. RBF indicators)

2. If any additional data needs to be collected (and/or if more indicators needs to be added) in order to monitor the CISPE outputs and outcomes in the results framework.

Based on this monitoring tool, a detailed questionnaire (per territory) and tools for data collection (and consolidation) will be developed.

The methodology process will follow the below-mentioned steps:

1. Preparatory phase: perform a desk review of all relevant documentation (provided by the Consortium partners and desk research), prepare a work plan, finalize methodology of the study and set up a team. (A team will be set up based on the level of professional experience, knowledge of the context, knowledge of the local languages, ability to conduct interviews and focus groups as well as other types of data collection methods)

2. Field work in the intervention areas: recruit and train data collectors, field test the questionnaires, supervise data collection.

Data analysis and report writing

1. Restitution sessions with key stakeholders in all territories

On the basis of the expression of interest, selected applicants will be invited to develop a detailed full proposal on the basis of programme documents.

The expression of interest should be sent to RFQDRC@iom.int by 12 September 2016,18:00 CET.

For further information, you can contact Mr Volkert DOOP, VDOOP@iom.int or Mr François NIYOYITA FNSEBIGUNDA@iom.int. (the full document can be requested at same address above)

IOM reserves its right to accept or reject any application, to cancel the expression of interest process, or to reject all applications at any time, without enduring any kind of responsibility towards the concerned applicants, and is not obliged to inform the latter on the reason for this.