Background

Agriculture is the main economic activity of Guinea-Bissau as it occupies more than 80% of the total population. Moreover, the agricultural sector remains very traditional lack of availability of improved inputs and agricultural equipment quality. This is not conducive to improving the production of farmers and by extension their lives. Indeed, poverty has reached an alarming level and affects mostly rural areas. Faced with this reality, the Government of Guinea-Bissau has requested technical and financial support fund set up by India, Brazil and Africa to improve the lives of people around the development of agriculture and improvement of other services in rural communities.

The first project entitled "Development of agriculture and rural community services" covering the period 2005-2009 has led to more than 4,500 farmers to acquire new knowledge about modern farming techniques to improve the production of rice, citrus and mango. New improved seed varieties were introduced and farmers training sessions received on the management and control of water. Similarly, the Solar panel integrated in the project has provided lighting to health centers, schools, streets and water pumps to 05 villages.

The assessment made recommended a second phase. During this phase, two projects have been implemented:

• Project "Rural electrification through solar energy" (June 2011 - December 2012) covering twenty villages. Given the coup of April 12, 2012, the project was extended to 2014;
• Project "Rehabilitation Support the Coastal Lowlands to Produce Rice and Processing of Products of Agricultural and Livestock Origin" three (3) years (2011-2014).

Note that a final evaluation of the second phase also took place in August 2012. This assessment showed a real impact solar equipment installed on the living conditions of affected populations in terms of lighting street lamps, the chain and cold storage of medicines and vaccines, schools, juvenile centers and water points. The exploitation of solar equipment received for charging phone batteries and power supply juvenile centers has allowed many communities to create cash income (operating revenues) for various uses (investment community use).

Also the project “Rehabilitation Support the Coastal Lowlands to Produce Rice and Processing of Products of Agricultural and Livestock Origin” has as its main partners: Ministry of Agriculture and the Institute of Agriculture Research. Guinea-Bissau's economy is predominantly services-based. Agriculture accounts for 45% of GDP and it basically represents the economy of the countryside. Women represent about 70% of manpower in agriculture and livestock. Based on this fact, the project aims at increasing food-security, reducing poverty, expand economic-growth and reduce gender inequality in IBSA´s intervention area – 24 villages in the regions of Oio, Biombo and Bafata.

Given that both projects "Rural electrification through solar energy" and “Rehabilitation Support the Coastal Lowlands to Produce Rice and Processing of Products of Agricultural and Livestock Origin” will close at the end of 2014, a final evaluation is planned to show how the support in this area is achieving its objectives and to what extent it remains relevant, given the various changes in the context of Guinea-Bissau.

Duties and Responsibilities

A team of two experts, one international (team leader) and one national will be recruited to conduct this evaluation. The Team Leader will lead, organize and supervise the work of the evaluation team, ensuring a division of labor based on the skills of the national consultant.

This evaluation is a final evaluation and will involve all activities planned and carried out from June 2011 until December 2014. Its objective is to review progress in the implementation of the project according to the situation of the country, its goals policy and strategic direction of UNDP. The specific objectives of this evaluation are:

• Show how the formulation of the project and the approach are  relevant to the satisfaction of the needs identified;
• Highlight the contribution of the project in achieving the missions and strategies of UNDP;
• Review the progress made in achieving the expected highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of products;
• Analyze exogenous factors (economic, political, sociological, etc.) that affected positively or negatively impact the achievement;
• Assess the sustainability of the expected results (transfer of skills, institutional strengthening, support for recurrent costs, change ownership by the beneficiaries, etc.);
• Quantify the extent possible, the effects achieved in the fight against poverty, including increased activity and income, the satisfaction of basic needs and improving living conditions, the capacity building local communities and improving the quality of services;
• Appreciate the partnership strategy to achieve the objectives in terms of quality and volume of mobilized funds, as well as provisions for accountability;
• Analyze the relevance of indicators for monitoring and evaluation and adaptation to the measurement objectives.
• Examine the project's contribution in promoting equity and gender equality;
• To identify lessons learnt from the implementation of the project;
• Propose recommendations;
• Propose strategic directions in order of verifying new opportunities for new projects proposal.

The team leader will have overall responsibility for the production of all products expected in 6. The team is also responsible for the insurance of adequate consultation with all stakeholders. He is the UNDP counterpart and will be supported by the national consultant. The latter will be responsible for making contacts with partners and ensure compliance with the appointment. The national consultant will translate it into Portuguese. He will perform all the tasks assigned to it by the international consultant.

The team leader will take the overall responsibility for the quality and duly submission of the evaluation report in French and English. Specifically, the international consultant (team leader) will perform the following tasks:

•  Lead and manage the evaluation mission;
• Design the detailed evaluation scope and methodology (including the methods for data collection and analysis);
• Decide the division of labor within the evaluation team;
• Conduct an analysis of the results, outcomes and outputs;
• Draft related parts of the evaluation report; and
• Finalize the whole evaluation report in French and English and submit it to UNDP Guinea-Bissau.

Competencies

• Capacity to elaborate reports in French and English;
• Excellent leadership and managerial skills;
• Plan, define priorities and perform on time;
• Open to change and able to receive/integrate the feedbacks;
• Be autonomous;
• Good skill to teamwork;
• Excellent capacity to organize and/or manage of project;
• Demonstrate a commitment with the values and integrity of United Nations;
• Sensitivity and adaptability to culture, gender, religion, race, nationality and age;
• Provide oral and written information in a timely, effective and easily understandable;
• Excellent capacity in the use of assessment methodology.
• Knowledge of participatory techniques and other approaches for collecting and analyzing data related to poverty and other areas.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Master level university degree (BAC + 5) socio-economics, agricultural economics and rural development or related disciplines.

Years of experience:

• At least 10 years of experience in the field of managing and conducting evaluations.

Language Skills:

• English or French written and spoken skills.
• Written and spoken Portuguese will be an added value.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Technical Proposal:

• Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work;
• Provide an inception report (a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work) with an evaluation matrix) (if applicable).

Financial proposal

Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references.

Lump sum contracts

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Contracts based on daily fee

The financial proposal will specify the daily fee, travel expenses and per diems quoted in separate line items, and payments are made to the Individual Consultant based on the number of days worked.

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel.  In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed

Evaluation:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Lowest price and technically compliant offer

When using this method, the award of a contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as both:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Offering the lowest price/cost;
• Responsive/compliant/acceptable” can be defined as fully meeting the TOR provided.

Cumulative analysis

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria weight [70].

Financial Criteria weight [30].

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of XXX point would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

Criteria                                          Weight                                                  Max. Point

Technical                                         70                                                         100

• Criteria A : Master level university degree (BAC + 5) socio-economics, agricultural economics and rural development or related disciplines (20 points);
• Criteria B : At least 10 years of experience in the field of managing and conducting evaluations and (20 points);
• Criteria C : Knowledge of participatory techniques and other approaches for collecting and analyzing data related to poverty and other areas (20 points);
• Criteria D : Quality of Technical Proposal (30 points);
• Criteria E: Good oral and written communication in French / English. Mastery of Portuguese would be an asset (10 points);
• Financial Proposal (30%).