Background

LDLD is a national program of innovations for supporting local government and its management, established with support from the UNCDF, UNDP and the European Commission. It features the setting up of a capital investment and Local Development Fund (LDF), to support Liberia’s efforts in reversing historic tendencies within its centralized system of administration. This national program aims to strengthen policy and strategy development, system and institutional development, while promoting local sector-specific investments, and in the process, shall ensure the effective management of Liberia’s innovations in restoring local government.
Specifically the program outputs are:

• Establishing Liberia’s decentralization policy and its legal framework,
• Elaborating and strengthening procedures, processes and systems for effective public expenditure management at the County, District and Sub-district level,
• Launching of a District/county Fund, designed to establish a generic fiscal framework for programming inter-governmental transfers, being part of the national system of public expenditure management;
• The resultant effective management of the LDLD program, whose processes shall promote Liberia’s quest for decentralization.

UNDP led an evaluation in 2012 covering three projects: Country Support Team (CST) Joint Programme, Liberia Decentralization and Local Development (LDLD) Programme and National Information Management Center (NIMAC) Project. The evaluation team covered all four LDLD outputs in its assessment of the concept and design of the project, efficiency issues related to program management, progress to results achievement and overall impact, and partnerships developed. Nevertheless, the broad scope of this evaluation did not allow the evaluation team to analyze in-depth the LDF mechanism, which is the main objective of the current UNCDF-led evaluation.

Evaluation framework and methodology:

The methodology used for the LDLD evaluation is based on UNCDF’s core evaluation approach which involves testing the intervention logic/development hypothesis underlying a programme against evidence on its implementation performance. In this case, the evaluation will assess the progress toward expected outcomes and lessons learnt to date on the LDF mechanism and its implementation. 

UNCDF has developed a standard Local Development Evaluation Matrix based on UNCDF’s standard intervention logic and the specific programme hypotheses. The Matrix is made up of seven general evaluation questions corresponding broadly to the well-known OECD/UN evaluation criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, likely impact and sustainability of results, and a series of further sub-questions. In addition to the questions, the evaluation matrix provides a clear framework for data collection, and includes a series of proposed indicators, data collection methods and sources of information for each question and sub-questions. 

Key to the evaluation approach should be an attempt by the evaluators to compare development results achieved by the programme in targeted counties to development results in similar counties where there was no programme intervention. It will be the responsibility of the evaluation team to present and explain the full range of data collection tools (both quantitative and qualitative) to be used in this evaluation during the Inception Phase of the evaluation. This primary data will complement the secondary data that programme management will provide to the evaluation team on the basis of monitoring and reporting carried out to date (more details in the Terms of Reference).

This preliminary work has already been done (Evaluation Matrix to be provided to the consultant). In order to support the independence of this exercise, however, the evaluation team is requested during the Inception Phase to confirm the appropriateness of the Matrix to meet the objectives of the evaluation. In doing so, it is free to suggest alternative sub-questions, indicators and data collection methods on the basis of their understanding of the programme’s development hypothesis in the inception phase. These changes should be presented as part of the Inception Report and agreed by the Evaluation Unit before the start of the in-country phase.

The objectives of the final evaluation are:

• Examining to what extent the Liberian experience provides an opportunity to provide some  flexibility in the formulation and implementation of LDF in the context of post-conflict countries with no representative institutions structures at local level.
• Assessing the quality of the LDF manual/operational guidelines and the manner and extent of its implementation in the 9 Liberian pilot counties;  
• Assessing the efficiency of the LDF mechanism and its implementation ,
• Assessing government capacity to manage (and extent to which the LDF conceptual approach is understood) at the local and national level;
• Assessing the effectiveness of the LDF mechanism ;
• Assessing likely impacts effects of investments in local development financing ;
• Assessing whether UNCDF has influenced the national mechanism (Country Development Fund, Social Development Fund) to ensure broader replication and up-scaling of the LDF;
• To generate knowledge and identify best practices, if any, lessons learnt, challenges faced and weakness in order to inform the formulation of the Phase II of the programme.

The LDLD final evaluation is scheduled to start at the end of April 2013 with the proposed timing:

• Pre-mission phase:  last week of April - 1st week of May 2013
• Mission phase:  2nd week of May 2013
• Post-mission phase: 3rd week of May 2013

Duties and Responsibilities

• Documentation review
• Developing and presenting the necessary data collection tools in the Inception Report
• Ensuring the use of best practice evaluation methodologies
• Leading the presentation of the draft evaluation findings and recommendations
• Leading the drafting and finalization of the evaluation report, integrating to the extent possible all comments received from different partners
• Present the main findings and recommendations in the final debriefing.
• Regularly updating UNCDF on the progress of the evaluation
• Quality control for the evaluation report.
• Adherence to UNCDF templates and other requirements as specified in this TOR.

On-site/in-country work days:    estimated 7 days (including travel days)
Off-site/remote work days:         estimated 13 days

Competencies

Core Competencies :

• Demonstrates ethical standards
• Displays knowledge sharing,  gender sensitivity and working in multicultural environment         
  

Functional competencies

• Expertise and proven experience in applying best practice approaches in programme evaluation
• Knowledge and training in social research methods, including qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection and analysis 
• Excellent analytical and writing skills with  proven capacity to produce well-evidenced, concise evaluation reports
• Good understanding of the principles of results-based management and its link to high quality evaluation
• Demonstrated communication, coordination and facilitation skills in managing teams and in interacting with key programme stakeholders.
• Consistently ensures timeliness and quality of work, even under pressure

Required Skills and Experience

Education :

• Master’s degree in international development, economics, finance, Public Policy, Development Economics/Planning, monitoring and evaluation or related field.

Experience :

• Minimum of 10 years of accumulated experience in Local Development Finance and in the field of basic public service delivery in rural areas, including the design, monitoring and evaluation of projects supporting decentralization and local development.
• Demonstrated experience in leading evaluations in Local Development Finance.
• Proven ability to use participatory evaluation methods and in applying qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods to assess programme results at individual, institutional, sector and policy level.
• Thorough understanding of key elements of results-based programme management and its link to high quality evaluation
• Experience in Local Development Finance in sub-Saharan Africa
• Knowledge of UNCDF LDF approach and experience of the countries where the programme is implemented is considered an asset.
• Familiarity with UNEG Norms and Standards in Evaluation.

Language:

• English

 Evaluation :
 All applications must contain the following information:

• Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies in relation to the TOR (In English)- 1 page
• Updated Curriculum Vitae
• Completed P11 Personal History Form with references (see attached P11 template)
• Availability for consultancy and
• Financial proposal for the full consultancy assignment outlining (see attached template confirmation of interest) Total consulting fee should include all incidental expenses (phone, internet, etc.) , total air travel to and from place of assignment and terminals.

Applications will be rated technically (70%), on the basis of candidate’s CVs, Interview and the financial proposal (30%).
The CV will be rated as follows :

• Education : 10%
• Experience in Local Development Finance and in the field of basic public service delivery in rural areas : 30%
• Experience in leading evaluations  : 50%
• Knowledge of UNCDF LDF approach and Familiarity with UNEG Norms and Standards in Evaluation : 10%

Submission address :

bidsuncdf.wca@uncdf.org
Mention : International Consultant « Final Evaluation LDLD - Liberia»

FC: G1310