GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST TO UNDERTAKE A BENEFICIARY IMPACT ASSESSMENT FOR CIDP

(CONSULTING FIRM)

PROJECT NAME: CASHEW INFRATRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (CIDP)

SECTOR: AGRICULTURE

LOAN NO: 2000130014431

PROJECT ID: P-ZM-AA0-024

COUNTRY – ZAMBIA

 

 

 

This Request for Expression of Interest follows the General Procurement Notice for this Project that appeared on the African Development Bank’s Internet Website (www.afdb.org).

The Government of the Republic of Zambia has received financing from the African Development Bank towards the cost of the Cashew Infrastructure Development Project (CIDP) and intends to apply part of the agreed amount from this loan to payments under the contract to recruit a consulting firm to undertake a Beneficiary Impact Assessment under the Project. The services included under this project are as follows:

The consulting firm shall be recruited for 3 months and shall report to the Project Coordinator under the Project Coordination Unit based in Mongu District. The consulting Firm’s specific tasks will include but not limited to the tasks outlined below.

The Project target was to reach out to various beneficiaries through interventions implemented under various sub-components. These included direct, indirect, household, group and institutional beneficiaries. The Project design was suited to local conditions and was intended to create amenities that would impact the welfare of various beneficiaries at these different levels. Therefore part of the assignment of the Consulting Firm will be to review beneficiary reach-out by sub-component and determine the levels of participation by women and youths and highlighting how these interventions have impacted these beneficiaries by gender. Other important elements will be to assess aspects of job creation opportunities and beneficiary income especially among women and youths, impact of gender based interventions at household and individual levels, environment and social safeguard and other socio-economic impacts.

The main purpose of this assignment is to provide an independent analysis of the progress of the CIDP in reaching out to beneficiaries and assessing the impact the various interventions have made on beneficiaries at household, group and individual levels. More specifically, the Consultant shall:

  1. assess beneficiary impact by sub-component of the project ;
  2. assess gendered nature of interventions such as nutrition based food security, value addition and assess beneficiary impact ;
  3. Identify and document lessons learnt and make recommendations regarding specific actions that should be taken to improve the design of future projects.

SCOPE OF THE ASSIGNMENT :

In order to achieve the assignment objectives and key deliverables, the Consulting Firm will undertake, but not limited to, the following :

  1. Document evidence of project impact on household livelihoods, based on condition of assets, household incomes, annual food availability, social amenities available, agro-processing activities, income generating activities, input and output delivery services; Assess the relevance of the project to local development priorities and needs; clarity and feasibility of project objectives (including targets); prospects for sustainability; quality and adequacy of project strategy (including logical consistency, clarity of assumptions and risks, quality of external relationships, cost –effectiveness; and the quality of participatory processes and support to strengthening local organizations and Partners ;
  2. Assess project results and impacts, in terms of development outcomes, based on the project actual development impact on the primary stakeholder groups, relevant participating Government and Non-Government institutions and the Community and their Community Based service Organizations ;
  3. Evaluate the progress in project implementation measured against planned outputs set forth in the Project Appraisal Report (PAR) and the assessment of the process involved in achieving those outputs as well as the impacts of the project ;
  4. Evaluate the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of project implementation as well as assess the project activities, outputs, outcomes and how impact on beneficiaries can be sustained ;
  5. Assess gender roles in the Project (women, men and youths) ;
  6. Assess involvement of, and impact on men, women and youths in various project activities leadership and decision making processes ;
  7. Quantify the relative number of Men, Women and Youth groups reached per component ;
  8. Document the prevailing food consumption pattern in the project areas ;
  9. Assess malnutrition prevalence among under five children, in the ten (10) Project Districts and which project activities have had an impact ;
  10. Assess the dietary diversification impact of various project activities on the target beneficiaries ;
  11. Assess the general months of household food scarcity in the project areas ;
  12. Identify lessons learnt from the project and review best practices which could be recommended for future design of similar projects ;
  13. The study will use a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the various types of impacts on beneficiaries ;
  14. To conduct and facilitate a staff retreat as part of the evaluation assessment and motivational aspects of staff and project participants

The Ministry of Agriculture now invites consultants to indicate their interest in providing these services. Interested consultants must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services (i.e. description of similar assignments conducted, experience in similar conditions and scope, availability of appropriate skills among staff etc).

Eligibility and selection procedure shall be Quality Cost Based Selection (QCBS) in accordance with the African Development Bank’s “Rules and Procedures for the use of Consultants” (May, 2008 edition and Revised in July 2012.), which is available on the Bank’s website at http://www.afdb.org. Interested Firms may obtain further information during office hours (08:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 17:00 hours) from [email protected] and [email protected]

Interested Firms should submit their applications to the undersigned. The application letter should be clearly marked ‘‘Services for a CIDP Beneficiary Impact Assessment (BIA)” and shall be sent to the undersigned on or before Friday 16th April at 10:00hours Local Time.

Attention:        Head – Procurement and Supplies Unit

Provincial Administration

 P.O Box 910021

Mongu WESTERN PROVINCE