MEAL Consultant

Background of the project

The flood that struck Eastern Libya caused by Tropical Storm Daniel on 10 September 2023, severely damaged buildings, and infrastructure, and caused the loss of lives, injuries, and homelessness on a large scale. In Libya, the flood exacerbated the already existing need for humanitarian and recovery assistance due to years of protracted conflict and resulting breakdown of key governance institutions, social infrastructure and underinvestment in basic services. 

With Islamic Relief Worldwide’s support, the International Rescue committee (IRC) implemented an emergency response project from 1 March 1, 2024, to 30 November 2024 in Eastern Libya.  The overall goal of the project is to contribute to improving the health and protection situation in disaster-affected areas of Eastern Libya. The project has three outcome areas focused on health and protection as follows:
Outcome 1:  Flood affected clients feel supported, valued, and well-served with primary healthcare services provided by IRC. 
 Outcome 2: Children at risk of harm or experiencing harm are supported with appropriate Child protection services.                
Outcome 3: Increase in the protection environment of those who are most vulnerable to GBV.

The project was implemented in Derna, Shahhat, Albaida and Soussa targeting a total number of 7,900 clients (7,200 health and 700 protection). While the project was originally designed to be implemented for six months between March 1sts 2024 to August 31st, 2024, it was extended for an additional three months (i.e. till November 30th, 2024).    

The project activities under the health outcome included the deployment of three mobile medical team (MMTs) with specialized doctors and nurses; purchase and distribution of pharma and medical supplies; supporting the rehabilitation of one health facility; and deploying Community Health Workers (CHWs) for community outreach and awareness activities focusing on health seeking behaviours, and health and hygiene promotion sessions. Under the projection outcome the project activities focused on providing coordinated Violence Against Women (VAW)  and child protection (CP) prevention and response services including case management (CM), referrals, group psychosocial support (PSS); safety audits and risk reduction; safe spaces for women and girls and safe healing and learning spaces for children impacted by the crisis; capacity building and system strengthening of stakeholders on CP principles and VAW topics, as well as protection information dissemination through outreach activities. The project also supported protection monitoring and individual in-kind assistance (IPA) activities.

Scope of the Evaluation
The end line evaluation will be implemented in January/February 2025. The scope of the evaluation is the entire project and should cover and provide updates on achievements in the two targeted sectors i.e. Health and Protection across the intervention locations (Derna, Shahhat, Albaida and Soussa). IRC will inform the consultant about the accessibility and security situation of the project target areas before starting the field data collection exercise and will agree with the consultant on feasible ways of data collection.

Objectives of the Evaluation:
The objective of the evaluation is to provide an overall understanding of the project achievements, as well as learnings and recommendations for future projects. 

Specific Objective of the Evaluation:

•  To assess the performance of the project, paying particular attention to the outcomes and outputs of the project interventions against its key result indicators.

• To assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and sustainability of project strategies and activities.
• To assess how the project has implemented the main prioritized cross-cutting themes, such as accountability, violence against women, inclusiveness, and conflict sensitivity and Do No Harm programming.
• To document lessons learned and provide recommendations for future programming. 

Evaluation Methodology
The consultant is expected to determine the methodological approach for the evaluation of the project. The methodology should be further detailed in the inception report including an evaluation that explains for each indicator and research question, and how these will be measured/ answered. The methodology including the research/data collection tools will need to be pre-approved by the IRC. As part of the data collection process, the consultant, depending on accessibility and feasibility, will undertake visits to the project implementation areas to collect primary data across the intervention locations (Derna, Shahhat, Albaida and Soussa) amongst a variety of stakeholders, including IRC project staff, local partners, local authorities, project clients, and other relevant persons. The consultant should follow and adhere to ethical data collection standards and process including informed consent, data confidentiality, and safeguarding of the right holders.

Evaluation Criteria:
The evaluation should be structured around the standard evaluation criteria and additional criteria as mentioned in the table below. The evaluation objectives/key questions under each criterion are indicative. The consultant is expected to review and improve the evaluation questions in the initial stage of the evaluation exercise.

Evaluation Criteria Objectives/Key Questions

Assess Performance Against Project Objectives

•   Evaluate the extent to which the project achieved its planned objectives and targets across the health and protection sectors.

Analyze the Relevance of the Intervention

•  Determine how well the project aligned with the local needs and priorities of the affected populations.
• Assess the adaptability of the project to changing needs and priorities over the course of its implementation.
• Additional questions for consideration
•  Is the intervention in line with the needs and highest priorities of the most vulnerable groups (men and women, boys and girls)?
• Did the design and implementation of the intervention consider and build on available local capacities?

• Was the design and implementation of interventions age, gender, protection and disability-sensitive? 
  

Evaluate the Efficiency of Resource Utilization

•  Examine how efficiently the project utilized its resources, including financial, human, and material resources.
• Did the targeting of the intervention result in an equitable allocation of resources?
• Was the intervention implemented in a timely way? Were relevant technical and quality standards Compare the cost-effectiveness of the project's activities against potential alternatives and identify opportunities for improving efficiency.

Measure the Effectiveness of the Response

•  Assess the impact of the project's activities on health and protection.
• Identify the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of project objectives and targets
• Additional questions for considerations
• Were relevant technical and quality standards in a humanitarian context followed and met?
•  Were (are) the outputs and outcomes achieved?
•  What major factors influenced the achievement or non-achievement of the outcomes
• Were there any unintended (positive or negative) outcomes arising from the intervention for participants and non-participants?
•  Is the achievement of outcomes leading to/likely to lead to achievement of the project’s overall objective?
•  What major factors influenced, supported or hindered this?
•   Were results delivered equitably for men, and women, boys and girls, person with disability and from different age groups
  
  

Examine the Sustainability of Project Outcomes

•  Evaluate the long-term impact of the project's activities on the resilience and preparedness of the affected populations.
• Determine the likelihood of sustaining the positive changes brought about by the project in the short and medium term
  Additional question for consideration
  
•  To what extent does the intervention implementation consider sustainability?
•  To what extent will the interventions be sustainable and will provide ongoing benefit to individuals, households and communities?
•  How long will these benefits realistically continue without additional support?
• Is there any consideration of the effects of projected climate change on the continuation of activities in the future?
  

Review the Coherence of the Intervention

• Analyze the internal coherence of the project, including synergies between different activities and the integration of gender-sensitive and inclusive approaches.
• Additional Questions for considerations
• To what extent were context factors (political stability/instability, population movements, etc.) considered in the design and delivery of the intervention?
•  To what extent was IRW’s intervention coherent with policies and programmes of other stakeholders and service provider operating within the same context?
• To what extent was the intervention design and delivery in line with humanitarian principles? 

Assess Conflict Sensitivity, Accountability  and Do-No-Harm Principles

•  Examine how conflict-sensitive approaches and do-no-harm principles were integrated into the project design and implementation.
• Assess the impact of these approaches on maintaining neutrality and preventing harm to beneficiaries. 
•  To what extent was the affected population meaningfully informed and involved in the design and planning process, and throughout implementation?
• What feedback mechanisms were in place? How has feedback been addressed? particularly focusing on vulnerable groups like women and children.

Identify Key Lessons Learned and Provide Recommendations

•  Document critical lessons learned from the project implementation to inform future humanitarian responses.
• Assess and analysis what went well, what could have been improved, what would we do differently if we did it again
• Provide actionable recommendations to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, sustainability, and coherence of future projects.