Terms of Reference Gender-Responsive Alternatives to Climate Change (GRACC) Project Evaluation Full Time NEW

About ActionAid International Kenya (AAIK)
For over 50 years, ActionAid International Kenya (AAIK) has had operations in Kenya as a non-religious, non-partisan development organization to end poverty and injustices. AAIK works in solidarity with communities living in poverty and exclusion to shift power to the communities and facilitate their own leadership by holding duty bearers accountable to Protect, Respect and Fulfill their rights in line with the constitution of the Republic of Kenya. We have presence in twenty three counties working closely with local organisations and partners.

Introduction

These Terms of Reference (TOR) have been prepared by ActionAid International Kenya, in consultation with ActionAid Australia for performing an evaluation in relation to the above-mentioned project. The aim of the project is to facilitate women and their organizations to participate meaningfully in climate finance and adaptation for resilience to climate related crises.

Context

Like many other developing countries in Africa, Kenya remains vulnerable to natural hazards and climate change variability. Climate change-related drought and flood worsen the already precarious situation in Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) counties, making it extremely hard for communities to sustain and protect their livelihoods. The economic effects of drought and floods are manifested in the disruption of production flows, resulting in production losses, income losses, loss of employment, and increased operational costs, all to a long-term fiscal liability equivalent to 2%-2.8% of GDP each year. Specifically, the estimated costs of floods are about 5.5% of GDP every seven years, while droughts account for 8% of GDP every five years.

The newly elected president will also appoint Climate Change Council tasked with steering Kenya’s climate action through stakeholder engagements coordinated in the presidency. At the county level, Baringo County has developed a legislative framework to coordinate and finance climate change response through adaptation and mitigation. Makueni county was also the first to develop climate change and adaptation policies and guidelines for enhancing resilience to climate change vulnerabilities through adaptation, preparedness, and risk mitigation. Although Kenya has the required national and county-level legal framework for addressing climate change, implementing these policies is still lacking. ActionAid International Kenya (AAIK) has attributed this to the exclusion of women. Civil society call for urgent global action to avert climate-fueled catastrophe in the Horn of Africa, press release titled “The Forgotten Humanitarian Catastrophe” and signed by, among others, AAIK noted that:

“Efforts in building resilience to climate change in the region have not kept pace with the frequency, prolonged, and severity of droughts in recent years, making it harder for families to recover between shocks. The increasing frequency of shocks in the region have eroded inherent abilities of communities to adapt while leaving vulnerable communities too short of recovering and bouncing back”.

1. Background to the project;

Since 2017, AAIK has implemented Gender-Responsive Alternatives to Climate Change (GRACC) in the Tangulbei Local Rights Programme (LRP) in Baringo County, Kenya, over a period of four years (two phases) ending in June 2022. Baringo County is in the North Rift region of Kenya. It borders Turkana to the North and Northeast, Samburu and Laikipia to the East, Nakuru to the South, Kericho, and Uasin-Gishu to the Southwest, Elgeyo Marakwet to the West, and West Pokot to the Northwest. It covers an area of 11,015.3 sq kilometers. Its key national geographical features include Lake Baringo, Lake Bogoria’s Geysers and Hot springs, and the Equator Crossing at Mogotio. The headquarters of Baringo County is Kabarnet town. Baringo County has seven sub-counties. They include Tiaty East, Tiaty West (Tiaty Constituency), Baringo North (Baringo North Constituency), Marigat (Baringo South Constituency), Mogotio (Mogotio Constituency) Baringo Central (Baringo Central Constituency) and Koibatek (Eldama Ravine Constituency).

In Tangulbei, the communities are mainly pastoralists (according to the baseline conducted in the first phase 80% of households depend on pastoralism) and mostly depend on livestock and livestock products as their source of livelihood. As is often the case with disasters and crises, ActionAid International Kenya has seen that in Tangulbei and elsewhere across the country, the people most affected are women, the elderly, people with disabilities, and children. Many children drop out of school because of a lack of food and water. As a result of climate change, women-led agricultural and economic activities suffered impacts such as crop failure, water scarcity, and trade disruption due to a lack of foodstuff, milk, or meat to sell. Tangulbei experiences recurrent food insecurity due to drought, alarmingly high malnutrition levels, extreme women’s rights violations, including female genital mutilation (FGM), forced early marriages, physical abuse, and armed conflicts, including increasing inter-communal resource-based conflicts for pasture and water.

In the second phase, ActionAid International Kenya has been working with women‐led partner institutions in Tangulbei on climate change adaptation and livelihoods, governance, disaster risk reduction, peacebuilding and conflict resolution, and women’s protection. The project focused on strengthening women’s ability in resilience building, strengthening women‐led protection mechanisms, modeling community climate resilient livelihood systems, and engaging officials in the Baringo County Government and the national government on climate change adaptation policy and resource allocation/accountability. The project was implemented through partnerships and collaborations with local civil society groups, National Drought Management Authority, the county government, and the Kenya Climate Change Working group, amongst others.

An endline evaluation of phase II of the project shows that 57.1% of women were reached with kitchen garden programmes followed by (36.7%) of women who participated in Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), (30.6%) who participated in pasture management (cultivation of fodder), and a further 14.3% who participated in training on development and use of energy saving stoves (Jiko). In phase II, ActionAid International Kenya scaled up the involvement of Persons with Disabilities in its programmes. Additional information will be provided in the endline evaluation report as part of the key documents to guide this process.

The period under review started in July 2022, ActionAid International Kenya expanded the project’s geographical reach to Makueni County which similar ASAL and socio-economic characteristics. Makueni county is in the former Eastern Province of Kenya and lies between Latitude 1° 35′ and 2° 59′ South and Longitude 37° 10′ and 38° 30′ East. It borders Machakos county to the North, Kitui county to the East, Taita Taveta county to the South, and Kajiado county to the West and covers an area of 8,169.8 km2. Its capital and largest town is Wote. The county has a population of 987,653 of which 497,942 are females and 20 intersex persons. There are 77,495 households with an average household size of 5.8 persons per household and a population density of 121 people per square kilometer with an average growth of 2.8%..

The county has six sub-counties: Makueni, Kaiti, Kilome, Kibwezi East, Kibwezi West, Nzaui, and Mbooni.

Makueni County is one of the counties hard hit by drought in Kenya. The National Drought Management Authority has classified the drought in Makueni as an Alert Phase with a worsening trend. The current pasture and browse conditions are below normal compared to normal years and classified as “poor”. Within the county, the hardest hit area is the mixed-marginal livelihood zone (Kanzokea, Kithiku, and Kanthuni), where the Kathonzweni Local Rights Programmes. The current livestock body condition is below normal compared to similar periods, with rapidly declining market prices for animals affecting income for many families. The crop condition is currently nonexistent, as most areas did not plant crops due to the failed rain or their crops have withered; instead of harvesting their crops, people rely on local markets for food. Since the prices of food items have increased and people’s buying power has reduced, many families cannot afford to buy as much food as before, ending up reducing their food intake as a coping mechanism. A rapid vulnerability assessment on the impact of drought conducted in August 2022 in Kanzokea, Kithiku, and Kanthuni revealed that most households depend on just one meal per day, and many are eating even less. Importantly, these diets lack sufficient nutritional value. Many households spend over 3.5 hours per day collecting water that has low quality and quantity and barely meets household daily requirements. In a rural setting such as Makueni county, formal work is still scarce, worsening many families’ living conditions.

Baringo County has been severely affected by insecurity, primarily due to banditry and cattle rustling. The region has experienced violent attacks that have led to loss of lives, displacement of residents, and destruction of property. This insecurity has forced many residents to flee their homes, resulting in the establishment of multiple internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. With women and children being disproportionately affected by the conflict. The violence has also disrupted education, with numerous schools closing prematurely due to safety concerns. Efforts to address these challenges have included community demonstrations and calls for government intervention.

ActionAid Kenya has made significant strides in Baringo County through the African Women Voices for Peace project, focusing on women, peace, and security. Key initiatives include documenting the impact of conflict on women, organizing community sensitization forums, and conducting Training of Trainers (TOT) sessions to equip 30 women with peer-to-peer counseling skills. The project also brought together 42 women from warring communities and 7 local administration representatives for community forums. Additionally, 20 women were trained in leadership and advocacy, and 27 participants were sensitized on regional and national Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) frameworks. These efforts have empowered women to engage in peacebuilding, challenge cultural barriers, and strengthen partnerships with local and regional stakeholders.

Objectives and purpose of the evaluation

The primary purpose of the end-of-project evaluation for the ActionAid, DFAT funded, Gender Responsive Alternatives to Climate Change project phase III is to assess the extent to which the project contributed to the advancement of women’s leadership and collective voices in Kathonzweni, Makueni County & Tangulbei in Baringo counties, respectively. The evaluation will also assess enhancement of women’s ability to influence policy and decision making on climate change and related crisis at both a national and global level and the extent to which women’s power has been enhanced in ways valued and described by community women. The secondary purpose of the evaluation is to collect and collate necessary data that is needed for the project M&E framework and any other indicators as required by the donor, DFAT.

The evaluation will take place in the project locations Kathonzweni and Tangulbei as well as workshops held in Nairobi with AAA staff in Australia virtually. The Evaluator will work with and be supported by the ActionAid International Kenya Country Program staff in each location along with their partner organizations and local community women along with the Evaluation Working Group. The aims of the evaluation include;

• Empower women and build their ability in defining and measuring their own empowerment as defined by them;
• Review the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, sustainability and impact of the project by reviewing the project outcomes achieved as a result of project outputs and project approach.
• Assess the project achievements, strengths, weaknesses and implementation constraints with a view to identifying any lessons and good practice that can be incorporated into future ActionAid programming and shared in the sector.
• To collect voices on women’s transformation and shifting power dynamics specifically highlighting progress made after project interventions. This should include quotes, action photos of women together, two 3 minute clips.
• To provide recommendations to inform future projects.

The following questions should be used as a guide during the evaluation process and shall be customized based on need during the evaluation process to meet the immediate objectives of the evaluation process.

a. Women’s Empowerment

• How has the ability of women been built to advocate in global spaces?
• How have women’s leadership capabilities been strengthened?
• How have women been empowered to work in solidarity at the global level on climate change issues

b. Relevance

• How relevant were the activities at the global level in helping local women speak up and become leaders in climate change enhancing women’s decision-making capabilities?
• How relevant was the partnership approach across multiple actors (INGO, National NGOs, local partners and Research Institute) in empowering women?

c. Effectiveness

• Were the project outcomes achieved?
• How effective were the international events in empowering local women to take collective action in preparing for and responding to climate change and related crises?
• How relevant and effective was the support given to local women through the learning exchange and the grassroots academy?
• How has the gender-responsive framework enhanced women’s voices and leadership in climate change, peace and security?

d. Efficiency

• Do the project activities represent value-for-money for women at the grassroots affected by climate change?
• How well have the inputs (funds, people, material and time) been put to use to produce the intended results?
• How well has the project been managed in terms of quality of accountability, documentation, communication, partnerships, work planning and resource management in order to meet the project outcomes for women?

e. Impact

• What, if any, has been the impact of project activities on policy, planning at the global level and women involved in decision-making?
• What was the impact, both positive and negative for women, who were engaged in international events and advocacy spaces? Were there any unforeseen impacts?

f. Sustainability

• How has the project facilitated women’s long-lasting impact and engagement in policy and decision making?
• What signs are there that women will continue to use their local knowledge to be leaders in climate change space at the global level?
• What networks and solidarity has been built across counties by women of the target community?

Evaluation Approach, Methodologies and Principles

A participatory approach will be used in the evaluation ensuring participation of community women, local partner organizations and like-minded partners in the evaluation approach and design in consultation with the project team. The aim of the participatory approach will be to allow community women to drive the evaluation and will ensure the greatest ownership and transparency of results. An ethical approach should be taken and consent from women involved should be sought and results obtained validated with them. Final evaluation results will be presented in ways suitable to the final intended audience and reports disseminated in accessible ways for different stakeholders to maximize the extent to which findings and lessons learnt can be utilized.

The consultant will be responsible for producing a comprehensive mixed-method methodology as well as a detailed work plan for delivering the endline survey. The methodology developed must include sampling procedure and representative sample size; data collection tools; and data analysis methods. An initial brief but clear methodology will be submitted in the technical offer and will be part of the assessment for selecting the successful consultant. All data, qualitative and quantitative, collected and reviewed through the survey must be disaggregated by sex, age and disability as a minimum. The successful consultant will be expected to operate within AA global feminist principles

ActionAid’s evaluation principles should be adhered to and are as follows:

• Promote participation and agency of community women and men at all stages of the evaluation (planning, data collection and analysis, and communications)
• Generate useful learning through the process and outputs of evaluation
• Promote women’s rights, ensuring full participation of women, engaging women’s rights expertise and ensuring gender and age disaggregated data
• Recognize and analyze power relationships at all stages of the evaluation, including compliance with Child Protection and other ethical standards related to protection, including the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
• Promote accountability, primarily to people living in poverty and exclusion and to supporters and donors
• Be transparent, by presenting clear reports
• Reflect evidence and rigor through credible research methodology
• Link to monitoring and learning, building on existing information and actively promoting evaluation findings
• Build Partnerships through communication and collaboration
• Draw the link between community-level results and the broader context to identify factors related to structural change (social movements, policy change, cultural shifts)
• Reflect tools – ActionAid’s feminist leadership guidelines to be incorporated in the evaluation process ActionAid’s Feminist Research Guidelines: https://actionaid.org/sites/default/files/publications/ActionAid%20Feminist%20Research%20Guidelines_2021.pdf
• Inclusive Systemic evaluation for gender equality, environments and Marginalized voices https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/Library/Publications/2018/ISE4GEMs-A-new-approach-for-the-SDG-era-en.pdf
• Promote credible and sustainable alternatives.

Scope of the review

Using a feminist approach to monitoring and evaluation, the consultant will be

required to undertake the following:

• Review the relevant project documents as well as relevant ActionAid and to inform the literature review and provide secondary data for the baseline report.
• Develop and provide a workplan, inception report and tools that will guide the collection of the endline data and development of the draft report.
• Conduct the endline survey using methodology and tools developed and approved by ActionAid International’s Kenya (AAIK) team, with support from ActionAid Australia
• Train and supervise the data collection enumerators for data quality assurance.
• Analyse data collected, compile and interpret for compilation into a draft report. To develop a draft and final report, this will include a comprehensive and rigorous endline data collection methodology and tools, methods for analysis and proposed structure for the final report.
• Populate the results framework with the endline data collected
• Conduct gender, disability and women’s right analysis

Develop and present a summary PPT and presentation of key findings and recommendations. This should include videos, action photos and quotes from the community including women with disability.

Reporting requirements;

The evaluator is expected to hold an inception meeting with AAIK and AAA team upon signing of the contract to agree on how the assignment will be undertaken in the two counties, the proposed methodologies, and approaches as well as the reviewed budgets upon negotiations. The evaluator is expected to provide the raw and analyzed information including action photographs of participatory process during the evaluation. Consent must be obtained before any photos are taken. A 2-page summary of the report shall be provided in addition to the full report Upon review and finalization with the team.

Expected Timetable

The consultant and team will prepare a work plan that will operationalize and direct the endline survey. The work plan will describe the endline survey to be carried out, bringing refinements, specificity, and elaboration to this ToR. The assignment is expected to be carried out within a period of upto 6 weeks. Field work is expected to be carried out for 5 days in Baringo county and Makueni Counties. The assignment schedule will be approved by the Programmes and Strategy lead as the agreement between parties on how the evaluation will be conducted.

Deliverable

Timelines

1. Inception report

To be submitted within 7 days of signing the contract

2. Data collection in the 2 Kathonzweni and Tangulbei project areas

To be undertaken between 2nd –June and 13th June 2025

3. Draft report

To be completed by 25th June 2025

4. Reviews

To be completed by 15th July 2025

5. Final report

To be submitted by 20th July 2025

Budget

• The evaluator is expected to give a detailed breakdown of financial proposal budget outlining the professional fees, withholding tax, mode of payment and administration costs. The budget should align with the workplan and demonstrate value for money and that maximizes potential efficiencies to deliver the outputs within budget and any other relevant details.

Evaluator technical areas and qualifications

• The evaluator is expected to give a detailed breakdown of financial proposal budget outlining the professional fees, withholding tax, mode of payment and administration costs. The budget should align with the workplan and demonstrate value for money and that maximizes potential efficiencies to deliver the outputs within budget and any other relevant details.
• Experience in qualitative and quantitative methodology, methods, tools and analysis and visualization.
• Experience in participatory and community-led approaches
• Masters in Qualitative Economics, Development Studies, Climate Change, Environmental Science
• Female evaluators are highly encouraged to submit their bids for this evaluation
• Demonstrable knowledge and skills in development and use of online data collection methods and tools for data collection and analysis.
• Evidence of strong downward accountability mechanisms used with project stakeholders/research participants to actively share results and learning.
• Evidence of use of ethical considerations and methodological measures that respect the rights of all stakeholders
• Evidence of successfully designing and managing large-scale, rigorous and robust research processes and evaluations.
• Evidence of producing clear, concise and high-quality reports in English and action photos.
• Curriculum Vitae and a letter of interest briefly describing his/her understanding of the task, experience, and qualifications to work and deliver on the assignment.
• Technical proposal (not exceeding 5 pages): The technical proposal should reflect the consultant’s understanding of the task and how he/she intends to satisfactorily deliver on the task/ methodology. The applicant will provide a detailed work plan of specific activities and a timetable for carrying out the assignment.
• Copies of two previous works – RELATED to this task.
• Two referees who can certify that the consultant has successfully undertaken and delivered a similar assignment in the past.