Job Description

TOR for Consultancy Service to Assess the Impacts of Brooke Ethiopia’s Programs in three intervention Regions (Amhara, Oromiya and SNNPR)

I. Introduction and Background

Brooke is an international non-governmental organization which is dedicated to improving the lives of working horses, donkeys and mules around the world by working with individuals, groups and organizations. Brooke’s work also aims to benefit the people who rely on these animals for their livelihoods. Brooke was established in 1934. Currently it has Programmes in nine countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Ethiopia has one of the largest equine populations in the world, with more than 12 million equids98.8 million of donkeys,2.2 million horses and 0.4 million mules) These animals are very important in the farming and transport system of the country, and provide a lifeline for millions of Ethiopians .A donkey in rural Ethiopia is projected to serve 2-3 households The rapid growth in Ethiopia’s population has resulted in increased demands for working equids for the transport of goods and people in many areas.

Equines play a key role in the national economy where they serve as a lifeline for 85% of Ethiopians in rural communities and semi urban enclaves committed in supporting and engaging in transport services of different types. They are engaged in transporting activities such as transporting seeds and fertilizers and transporting agricultural products to different markets. In view of their indispensable services they provide, it is said a farmer without donkeys is a donkey himself ,Despite their significance to both rural and urban livelihoods, equines continue to live under difficult conditions due to poor handling and management practices, and limited access to quality animal health services.

Brooke got registered and started its operation in Ethiopia in 2006, initially in three regions of the country - Oromia, Amhara and Southern Nations and Nationalities Peoples Region (SNNPR) - mainly through forging partnership with Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development (at that time), and Bureaus of Livestock and Fishery Development at present. At the national level, Brooke engaged with important actors and proactively supported policy related work as a first step to creating platform for dialogue with key stakeholders to developing animal welfare legislation getting to be approved by the parliament.

Over the past years, Brooke has drawn important lessons regarding the delivery of effective equine health services through capacity building for government clinics and health posts, as well as supporting other non-health service providers, such as farriers. It has also achieved good results in transferring knowledge and skills equine welfare to improve attitude and practices on equine welfare and husbandry. Besides the organization has been committed in the construction water schemes to ensure the provision of safe drinking water for households and their equines in rural communities where the challenges of accessing safe drinking water is quite eminent and water borne diseases are widespread.

BE strategies remain dynamic but as long as they serve meet objectives that are based on good lessons learnt we keep them having. To deliver our mission, we follow different intervention modalities, including capacity building and focusing in the following basic programmatic interventions; these are

1.     Improving access to vet services by construction health posts and equipping them with basic equipment and strengthening services through the provision of drugs. Brooke has invested a total of 20,689,765.24 ETB for the construction of the 16 developmental

2.     Constructing animal shelters: Brooke Ethiopia is constructing shelters for animals to serve them as a shade. So far Brooke has invested a total of 12.1 million ETB for the construction of 9 shelters in Oromia and Southern regional state. The shelters have served over 70000 equines in 2020/2021 only.

3.     Improving access to safe drinking water by constructing water schemes in hard to reach area and alleviating multiple problems associated with access to safe drinking water. So far Brooke has invested a total of 18,519,949.33 ETB for the construction of 16 water projects in Oromia and Southern regional state.

4.     Organizing SHG groups to cultivate the culture of saving and improving access to credit opportunities to diversify and improve household livelihood status. There are 52 rural and 23 urban small saving groups. Every group consists of 20 members on average. For every saving group, Brooke has provided 70000 ETB (on average as a seed money

5.    Capacity building: So far Brooke have equipped 321 health post professional with the necessary skill. These veterinarians are currently working in government owned heath centres. And also Brooke has man-aged to train over 20 shoe makers

II: Objective of the assessment

1.     To undertake a comprehensive impact assessment of the organization's engagement in the above areas of its work to track the positive and negative impacts of Brooke’s project intervention during the intervention period 

2.     To collect authentic data and analyze them to measures the pragmatic changes achieved in improving animal welfare and improvement household livelihood status

3.     To collect and document best practices and success stories as parts of knowledge management and replication

III Expected Methodologies

The consultancy team/firm is expected to use appropriate and relevant methodologies to undertake the assignments. The methodologies expected to be used will be more qualitative with inclusion of quantitative information as much as possible for better quality of data and triangulation. It is necessary that the consultant employ triangulation techniques to cross-examine findings. The assessment is also expected to have a participatory approach that engages local stakeholders including respective government offices at regional, Woreda, and kebele levels, community structures and as much as possible community members as key informants (women and men).

 Hence the main methodologies to be used for data collection include:

- Desk review of documents

- Key informant interviews:

- Discussion with field staff and stakeholders

- Household survey

- Case stories

- Visit different schemes in the above area

The assessment of program performance should have a special emphasis on:

1.     Physical inventory of infrastructures, audit and status report (shelter, health posts and water scheme development) 

2.     Relevance – how and to what extent the BE program activities consistent with target group’s needs, local condition requirements, and institutional priorities?

3.     Effectiveness – to what extent the BE program interventions contributed to the project high level objectives and outcomes, and the level of achievement in terms of undertaking activities as per the project design?

4.     Efficiency – are the BE program inputs and resources translated into concrete results in an economically feasible manner (based on the assessment of implementation delays, technical capacity issues; operational efficiency, and the economic rates of return)?

5.     Sustainability – to what extent the BE program intervention benefits extend beyond the project duration including the assessment of the anticipated results and risks?

6.     Impact – what are the actual and expected changes occurred in the rural community and target group (including positive and negative, direct and indirect) as a result of project interventions;

7.     Gender Equality and Women Empowerment – to what extent the BE program contributed to the gender equality and empowerment as outlined in the project design documents?

IV: Expected deliverables

·        Impact Assessment Inception Report – to be submitted within three calendar weeks of the date of contract signing. This report will include a fully elaborated Impact Assessment proposal including the approach and proposed survey instruments, sampling frames and sampling methodology, interviewing method, number of FGDs and the number of participants and locations, draft questionnaires and other survey tools, data processing and analysis methodology, outline of the final report and schedule of activities;

·        Pilot Survey Report – This report will provide the results of a small pilot survey together with proposed changes to the survey instrument and questionnaire;

·        Draft Impact Assessment Reports – for both household survey and FGD to be submitted within eight calendar weeks of the date of contract signing;

·        Final Impact Assessment Reports – to be submitted after one calendar week of the date of submission of draft impact survey report. The final reports should be written in a clear and simple style, documenting the results of the Impact Assessment in accordance with the above terms of reference. The report will be written based on the submitted and approved outline during the preparation phase;

·        Final Workshop – within one calendar week of the submission of the Impact Assessment Report, the results should be presented to BE staff and representatives of different partners and stakeholders.

The Final Impact Assessment Report will be submitted in English in three 3 copies. All reports and data collected must be provided to BE , together with copies of all questionnaires, audio/video recordings (if any), transcripts and all other relevant material and information collected or generated during the survey.

V. Responsibilities

5.1 Responsibilities of the consultant

The consultant apart from the detailed responsibilities mentioned above, will be is responsible for the following:

§ Preparation and timely submission of a technical proposal with detailed methodologies, activity plan and schedule and a detailed financial proposal to Brooke Ethiopia and the proposals should be done based on the terms put on this TOR.

§ After being selected, develop an inception report with detail work plan and methodologies including tools for data collection and reporting.

§ Avail technically competent team members for the activity and makes sure that all the selected technical persons are actually actively involved in the activities.

§ Conduct the assessment as per the agreed plan in the selected areas

§ Make sure that all the planned assessment activities are performed as per the prepared schedule and with the required quality.

§ Prepare and timely Request Brooke for all supports needed in facilitating communication with government stakeholders, partners and community members.

§ Explore, Gather and review external documents and the Brooke provided internal documents relevant to the assessment is highly dependent on document reviews due to the prevailing contextual challenges.

5.2 Responsibilities of The Brooke

Brooke will be responsible for the following:

§ Evaluate, provide feedback and approve the inception report with activity and financial plans submitted by the selected consultant.

§ Facilitate the process in terms of making contacts to relevant stakeholders (including letters), partner organizations, relevant institutions and people.

§ Provision of all the necessary internal background documents, along with partners and available external documents for desk review by the consultant.

§ Provide the necessary assistance, monitoring and follow-up to the consultancy activity

§ Review the findings of draft report and provide timely feedback to the consultant.

§ Brooke will be responsible for facilitating timely payment to the consultant upon fulfilment of the terms put on the contractual agreement.

VI. Requirements and expected competencies

An external consultancy firm shall undertake this consultancy activity. The prospective consultancy team or individual to undertake the assignment should have the necessary professional background with practical experience in carrying out similar assignments and updated knowledge in the thematic areas

Specifically, the prospective consultancy team or individual should have

§ A professional mix of advanced degree in Social science (Sociology, Development studies, economics and related fields), mixed with qualifications or strong experience on animal health, livelihood development or related fields.

§ At least of 5 years Practical experience in undertaking similar assignments of assessment or evaluation in the grass root community preferably on animal health , equine or livelihood projects.

§ A demonstrated high level of professionalism and an ability to work independently under tight deadlines.

§ Good understanding of the NGO in Ethiopia and updated knowledge of related country policies is required.

§ Excellent English report writing skills, Strong interpersonal communication skills as well as proficiency in written and spoken English; Knowledge of Amharic is a plus.

§ Strong computer skills including very good capacity for data processing and analysis

VII: Submission of the technical and financial proposal

On the basis of this terms of reference, the technical proposal is expected to include sections involving a short background of the consultancy team/firm/person, the profile of the team members/person to be involved in the activity including professional background and relevant experience, understanding of the TOR, activities of the consultancy work, detail work plan and methodologies to be used. The financial proposal is expected to specify all the costs related to undertaking the consultancy assignment and should include taxes.

Interested consultants should submit their technical proposal (with detailed work plan) and financial proposal latest by ------- before close of business (5:00 PM) to --------------------

The consultant/firm should also submit a copy of the certificate of registration, valid business license for the Ethiopian FY 2013 and VAT or TOT registration. Brooke will deduct all appropriate taxes and pay to the relevant government authority. Brooke- Ethiopia reserves the right to cancel part or the entire bid/consultancy.

The following are expected to be part of the application

§ Cover letter

§ Technical and Financial proposal: include; brief explanation emphasis on previous experience, understanding of TOR and the task to be accomplished

§ A copy of a report of previously conducted similar activity by the consultant. 

§ Resume(CV)s with References mentioned

§ Renewed trade license, registration certificate, TIN registration certificate

IX. Payment modalities

The payment for the consultancy will be effective within three instalments, 30% initial payment upon signing of the contract agreement and another 30% upon the production and submission of the Assessment draft report and the remaining balance of 40% upon submission of the final report of the consultancy. Brooke will retain 2% withholding tax from the consultancy fee if it has TIN and license other wise 30% rule will be applied in accordance with the Ethiopian revenue tax procedures

Time line

The consultancy is expected to start as possible, ideally from Mid-September 2021 and will be completed at the end of October by which time the consultant is expected to submit his impact assessment report along with selected success stories under different sectors of Brooke Ethiopia’s engagement

Job Requirements

Requirements and expected competencies

An external consultancy firm shall undertake this consultancy activity. The prospective consultancy team or individual to undertake the assignment should have the necessary professional background with practical experience in carrying out similar assignments and updated knowledge in the thematic areas

Specifically, the prospective consultancy team or individual should have

• A professional should have MA or BA Degree in Social science (Sociology, Development studies, economics and related fields), mixed with qualifications or strong experience on animal health, livelihood development or related fields.
• At least of 5 years Practical experience in undertaking similar assignments of assessment or evaluation in the grass root community preferably on animal health , equine or livelihood projects.
• A demonstrated high level of professionalism and an ability to work independently under tight deadlines
• Good understanding of the NGO in Ethiopia and updated knowledge of related country policies is required
• Excellent English report writing skills, Strong interpersonal communication skills as well as proficiency in written and spoken English; Knowledge of Amharic is a plus
• Strong computer skills including very good capacity for data processing and analysis

How to Apply

The Brooke Ethiopia invites those who are interested and fulfill the above criteria’s are eligible to apply to HR Department, Brooke Ethiopia Office located around 22, away to 24 Kebelle near Christmas Hospital) within 10 consecutive days starting from August 19, 2021 to August 29, 2021.For further information or support contact Tel. 0116610069

NB: Those who satisfy the criteria indicated above will be considered for selection and those who win the offer shall be awarded the jobs. Applicants are expected to submit their copy of TIN number and Trade License. Brooke Ethiopia shall withhold 2% if the individual consultant has a TIN number & License or 30% where he/she does not have a TIN number & License as per the Ethiopian Tax legislation. Technical proposal, including resume of the consultants with supporting documents, printout documents that show previous work experience, names and contact information of a minimum of two previous clients, and financial proposals should be submitted separately in a sealed envelope on or before August 29, 2021 in person.