TERMS OF REFERENCE TO HIRE A CONSULTANCY FIRM TO CARRY OUT A FINAL EVALUATION OF THE TUBEHO NEZA AHEZA PROJECT

1 Introduction

Caritas Rwanda is a non-profit organization legally registered, with the mission to assist people in need and foster their integral human development. Caritas Rwanda has more than 60 years of working experience in building poor families’ resilience through development, social welfare, and health interventions.

In July 2024, Caritas Rwanda signed an agreement with Caritas Slovenia to coordinate the Tubeho Neza Aheza project: ‘Together for a life of dignity and equality in a healthy environment in Rwanda in Karongi district in Rwanda’. The project intends to enhance access to natural and financial resources, reduce gender inequality and gender-based violence (GBV), with a focus on women and girls in 1,595 impoverished households.

2. Background

The Tubeho Neza Aheza Project aims to improve the well-being, livelihoods, and resilience of vulnerable populations in Gashari, Rugabano, Mutuntu, and Rwankuba sectors of Karongi District. The project focuses on improving sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural practices and food production; increasing awareness of environmental protection; improving access to safe water, sanitation, hygiene, and irrigation through efficient use of water resources; and strengthening participants’ capacity to use natural resources and engage in income-generating activities. It also promotes access to financial resources, women’s and girls’ participation in household economic decision-making, and community knowledge and capacity to prevent and respond to GBV/SGBV and resolve conflicts. Through these interventions, the project contributes particularly to SDG 5: Gender Equality, SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, and SDG 13: Climate Action.

To implement the project, Caritas Rwanda received funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and Caritas Slovenia, with Caritas Nyundo/Kibuye responsible for implementing project activities. Caritas Rwanda therefore intends to engage a qualified consultancy firm to conduct a final evaluation to assess the results and changes resulting from the project interventions among the target population in the four sectors. The findings will measure the extent to which the project has achieved its intended results, identify key lessons, and inform future programming and decision-making by Caritas Rwanda, its partners, donors, and other stakeholders.

3. Objectives of the assignment

The evaluation will assess the project against the OECD DAC evaluation criteria of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability, while giving particular attention to the project's contribution to gender equality, human rights, environmental protection, reduction of inequalities, and the relevant Sustainable Development Goals.

The evaluation will assess the project's intervention logic, including the coherence between inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and intended impacts. The consultant will assess the key assumptions and contextual factors that influenced the achievement of results and identify any gaps between the planned and actual intervention pathway.

4. Key Evaluation Questions

The evaluation will be guided by the OECD DAC evaluation criteria and the evaluation guidelines for Slovenia’s International Development Cooperation. The consultant will refine the evaluation questions during the inception phase in consultation with Caritas Rwanda and Caritas Slovenia.

4.1 Relevance and Coherence

• To what extent were the project objectives and interventions relevant to the needs and priorities of the target population and aligned with Rwanda’s policies, strategies, and relevant Sustainable Development Goals?
• To what extent did the project respond to changes in the context and complement other interventions by government and development partners?
• To what extent were gender equality, human rights, environmental protection, and inclusion considered in the project design and implementation?

4.2 Effectiveness

• To what extent were the intended project objectives and results achieved across the key intervention areas?
• What factors contributed to or hindered the achievement of results?
• To what extent did the project reach the intended participants, including women and other vulnerable groups, and were there any unintended or negative effects?
• How effective was coordination among Caritas, local authorities, communities, and other relevant stakeholders?

4.3 Efficiency

• To what extent were financial, human, technical, and time resources used efficiently to achieve the planned results?
• Were the project activities implemented in a timely and cost-effective manner, and did the results justify the resources invested?
• What lessons can inform the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of future programming?

4.4 Impact

• What significant changes in the well-being, livelihoods, resilience, food security, empowerment, and living conditions of project participants can be observed?
• To what extent did the project contribute to changes in gender equality, human rights, environmental protection, climate resilience, WASH, and reduction of inequalities?
• What positive or negative unintended changes occurred, and to what extent can the observed changes be reasonably associated with the project interventions?
• Where feasible, the consultant should propose an appropriate comparison group to strengthen the assessment of project contribution.

4.5 Sustainability

• To what extent are the benefits and results of the project likely to continue after donor funding ends?
• What institutional, financial, technical, social, and environmental factors are likely to influence the sustainability of project results?
• What measures are needed to strengthen the sustainability of project achievements?

5. Description and Coverage of the Assignment

Description of the Assignment:

The final evaluation implementation will be carried out by the contractor with support from Caritas Rwanda and Caritas Nyundo/ Kibuye. The contractor will provide the English version of the questionnaire to be used for the assignment and will later provide its version translated into Kinyarwanda. During the final evaluation, the contractor will have to physically meet the project beneficiaries at the field level to collect data, based on the sampling method proposed and agreed on. Caritas Rwanda will provide the contractor with a final selection of beneficiaries and households to be included in the final evaluation. The assignment should be completed in 20 calendar days. In this final evaluation, the contractor is advised to use a control group to better understand and motivate changes that occurred thanks to the project implementation. 

Coverage of the Assignment(s): 

The final evaluation will be conducted among a representative sample selected from the total population of 1,495 project participants across the Rugabano, Rwankuba, Mutuntu, and Gashari Sectors. The consultant (firm) will be responsible for proposing an appropriate sampling methodology and determining the sample size to ensure that the findings are representative and statistically reliable.

6. Expected Outputs - Deliverables

a. Adetailed Inception report showing the methodology with research tools (questionnaires; interview guide) and approach to conduct the assignment. The inception report should also include ethical considerations and a literature review showing existing findings in the domain of intervention. The inception report will also include a detailed action plan with a timeline to accomplish all assigned tasks. The approved inception report should be submitted within 3 calendar days after signing the contract. 

b. Data collection, analysis, and Draft quantitative report include the research findings. Caritas Rwanda will review the report and provide comments and inputs to be addressed by the consultant. The draft report should be submitted 15 calendar days after the inception report.

c. The final evaluation report should be submitted 5 days after in English and provide clear, evidence-based responses to the agreed evaluation questions. At a minimum, it shall include:

• Executive summary, presenting the key findings, conclusions, and prioritised recommendations, including a summary table.
• Project context and intervention logic, including the project background, objectives, target population, geographical coverage, theory of change/logical framework, and key assumptions.
• Evaluation methodology, including the evaluation design, sampling and sample size, data collection and analysis methods, ethical considerations, and comparison/control group approach where applicable.
• Findings and analysis, structured around the agreed OECD DAC evaluation criteria: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability, including cross-cutting issues such as gender equality, human rights, environmental protection, climate resilience, and inclusion.
• Contribution to SDGs, particularly SDGs 5, 6, and 13.
• Conclusions, lessons learned, and actionable recommendations, clearly distinguished and supported by the evidence.
• Limitations and data quality, including potential biases, sampling and non-response limitations, and measures taken to ensure validity and reliability.
• Stakeholder feedback, including major comments and any significant unresolved differences of opinion.
• Annexes, including data collection tools, documents reviewed, sampling details, relevant statistical tables, and list of stakeholders consulted.

The report should clearly distinguish between findings, conclusions, lessons learned, and recommendations, and ensure that all agreed evaluation questions are adequately addressed.

7. Required Qualifications

Team leader (essential):

• A university degree in economics, social sciences, statistics, or a related discipline, plus a minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience or a post-graduate degree plus a minimum of 3 years of relevant professional experience in livelihoods-related areas, socioeconomic research, and evaluation studies is required.
• A minimum of 3 years of experience in quantitative and qualitative analysis and synthesis of community engagement and capacity-building interventions in development settings is required.
• Proven experience leading baseline/end-of-line/evaluation final evaluation teams and managing fieldwork in complex environments.
• Extensive experience in developing useful and actionable recommendations for management and programming.
• A track record of producing professional, clear, and concise statistical reports in English

Team member – statistician/data analyst (essential)

• A university degree in statistics (statistical analysis) and/or data science, as well as at least 5 years of relevant experience in quantitative data analysis, are required.
• Proven data analysis and R coding experience
• Experience with complex final evaluation design, development, testing, and implementation, as well as analysis.
• Knowledge and experience with quantitative final evaluation design methodologies, sampling design procedures, sample size calculations, variance estimation, compound weights, and simulation studies are required.
• Experience with data quality assurance protocols and data collection in the domains of sampling and measurement error, non-response, and coverage bias is required to ensure reliable data collection.

8. About the Bid Preparation 

• Technical proposal

The applicant should prepare a technical proposal for carrying out the described final evaluation, which should include the general approach to carrying out the final evaluation as well as specific ways of dealing with challenges anticipated for the proposed final evaluation. The technical proposal should demonstrate how the proposed evaluation methodology will respond to each of the evaluation criteria and questions outlined in these ToR, including relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, and cross-cutting issues.

The methodology, as well as data collection methods and analysis tools, will be outlined in the technical proposal. The proposal should also describe the approach to ensuring the high quality of the collected data, which is critical to the final evaluation's success. The proposal should describe the firm's staffing and organizational structure, as well as detailed proposed activity timelines. The proposal will also include plans for piloting data generation tools and training enumerators. A summary of relevant qualifications and experience with at least three good completion certificates of similar final evaluations should be provided. Any other technical or administrative information should be provided to increase the consultant/firm chances of being the winner.

• Financial proposal 

The financial proposal should include a breakdown of the proposed budget by relevant major activities, as well as a narrative describing the rationale for the proposed activities, as well as the corresponding timeline and budget breakdown. The financial proposal must include a detailed description of the proposed fieldwork model, including team size and composition, modes of transportation, and any assumptions upon which the budget is based. The budget should identify unit costs and quantities for each activity.

9. Milestones and Payment Instalments

• Submission of the approved inception report– 50%;
• Submission of the draft quantitative report including the research findings – 30%, assuming data quality and analysis are satisfactory and the whole targeted population was achieved (this payment is only made when Caritas Rwanda is satisfied that the data is to the standard expected)
• Submission of the final report with all deliverables submitted – 20%

10. Evaluation criteria 

Applications will be assessed based on cost reasonableness (30%) and technical competence (70%).

 11. The Application file must be comprised of

1. Letter expressing interest in carrying out the consultancy service required;
2. CV (s) of the consultant (s);
3. A technical proposal written in English describing the background, methodology, and timeline;
4. Notarized copies of Academic and Professional qualifications of the Consultant (s);
5. A copy of RDB registration certificates;
6. A copy of the RRA (VAT) Registration certificate;
7. A copy of Proof of EBM Possession;
8. A copy of a valid RRA Tax clearance certificate;
9. A copy of a valid RSSB clearance certificate;
10. A copy of a certificate of data controller provided by the national Data Protection Office 
11. Good completion certificates from the previous final evaluations conducted (at least 3 certificates of successful similar work in the last 5 years);
12. Financial proposal (Price quotation).

N.B: Submission of all administrative documents listed above is mandatory, and non-submission of one of said documents will cause the rejection of the offer.

 Evaluation of technical proposal 

The submitted technical proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria: 

OVERALL RESPONSE 10 pts

• Understanding of the terms of reference and responsiveness to Caritas Rwanda requirements 
• Understanding of scope, objectives, and completeness of response
• Overall concord between Caritas Rwanda’s requirements and the proposal

METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH 30 pts

• Quality of the proposed approach and methodology 
• Suitability: To what extent the methodology is designed in response to the needs of the TOR 
• Quality of proposed implementation plan, i.e. how will the applicant undertake each task to meet the deadline? 

RISK MANAGEMENT 20 pts

• Risk assessment and risk management plan - recognition of the risks/peripheral problems and methods to prevent and manage risks/peripheral problems, troubleshooting issues in the field.

ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITY and PROPOSED TEAM 40 pts

• Professional expertise of the consultancy firm, knowledge and experience with similar projects, list of clients served, and consulting assignments; 
• Organization of the team and roles & responsibilities: 
• Team leader: Relevant experience, qualifications, and a team leader who is the Chief Executive Officer or Managing Director is preferable.
• Key Team members (especially data analysts – should have studied statistics or Economics with Relevant experience, skills & competencies);
• Timelines proposed must be detailed and be based on the ToRs; 

 Evaluation of financial proposal 

The financial proposal has a total score of 30 points. The financial proposal will be judged against the overall proposed budget and financial resources available. 

 How to apply

Interested applicants with the required skills and competencies are required to send their offers, including technical and financial proposals, through the email tenders@caritasrwanda.org no later than Monday, 7th September 2026 (by 2:00 p.m. Kigali Time). Late applications will be rejected
 

Done at Kigali on 28th August 2026