Terms of Reference for hiring an international or national consultancy firm to conduct:  

‘’An impact study of Community Score Card (CSC) in Rwanda’’  under the implementation framework of the

 Public Policy Information Monitoring and Advocacy (PPIMA) Programme  

1. Background and justification 

The Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) is a non-governmental organisation with roots in trade unions and labour movements. NPA supports processes towards democracy and equitable distribution of power. The international strategy affirms civil society as a key pillar for nation building; democracy and development, and views human rights as building blocks for development and redistribution. NPA has been working in Rwanda since 1994.

Since 2009, through the Public Policy Information Monitoring and Advocacy (PPIMA), Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) acting in partnership with selected national and local CSOs has been implementing the Community Score Card (CSC). The latter is a social accountability tool that has throughout offered an opportunity to the citizens, decision-makers and different service providers (private as well public) to interact over issues of collective concerns and collaboratively seek relevant solutions and accordingly influence relevant policy, legal and institutional practice changes. 

The CSC, though not an invention of Rwanda, is a participatory process that has been adapted to the Rwandan realities and governance context and is designed to engage communities in assessing and giving feedback on the quality and effectiveness of public services they receive and meaningfully participate in the budget preparation and implementation processes. The Scorecard engages both ‘Service Users’ (citizens) and ‘Service Providers’ in a constructive discussion on the issues that affect service delivery. It then brings them together to share their perspectives and develop a joint action plan to improve services. It also facilitates citizen participation in the preparation process of development plan, budget and performance contract (Imihigo) of their own district.  

Under its current Rwandan version, the CSC process involves a sequence of four stages which are organised and facilitated by community elected Governance Focal Persons (GFPs) at cell and sector levels and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) at the District level.  

Image 1: Simplified overview of the CSC process 

Implemented universally in 19 districts of Rwanda, the CSC has become one of the most acclaimed tools and processes of enhancing (quality) citizen participation that Rwanda has witnessed in its post-genocide era along the transformational governance continuum. While evidence suggests that there are significant differences in terms of the quality of citizen participation practices observed between the districts whereby the CSC is implemented and where it is not, this is yet to be sufficiently documented. 

In February 2023, in what seems to be a first national level move towards its institutionalization as one of the working models of citizen participation, the GoR, through the mouthpiece of MINECOFIN, encouraged autonomous decentralized administrative entities (CoK and districts) to use the CSC as one of the best available approaches towards better citizen-centric local planning and budgeting for the period spanning between 2023 and 2026. NPA and partner CSOs were challenged though to take the CSC to all 30 districts of Rwanda if it was to become a full national story that the country at large could proudly associate with. 

A recent mapping and effectiveness assessment^[1] of existing citizen participation practices in Rwanda concluded that ‘’… non-state-led practices, especially the Community scorecard (CSC), appear to have game-changing potential for more effective participation in planning processes, especially if implemented in conjunction with state-led practice like the citizens’ assembly’’^[2]. Nearly after 15 years of the CSC process implementation, the different changes in citizen participation outcomes that can be directly or indirectly attributed to this process haven’t been sufficiently documented, hence the need to close this gap. 

It is against the above background that Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), is seeking to hire the services of a credible international or national consultancy company to conduct a CSC impact study combined with a delivery cost analysis.

2. Objectives 

The main objective of this assignment is to examine the citizen participation impact (intended and unintended, direct and or indirect) created by the CSC over the last 14 years of implementation. The idea here is to not only determine whether and how the CSC has unambiguously improved the citizen participation outcomes for the different participants who experienced but also to determine if it delivered what it was designed to improve or whether and it improved other outcomes and how.   

More specifically, the assignment seeks to:

1. Examine, retroactively, the long-term changes^[3] in terms of enhancing citizen participation along the state-citizens’ relations that were created and or contributed to by the CSC across the 19 districts whereby it has been implemented;
2. Quantify and determine what it takes in terms of costs but also in terms of time, human, financial and logistical resources to impactfully implement the CSC per roll-out at the most basic level of engagement, i.e. the Cell, and beyond;
3. In light of the emerging outstanding impacts observed, determine any major observable differences (if any) in terms of quality citizen participation dynamics along the state-citizens’ relations amongst the districts whereby the CSC has been implemented versus to where it is not implemented yet;
4. Document the lessons learnt along the way about what works versus what does not to deliver an impactful citizen participation experience through the CSC model and formulate recommendations for its potential scalability to districts whereby it is yet to be implemented.

3. Relevance of the assignment and potential use of the findings 

The impact study findings and ensuing recommendations will be used in many ways, amongst which:

• To sufficiently document the citizen participation impacts that the CSC has created and or contributed to;
• To inform possible decisions about future scale-up of the CSC to the remaining 11 districts of Rwanda where it has not been implemented so far;
• To inform learnings about what is working versus what is not amongst relevant actors, state like non-state, implementing or seeking to implement models of citizen participation at the community level in Rwanda and beyond;
• To back-up NPA and partners’ ongoing advocacy efforts towards the institutionalization of the CSC as one way of ensuring its long-lasting sustainability in future;
• To inform efforts by the Government and other relevant stakeholders towards adopting and institutionalising a model of citizen participation that better enhances the quality of state-citizens’ relations given the history and governance context of Rwanda, particularly at this time when the need for institutionalisation of a working model of citizen participation practice is gaining more ground amongst the governance and decentralisation sector stakeholders.  

4. Scope of work 

The scope of work will include but is not limited to: 

• Set up, mobilise and manage a relevant team (core team and support team) that will deliver the assignment;
• Identify and review relevant secondary data available on the impact of the CSC, including but not limited to NPA programmatic reports, partners’ reports, etc.;
• Define the overriding impact study questions;
• Clearly define the impact study design;
• Design relevant data collection instruments against which the desired data will be collected;
• Define the study population and sample size in accordance with the best industry standards;
• Develop a comprehensive matrix for recruiting relevant study participants;
• Prepare a detailed work breakdown plan and timeframe for each key deliverable;
• Identify the key skillsets needed for each key deliverable and accordingly match the team of experts;
• Develop an inception report of not more than 10 pages (annexes not included), outlining in full details the methodology to be applied along with the work plan and composition of the team assigned to different tasks together with their different roles;
• Develop relevant data collection instruments, ensuring that they meet high quality standards;
• Prepare the necessary documentation to support the application for the study preauthorisation by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) and the research visa by the

National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) respectively;

• Hire and manage a team of capable field-research assistants and facilitators and ensure that they are adequately briefed about the assignment as well as trained on ethical and high-quality data collection;
• Collect primary data relevant for the study in at least 5 CSC-covered districts and 5 non-CSC covered districts;
• Manage, process and analyse the data collected with the support of a dedicated software;
• Transcribe all primary data, including the audio/visually recorded data, into textual data format and avail soft copies to NPA;
• Sort-out, process and analyse data collected from the field;
• Produce the draft zero, first draft and final draft reports, ensuring they are written in a practical language rather than hard-to-grasp academic language;
• Edit and proofread the study findings report;
• Present the impact study findings to the client (NPA) and partner CSOs and at least to one multi-stakeholders’ learning event;
• Closely coordinate with the documentary film production team on the outstanding impact of the CSC and ensure that it not only matches with the key findings meets but also that it meets high quality standards for such nature of analytical works.

5. Preferred methodology 

NPA strongly encourages a mixed method (qualitative & quantitative) impact study combining the use of participatory outcome harvesting approaches that allow to qualitatively collect or harvest evidence of what has changed (intended and or unintended outcomes) and work backwards to determine whether and how the CSC has contributed to those changes. In the process of harvesting the changes, NPA encourages the use of the Group Analysis Methods (GAMs) which qualitatively allows for co-identification and co-verification of change claims as well as the co-creation of knowledge around those changes. To the extent possible, NPA would also encourage to apply a quantitative methodology to ensure that quantifiable project-related changes can be identified and documented from the key stakeholders that have interacted with the CSC process. 

6. Key deliverables and timelines 

The successful firm will deliver the following key deliverables within the stipulated timelines: 

7. Supervision and quality assurance 

The successful consultancy firm will have the primary responsibility for ensuring high quality standards of the impact study process implementation and related deliverables). The firm will functionally report to the NPA Policy and Strategy Advisor as the lead quality assurer of the study process and its deliverables, supported by NPA MEAL team and other relevant programme colleagues. 

8. Desired profile of the service provider 

The ideal consultancy firm, national or international, will need to prove that they have been into the consultancy business for at least five consecutive years and that they are specialised in impact studies on governance matters in Africa and preferably in Rwanda. To this end, they shall submit, as part of their offer, at least three recent certificates of good completion of similar assignments in the past, accompanied with contact details of references who know the quality of their work and can testify to their technical and ethical competence. It is preferred to receive samples of the recently conducted impact studies for an international/national organisation/ entity. Also, the applicant will submit a proof of valid business registration by competent authorities. 

9. Procurement method 

This tender follows a competitive tendering method and is open to both local and international consultancy companies that have the desired profile as described under section 8. 

10. How to submit the offers 

A technical offer not exceeding 15 pages, annexes excluded, and a separate budget have to be virtually submitted to nparwanda@npaid.org with the mention ‘’CSC Impact Study Offer’’ under the subject heading before or not later than the 27^th March 2024 at 4:00 p.m. Kigali local time. 

The total budget should include the entire total cost of the consultancy firm to implement the above listed activities and deliverables. In the budget, the flight and accommodation costs should be indicated. NPA will NOT cover separately these costs.

Please note that the technical offer needs to clearly demonstrate how the different objectives of this assignment will be addressed methodologically (including the sequencing of the qualitative versus quantitative methodology) and how the different elements of the scope of work will be handled. 

NPA will hold prior discussions with short listed interested consultants/firms to provide further clarification to the ToR in order to ensure quality final offers. Short listed consultants/firms will be contacted by NPA for a meeting/ interview prior to a final revision of the technical proposal and budget. Applicants will be notified about their bidding outcome before end of March 2024.  

Please note that the technical offer should, in addition to demonstrating the understanding of this intended work, include a critique of the actual terms of reference, and make technical suggestions about what needs to be improved and how with a view to ensuring high-end quality products. 

11. Evaluation criteria and scoring 

A quality-based selection method that prioritises the soundness of the technical offer will weigh more weight over the pricing. NPA reserves the right though not to award the tender to the best technical offer in case no middle ground about the pricing negotiations can be reached. 

Technical offer:  

Done at Kigali on the 12^th March 2024.

[1] This exercise was recommended by members of the Governance and Decentralisation Sector Working Group back in 2022 and again in 2023.

[2] Never Again Rwanda (2024). Assessing the Effectiveness of Existing Citizen Participation Practices in Rwanda, Kigali: Never Again Rwanda (NAR), p.52

[3] These changes can be either be intended and unintended; positive and negative; direct or indirect.