Supporting and Enhancing Resilient and Viable Employment Opportunities (SERVE) Project

Terms of Reference for Consultancy to Conduct a Midterm Evaluation.

1.0. Background

CARE is a leading humanitarian and development organization fighting global poverty. CARE seeks a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. We work around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty, and achieve social justice. CARE International aims to be a global force and a partner of choice within a worldwide movement dedicated to ending poverty. Globally, CARE and partners, through its vision of overcoming poverty by 2030, intends to support 200 million people from the most vulnerable and excluded communities to overcome poverty and social injustice. This is through 6 impact areas of promoting Gender Equality, Climate Justice, Humanitarian, Right to Health, Right to Food Water and Nutrition and Women Economic Justice.

• Project Context

Mastercard Foundation launched the Young Africa works strategy to promote and expand employment opportunities for young people in Africa Rwanda included. The strategy states that While economic growth in many countries has been strong over the last 10 years, it has come with relatively few employment opportunities. Recent research undertaken by the Foundation in two countries in Africa found that among young people, very few had access to formal employment and most struggled to make a decent salary to live more so young women who face gender-based barriers in skills development and in accessing work. Breaking down these barriers is essential to young women success. When young people can secure formal work and a steady wage, their lives improve. Employment, particularly formal employment, is a leading pathway out of poverty for families.

In 2023, CARE International in Rwanda, along with consortium partners Duharanire Amajyambere Y'Icyaro (DUHAMIC-ADRI),Pro-femme Twese Hamwe (PFTH), Association of Micro Finance Institutions Rwanda (AMIR), and Urwego Bank started implementing the project “Supporting and Enhancing Resilient and Viable Employment Opportunities” (SERVE), funded by the Mastercard Foundation and to be delivered over five years from 2023 to 2027, with the overall objective of building a resilient, sustainable, gender equitable and inclusive entrepreneurial environment that increases dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for predominantly female youth (PFY) in agricultural value chains (poultry, green beans, chilli pepper and tomatoes) in 10 districts across Rwanda.

This project aligns with the entrepreneurship and agriculture sector outcomes in Mastercard Foundation's Young Africa Works in Rwanda Strategy 2022 –2030 which recognizes that productivity, market linkages, and finance are three interconnected factors in sustainable income growth and puts MSE and entrepreneurship as key drivers for employment creation. SERVE project is expected to facilitate the creation of 80,000 dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for predominantly female (70%) youth in the focus agri-business value chains.

1.2. Scope of the project

The purpose of SERVE is to ensure a resilient, sustainable, gender equitable and inclusive entrepreneurial environment that increases dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for predominantly female youth in agricultural value chains in districts of Rulindo and Gakenke in Northern Province; Kayonza, Rwamagana, Ngoma, and Kirehe in Eastern Province; Nyamagabe, and Huye in Southern Province; and Nyabihu and Rubavu in Western Province by 2027 through the outcomes outlined below.

Ultimate Outcome: To build a resilient, sustainable, gender equitable and inclusive entrepreneurial environment that increases dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for predominantly female youth in agricultural value chains in 10 districts across Rwanda.

Outcome 1. Youth, especially youth female-led agricultural MSEs sustainably grow. 

Outcome 1 supports PFY MSE owners and high-potential entrepreneurs to launch or grow their businesses sustainably and builds agricultural skills that increase productivity and diversity in response to market needs and opportunities, all with sustainable climate-smart principles. This will result in increased income, resilient businesses, and foster new work opportunities for others as their businesses grow.

Outcome 2: The agricultural MSE policy and social norms environment is responsive, inclusive, and informed. 

Under Outcome 2, partners will work with PFY in agriculture, women and youth groups, policy stakeholders and market actors, to address the specific range of challenges women and youth face in fully participating in and benefitting from the agricultural business environment. Ultimately, we want to encourage institutions to make active decisions to be inclusive, be they changes in policy or behavior.

In light with the above, CARE seeks to hire a consultant/firm to conduct the midterm assessment of the project by design of midterm survey framework, lead and coordinate the evaluation of the project and produce the report.

• Objective of the assignment

The project is currently mid-way through its cycle in the third year. The midterm evaluation aims to assess the project’s progress toward achieving its intended outcomes and to inform any necessary strategic adjustments for the remaining implementation period. Specifically, the midterm evaluation aims at the following:

1. Evaluate the relevance and alignments:
   1. Evaluate the extent to which the SERVE project’s design and implementation remain relevant to the needs and priorities of predominantly female youth (PFY) in agricultural value chains.
   2. Assess the extent to which the SERVE program aligns with the Mastercard Foundation’s Impact Framework, particularly with respect to the guidance on Youth in Work issued after the design of the SERVE program
2. Assess the efficiency and the effectiveness of implementation strategies:
   1. Evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of project activities in line with the resources invested and delivery mechanisms (e.g., training, partnerships, advocacy).
   2. Assess the role and performance of key project partners and stakeholders.
   3. Review the integration of gender, inclusion, and climate-smart principles in implementation.
3. Assess progress toward outcomes and Results:
   1. Assess progress made toward the Ultimate Outcome and the two Intermediate Outcomes:
      1. Growth and resilience of youth-led, especially female-led, agricultural MSEs.
      2. Improvement in the policy and social norms environment in support of inclusive entrepreneurship.
   2. Examine the extent to which the project has reached and impacted its target population
   3. Identify key successes, innovations, and enabling factors contributing to progress
4. Provide strategic recommendations for the remaining project period:
   1. Offer actionable recommendations to enhance implementation, improve impact, and ensure sustainability of outcomes in the remaining two years.
   2. Suggest opportunities for scaling or adapting successful models and interventions.
   3. Recommend strategies to deepen engagement with PFY, policymakers, and private sector actors.

• Methodology

The midterm evaluation will use a mixed-methodological approach. The consultant/firm is expected to use electronic tools to collect quantitative data from youths participating in the project. Participatory qualitative exercises will be required to fully capture knowledge, attitudes, and practices of a resilient, sustainable, gender equitable and inclusive entrepreneurial environment that increases dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for predominantly female youth. The consultant is also expected to carry out qualitative interviews for key people at both national and local levels (including Micro Finance Institutions, Insurance, District Officers, applicable Central Government ministries, and any other relevant subject matter experts).

• Data analysis

It is paramount that the survey triangulates results and interprets them before formulating (a) findings, (b) conclusions, and (c) programmatic recommendations, each of which should show how they relate to each other. Data analysis must ensure it provides demographics of population sampled, disaggregated where required and give statistical description. The consultant(s) is expected to share an objective data analysis plan, considering data quality, coding, and analysis procedures (both qualitative and quantitative).

5.0. Ethical approaches

The approach to the midterm must consider the safety of participants at all stages of the survey. The bidder will need to demonstrate how they have considered Prevention of Sexual Harassment, Exploitation, and Abuse (PSHEA); through the different data collection stages, including recruitment and training of research staff, data collection and data analysis and report writing. Bidders are required to set out their approach to ensuring complete compliance with international good practice with regards to research ethics and protocols.

6.0 Expected Tasks and roles.

6.1 Responsibility of the consultant/firm

The consultant(s) will be responsible for setting up procedures and guidelines to: 

• Develop and present an inception report and tools to CARE team for inputs and feedback.
• Finalize and submit the final inception report.
• Hire and train enumerators for the data collection exercise. One component of the data collection training should include procedures on safely managing disclosure of any cases of safeguarding gender-based violence (GBV)
• Conduct data collection including pretesting of tools in the ten districts covered by the project,
• Ensure that datasets are clean, complete, and consistent.
• Analyse data and write midterm survey report.
• The consultant/firm will be liable to secure any prior visa or approvals that might be required to conduct the survey.
• The consultant shall be liable for ethical procedures including obtaining informed consent from respondents.
• All documents and data collected will be treated as confidential and used solely to facilitate analysis.
• The production of the midterm evaluation report will be the responsibility of the consultant covering all the aspects as outlined in this ToR.
• All training and logistics cost for the enumerators including transport and data collection materials during data collection will be covered by the consultant.

6.2 Responsibility of CARE

• Assume all the responsibilities pertaining to the consultant hiring process.
• Ensure that all necessary documentation is availed to the consultant.
• Facilitate initial introductions between the consultant and different stakeholders.
• Overall data quality control and technical review report
• Provide any other technical or operational support to the consultant as needed for example review of the questionnaires and participating in the selection and training of enumerators.
• Prepare inception report review.
• Approve draft and final report.

The task Manager for this work will be the Quality Assurance Specialist with support of the Impact Measurement Team Leader. The Consultant is also expected to liaise closely at the design stage and subsequently with other key personnel in CARE

8.0 Expectations and Deliverables

The consultant (s) is expected to provide the following:

1. Inception report including:
   1. Research methodology including the sampling methodology and the analysis framework,
   2. Draft data collection tools and protocols

• Data analysis plan

1. Detailed work plan outlining all tasks to be completed by each of the members of the consultant team for the duration of the midterm.
2. Ethical approach, quality control plan, limitations to the study design and mitigation strategies, enumerator training plan,

2. Upload data collection tools Kobo collect or any other online data collection platform and share with CARE for approval before commencement of actual fieldwork.
3. A complete set of raw and cleaned datasets and complete codebooks for quantitative files generated and analysed for the report. For the qualitative data, this includes the audio recording files, original transcripts, and translated transcripts of the full verbatim. Note that summary transcriptions or translations will not be acceptable.
4. Stata syntax/do-files and output files reflecting the analysis conducted.
5. Draft midterm report in MS Word document and convene a validation meeting of midterm assessment results and documentation of the validation and meeting notes with questions raised. The consultant shall prepare a summary PowerPoint presentation of the draft mid-term assessment report for the validation meeting.
6. Final midterm evaluation report. The consultant will submit a complete final editable (MS Word) soft copy of the report in English after incorporating comments and feedback from the validation meeting.
7. Updated Performance Monitoring Framework (PMF) with all the midterm value for the indicators and adjusted targets where applicable.

9.0 Evaluation Timelines

The evaluation will take place between September and October 2025 for a maximum of 40 calendar days from the inception.

10.0 Professional Skills and Qualifications

The bidders are required to clearly identify and provide CVs for all those proposed in the Evaluation Team, clearly stating their roles and responsibilities for this midterm. The lead consultant should:

• Have an advanced degree in the following areas: Agricultural Economics, Social sciences, research or similar qualifications.
• The consultant shall also demonstrate exceptional knowledge of market systems/value chains development and/or research qualifications and a minimum of five years of experience in delivering rigorous program evaluations.
• Experience undertaking similar studies in Rwanda
• Experience leading assessments, feasibility studies or evaluations for Mastercard Foundation funded project or in the context of others international organizations
• Demonstrated experience working on economic improvement and youth employment projects especially in agriculture, gender, climate smart agriculture, women empowerment.
• Excellent analytical, interpersonal, communication, and reporting skills
• Excellent command of written and spoken English

The consultants’ proposed evaluation team should include a gender expert with at least 5 years of experience in gender analysis and mainstreaming as well as integrating gender equality into youth employment initiatives, particularly in the agriculture sector and within the Rwandan context.

The evaluation team should also include the technical expertise with practical experience required to deliver the scope of work and midterm evaluation outputs with regards to:

• Study design: the team should include skills and expertise required to design, plan and conduct mixed-methods impact evaluation, using quasi-experimental techniques.
• Skills in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis (including merging datasets), drawing findings from multiple sources and handling potential contradictions between data sets; using justified approaches for analysis of qualitative data.
• Relevant subject matter knowledge and experience: knowledge and experience required on conducting research with youth, the agriculture sector, disability, gender equality and social inclusion to ensure that the evaluation design and research methods are as relevant and meaningful as possible given the aims and objectives of the project and the context in which it is being delivered.
• Evaluation management: manage a medium-scale and complex research process from end-to-end including midterm studies.
• Primary research: gender-sensitive design, management, and implementation of primary quantitative and qualitative research – this could include the design of longitudinal household panel surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups, participatory qualitative exercises with youth, etc.
• Country experience: it is particularly important that the team has the appropriate country knowledge /experience and ability to interpret findings from a contextual perspective, as required to conduct the research.
• Statistical analysis: a range of statistical modelling and analysis of impact data; highly proficient user of STATA; and qualitative data analysis techniques.
• Data management and data cleaning: Ability to supervise the collection, entry, cleaning and management of large data sets and digital data collection processes are preferred.

11. Application procedures

The application file should contain the following documents:

• A technical proposal, with a clear timeframe and a description of the proposed methodology detailing how the deliverables will be achieved, and the team credentials for similar assignments.
• Detailed Curriculum Vitae of the proposed team to carry out the assignment with clear roles and functions.
• A financial offer detailing the various costs associated with the delivery of the above services, in PDF format and must be a separate document from the technical offer.
• Evidence of the consultant’s experience in doing similar assignments: At least three copies of similar assignments (with evidence for good completion of the previous similar assignments);
• Submit at least 3 references with their contacts and addresses.
• Consultant firm profile; VAT registration certificate; RRA tax clearance certificate; RSSB tax clearance certificate (when applicable). For applicants without registration in Rwanda, submit the above requirements from the country of registration as applicable.

Interested consultants or consultancy firms are requested to submit their offers not later than 30^th July 2025 at 5:30 pm (CAT) to the following e-mail address: rwa.procurement@care.org, with mention of “Consultancy to conduct a midterm evaluation for SERVE project” in the subject line.