Consultant at Save the Children Nigeria

Save the Children is the leading independent organization for children in need, with programs in over 120 countries. We save children’s lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential. Save the Children is working in Nigeria because one in five children in Nigeria dies before their fifth birthday. About 40% of children miss out on school and have to work to survive while nearly 2 million children have lost one or both parents to an AIDS-related disease.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - Evaluation Capacity Building Workshop for National Monitoring & Evaluation Staff of Ministry of Finance Budget and National Planning

Job ID: 2100008S
Location: Abuja
Job Type: Full Time

Terms of Reference

• Title of Consultancy: Evaluation Capacity Building Workshop for National Monitoring & Evaluation Staff of Ministry Of Finance Budget and National Planning
• CDGP Lead: MEAL Coordinator
• Oversight Lead: National Programme Manager CDGP
• Length of Assignment: 30 Days
• Start Date: Mid - January 2021
• End Date: Mid - February 2021
• Location of Assignment: Abuja
• Type of Consultancy: National.

Background
National Governments globally seek to evaluate the ongoing progress towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG-Agenda 2030) and National Development Plans. Nigeria as a country is not left out of this aspiration, but for the goals which cut across many sectoral to be effectively evaluated the culture of monitoring and evaluation needs to be institutionalized.

Currently, the practice of Evaluation in Nigeria public service is hardly mentioned let alone carried out.  And where carried out it is mostly on donor assisted projects and programmes. The resultant effect of this is frequent policies and programmes abandonment, lack of knowledge on project’s relevance, effectiveness and efficiency in terms of converting material resources into tangible results.  The reason for this has been partly attributed to little or no capacity among the public service officials to carry out evaluation.

The Ministry of Budget and National Planning is charged with the responsibility of coordinating evaluation activities in public service. The Department of National Monitoring and Evaluation anchors this function. In order for the officers in this department to be sufficiently equipped to effectively coordinate and train other institutions they require adequate skills and sound knowledge of evaluation. This will ensure catalyses and mainstreaming of evaluation capacity and culture in the public sector.

It is on this premise that the department is proposing for support to strengthen the individual capability of its officers and institutional capacity of selected critical Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) saddled with the responsibility of programmes/projects evaluation and data management.

Proposed Scope of Work:

• The Evaluation Capacity Development is expected to equip M&E officers of the Ministry of Finance Budget and National Planning with required and basic evaluation skills to manage, commission and carry out evaluation of Federal Government led Social Protection Programmes
• In view of this, the scope is to train forty (40) M&E officers on basic evaluation skills.

Rationale for Support:
It is a recognized fact that Evaluation provides managers and decision-makers at all levels with unique, objective and credible information to aid in the various stages of the project/programme cycle, i.e. planning, policy and programme design, and budgeting. Meanwhile, In Nigeria, there is a large skill gap in the public sector agencies for this function, including the National Monitoring and Evaluation department (NM&E) who is responsible for coordinating the evaluation function for government, hence the need to develop the evaluation capacity of the NM&E department to equip them to cascade the skills to other institutions of government.

The Ministry of Budget and National Planning, National Monitoring and Evaluation department is mandated to institutionalize and entrench the culture of evaluation in the public service. To achieve this, series of strategic programmes are lined-up towards this initiative, this include; development of M&E Policy, review of M&E Manual, Consultation for adoption of M&E policy, Study tour to understudy evaluation best practices and Building capacity of M&E officials on evaluation through workshop.

However, much is yet to be achieved in the above listed, hence, the request for a training workshop to build the capacity of the M&E officers in the Ministry.

Also, the Ministry, in 2017 embarked on a mission to develop a National Evaluation Policy and part of the mission's recommendations of the consultant anchoring the Development of the National Evaluation Policy is that skill gap in evaluation should be narrowed by conducting Evaluation Capacity Building workshop for the M&E officers in order to pave way for the embankment of a pilot evaluation study. Therefore, MBNP is requesting support in building the capacity of officers in the M&E departments/units of the MBNP and other line Ministries which will present a platform for a holistic integration of lessons learnt and knowledge.

Expected Outcome:

• It is expected that the new skills will equip the MBNP and other key sector line ministries M&E staff to evaluate effectively and efficiently the impact of policy/programmes/project.
• The officers trained will have capacities to carry out an evaluation study on the CCT NSIP, support evidence-based policymaking, particularly in the context of national budget cycle and national planning and; guide ministries and agencies in managing Learning and Accountability for Results at the sector, better results-based management of program, and project including service delivery to beneficiaries; and enhance accountability and transparency of governance. At the end of the Evaluation Capacity Building exercise.

it is expected that M&E officers trained on the various modules of program evaluation would have enhanced capacity to do the following:

• Develop draft terms of reference for evaluating existing Social Protection Programmes and projects.
• Develop a program Theory of Change and logic model,
• Understand evaluation framework and develop key evaluation questions
• Design data collection instruments
• Choose appropriate and relevant data collection methods
• Collect credible and reliable data
• Analyzed, Interpret results and draw conclusions
• Develop an evaluation budget
• Communicate and report evaluation processes and findings using a variety of strategies
• Use the program evaluation standards
• Manage Evaluation processes.

Responsibilities

• Develop all training materials needed for the delivery of the training workshop and to carry out the evaluation study of the Conditional Cash Transfer of the Social investment Program
• To develop and submit inception report which will include training materials for all the modules mentioned above
• Work with the M&E Unit of Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to determine which programme is to be accessed and developed relevant evaluation materials
• Hold preliminary discussions with M&E Unit of Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on the reason for this consultancy
• Train and Build Capacity of M&E Officers of Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and other MDAs on evaluation skills to manage, commission and carry out evaluation. (Training will be in two batches
• After the training work with the trained staffs in pairs to build their capacity on the evaluation skills
• Write and submit an inception, draft and final report to SCI

SCI Responsibilities:

• Linking the consultant to relevant stakeholders while in the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning
• Provide Logistics for training (This includes Flight travel and Road transport where necessary)

Technical Skills Required

• 7 years research and training experience. Research experience in Nigeria is highly desirable.
• Experience in commissioning and managing evaluations
• Strong analytical skills and research experience, with proven experience and deep knowledge of research methods for qualitative and quantitative analysis,.
• A good grounding in the topic of social protection and latest developments in Nigeria is important.
• Facilitation Skills, ability to train large participants
• Proven leadership and coordination skills.
• Computer literacy in MS Word, MS Excel and PowerPoint, digital data gathering devices. Excellent writing and document presentation skills.
• Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines.
• Develop all training materials needed for the delivery of the training workshop and to carry out the evaluation study of the Conditional Cash Transfer of the Social investment Program.

Application Closing Date
20th January, 2021.