International Rescue Committee Consultancy for End of Project Evaluation

Improving Urban Refugees Protection Interventions (IURPI) - Consultancy for End of Project Evaluation
Employee Category: Not Applicable          

Terms of Reference

1. Background: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK) in their urban refugee programming aim to strengthen the existing protection and support system for urban refugees in Kenya as envisaged in international conventions and Government of Kenya (GoK) policies. 

Towards this broad goal, IRC and RCK were supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a grant worth EUR 426,750 to run from December 1st 2012 to November 30th 2014. The project; Improving Urban Refugees Protection Interventions (IURPI) was primarily aimed at equipping key institutions including the DRA and law enforcement authorities responsible for the protection of refugees with appropriate skills, knowledge, and attitudes to undertake their role as primary duty bearers of refugee protection.

In the course of project implementation, the policy on refugee protection changed when an encampment directive was issued through a gazette notice on March 26th 2014. As per the directive, all urban refugees were henceforth expected to relocate to the camps. 
This adversely affected the project and activities had to be reoriented to reflect the changes in the operating context.

In spite of the changing operating environment, implementation of IURPI continued to be guided by the three intended result areas which still remained relevant and were in consonance with both the IRC and RCK’s country strategic plans.  The three result areas were;

Result 1: Enhanced coordination and delivery of protection and legal services for refugees in Nairobi
Urban refugees in Kenya are particularly vulnerable to human rights abuse, extortion, and exploitation. 

Before the March 26th directive, approximately 100,000 urban refugees were permanently living in Nairobi without adequate legal protection, material assistance, or access to basic services, and an unknown number faced similar challenges in other urban areas including Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu, and Mombasa. To strengthen protection mechanisms for Kenya’s urban refugees, the IRC and RCK supported efforts to strengthen the coordination and delivery of protection and legal services for refugees in an approach that combined legal aid, psychosocial support, and referrals to other responsive and remedial protection services.

Result 2: Strengthened capacity and accountability of the Department of Refugee Affairs, government actors, and other key protection actors to respond to protection needs of urban refugees in Kenya

Recognizing that States are primarily responsible for the protection of refugees, the project aimed at strengthening the protection capacities of key government actors, with a particular focus on the Department for Refugee Affairs and the Kenyan Police Force. 

Understanding of refugee law was increased amongst legal professionals to enable them to better represent refugee clients or discharge their functions as lawyers employed by the government. Capacity development activities included the training of police and lawyers on refugee law and refugee rights, protection monitoring of detention centers, and border routes.

Result 3: Increased refugee community capacity to prevent, respond to and alleviate protection risks and foster social cohesion with host communities in Kenya
The project also sought to improve relations between refugee and host communities in targeted areas through joint awareness-raising activities, aimed at reducing tensions between refugee and host communities and between different refugee groups while also identifying opportunities to promote social cohesion. Focus group discussions were held to allow contact between refugees and host community members and to increase integration and understanding. Community leaders committees’ capacity was enhanced to engage with the refugee and the host community, and to identify, refer and in some cases address identified protection issues.

After the end of project implementation, the IRC seeks to carry out an evaluation to establish to what extent the project objectives were met, what are the lessons learned and what gaps remain with regards to improving the protection climate for urban refugees in a changing environment. 

Also, the evaluation will establish to what extent the project was impacted by the March 26th encampment directive and how successful the strategies employed by the project partners were at mitigating the directive’s negative impact on urban refugees in an attempt to protect the overall integrity of urban refugees.

Objectives of the end term Evaluation

The evaluation seeks to establish to what extent project objectives were met, what were the lessons learned and what gaps remain with regards to improving the protection climate for urban refugees in the changing protection environment.

The exercise will be guided by the following specific objectives;To assess the outputs, outcomes and impact of the project on direct and indirect beneficiaries;To assess the relevance  - level of receptiveness and ownership by the beneficiaries in the implementation processes, where applicable;To assess the impact of the government directive of encampment on project activitiesTo determine the relevance and appropriateness of the activities adopted by the partners in light of the directive To identify lessons learnt and best practices for similar interventions in a changing contextTo provide recommendations for future interventions in a rapidly changing urban refugee contextGeographically, the evaluation will focus on the project’s areas of intervention including Kawangware, Ruiru, Kangemi, Eastleigh, Githurai, Kitengela, Kasarani and Rongai. It will target both direct and indirect beneficiaries, both refugees and host communities.
The evaluation will reference the;Midterm evaluation reportProject ReportsTraining Modules and ReportsOther documents deemed necessary by the Project team and the IRC senior managementThe evaluation will consist of desk literature review and field interviews. The consultant will review key documents such as;Project proposalMid-term reportTraining reports and modulesAny other report deemed importantFor the interviews, the consultant will conduct key informant interviews with the IRC and RCK project staff and management, government representatives, service providers, beneficiaries, both refugees  and host community members.

The evaluation team is expected to take into consideration working realities and constraints of urban areas and the security dynamics while drawing conclusions and making recommendations.

Deliverables

The evaluation team will submit to IRC:An inception report outlining the methodology, assessment tools and an evaluation work plan;A draft evaluation report, Conduct a validation workshop on the findings prior to the submission of the final reportA final evaluation report within one week of receiving comments from the validation workshopThe evaluator and IRC Program Manager/Governance and Rights Technical Coordinator The Project Officers and Assistants will offer support that may be required by the evaluation teamRCK will provide necessary support in the field, primarily in its areas of operation.Duration of the Consultancy: The evaluation will be conducted in a period of 25 consultancy days. While they do not have to run concurrently, the whole evaluation exercise should be finished in two months.

Qualifications Required

A degree in Sociology, Law, Business Administration, Community Development,  Forced Migration or any other area of study related to the terms of reference;Experience working with urban refugees/urban poor and host community structuresWide experience in assessments, evaluation and implementation of refugee protection activities, preferably in an urban settingUnderstanding and experience in international refugee lawDemonstrable experience of conducting project evaluationsAny person interested in undertaking this research should send an Expression of Interest consisting of:
a) Technical proposal; (maximum 3 pages) including methodology and work plan for the exercise.
b) Financial proposal: to include a detailed budget and the total cost of the study including taxes.
Kenyan nationals are encouraged to apply.  International allowances are not available for this position. Salary and employee benefits are compliant to the Kenyan NGO Sector.

IRC leading the way from harm to home.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability.