Mid-to Senior-Level Evaluation Review Consultants at KNUST

Purpose
To complete a multi-sectoral evaluation review, quality assessment, and synthesis of USAID Africa regional evaluations completed between 2017 through 2021.

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS: United States Department of Agriculture and Foreign Agriculture Services (USDA/FAS); United States Agency for International Development (USAID); University of Rhode Island (URI); and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST).

Introduction
The quality of USAID evaluations conducted in the Africa region has gradually improved since the adoption of the Agency’s Evaluation Policy in 2012.  However, there are still significant quality challenges which have been documented through various evaluation quality assessments conducted by various USAID Bureaus.

Several years have passed since the last evaluation quality assessments were conducted.   An updated regionally-specific evaluation quality review will assess whether or not there has been further improvement of the quality of African evaluations. It will identify evaluation quality gaps that need to be addressed and inform Mission evaluation capacity strengthening interventions accordingly. It will also synthesize sectorally-specific technical findings and best practices to make them more accessible to management staff.

Purpose
USAID expects that the results of this activity will raise awareness among Africa Mission and Africa Bureau leadership about the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluations produced by the Bureau as a whole. Information on factors affecting evaluation quality will help the Bureau and Missions to devise strategies for quality improvement. In addition, this assessment will shed some light on overall project/activity performance in the Africa Region, including some of the key factors that facilitate or inhibit performance across key sectors. This information will, in turn, help improve project and activity designs.

Key Questions of the Evaluation Quality Assessment and Synthesis

The proposed assessment seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What do Africa evaluations (evaluations funded/commissioned by USAID Operating Units in the Africa Region) completed between 2018 and 2022 tell us about overall strengths and weaknesses in quality evaluation implementation? Where do the greatest opportunities for improvement lie?
2. What are the key programmatic lessons learned from this review related to aspects of project design, implementation, and performance?

Methodology
A team of three to four evaluation consultants will complete this work in tandem. The assessment will be conducted using modified tools/ a checklist developed for a previous evaluation quality assessment. The tools consist of a) a checklist comprised of a set of questions (38 in total) related to USAID evaluation quality factors/criteria, b) a shorter checklist of 10 questions to help generate an overall score of evaluation quality, and c) a questionnaire to help capture four to five aspects of program design, implementation, and performance. These tools will be modified (simplified) by the assessment team in collaboration with the Africa Bureau.

Intended Users
Africa Bureau will use the report synthesizing the findings from this assessment to determine topics on which it will develop additional guidance, products, and technical support to improve the quality of evidence generated by Africa evaluations.

USAID Missions will use the findings from this assessment to improve the quality of their evaluations by addressing the key factors that hinder the generation of high quality evaluations for evidence-based decision-making. Missions and other technical centers will also rely upon the technical synthesis to inform the design and implementation of current and future programming.

Deliverables and Period of Performance
The activity will have a three month period of performance, from mid/late August through late November 2022. A detailed timeline will be finalized based on team composition and availability.

Deliverables:

• Draft and Final Activity Workplan
• Updated Assessment Checklists and Content Analysis Questionnaire
• Draft and Final Evaluation Quality and Synthesis Report incorporating programmatic lessons learned
• Draft and Final Report Summary (briefer)
• Report presentation/webinar

Role and Responsibilities: The Evaluation Consultant will contribute to the evaluation review, synthesis, quality control, and report deliverables under the direction and management of the Team Lead. S/He will report to both KNUST and USDA managers of this project.

Required Skills or Experience

S/He will have the following qualifications:

• Master’s degree in international development or related social science field
• At least 7 years of experience designing and conducting USAID or other major donor evaluations
• Excellent data synthesis, report writing, and communication/presentation skills
• Familiarity with USAID or other donor evaluation quality assessment tools
• General knowledge of USAID programming sectors including education, health, water and sanitation, democracy and governance, and economic growth (agriculture, climate change/environment, energy, and trade/investment)
• Strong knowledge/familiarity with USAID Evaluation Policy and evaluation quality standards