What: Call for Expressions of Interest by consultants to conduct a Mid Term Review of the Openness 4 Covid 19 Response and Recovery (O4C19) project in Kenya.
Region: East Africa
Office: Nairobi
Application deadline: 13^th March 2023
Type of Consultancy: Short term
Amount: Euro 5,000

About Hivos

Hivos is an international development organization guided by humanistic values. Together with citizens and their organizations, we aim to contribute towards just, inclusive and life-sustaining societies where people have equal access to opportunities, rights and resources. We work in partnership with others in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America on three impact areas: Civic Rights in a Digital Age; Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; and Climate Justice. Our approach is solution driven, and we build wider movements for change by amplifying and connecting voices

About the Openness 4 Covid 19 Response and Recovery project

Public contracting and procurement is a key driver for public service delivery to citizens and a market opportunity for entrepreneurs at the sub-national, national and international levels.

Public contracting involves the full chain of government deal making, from procurement of goods and services for citizens to the disposal of state assets. It covers not only the awarding of contracts, but also planning, tendering, contract negotiation, implementation and performance monitoring and termination. It is estimated that over 70% of government expenditures are managed through public contracts.

However, in Kenya and across the globe, public contracting especially during emergencies remains an opaque government activity most vulnerable to wastefulness, mismanagement, inefficiency and corruption. There is also lack of adequate controls and therefore consequent mismanagement is common place. Beneficial ownership is also a major element of business registration and public procurement that requires compliance. A beneficial owner is the natural person who ultimately owns an entity and transactions are made on their behalf, or they exercise ultimate effective control over a legal entity. Beneficial owners of public contracting transactions largely remain veiled. Beneficial ownership information is mainly accessible to the public through requests to Business Registry services. This means that at the moment, publishing of beneficial ownership information in Kenya is predominantly inward facing and in need of further alignment to the global open ownership principles.

Emergency procurement for Covid 19 Response and Recovery

Following the Covid-19 crisis, the Kenyan government implemented drastic measures to protect citizens at risk and limit the economic consequences of the pandemic. Stimulus and safety net packages have been allocated, intended to reach citizens and businesses in need. The government continues to plan and allocate significant resources to fund Covid-19 response and recovery. Against this backdrop, there is mounting evidence that the health emergency and subsequent rapid responses have created opportunities for violations of the principles of public finance management, seriously weakening the effectiveness of government action. Of concern is evidence from the Auditor General Special Audit Report for KEMSA and the Controller of Budget Special Budget Review report which shows serious integrity challenges in public procurement occurring during the current crisis. The reports highlight instances of procurement fraud, overpricing key medication and healthcare items by suppliers, subversion of the procurement and public financial management regulations. Equally, a study by Open Contracting Partnership on better emergency procurement further found that the country has a weak enforcement and oversight of procurement protocols and controls, there is limited publication of procurement data, lacked effective mechanism of public participation in the management of Covid-19 emergency relief fund and that the procurement system is not yet fully aligned with global standards, values and principles of open contracting.

In addition, as the government transitions from addressing the immediate crisis to focusing on economic recovery, these challenges may continue to rise and undermine recovery efforts. It is therefore imperative that fundamental safeguards of public integrity, transparency and  accountability are not weakened or disregarded in both the response as well as the longer-term recovery from Covid-19.

It is in this light that, Hivos in partnership with the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) have been implementing the Openness 4 Covid-19 Response & Recovery in Kenya (O4C19) Project (2021 – 2023). The overall objective of the project is to enhance transparent and efficient use of public resources and access to services in light of Covid-19 crisis in Kenya. Specifically, the project aims to:

1. To strengthen the capacities of CSOs and community accountability mechanisms to monitor, influence and participate in auditing of public spending during the Covid-19 crisis
2. To strengthen capacity of county and national government to publicize public funds allocation and use in relation to Covid-19; and the capacity of legislatures to oversee spending.

The project has the following 3 outcomes

1. Outcome I: CSOs and community accountability mechanisms’ capacities to monitor and provide feedback on Covid-19 spending towards inclusiveness and sustainability are enhanced
2. Outcome II: County governments progressively adopt open data and proactively disclose Covid-19 emergency contracting and procurement data
3. Outcome III: Legislative oversight institutions and CSO networks capacity for effective public scrutiny of Covid-19 spending is strengthened

Hivos Monitoring, review and evaluation principles

Hivos follows five basic principles of sound evaluation practices and the consultant is expected to adhere to these throughout the evaluation process. These are:

1. Confidentiality and informed consent – all data collected during the exercise will be treated as confidential and cannot be shared outside of Hivos/Project. All respondents must be advised as such and always given the opportunity not to participate, or to terminate or pause the interview at any time. The purpose of the evaluation should be clearly explained before commencing any interviews.
2. Independence and impartiality – Hivos is committed to impartial and objective studies of our projects. All findings and conclusions must be grounded on evidence. The consultant will be expected to design data collection tools and systems that mitigate as far as possible against potential sources of bias.
3. Credibility – Hivos is committed to learning based on credible evidence. The credibility of the study will depend on the professional expertise and independence of the consultant and full transparency in the methods and process followed.
4. Participation – the views and experiences of beneficiaries and partners should form an integral part of this evaluation.
5. Openness – To maximize the learning potential of the process, Hivos may publish the full midterm report or excerpts from it or may otherwise share them with interested parties.

The main objective of the Midterm Review (MTR)

It is in light of the above that the Hivos aims to undertake a midterm review here after also termed as the “Review.” The major objective of the MTR is to learn from the progress made towards predefined project objectives, identify lessons learnt from the implementation and use them for adaptive management. The key findings, good practices and recommendations will be shared with all project stakeholders and used to support future initiatives and learning.

The key guiding questions for the Midterm Review are:

1. To what extent was the project implementation responsive to the context, needs and priorities of the beneficiaries?
2. To what extent were the project interventions aligned to similar interventions by other stakeholders in the project focus areas?
3. What measures were taken to ensure gender related differences were considered and included in project implementation?
4. To what extent has the project met its objectives, targets and as outlined in the project documents?
5. To what extent has the delivery of the project strategies and activities meet the intended outcomes?
6. What external circumstances have influenced the implementation of the project and how have they been managed?
7. What challenges, opportunities and lessons can be drawn from project implementation?
8. To what extent are the project results sustainable and / or measures that can be taken to such sustainability?

Desired approach and methodology

The midterm review should use both qualitative and quantitative methods, including but not limited to focus group discussions, with target program participants; and key informant interviews with project teams, partners, community leaders, allies, journalists, government officials and other relevant media, civic, public and private sector stakeholders. The review will also be informed by the information obtained from project documents.  The consultant will be expected to describe their proposed approach and methodology for this assignment in their technical proposal. Hivos retains the right to make recommendations for adjustments to the methodology and approve the final methodology to be deployed by the consultant.

Key deliverables

1. MTR inception report: this will be prepared by the consultant before going into the technical mission and full data collection

1. The inception report further details the consultant’s understanding of what is being assessed and why, showing how each question will be answered by the way of: proposed methods, sources of data and data collection/analysis procedures. The inception report provides the project team and the consultant with an opportunity to verify that the consultant shares the same understanding about the exercise and clarifies any misunderstanding at the outset.
2. Proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables

2. Draft MTR Report: the project team and key stakeholders will review the draft MTR report to ensure that the exercise meets the required quality. Key elements when assessing the quality of the draft report will be:

1. Methodology well explained
2. Are key questions addressed
3. Clarity of reasoning
4. Findings
5. Depth of analysis
6. Conclusions
7. Relevance of recommendations for scaling up
8. Is the report complete
9. In a format that is accessible to all persons including persons with disabilities

3. Validation workshops on the draft MTR report

4. Reports of the validation workshops

5. Final MTR report: Final version of the report that is accessible to all persons including persons with disabilities, after integration of relevant comments from key stakeholders.

6. Dissemination of final MTR report to diverse stakeholders 

Consultant’s required competencies

The assessment will be performed by an external consultant and requires the following competencies:

1. Demonstrated knowledge on Kenya’s laws particularly Public Finance Management Act, Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Act, Public Audit Act, Access to information laws and devolved governance system
2. Demonstrated experience working on transparency, public participation and accountability issues in public finance management sector
3. Experience in advancing open contracting and broader open governance agenda will be an added advantage
4. Experience in undertaking applying participatory methodologies
5. Demonstrated experience in undertaking similar tasks with successful track record
6. Demonstrated Social Science related research experience at community level as well as organizational level.
7. The consultant is independent from organizations involved in designing, executing, managing or advising any aspect of the project/organization that is the subject of the Review, able to work professionally and respond in a timely manner
8. Excellent written and oral communication skills in English; (Swahili will be an asset)
9. Demonstrated abilities to ICT platforms and tools including platforms for virtual meetings, the adobe creative suite and applications such as flipping book

Time frame

It is expected that the exercise should be completed within 30 working days from the date of engagement.

Interested in applying?

By end of 13^th March 2023 , please submit your expression of interest, a technical proposal  and a financial proposal accompanied by two samples of previously conducted research projects to eastafricajobs@hivos.org