IMC with funding from USAID/BHA is implementing essential life-sustaining health, nutrition, and WASH services in the 20 targeted localities. The strategy focuses on primary health care provision, including maternal and child health, immunizations, and full community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) packages, infant and young children feeding (IYCF) services, and WASH interventions integrated within the health facilities and community level services in selected communities in South Kordofan, the Blue Nile and South Darfur states.

IMC is implementing primary health care, Nutrition and WASH services in 52 health facilities and continue providing medical services, including lifesaving emergency obstetric care where referral facilities do not exist. with a total catchment population of an estimated 1.3 million people. Furthermore, IMC is running 47 outpatient therapeutic programs (OTPs), 41 supplementary feeding programs (SFPs), and 8 stabilization centers (SCs). 

Project Details

Project Title: Integrated Emergency Health, Nutrition and WASH Services for Conflict-Affected Populations in Central, West and South Darfur, Blue Nile, and South Kordofan states

Project Start Date: August 1, 2021 

Project Duration: 33 months

Total Number of People Affected in the Target Area: 1,1,351,049

Project Summary

Aiming to save lives and reduce morbidity and mortality among conflict-affected, displaced, and vulnerable populations in Sudan, the International Medical Corps (IMC) is providing a comprehensive and integrated package of health, nutrition, MHPSS and WASH support to 19 localities across five states (West, South and Central Darfur, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile) in Sudan. The states and localities covered under this intervention are the most vulnerable states identified by the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), with around 1.3m people needing humanitarian assistance. Project activities are aligned with the 2022/23 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Sudan. IMC is implementing an integrated package of health, nutrition, MHPSS and WASH services to contribute to improved health conditions. IMC is also providing a comprehensive nutrition treatment and preventive packages, encompassing all components of CMAM, including TSFP and OTP, and SC across five states.

Purpose(s):

To contribute to the reduction of mortality and morbidity through integrated and multi-sectoral support among most vulnerable and conflict-affected population in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan through the provision of integrated health, nutrition, and WASH interventions. 

The following are the sub-purposes of the project

• Health: Improve access to and quality of primary and reproductive health services among conflict-affected persons including Mental Health and Protection.
• Nutrition: Improve access to and quality of preventive and curative nutrition services among conflict-affected persons
• WASH: Enhance access to safe water, basic sanitation and hygiene aiming at contributing to better health outcome and reducing the occurrence of communicable diseases among the most vulnerable population 

Evaluation Approach

Objectives of the Final Evaluation

International Medical Corps will undertake a final evaluation for the project titled “Integrated Emergency Health, Nutrition and WASH Services for Conflict-Affected Populations in Central, West and South Darfur, Blue Nile, and South Kordofan states”. The final evaluation will be conducted by an external national consultant to assess the overall performance of the project with a focus on the project’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. The final evaluation will also identify best practices and key lessons in all technical aspects and other program management approaches. Findings of the evaluation will be shared with USAID/BHA and other relevant stakeholders. The main objectives of the evaluation are highlighted below and are aligned with the OECD DAC criteria.

• Determine the degree to which the programs expected results have been achieved for each result or objective and activity described in the programs proposal and logical framework 
• Assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the implemented activities in order to achieve the programs objectives.
• Analyze the organizational performance of IMC with regard to the running of this program 
• Make recommendations for future programming. 

The Final Evaluation process should respond to the below DAC criteria for evaluating the USAID/BHA funded humanitarian assistance. The questions below are an expected minimum set, and it is at the discretion of IMC to add additional question during inception phase of the evaluation[1]. 

Relevance:

• Have the program activities undertaken to date addressed the needs identified in the Contextual Analysis upon which the program was designed? 

Efficiency

• How well have IMC been utilizing the resources available? 

Effectiveness

• What is the progress against each of the indicators included in the proposal? 

Sustainability

• What sustainability strategies are in place and how effective are they likely to be?" Are there any implications for underrepresented populations? 

Evaluation Methodology

The evaluation methodology for the final evaluation comprises both Qualitative and quantitative data collection approach which includes beneficiary household survey; Health Facility assessment and document reviews, focused group discussions, Key informant interview, and stakeholder interviews. The study design will involve a holistic evaluation, comprising both the qualitative and quantitative methodologies designed to capture the performance of health, nutrition and WASH sectors. Moreover, different secondary data sources and desk reviews which include different project documents, survey and assessment reports will be undertaken. Furthermore, the study will be undertaken through a participatory and collective manner based on active involvement of project beneficiaries and other stakeholders. The following data collection and analysis methods will also be used to address the evaluation questions. 

Review of documentation and secondary data 

Structured and Semi-structured interviews and focus groups with beneficiaries – household questioner will be prepared to measure progress on indicators (specific to WASH and IYCF KAP indicators), and FGD/KII checklists to facilitate focus group discussions with beneficiaries, and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, such as the representatives from the local authorities, SMoH and selected beneficiaries. 

For the quantitative assessment the evaluator should undertake a cross-sectional household cluster sampling method to address indicators that can only be measured appropriately through a community-wide quantitative household survey. 

The following assumption will be taken into consideration for sample size calculation of the HH survey. 

P1 – TBD

P2 – TBD

Alpha – 0.05

Power – 0.8

DEFF – 2

Proportion of pop. eligible – 0.1

Average household size - 7

Non-response – 10%

For the qualitative assessment, the evaluator should consider including different sections of the communities/beneficiaries of the project in the FGDs and locality, state, and federal level authorities in the key informant interviews. Key informants will be selected based on their understanding and interaction with the project / program and their technical area of focus relevant to the Program including the IMC relevant staff, both at field and Field based as well as local community leaders and government counterpart. The Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) will seek to get a qualitative understanding of the quantitative observations that will be made during the evaluation. In particular, the FGDs will seek to consolidate similar and divergent opinions from the different population segments that have interacted with the program and potential program participants in future. Given the cultural context where men dominate in discussions and decision making, male and female FGDs will be done separately so as to give both groups an opportunity to freely express themselves during the discussions as well as for comparative purposes between male and female.

The following indicators are some of the indicators to be measured through the quantitative assessment.

• Number and percent of community members who can recall target health education messages.
• Percent of infants 0-5 months of age who are fed exclusively with breast milk.
• Percent of children 6–23 months of age who receive foods from 5 or more food groups (MDD)
• Percent of households targeted by the hygiene promotion activity store their drinking water safely in clean containers.
• Percent of people targeted by the hygiene promotion program know at least three (3) of the five (5) critical times to wash hands.
• Health facility assessment, site visits and observations 
• Staff interviews – Evaluator will hold discussion with program, finance, HR, and Logistic staffs. 

Evaluation Timeline and place

The timeline for the evaluation will be in Feb 2023 and the evaluation will take on average 30 days (for data collection, report finalization and presentation). The evaluation is expected to be undertaken in BHA supported localities taking into account the current security situation.

Dissemination Plan

International Medical Corps will be sharing the evaluation report and findings with USAID/BHA and government offices (HAC, SMHO) at federal and state level. IMC also will organize also a dissemination workshop with all the relevant stakeholders including the project beneficiaries.

Deliverables

The evaluator is expected to deliver the following

• Evaluation protocols or inception reports with sampling calculations (quantitative) and sampling approaches (qualitative)-within one week of the commencement of the consultancy work.
• Evaluation report-within two weeks of the data collection completion.
• Quantitative dataset in excel or SPSS and interview transcripts.

Evaluation Reporting

The evaluation report will provide clear, specific and prioritized recommendations outlining how strategies and activities need to be revised, if necessary, to improve results. 

The Final Evaluation report will follow the overall structure outlined below: 

• Background
• List of Acronyms
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary 
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Findings
  • Broken down by DAC & other evaluation criteria. 
  • Addressing performance against each indicator of the logical framework
• Overall assessment
• Limitations of the study:  this should also include areas for further research.
• Conclusions & Recommendations
  1. Health degree, Bsc Nutrition with MPH, MSc. Advanced degree in Statistics, project management and Evaluation.

Evaluator Profile

Evaluator profile. International Medical Corps Plan to undertake the proposed evaluation by an external and independent consultant.

1. Health degree, Bsc Nutrition with MPH, MSc. Advanced degree in Statistics, project management and Evaluation.
2. At least three years of conducting Evaluations in areas similar to Sudan. 
3. Excellent analytical and statistical skills.
4. Good understanding and knowledge of health, nutrition and WASH particularly those who have experience with similar programs/project and qualitative data analysis skill.
5. Strong communication and presentation skills, able to effectively present information clearly and respond appropriately to questions from IMC staff and other relevant stakeholders.

Interested applicants should submit their training and budget proposal (A, B), together with other supporting documents to: imcsudan-hr@internationalmedicalcorps.org 

Applications must be received no later than Wednesday, October 11th, 2023, at 4:00 pm Sudan Local Time. This deadline will be strictly enforced. If you are sending multiple files, please attach them in rare to one e-mail.