INTRODUCTION
Over the past four decades, Trocaire has worked alongside partners to protect and respond to the basic rights of those in need, while tackling the critical questions as to why people are poor and oppressed. Trócaire is an Irish development agency that was established in 1973 by the Catholic Bishops of Ireland and its work is inspired by Catholic Social teachings with an overarching commitment to social justice. Trócaire works in over 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Trócaire has been working in Kenya for 30 years, working with over twenty five local partner organisations, Trócaire focuses on Governance and human rights (GHR), Secure Livelihoods and Environmental Justice (SLEJ), Integrated Gender and HIV (IGH)
Trocaire Kenya brings about change through enhancing the capacity of communities to protect and promote their own well-being and the needs of the most vulnerable in the face of a wide range of threats from inter-ethnic conflict to poor governance or from damaging cultural practices to political incitement and shocks such as drought, flooding or fire etc. We believe that the future well-being of the country and its citizens lies in the resilience of communities – their ability to understand and respond to conflict, prepare for and respond to emergencies, recognize and elect effective leaders, manage and distribute common resources, support equitable access to services and to reflect on, and change, practices that bring harm to its members

GHR PROGRAM BACKGROUND
The Governance and Human Rights (GHR) program work is anchored on the devolved system of Governance brought in by the Kenya constitution 2010 and that took effect after the general elections of 2013. The Constitution, in Chapter 11, provides devolution as the vehicle through which the funds to facilitate access to resources will be devolved to communities at the village, ward, constituency and county level.
The goal of the GHR program is to work towards a democratic and peaceful Kenya as espoused by popular participation, rule of law, equity and human dignity. This goal is addressed through two main objectives:
• Improving protection for human rights, resilience to conflict and access to social services for marginalized groups especially youth, women and children in the target counties of Nairobi, Turkana, Nakuru and West Pokot.
• Strengthening the capacity of programme partners to demonstrate programme impact ad value for money.
Key issues in the context are twofold:
First following the March 2013 elections, a devolution process whereby financial resources are managed partially at the county level was rolled out and the new constitution made provision for much greater public participation in governance processes.
The second context is the volatile nature of communal relationships in Kenya both in the informal urban settlements and in the ASALs. Inter-ethnic differences are often manipulated for political or economic interests and repeated conflicts undermines progress in promoting human rights. The program targets vulnerable youth and women and works in the urban informal settlements of Kibera and Nakuru and the Arid and Semi-arid Lands (ASALs) of Turkana and West Pokot.
The program works at three levels as below:
Micro: Target groups are supported with training, rights awareness and how to engage and influence county governance structures and on the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in conflict prone regions.
Meso: At county level, the program engages with the duty bearers to enhance accountability under the new devolved system, and provides training on human rights.
Macro: The programme supports advocacy and lobbying at national level to adopt and/or revise government policies to ensure that they comply with human rights norms and respond to the needs of marginalized groups. The programme supports the openness of civil society space by working with the Civil Society Reference Group to oversee the actions of the national government and changes in the regulatory framework.
By the time of this evaluation, the program will be completing the 3rd year of implementation. The program works through 9 partners namely: Catholic Justice and Peace Diocese of Lodwar, Justice and Peace centre Kitale (JPC Kitale), The Legal Resources Foundation Trust (LRF), Christ the King Kibera (CTK), Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), Shalom Centre for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation (SCCRR), Centre for Enhancing Democracy and Good Governance (CEDGG), Association of Sisterhoods in Kenya (AOSK)and TISA (The institute of Social Accountability)

PURPOSE OF THE MID TERM EVALUATION
The mid tem review will assess progress towards the achievement of the program objectives and outcomes as specified in the Program results framework document. It will identify and outline program achievements, successes and learnings that can be further replicated to achieve the intended results. It is expected that this review will interrogate the implementation methodologies especially the recently introduced Community engagement model of community conversations as well as the use of organized groups such as social accountability forums. The review will also assess any challenges or early signs of project success or failure with the goal of identifying and outlining corrective actions to ensure that a project is on track to achieve maximum results by its completion.
The review will also assess the program implementation strategy, its risks to replicability and sustainability. The sustainability assessment should address social-political risks and stakeholder ownership, national institutional framework and governance and environmental risks.
The program initial design was informed by program evaluations of the previous governance and Human rights program. After the initial design phase, the program was further informed by a baseline survey conducted in 2014. A partner led survey was conducted in November 2015, which sought to establish Groups, Leaders and members’ competency/ skills and knowledge levels on different issues. The midterm review will evaluate progress on the indicators in the results framework against the baseline information.

APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
The Midterm review must provide evidence based information that is credible, reliable and useful. It is expected to follow a collaborative and participatory approach ensuring close engagement with the program team, partner’s team, communities and relevant stakeholders. The data required for this evaluation will be collected at four levels:
• Discussions with partners.
• Group level assessment.
• Individual level assessment
• Focus Groups.
The data collected will be both Quantitative and Qualitative and will be analysed and reported by group as well as by partner where applicable.

DETAILED SCOPE
The evaluation will assess the following categories of project progress.

Project design
This will review for relevance, appropriateness and coverage of the program interventions.
• Review the problem addressed by the program and the underlying context. Review the effect of any incorrect assumptions or changes to the context to achieving the program results as outlined in the Program documents.
• Review the relevance of the program implementation approach/strategy and assess whether it provides the most effective route towards expected/intended results. The program has mostly used groups as a community engagement model and in the recent past the program has used community conversations’ methodology to facilitating the communities and groups. It is critical that this evaluation reviews this approach and provide feedback on its effectiveness towards achieving results.
Progress towards results
One of the key purpose of the midterm evaluation is to establish the changes experienced by program beneficiaries and target population with regard to the indicators included in the Trócaire Results Framework. The results framework indicators should be reviewed against baseline and progress made towards the end-of-program targets.
• Review the level to which program outcomes have been achieved and highlight any unexpected outcomes.
• Outline the beneficiaries (women, men, youth, vulnerable groups) and in what ways they have benefited and establish if those benefits (outcomes) are relevant to people’s needs
• Establish whether the program activities are appropriate and effective in achieving the stated objectives.
• Assess and analyse the effectiveness of the program in enhancing the capacity of the target groups to effectively participate in governance processes as well as their ability in conflict identification and resolution.
• Establish if the program has established reasonable methods for gathering data necessary to monitor and evaluate progress and is gathered data useful and applicable for improved performance.
• Highlight the extent to which the program interventions have contributed to the policy debate both at the county level and the national level
• Review the extent to which the program collaborates with the County Government and National Government. The added value of the collaboration should be highlighted as well as the enabling and limiting factors.
• Review the extent to which the program collaborates and networks with the other projects within the program and other relevant networks. The added value of the collaboration should be highlighted as well as the enabling and limiting factors.
• Review the management of the program at partner level and their level of capacity to deliver the program objectives and outcomes as stipulated in the results framework.
• Identify the aspects of the program that have already been successful and give insights on ways in which the project can further expand these benefits.
• Identify remaining barriers to achieving the end of program targets

Efficiency and value for money
This review should give a critical look at how well the resources availed for the program were utilized to give quality outputs towards the achievement of the intended program outcomes. Instances of duplication or inefficient use of resources should be highlighted with recommendations on how best to optimize the resources availed to the partners.

Accountability
This being a program whose key message is transparency and accountability, it is important to have an inward look into the program to establish how well the program is in line with the transparency and accountability principles that it promotes. The review will therefore identify the extent to which the program has been accountable to the program beneficiaries, program relevant stakeholders, program donors among others.

Sustainability
The review will seek to establish if the program interventions and strategies employed have empowered the communities for sustainability of the results after the life of the program and efforts to build more linkages with other relevant community groups, civil society organizations, resident associations, business community, the media and government agencies and departments to help the program participants identify opportunities and communication networks for future engagements. The review should also establish if the program interventions have been entrenched into the relevant governance institutions and policy departments.
It will also validate whether the risks identified in the project documents are the most important also identify financial, social economic, institutional or environmental risks to the program sustainability.

EVALUATION METHODOLOGY AND PROCESS
The midterm review process is expected to start in October 2016 for a period of about 27 days. The evaluator will be expected to organize data collection exercises involving programme partners, beneficiaries and Trocaire staff. Specifically the assignment will involve.
• Review of key programme documents including the program results framework 2015, Program Design document, project reports and budgets among others.
• Review of key government documents including but not limited to Constitution of Kenya 2010.
• Face-to-face interviews with partners implementing under the programme
• Face to face interviews with project beneficiaries and other relevant persons in the projects’ implementation localities.
The review team will be expected to prepare a midterm review inception report at the start of the assignment. This report should outline the team’s understanding of the project being assessed and the methodology (ies) the team will use to ensure the data collected is credible, reliable and useful. The inception report should also include a clear overview of the midterm review approach, including:
• The purpose, objective, and scope of the review
• A summary of the data collection methodologies
• Tools and timelines for data collection
• Any limitations of the review
• A proposed work plan including a schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables of the review

DELIVERABLES
• Midterm review Inception report
• Draft final report
• Final report
Evaluation Quality and Ethical Standards
The evaluators should take all reasonable steps to ensure that the evaluation is designed and conducted to respect and protect the rights and welfare of the people and communities involved and to ensure that the evaluation is technically accurate and reliable, is conducted in a transparent and impartial manner, and contributes to organizational learning and accountability. The evaluation team will also commit to adhering to Trócaire’s Safeguarding Programme Participant Policy, Child protection policy and Code of Conduct.

CONSULTANTS PROFILE
Trócaire Kenya GHR Programme seeks to engage the services of qualified and experienced consultants/consultancy firms to undertake the exercise. Selection of the external evaluation consultant will be based on the following qualifications:
• At least a Master’s degree in the field of development studies, public policy, public administration, economics, sociology, anthropology or any related field of social sciences is mandatory
• A minimum of 7 – 10 years relevant work experience, with at least half working with developing countries and demonstrate an understanding of the governance sector
• Strong analytical and research skills with sufficient understanding of survey design, quantitative/ qualitative methods, data analysis and the results framework;
• Extensive experience in conducting evaluations, with a strong working knowledge on Governance, social accountability and peace building.
• Knowledge and experience working with INGOs both directly implementing and working through partnership preferred;
• Excellent English writing and presentation skills in English, with relevant writing samples of similar evaluation reports;
• Outstanding interpersonal skills, teamwork, and competency to operate in a multi-cultural and diverse environments; and availability for the period indicated.
• Evidence of having done similar work will be a key consideration

BUDGET & LOGISTICS
Trócaire will be responsible for logistical support of any shared logistical arrangements where the consultant is travelling with a Trócaire and partner staff.

HOW TO APPLY:
Trócaire is inviting interested parties to submit expressions of interest. Individuals or firms applying shall detail the following:
• Consultants’ profile and Capability Statement describing the technical capacity and experience of the firm or group of individuals
• Names and resume of individuals or team members proposed and their roles in the achievement of the assignment
• 3 professional referees (preferably previous clients) and sample reports of similar assignments taken in the recent past
• Interpretation of the Terms of Reference (TORs)
Interested candidates should submit their application to the following email address: hrkenya@trocaire.org with ‘GHR program Midterm Evaluation Consultancy” as the subject of the e-mail.