TERMS OF REFERENCE. Independent Evaluation of the Implementation and Effectiveness of the SADC Regional Poverty Observatory

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1 TERMS OF REFERENCE Independent Evaluation of the Implementation and Effectiveness of the SADC Regional Poverty Observatory 1.0 BACKGROUND The Southern Africa Trust, in partnership with the Secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), is commissioning an independent evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of the SADC Regional Poverty Observatory from the period beginning 2011 to March 31, Findings from this evaluation will inform joint management review and decisions of SADC Secretariat and the Trust pertaining to the design, staffing, resourcing and sustainability of the RPO. 1.1 Poverty is one of the major challenges facing the SADC region where a significant section of the population, about 40 per cent, lives in abject poverty. SADC countries have responded to this challenge and made poverty reduction a thrust for national and regional developmental policies. The SADC Treaty objective 1(a) states that SADC seeks to promote sustainable and equitable economic growth and socio-economic development that will ensure poverty alleviation with the ultimate objective of its eradication, enhance the standard and quality of life of the people of Southern Africa and support the socially disadvantaged through regional integration. 1.2 SADC Member States have adopted poverty eradication strategies at the national level in various forms and these have, in some cases achieved significant gains. At the regional level, SADC adopted the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) , revised ( ), which is designed to guide SADC in achieving its development objectives through high and sustainable economic growth and deeper economic integration. The RISDP singles out poverty eradication as the overarching priority for regional integration and cooperation in SADC. 1.3 Concerned by the high levels of poverty in the SADC region, the SADC Heads of States and Government held a Conference on Poverty and Development in April 2008 and signed a Declaration on Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development. This Declaration was a re-iteration by SADC of its commitments to combating and eradicating poverty and re-engineered the need for the region to strengthen, coordinate and establish 1 P age

2 linkages for the strategies and initiatives currently being adopted by Member States and other stakeholders to eradicate poverty in the region. The Declaration called for, among other things, the establishment of a Regional Poverty Observatory to monitor progress made in the implementation of initiatives towards poverty eradication. 1.4 The decision to establish the Regional Poverty Observatory was endorsed by Summit at its meeting held in August 2008, following which a team of experts was engaged in April 2009 to move forward the process of establishing the RPO. The result of the work of the experts is the Approved RPO Proposal which prescribes the institutional, technical and financial architecture of the RPO. The Proposal was approved by Council and endorsed by Summit in August 2010 in Windhoek, Namibia and work is currently on-going to operationalize the RPO. 1.5 Since 2007 the Southern Africa Trust has been providing technical and financial support to the SADC Secretariat for the implementation of SADC decisions on poverty eradication as well as on the operationalization of the SADC Regional Poverty Observatory through a Partnership Agreement that has been renewed every two years. This Partnership Agreement has now been replaced by a substantive Memorandum of Understanding signed in April Under the successive agreements the Trust has seconded a Senior Policy Advisor (Poverty) and a Senior Policy Researcher (Poverty) to drive the work of the RPO. 1.6 The Mandate of the RPO includes, but is not limited to, the following; 1 i. Providing monitoring and reporting services at the regional level on poverty trends and tracking progress made on implementing poverty reduction strategies; ii. iii. iv. Ensuring coordination and implementation of the plan of action by relevant actors; Ensuring multi-stakeholder participation in policy dialogue on poverty related policy issues; Disseminating relevant information to the public, thereby encouraging citizen buy-in; v. Reporting progress on contributions of the observatory towards mandate and objectives; vi. vii. Coordinating modus operandi with major international conventions, protocols, strategies, plans, programmes and tools; Selecting relevant themes per objective, interesting to both upstream and downstream users; 1 The Approved Proposal for the Establishment of a SADC Regional Poverty Observatory (RPO), P age

3 viii. ix. Providing a prioritized set of indicators to measure status and trends pertinent to themes/objectives; Reporting on major cross cutting issues impacting directly or indirectly on SADC, and that are of significant importance to data interpretation and have potential influence on poverty analysis; and x. Facilitating knowledge exchange on good practices within the area of poverty eradication. 2. EVALUATION PURPOSE AND TARGET AUDIENCE The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the effectiveness and impact of the SADC Regional Poverty Observatory from January 2012 until March 31, Findings from the evaluation will inform the review and policy decisions of the SADC Secretariat and Southern Africa Trust management in relation to the design, staffing, resourcing and sustainability of the RPO. The timing of the evaluation is influenced by several factors which include concerns on the efficiency and effectiveness of the RPO raised by key stakeholders such as the RPO Steering Committee, Civil Society partners, International Cooperating Partners and management at the SADC Secretariat and the Southern Africa Trust. For instance the 4 th RPO Steering Committee held in March 2016 expressed its concerns about the lack of tangible progress in fully implementing RPO programmes since the SADC Conference on Poverty and Development of 2008 and in particular the stagnation of RPO activities since the 3 rd RPO SC 2013 and inability to hold annual RPO SC meetings. The Steering Committee also noted that there were fundraising challenges for holding RPO SC meetings but nevertheless noted some progress in the certain areas of work and milestones as reported to the 3 rd RPO SC (2013) and 4 th RPO SC (2016). Since 2012, the Trust has invested close to US$600, 000 (ZAR9 Million) in the work of the RPO, by far the organisation s largest support to a single organization or project. In fact the Trust is the only organization that has been providing direct funding for the staff of the RPO. As an organization whose mission is founded on combatting poverty and inequality through promoting the inclusion of voices of the poor in regional policy processes, the RPO remains a vital mechanism for the realization of the Trust s organizational mission. The roll out of a new five year corporate strategy in April 2016 therefore provides an ideal and important milestone for assessing whether the envisaged impact has been realized and appropriate value derived from the support to the RPO. Similarly for SADC, the Regional Poverty Observatory lies at the heart of the Community s raison d etre as it was formed with the determination to alleviate poverty, with the ultimate objective of its eradication, through deeper regional integration and sustainable economic 3 P age

4 growth and development. 2 The approval and implementation of the revised Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) which seeks to mainstream poverty eradication across all SADC programmes also presents an opportunity to take stock of the work of the RPO, assess whether in its current form, the framework is delivering on its mandate and spell out areas that need changing or strengthening. 3. OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF EVALUATION The evaluation of the Regional Poverty Observatory will analyse and provide actionable information on the following aspects; i. What has the RPO achieved vis-à-vis its mandate and roadmap for operationalisation of the RPO since 2012? ii. How efficient has the RPO been in utilising available financial and human resources towards achieving its mandate and roadmap? iii. How far has the RPO managed to mobilise and sustain multi-stakeholder engagement in regional policy processes? iv. To what extent has the structure of the RPO facilitated or constrained the work of the RPO? v. What has been the impact of the work of the RPO in advancing the poverty eradication agenda in Southern Africa? vi. What strategies/measures can be put in place for the SADC RPO to achieve its mandate? The list above is only indicative and will be further refined in discussion with the selected consultants. 4. APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY The evaluation exercise will be conducted on the basis of the approach and methodology below; i. Desk top review consultants will access through the Trust and SADC Secretariat key documents such as the SADC Declaration on Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development (2008); The Approved Proposal for the Establishment of a SADC Regional Poverty Observatory (RPO), 2010; SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Plan (Revised) ; Reports of the RPO Steering Committee; Reports of the SADC RPO; ii. Key Informant Interviews consultants will conduct interviews with key stakeholders recommended by SADC Secretariat and the Trust and in addition suggest other relevant interviewees. Interviewees may include SADC Secretariat staff and management (including RPO staff); Trust staff and management; 2 Consolidated Text of the Treaty of the Southern African Development Community as Amended in September P age

5 iii. Members of the RPO Steering Committee; International Cooperating Partners; Regional Civil Society Organisations. Field Visits consultants will be required to visit the SADC Secretariat Headquarters in Gaborone and the Southern Africa Trust offices in Midrand, South Africa. 5. KEY OUTPUTS/DELIVERABLES The consultants are expected to deliver the key outputs below; i. Evaluation inception report and evaluation matrix detailing the evaluators understanding of the assignment, proposed methods, proposed sources of data and data collection procedures, proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables. ii. Draft evaluation report iii. Final evaluation report 6. TIME FRAME The assignment is expected to be completed within 21 working days. 7. PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS AND COMPETENCIES Post-graduate degree in Public Administration, Economics, Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation and related fields. Solid understanding of the Southern African political and economic context and the work of SADC and regional Non State Actor organisations. Demonstrable understanding of issues of poverty and development in Southern Africa. Knowledge of various evaluation designs (e.g., non-experimental, experimental, quasi-experimental). Experience with evaluations using mixed method approaches. Knowledge of approaches for generating, revising, and prioritizing evaluation questions. Knowledge in the development of evaluation plans. Knowledge of methods for designing evaluations so as to increase the likelihood that the findings will be used by primary evaluation stakeholders. 8. SUPERVISION AND REPORTING 5 P age

6 The selected consultant will be supervised by the Chief Executive Officer of the Southern Africa Trust and whilst undertaking consultations and interviews at SADC Secretariat, they will report to the Director, Policy Planning and Resource Mobilisation. SUBMISSION Please letter of expression of interest and detailed CVs to on or before the 27 th of October Kindly use RPO Evaluation: Expression of Interest in your subject line. 6 P age