Terms of Reference for Task Order 50 InBusiness Project Endline Evaluation

About Light for the World

Light for the World sparks lasting change on disability rights and eye health. We believe in a world where people with eye conditions and disabilities can fully exercise their rights to health, education, work, and protection in emergencies. Over the last three decades, Light for the World has contributed to improving eye health systems and amplifying the voices of people with disabilities.

Our programmes include:

• Eye Health – preventing blindness and promoting eye health for all.
• Inclusive Education – ensuring children with disabilities receive quality, inclusive education.
• Inclusive Economic Empowerment – ensuring that barriers are removed for men and women with disabilities to access decent work.

In Kenya, Light for the World promotes the socioeconomic inclusion of people with disabilities. We focus on empowering people with disabilities by helping them build skills and access opportunities for growth. At the same time, we influence systemic changes to ensure people with disabilities thrive in inclusive environments. Our dual approach emphasizes on the empowerment of people with disabilities alongside broader social transformation.

Through our programmes, we create opportunities for inclusive business and employment. Our Inclusive Business approach equips entrepreneurs with the tools and networks they need to succeed in competitive markets, while advocating for a business environment that embraces diversity. We also partner with organisations and institutions to foster inclusive workplaces by addressing barriers such as a lack of accessibility, negative attitudes and policies**.**

Light for the World current strategic focus in Kenya (2021-2025) emphasizes empowering micro entrepreneurs, fostering disability inclusion in various sectors, enhancing employability skills among students with disabilities, and promoting evidence-based policy advocacy.

Light for the World Kenya is looking for a consultant/firm to support in conducting Task Order 50 InBusiness Project Endline Evaluation.

Background of Task Order 50 (TO50) Project

The TO50 Inclusive Business (InBusiness) Initiative is a four-year project funded through the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Disability Inclusive Development (DID) Inclusive Futures Programme. DID brings together advocates of disability inclusion with national governments and private sector actors to co-create models for sustainably engaging people with disabilities in employment, business, health and inclusive education across Africa and Asia. Learning for the wider disability inclusion sector is a central element of the DID programme. TO50 is specifically focusing on an ‘InBusiness’ model supporting micro-entrepreneurs with disabilities and their caregivers to grow, develop and sustain their businesses through peer-to-peer mentorship, business skills training, provision of assistive devices, advocating for more inclusive procurement chains and business markets and strengthening linkages between micro-entrepreneurs and procurement opportunities.

TO50 is implemented in a consortium of four partners: Light for the World is the Task order management organization and implements this inclusive model for micro-entrepreneurs with disabilities and their caregivers in 8 counties including Meru, Laikipia, Nairobi, Kisumu, Machakos, Homabay, Migori, Kakamega. Humanity & Inclusion (HI) implements the model in a refugee context in Kakuma, Sense International (SI) implements the model to persons with complex disabilities (deaf/ blind) in Bomet, Kericho, Kakamega, Homabay, Kisumu, Kitui and Mombasa while United Disabled Persons of Kenya (UDPK) is the umbrella Organization of Persons with Disabilities (OPD) taking lead in the advocacy roles within the consortium.

The project started in 2019 to 2021 as a pilot phase and evidence on key learnings were documented and informed the current scale up project (2022 to 2025) that aims to concretize efforts and apply lessons from the first phase through a three-pronged strategy. These strategies include (a)Business development: Business growth of micro-entrepreneurs with disabilities which includes training in business, technical and advocacy skills, marketing as well compliance to standards; (b) Partnerships: Systemic change in public and private institutions to increase inclusion in the procurement chain which includes reducing barriers to micro-entrepreneurs’ participation through establishing the first Disability Inclusion Academy (DIA), increasing engagement of micro-entrepreneurs with Public and Private Institutions (PPIs), engagement with Organizations of People with Disabilities (Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs)) and advocacy efforts; and (c) Research andLearning including documentation and dissemination of evidence accrued from the project as best practice learning products.

Programme Expected Outcomes

The TO50 project expected outcomes are as follows;

1. Business skills of MEs improve
2. Business confidence of MEs improve
3. Improved access to procurement chains
4. Improved disability inclusion in procurement chains
5. Evidence collected and shared for learning and advocacy purposes

Objective of the Consultancy

The consultant is expected to conduct an endline evaluation that will assess the extent to which the TO50 formulated results have been achieved as per the project result framework, identify appropriateness and effectiveness of the project strategies, approaches and modalities used in the project to realize the intended ouctomes, and assess possible sustainability mechanisms aimed to promote durability of project interventions and investment.

Main Evaluation Questions

The endline evaluation will adopt OECD/DAC evaluation criteria (relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, learning and sustainability) as well as assess whether the following questions were adequately addressed during the project implementation.

• To what extent did the project respond to the intended project outcomes –intersection analysis of the MEs, various entrepreneurship platforms e.g the PPIs, business environment and communities?
• Did the project design complement current systems and programmes, rather than duplicate or silo itself? What new inclusive practices did the project infer?
• Was the project adequately designed to support the needs of women and girls, as well as men and boys with a range of disability types, including among marginalized communities within the targeted counties?
• What barriers existed in the participation of MEs with disabilities in procurement chains? Were there different barriers for women and men with disabilities? Which barriers were addressed during the project implementation period?
• What were the perceptions about MEs with disabilities among business partners and communities, and how did it affect their entrepreneurship choices and investment? Are there differences between MEs in terms of gender, disability and geographical location?
• What were the successful and unsuccessful practices employed by MEs to engage with procurement chains? What enablers existed within the ME entrepreneurship journey including the procurement chains?
• How effective and what role did the OPD engagement and peer-to-peer support model strategies in the inclusive micro-entrepreneurship program?

Methodology

The evaluation will use cross-sectional design and employ a mixed methods approach including a thorough literature review, key informant interviews (KIIs) with project stakeholders, focus group discussions (FGDs) with selected MEs and a survey with a larger sample of MEs. The endline will collect data on project impact indicators; improvement in quality of life/wellbeing among the micro-entrepreneurs, and the percentage increase in annual micro-entrepreneur income. While other outcome measurements may not be collected by the endline, the data collected in the Results Framework against outcome measurements will be triangulated.

Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected on how micro-entrepreneurs feel their knowledge improved, whether their business confidence increased, and whether engaging with public and private institutions has become easier.

The endline evaluation will also target 4 consortium partner representatives namely Light for the World, Humanity & Inclusion, Sense International and United Disabled Persons of Kenya (UDPK). Apart from the UDPK who played a key role on capacity strengthening of Organizations of Persons with Disability, community awareness activities and advocacy events across the counties of implementation, the other 3 partners supported direct implementation with project Micro-entrepreneurs (MEs).

The endline survey is planned to be conducted among 347 male and female MEs with and without disabilities – ensuring that either gender is not less than a third of the sample. This sample is based on the determined number of selected (831) MEs. Using the Raosoft Calculator (at 95% confidence level and 5% margin of error) each of the partners will have the following number of MEs for the survey (LFTW 251, HI 63 and SI 33), the total sample size is 347.The Task order will observe 95% confidence level and 5% error of margin while sampling respondents for the endline evaluation. The population will be split across the implementing partners as follows:

1. 251 Micro-entrepreneurs with and without disabilities and their families selected from Cohort 1, 2 and 3 through random sampling. The target counties for this include Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos, Homabay, Migori, Kakamega, Laikipia and Meru Counties. The responsible partner would be Light for the World
2. 63 Micro-entrepreneurs with and without disabilities and their families selected from Cohort 1 & 2 through random sampling. The targeted locations for this include Kakuma refugee and its hosting community. The responsible partner would be Humanity and Inclusion.
3. 33 Entrepreneurs with deaf blindness and their families selected from Cohort 1 & 2 through random sampling. The target counties include: Kitui, Homabay, Nairobi, Bomet, Kisumu, Kisii, Migori, Nyamira, Makueni, Machakos, Bungoma, Siaya and Kakamega county. The responsible partner is Sense International.

In addition, other evaluation target respondents are; 10 OPD representatives (2 from national level and 8 from the county level) and 8 National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) county representatives through key informant interviews. Although the data will be qualitatively collected, the necessary data points will be aggregated to verify quantitative indicators where relevant. Virtual interviews can be conducted among these stakeholder categories where appropriate. Furthermore, atleast 10 private and public institutions (5 private and 5 public) will also be interviewed as KIIs – distributed among the consortium partners and locations as follows:

1. Light for the World (LFTW): 5 PPIs from Laikipia and Kakamega Counties
2. Humanity Inclusion (HI): 3 PPIs from Kakuma refugee camp and its hosting community
3. Sense International (SI): 2 PPIs from Kakamega and Kitui counties

The selection of KIIs will be purposive (based on the most knowledgeable representatives about the study topics) with focus toto increase the less represented group (either female or male) in the study.

Through focus group discussions (FGDs), MEs with and without disabilities will be selected to dive deeper into issues covered in the quantitative survey. Five (5) FGDs with participants selected in Nairobi, Homabay, Kakamega, Kitui and Kakuma refugee camp (this enables representation by region/county and allows the interaction with project participants supported by each of the 3 partners i.e., LFTW, HI and SI). Two (2) additional FGDs (1 with male MEs and 1 female MEs) will be conducted to help elicit any gendered perspectives. Each FGD will comprise of 8-10 participants and disability, type/size of business, gender and age will be considered during recruitment of the participants. During the focus group discussions, sign language interpreters will be present to cater for the needs of participants with hearing and speech impairments.

The study will seek permission from respondents prior to any interview. After the interviews, the recordings will be transcribed before analysis is conducted. All the KII recordings, raw data and transcripts will be submitted to LFTW after the completion of the assignment.

Roles and responsibilities

1. Light for the World and TO50 Partners

The TO 50 partners, including UDPK, will be responsible for designing and validating the evaluation, establishing the research questions and approach, publishing terms of reference and selecting the best applications from external consultants to complete the evaluations. The partners will then review inception reports jointly with the consultants, agree on any suggested changes to approach and provide clarification before approving the evaluation.

During the evaluation, the partners will mobilize respondents, facilitate logistical support, and provide inclusive disability training to research assistants or translation services for respondents who are deaf or deafblind. On receipt of the finished product, the partners will provide feedback and request for alterations to the consultant before accepting the finalized piece of work. Partners will then hold a dissemination workshop.

The Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) will be involved in the development of the evaluation through to the dissemination. UDPK will support project design and be able to review the terms of reference, consultant proposals and inception reports as standard. Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) will then form part of the key informants for the evaluation. Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) will be asked to validate the findings of the evaluation and will then attend the dissemination forum where the consultant will present the findings of the evaluation.

In summary Light for the world and the TO50 partners will;

• Provide the consultant with the project documents and other relevant learning materials generated.
• Guide the consultant on the delivery of the assignment.
• Validate and approve the consultancy deliverables as developed by the consultant.
• Organize the dissemination forums as indicated in the MEL plan.
• Pay the assignment fee.

1. Consultant

The consultant will be required to submit a technical and financial proposal aligned with the posted terms of reference. The successful consultant will then submit an inception report detailing the planned evaluation. At minimum, the evaluation will provide the following, although consultants are invited to suggest additional or alternative documentation:

An Inception Report

• A Draft Evaluation Report (for partner feedback)
• A Final Evaluation Report with the following structure:
• Executive summary
• Brief project background
• Detailed explanation on the evaluation methodology
• Main findings relating to the evaluation questions, with clear breakdown of target themes
• Lessons Learnt and Recommendations for future action.
• Annexes to include, but not limited to:
• Acronyms and Definitions of Terms (to ensure uniform understanding)
• Bibliography of referenced sources
• List of participants/meetings, interviews and focus group discussions with dates, participants and locations
• Tabular format of different variable analysed e,g viable procurement chains preferably per location
• A sample of success stories/ ME Case studies
• A PowerPoint presentation on key summary findings of the evaluation.

Target Audience

The endline evaluation will respond to the needs of a broad audience including

1. Organisations of Persons with Disabilities and micro-entrepreneurs with disabilities and their caregivers
2. Stakeholder categories such as policymakers, public and private institutions and business networks both at local and national governments.
3. Consortium partners
4. Donors

Proposed Timelines

The expected duration of the whole assignment is 113 working days divided between the 3 consortium partners. The specific timelines for each consortium partner are as follows.

1. Humanity & Inclusion (HI) – endline evaluation to start on not later than, the 15th March 2025 and be finalised by 31st May 2025.
2. Sense International (SI) – endline evaluation to start on not later than, the 15th March 2025 and be finalized by 31st May 2025.
3. Light for the World (LFTW) – endline evaluation to start on not later than, the 15th August 2025 and be finalized by 30th November 2025.

Contractual period

The contract will run from 15th March 2025 until 30th November 2025.