ThaiNGO

Terms of Reference (ToR)

for baseline evaluation of Sustainability of HIV Services for Key Populations in Asia (SKPA) grant

1. Background

AFAO is currently the principal recipient of Global Fund funded regional grant Sustainability of HIV Services for Key Populations in Asia (SKPA) being implemented in eight countries: Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Philippines, Timor-Leste, Malaysia, Lao PDR and Papua New Guinea. The main aim of the SKPA Program is to promote sustainable services for key populations at scale to stop HIV transmissions and AIDS related deaths by 2030.

Globally the funding in the HIV/AIDS sector is decreasing and HIV/AIDS programs in many countries are still largely reliant on donor funding. Economic growth and the consequent shift to middle income status requires that countries increase their domestic investment and be more self-sufficient in the delivery of national HIV/AIDS programs. Even where staged, the challenges of transition from donor to domestic funding are acute. With diminishing donor funding, countries must be highly efficient in targeting their investments in accordance with epidemiology and mechanisms for funding community-led responses by those most affected by HIV – key populations – must be established or strengthened.

The SKPA Program recognizes the considerable existing efforts of grant countries toward national and global HIV/AIDS goals, funded through domestic, private and donor sources. It also recognizes that, as in all countries, each of the grant countries of this program experiences barriers that prevent the provision of services and programs for key populations at necessary scale. The SKPA Program seeks to identify barriers to scale-up and implement targeted actions to address those barriers.

The objectives of SKPA program are to:

Increase Financial Sustainability: Secure the long-term sustainability of increased service delivery at national levels through securing domestic investment and spending, exploring innovative approaches and identifying alternative sources of funding for key programs.

Strengthen Strategic Information: Secure up-to-date strategic information, particularly on key epidemiological and response information including population size estimates and program coverage, community needs assessment of key populations to inform program design

Mitigate Service Delivery Gaps: Scale-up outreach to key populations and improve their access to prevention, testing and treatment and retention in the service cascade

Strengthen Community Systems: Strengthen community responses and systems to support increased scale-up of services for key populations including sustainability of community-led services through community-based research, effective use of data and other strategic information and through community mobilisation

Contribute to Enabling Environment: Address barriers to access including addressing stigma and other human rights- and gender-related barriers to services, where relevant.

AFAO seeks technical support from a program evaluation expert for the baseline evaluation for the three-year SKPA grant.

During the implementation of the baseline evaluation, reviews will also be undertaken by international consultants appointed by country sub recipients of the scope and alignment with normative guidance of  KP services. Information collected by these country consultants will contribute to baseline assessment of service delivery for KPs. The consultant implementing the baseline evaluation will need to work closely with the country consultants to maximise synergies.

2. Objective of Consultancy

The overall objective of this consultancy is to enable evaluation of the SKPA program, through establishment of a baseline assessment .

The specific objectives are to:

• Propose scope, questions and methods for the baseline and end-of-program evaluation of the SKPA program
• Develop objectively verifiable indicators and means of verification for program goal, objectives, Work Plan tracking measures (WPTMs) and milestones of the SKPA program
• Assess baseline value and means of verification for all the work plan tracking measures of the SKPA program
• To develop guidelines for the program end-line evaluation.

3. Scope of Work

The evaluation will be based on the methodology described below, and further discussed by the evaluation team with the SKPA team. The evaluation will be results-oriented and provide evidence using quantitative and qualitative methods.

The methodology for the evaluation shall include, but not limited to, the followings:

1. Desk reviews of all relevant documents of the SKPA program, including but not limited to SKPA Concept Note, SKPA PF and WPTM; Country Narratives; SKPA country SR assessment reports, National Consultation Report during SKPA proposal development;  country investment cases, HIV Country Progress Reports, National Strategic Plans, Implementation plans and relevant implementation reports, Country Global Fund Proposals and reports, HIV/CSO Financing related policies, AIDS Epidemic Modelling, Global AIDS Response Progress Reporting, National AIDS Spending Assessment (NASA) and UNGASS reports and World Bank country profiles. The desk review will include a baseline report on:

• description of Services for Key Populations, their reach and identification of gaps (service modalities and coverage)

• sources of strategic information to inform programming and demand generation and identification of gaps,
• Indicators to Assess HIV Financing landscape for CSOS including but not limited to: – level and sources of financing for KP services, CSO representation in funding mechanisms, transition planning, and domestic funding for CSOs (e.g., social contracting)
• policy, legal, social and other environmental barriers to service provision and access
• capacity to deliver services for KPs including community-based services

2. Preliminary discussions and planning with program staff from AFAO and partners during desk review/inception phase.
3. Consultation with all country SRs and regional SRs to discuss potential indicators and means of verification for program goal and objectives (Might be through Skype call if not possible to visit all countries).
4. Developing tools and frameworks

• Develop tools that country consultants will use to review the current package of services per key population as per the National Strategic Plan and implementation guides.

• Develop standard reporting template for national levels consultants to review the package of services for key populations, building on previous work on reviewing KP package of services (e.g., APMG Key population country reports and desk reviews for the Asia and the Pacific Region). This also includes preparing a consistent methodology for desk reviews, focus group discussions, key information interviews, and other data collection instruments).

5. Online questionnaire: This will be developed by the consultant and administered to countries and regional stakeholders (pre-identified) to establish baseline as well as inform planned capacity strengthening and advocacy activities. The same questionnaire will be conducted for end-line evaluation, while additional questions will be added as needed, to address more complex evaluation questions.

6. Semi-structured interviews and group discussions: A Survey with both quantitative and qualitative perspectives will be developed in line with the evaluation questions for in-depth interviews and focus group discussions.  An annotated version of the survey will be conducted among key stakeholders in all the countries as well as at regional level. A more comprehensive survey will be conducted to a larger stakeholder group for the final program evaluation.

7. Case studies and other qualitative input

The baseline evaluation will also include case studies illustrating the effect of inadequate services as well as interviews with program stakeholders regarding their expectations of the SKPA Program. Other opportunities for qualitative input will be discussed with the evaluation consultant.

The proposed approach and methodology outlined above can be seen as guidelines. It is expected that the evaluator will further refine the approach and methodology and submit his/her detailed description in the Inception Report.

4. Key Activities

The key activities to be undertaken by the consultant are as follows:

Activity 1: Develop baseline value and means of verification for all the milestones in WPTM;

1. Review the WPTM; SKPA proposal; Country Reports etc and Develop tools to review current package of services per key population in order to inform baseline value and means of verifications on all the proposed indicators of WPTM
2. Propose evaluation questions and related methodologies to assess impact and outcome of SKPA in addition to information covered by WPTMs
3. Share the proposed means of verification and baseline value to all the concerned stakeholders (Country SRs and regional networks) and finalise based on their comments and suggestions.

Activity 2: Propose objectives, scope, questions and methods for the end-of-program evaluation of the SKPA program

• Propose evaluation question related to the relevance, sustainability and efficiency of the SKPA program, for inclusion in the end-of-program evaluation 

5. Scope & Tasks

6. Deliverables/Outputs

Final baseline Report with detail description of each milestone of the WPTM with its baseline value and means of verification.

Situation reports on the current status of the activities required for the review of KP service package.

7. Reporting:

The consultant will report to Mr Sanjeev Raj Neupane; Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning officer and will work in close coordination with Program Manager; Sr Program Officer; Program Officer and Country Leads.

8. Qualification of Consultant: The consultant must have following qualifications

• Ten years of experience in program evaluation design and implementation
• Experience in qualitative as well as quantitative methods and theory development
• Extensive experience on HIV programming and strategy development and understanding of key issues related to financing
• Demonstrated experience in working with key populations and civil society
• Experience in baseline and end of program evaluation of major national and regional HIV programs
• Demonstrated experience in monitoring and evaluating development programs
• Demonstrated experience in writing succinct and clear evaluation reports
• Able to work as a team member with diverse stakeholders

The deadline for this application is 18 September 2019. Please send a CV (max 4 pages) and cover letter expressing your interest to: Philips.loh@afao.org.au CC: Sanjeev.Neupane@afao.org.au .

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