Summary
Date Posted: Tuesday, August 11, 2020 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Background
ZOAZ operates as a partnership that is supported by branches in the United Kingdom (ZOA-UK) and the United States of America (ZOA-USA). The partnership was established to respond to an emergency of vast numbers of children becoming vulnerable and eventually orphaned in Zambia. From 1998 to the early 2000s Zambia was cited internationally as having one of the largest population of orphans in the world .
Zambians living in the USA and UK and friends of Zambia came together to form ZOA-USA (incorporated in 2000) and ZOA-UK (incorporated in 2006). Both operate as private voluntary organizations whose main objective is to provide financial and other support to Zambian groups and institutions focusing on the care of orphans and other vulnerable children channel through ZOAZ. A Memorandum of Understanding exists between the three organizations to identify roles and responsibilities, and clarifies how the partners should work together.
In its effort to reach out to OVC and vulnerable youths, ZOAZ has partnered with fourteen (14) implementing partners (projects) in 7 out of the 10 provinces in Zambia. ZOAZ Secretariat constitute four (4) paid staff members, 3 based at the Secretariat in Lusaka and one (1) in Northern Province-Kasama. In addition to the four paid staff ZOA-Z pay monthly allowances to 5 local partners/project staff directly linked to ZOAZ portfolios and all teachers at one project. Although ZOAZ has remained relatively small, approximately over US$ 5 million has been raised and disbursed, and in-kind contributions made over the past 16 years. ZOA/ZOAZ’s disburses 90 per cent of total funds raised to projects, and is allowed to charge between 10 and 15 per cent administrative fees for grant disbursement and management. Other operational costs are met through membership fees contributions from members and local fund-raising activities.
Purpose of Evaluation
The environment in which the ZOA partnership works has changed significantly over the years as the Zambian government and non-government partners, inclusive of faith-based organizations (FBOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) have designed and implemented projects to assist OVC. Most notably is the mainstreaming of the responses into national education, health and social welfare programs.
Within the ZOA partnership a major decision was made in 2012 to work with a limited number of local organizations, and to support their child and youth beneficiaries throughout their school career, e.g. from reception through tertiary education. This changed the nature of ZOAZ work from responding to an emergency situation to providing long-term care and support to a specific number of people.
Although the number of projects have been contained, their geographical spread is wide, and grants consist of small sums of money. ZOAZ is concerned that any degree of scale-up could not be supported by ZOA’s current administrative arrangement.

Based on these concerns the specific TORs for the evaluation is to address the following issues:
1. Is the work of ZOAZ still relevant in the present social, economic and political environment in Zambia recognizing the following:
• People living with HIV/AIDS are surviving longer because of availability of Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) and improved medical care. This is resulting in reduction of the number of orphans, and enabling parents/guardians to support their children due to better health status and ability to be productive.
• Zambia is classified as a middle income country. External support to Zambia’s development efforts has been dwindling although poverty remains a persistent issue.
• ZOAZ does not use the Government means-test for assessing project beneficiaries, and this sometimes result in non-orphaned and/or vulnerable children receiving assistance. Project partners identify the OVC in their communities and forward names to ZOAZ. How does this affect achievement of ZOA’s mission and goals?
• Deliberate efforts to mainstream OVCs issues into national development policy frameworks and implementation plans have taken place since ZOA’s formation, e.g. bursaries to OVC, school feeding programs in public schools, exemption from fees for very young children and indigent children seeking health care in public facilities, and sexual reproductive health education for children 12 and above. How does ZOAZ work within these policy and program frameworks?

2. Assess the existing ZOA model for its effectiveness in delivering the objectives of the ZOA partnership (e.g. working only with registered organizations that are already working with OVCs; working with limited overheads and a small staff that is supplemented by volunteers). How is ZOAZ working with cooperating partners and what are some of the coordination challenges? How does this influence efficiency, effectiveness, and equity?
3. Is the ZOA present institutional framework adequate to respond to changes in the current socio-economic and political environment in relation to:
• Communication
• Funding

• Capacity to deliver adequate support to programs? 4. Operational issues of effectiveness, efficiency and desired outputs should also be considered in terms of the following questions:
a. How to improve the focus of ZOAZ’ operations for greater effectiveness and efficiency;
i. Is ZOAZ coordinating effectively with government, the private sector, NGOs, FBOs and CBOs?
ii. Is there consistency in ZOAZ’S expectations of partner proficiency in program implementation? Are all partners held to the same standards for program implementation and financial accountability?
b. How to improve the quality of project implementation;
i. What systems are currently being used to identify beneficiaries and how can they be improved for better and efficient targeting? How is vulnerability defined by the various local partners?
ii. How does the ZOAZ systems compare with systems used in public service programs, private sector, FBOs and other NGOs?
iii. What exit strategies are in place and how can they be improved?
iv. Are ZOAZ’S present program objectives sustainable in terms of financial/material support to OVC and organizational support to local partners to improve programs?
v. What are the recommendations to improve organizational and program sustainability.
c. How to improve project monitoring to assure financial and program accountability, and that ZOAZ’s support is producing value for money.
d. Where are the synergies/agreement on goals, delivery mechanisms and joint problem solving, interdependence and clarity/boundaries for individual partners’ areas of work, their roles and responsibilities and shared learning?
e. How does the tripartite arrangement contribute to the ZOA vision and mission?
i. Assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the tripartite agreement;
ii. The extent to which there is a shared vision, communication, and leadership practice.
iii. Decision ma
king, shared understanding on making decisions affecting the partnership and service delivery; iv. Value addition- extent to which partners appreciate each other and the extent to which partners feel satisfied with the partnerships. .

Tasks
In addition to tasks developed during the inception phase, the consultant will be required address the following issues:
i. Undertake guided reading of relevant documents, project reviews, MOU, ZOAZ policies/procedures, government documents and other relevant sources.
ii. Interview Board Directors and Secretariat staff for background information, individual feedback, and guidance on the assignment;
iii. Based on i and ii above, submit an inception report for comment by the ZOAZ Monitoring and Evaluation Committee
iv. Hold an extraordinary meeting with ZOA members to gain insight into the structure and operations of ZOA, and their effectiveness;
v. Visit at least 7 project sites and interview their managers/beneficiaries to ascertain the level of support and monitoring by ZOAZ, identify issues to be addressed, successes and lessons learned;
vi. Review ZOA organizational structure and working relationships between ZOAZ and ZOA in USA and in UK;
vii. Review ZOA fund-raising procedures and their effectiveness, including both opportunities to raise more funds from sources in Zambia in the UK and the US (private sector, donors and from trusts and charities)
viii. Assess the efficiency of the Secretariat in terms of human, financial, and material needs; and examine local fund-raising opportunities and challenges for ZOAZ; in this context, compare ZOAZ effectiveness with two other similar organizations;
ix. Review project identification processes, monitoring and evaluation procedures, funding disbursement mechanisms, and comment on their effectiveness;
x. Review the nature of projects and their geographical locations, and comment on ZOAZ’s ability to support them effectively;
xi. Review the demographic and socio-economic status of ZOA program/ Projects beneficiaries and assess for equity, resource distribution and sustainability of the organisation;
xii. Conduct a consultation by audio conference or otherwise with ZOA-UK and ZOA-US on the kinds of projects likely to receive a favorable response for support
xiii. Disseminate draft findings via an open meeting to provide feedback on findings to the Board, Secretariat, and key stakeholders, and get consensus/clarification on the role and functions of ZOAZ;
xiv. Finalize the evaluation report, providing clear recommendations on the items above.

4. Outputs and timing
The consultant will develop a report whose content will be in line with the defined purpose of the study as outlined in section 2. The consultant will develop an outline of the report which will be revised and approved by the consultant’s supervisor before development of the report.
The consultant will provide specific recommendations in line with the areas of focus of the evaluation as outlined in section 2- purpose of the evaluation.
Who will undertake the evaluation?
This assignment will require a team that will demonstrate capacity to conduct evaluations and consultancies with NGOs in Education and social sector.
A team of two (2) consultants will complement each other with:
i. Technical knowledge and experience in social development with knowledge and experience in orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and social welfare program designing, management and service delivery and
ii. Development management and sustainability expertise.
Timing
The assignment will begin by mid-November and be completed by the end of six (6) weeks from the start date.
It is anticipated that up to 20 non-consecutive days over a 6 weeks’ period will be allocated to this assignment.

Job Skills: Not Specified

Job Qualifications: Not Specified

Job Education Requirements: Not Specified

Job Experience Requirements: Not Specified

Work Hours: 8

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Job application procedure
To apply for this job email your details to given@zoazambia.org 

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