Data Quality Advisor - CNFA

Project Name Hinga Weze/Project Number AID-696-C-17-00001

Consultancy Assignment Review of Project Data Management & Data Quality Assessment

Consultant/team of consultant Title Data Quality Advisor

Reports to HQ Director of Monitoring & Evaluation

Level of Effort 18 days

Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) is an international agricultural development organization that specializes in designing sustainable, market-led agricultural, agribusiness and livestock initiatives. CNFA builds strong local and global partnerships, incorporates innovative approaches in its programs, and fosters inclusive development to offer enhanced opportunities to underserved groups. Since 1985, CNFA has managed more than $600 million in donor-funded agriculture development programs and has worked in 44 countries across the world in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and South and Central Asia.

2. About Hinga Weze

The objective of the five-year Hinga Weze activity is to sustainably increase smallholder farmers’ income, improve the nutritional status of Rwandan women and children, and increase the resilience of agriculture and food systems to the changing climate. These outcomes will be achieved through combining capacity building with in-kind matching grants and technical support to strengthen agricultural extension, improve agricultural infrastructure, and facilitate linkages among value chain actors.

To achieve the goals of Hinga Weze, five value chains will be specifically targeted: high-iron beans, orange flesh sweet potato (OFSP), Irish potato, maize, and horticulture. The Activity is being implemented in the following ten districts of Rwanda: Gatsibo, Kayonza, Bugesera, Ngoma (Eastern Province); Nyabihu, Rutsiro, Ngororero Nyamasheke, Karongi (Western Province); and Nyamagabe (Southern Province).

Hinga Weze is currently in its second year of implementation and intends to directly benefit over 535,000 participants through 2022.

3. Background Information

The component of the Hinga Weze activity include:

1. Component 1:Agriculture productivity sustainably increased. HingaWeze is supporting the Government of Rwanda to increase the resilience of the agriculture and food systems to the changing climate in order to sustainably increase agricultural productivity in the program’s target districts.

2. Component 2:Farmers’ market access improved. The smallholder farmers who were assisted in increasing their yields through the Component 1 activities described above will also benefit from assistance to increase their sales by increasing access to and use of post-harvest handling services, improving negotiating positions with buyers through cooperative marketing, and accessing financial services to access these post-harvest and marketing services.

3. Component 3:Nutrition outcome of agriculture interventions improved. In order to strengthen the integration of services, the same smallholder farmers in the ten targeted districts who received assistance under the activities in Component 1 and Component 2 will also be targeted with assistance to improve nutritional practices and outcomes.

4. Overview of Assignment

CNFA considers monitoring and evaluation (M&E) to be an essential management support function that facilitates evidence-based program management through rigorous identification, testing, and scaling-up of interventions that maximize impact and cost-effectiveness. In addition, the Hinga Weze program falls under the Feed the Future initiative, and it is vital that the Hinga Weze M&E system conform to Feed the Future monitoring and evaluation requirements, and that the performance indicator data that is collected and reported meets all dimensions of USAID data quality standards documented in ADS 201.3.5.8: 1. Validity: Data should clearly and adequately represent the intended result. 2. Integrity: Data should have safeguards to minimize risk of transcription error or data manipulation. 3. Precision: Data should have a sufficient level of detail to permit management decision making. 4. Reliability: Data should reflect consistent data collection processes and analysis methods over time. 5. Timeliness: Data should be available at a useful frequency, should be current, and should be timely enough to influence management decision making.

To meet this standard, Hinga Weze is seeking a consultant to review the project’s monitoring and evaluation system and identify improvements to increase efficiency of data collection and improvements on all five dimensions of data quality, with a particular emphasis on timeliness of data collection to ensure sufficient time for project managers to review results for improved reporting to USAID and use for adaptive management, as well as integrity and reliability of data particulary where data are reported through the Farmer Field School cascade training model.

Specific tasks include:

The consultant will conduct a data quality assessment (DQA) including a data verification exercise for previously reported data. The specific methodology will be proposed by the consultant and approved by CNFA. The DQA will focus particularly on data collection and management processes in the district offices, which are the main source of performance indicator data collection and therefore the driver of data quality. The consultant will also review past conducted DQA by the project teams and propose recommendations.

Based on the DQA findings, the consultant will provide recommendations to adjust data collection and management protocols to improve the system in place. These recommendations may include but are not limited to:

· Revising data collection roles and protocols for greatest efficiency and accuracy of data, including improved procedures for checking data validity;

· Training for staff and partners (including Farmer Promoters) responsible for reporting and verifying data;

· Digitization of systems for data collection related to activities and results, including the use of tablets as well as recommendations to improve the data management system;

· Improvements to the reporting templates.

5. Level of Effort (LOE), Period and Place of Performance

The consultancy will take place from approximately March 25 – April 15, 2019. The level of effort for this assignment is 18 days. The consultant will be based in Kigali with travel to district offices.

6. Deliverables

· Proposed methodology for the DQA and data verification exercise. Methodology must be approved by CNFA prior to field work.

· Report with findings of data verification exercise and the Data Quality Assessment Report. For the DQA, the consultant will use USAID recommended template, provided by CNFA.

· Report with recommendations for mitigation of any DQA findings and recommendations for improving the Hinga Weze Monitoring & Evaluation system.

7. Reporting Requirements and Task Duration:

· Proposed DQA and data verification exercise methodology: 3 days, due prior to travel to Kigali.

· Data verification and DQA: 15 days. Reports due with 2 weeks of conclusion of field work.

Application Deadline is April 1st.

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Data Quality Advisor – CNFA

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