Team Leader, IE Feasibility Assessment for the ECCO Activity

USAID/Southern Africa Regional Impact Evaluation (IE) Feasibility Assessment of the Ecosystems, Communities and Climate on the Okavango (ECCO) Activity  

Job Description –Team Leader  

Background: This Statement of Work (SOW) describes a feasibility assessment to inform design options for a potential impact evaluation (IE) of the Ecosystems, Communities and Climate on the Okavango (ECCO) activity, a five-year USAID-funded cooperative agreement which runs from October 2022 to September 2027.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and implementing partners will work with other partners and the Government of Angola (GoA) to promote (1) conservation-based livelihoods; (2) strengthen water resource management (WRM) and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services; and (3) harness the potential of the Activity’s cross-sector coordination and collaboration to ensure that biodiversity and human well-being outcomes. The activity asl incorporates lower-impact renewable energy and climate solutions and support for women’s economic empowerment. The project will chart economically sustainable development pathways that address the key threats and drivers to natural resources conservation and human well-being and prosperity for communities in southeastern Angola (principally in Cuando Cubango Province), with downstream benefits for Okavango Basin residents and ecosystem health in Namibia and Botswana.

The ECCO Activity’s Strategic Approaches are as follows, with illustrative interventions under each:

·        Strategic Approach 1: Conservation Livelihoods for Biodiversity, Forests & Climate Resilience

o   Sub-activity 1.1: Facilitate community fishing and forestry cooperatives’ establishment, and development of functional tenure and governance management systems

o   Sub-activity: 1.2: Support regional scientists, local authorities, and communities, including the integrating local ecological knowledge, to identify, map, and establish biodiversity-significant fisheries and forest areas and management rules

o   Sub-activity 1.3: Strengthen cooperatives’ capacity to effectively manage their forest concessions and fisheries reserves with best practices training and value-chain linkages

·        Strategic Approach 2: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and Water Resource Management (WRM)

o   Sub-activity 2.1: Strengthen communities’ and local governments’ capacities to manage WRM and WASH systems

o   Sub-activity: 2.2: Support community institutions in sensitization of healthy and accessible WASH management practices, behaviors, and technologies

o   Sub-activity 2.3: Support local government and community institutions to establish and manage forest reserves and wetland/riparian buffer zones, along with targeted re-vegetation, to protect and maintain water bodies from human contamination

·        Strategic Approach 3: Cross-sector Landscape Collaboration for Biodiversity & Human Well-being

o   Sub-activity 3.1: Collaborate with public and private-sector institutions as well as NGO actors in assessing and planning for lower-impact, cost-effective, and sustainable renewable energy

Project Description: The purposes of the feasibility assessment are: 1) strengthen the program design in advance of implementation to ensure the program is in the best possible position to achieve the desired impacts, 2) provide USAID with a recommendation on whether an evaluation should proceed, and 3) if applicable, provide USAID with design options that balance rigor with value and cost. This includes identifying illustrative IE design options that meet Agency-wide, Mission, and partner learning interests and are considered feasible for a credible assessment of impacts, should USAID decide to conduct an evaluation of the activity. The assessment should also consider non-IE approaches as well, identifying the most rigorous evaluation and research approaches to answering USAID’s priority questions. USAID will use the results of this IE feasibility assessment to gain an understanding of available design options and methods that could be used for an IE of the ECCO Activity, the types of outcomes that could be measured under such designs, the additional information that would be required to proceed with an IE design, and an illustrative indication of budgetary costs. 

This will include the following tasks:

1.     Prepare discrete, parsimonious, and testable causal mechanisms, based on the Activity Theory of Change (ToC), that refine the interventions, context, assumptions, beneficiary responses to the interventions, and anticipated outcomes and impacts.

2.     Review the evidence on intervention effectiveness. The review should distinguish counterfactual evidence from less rigorous evidence to improve USAID and TNC’s understanding of the risks and uncertainties with activity implementation.

3.     Review existing and planned data sources and identify additional data needs. The evaluators will be expected to conduct a document and data review, conduct analyses as needed, and participate in workshops and engage in follow up discussions with USAID, the implementing partners, and other stakeholders.

4.     Refine hypotheses and learning questions for the project based on USAID’s outcomes of interest and the results of the literature review.

5.     Propose design options for answering the learning questions and testing the hypotheses. The evaluators will be expected to conduct due diligence on available data collection options and cost for biodiversity, climate, governance, WASH, human well-being co-benefits, and other outcome measures or feasible proxies. The feasibility assessment will consider design options comparing results across interventions and different combinations of interventions, with a focus on multi-treatment quasi-experimental or experimental designs.

a.      If an IE is not feasible, the team can explore other evaluation or research designs to address key learning questions for the activity. Any potential IE or research study should coordinate with the planned TNC-led Performance Evaluation (including, baseline/endline household surveys and remote sensing analysis in Google Earth Engine to measure changes in biophysical conditions).

6.     Provide budget estimates for each design option. Design options should be presented to USAID together with associated budget implications for each.

Position Description: DAI is seeking an individual to fulfill the role of the Team Leader (TL) for the ECCO Activity IE Feasibility Assessment . The TL will lead the IE feasibly assessment team and all client deliverables. In addition, the TL is responsible for coordinating assessment activities and ensuring the production and completion of final reports in accordance with the scope of work and work plan timelines. The TL will lead the tasks detailed above, including the drafting and completion of the IE feasibility assessment report. The TL will report to an Evaluation Director from Social Impact (one of DAI’s core partners on this Activity) and will be supported by a Research Manager and sectoral experts if needed. The project will begin as early as April 2023 and is projected to last through June/July 2023.Travel to Angola may be required in April to participate in the ECCO Activity’s inception/start-up workshop.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the IE feasibility assessment team, including sectoral experts (if needed) and other team members.
• Serve as principal technical point of contact with USAID, responsible for overall execution of work, and provides quality assurance of technical deliverables, including oversight of report writing and costing exercises for design options.
• In collaboration with the IE feasibility assessment team, lead the IE feasibility assessment , including presenting design options and recommendations to USAID.
• Maintain clear and regular communication with the IE feasibility assessment team and DAI/Social Impact support staff, and inform the team of any risks, problems, or challenges in a timely manner.
• Lead the development and finalization of project deliverables, including the draft and final IE feasibility assessment reports and related presentations.
• Travel to Angola for the inception/start-up workshop , if required.

Qualifications:

• Graduate degree, preferably a Ph.D. with applied expertise in quantitative and qualitative methods that combines evaluation of conservation, WASH, and governance interventions;
• Familiarity with a range of IE designs and experience leading evaluations of conservation, WASH, and/or governance interventions;
• Demonstrated ability to gather and integrate both quantitative and qualitative findings to answer evaluation questions;
• Superior management skills are required, preferably experience managing multinational teams and producing high-quality and timely reports for USAID or similar audiences;
• Demonstrated experience designing and publishing research on relevant interventions in peer-reviewed journals;
• Experience in Southern Africa, specifically Angola preferred;
• Sound knowledge of cross-sectoral outcomes, including biodiversity conservation, climate change, natural resource governance, land tenure issues, and global health/WASH in the context of natural environment programming.

Organization and Values

DAI is a global development company with corporate offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, EU, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Palestine and project operations worldwide. We tackle fundamental social and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability. DAI works on the frontlines of global development. Transforming ideas into action—action into impact. We are committed to shaping a more livable world.

DAI and its employees are committed to confronting racism and holding ourselves accountable for positive change within the company and in the communities, cultures, and countries in which we live and work.  DAI is committed to attracting and retaining the best employees from all races and backgrounds in our continued effort to become a better development partner.

DAI upholds the highest ethical standards. We are committed to the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment as well as other ethical breaches. All of our positions are therefore subject to stringent vetting and reference checks.