Endline Evaluation Consultant - Farm Radio International

Background of RAISE

The usual strategy of face-to-face agricultural extension has not been enough to meet the  needs of small-scale farmers due to few numbers of extension agents with an extension  agent to farmer ratio of 1:3000, even less so for those in remote locations or for women.  Alternative means of extending the reach of Agriculture Extension Agents (AEAs) using  emerging digital technology - indeed “e-extension” - is identified by the Ministry of Food  and Agriculture as an important element to transforming Agriculture in Ghana.

The  emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has not only increased the relevance of e extension, but also necessitated the use of basic e-extension platforms such as local radio  and other ICTs as an option to achieve last-mile communication for the hard-to-reach and  vulnerable populations in the country.  

Rationale

FRI proposed to strengthen the local radio capacities and agriculture content that is  broadcasted to the farmers at the critical stages of agricultural production. FRI worked  with other consortium partners that has developed content for farmer training to  package the content for radio as well as identify local key agriculture experts for question and answer sessions.

FRI proposed to strengthen capacity of radio stations and key  stakeholder groups to plan, deliver, monitor & manage quality interactive rural radio (IRR)  programming to deliver knowledge on technologies for increased crop productivity and  resilience as well as knowledge on inputs and markets across the value chain 
Most local radio stations are limited in terms of accurate COVID-19 resources and  information in the local languages, access to public health resource persons, and often basic equipment and resources to stay permanently on air during this critical period. 

Audiences on their part have questions and issues in the communities they worry about, but often lack the opportunity to address them. Lack of last-mile communication makes  these populations susceptible to myths and fake news about the pandemic, rendering  them even more vulnerable. 

Our work on COVID-19 was embedded in the overall agricultural advisory services  intervention with radio stations and key stakeholder groups. We used our radio  stations network in Ghana to support current COVID-19 efforts in the target regions. FRI collaborated with national health authorities, FAO, WHO, producers’ and women’s  organizations to integrate COVID-19 programming into an ongoing agricultural  programming, support radio resources on COVID-19 in local languages for radio stations,  networking and emergency funding to enable broadcasters to strengthen and continue  their daily service to millions of rural Ghanaians. 

Between  March  2021 and July 2022, the radio project completed the first and second series of 20 episodes per series on each station. Also, FRI will conduct an endline survey in the target regions of the AGRA project before the airing of the radio programs. The endline survey will establish the pre-intervention levels of project indicators, and progress towards meeting objectives was assessed at the endline evaluation. The endline evaluation will determine the cumulative impact of the project.

This TOR is designed to recruit consultants or firms to conduct endline evaluations for these projects in the five Northern Regions and Brong Ahafo 

Objectives and Expected Outcomes

Objectives of the ENDLINE evaluation

• The main objective of the endline evaluation is to assess the performance of the intervention in regard to changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practices of smallholder farmers relevant to Soya, Cowpea, maize, Groundnut and rice production and marketing as a result of the outreach through radio. The evaluation has the following specific objectives:
• Determine the level of the listenership of radio programs to each radio station involved in airing programs amongst Soya, Groundnut, maize, and rice producers supported by AGRA but also those not directly supported by AGRA
• To assess radio access and sources of information on crop production and agri-business
• Assess the impact of the radio program on knowledge, attitude and adoption of good agricultural and the use of improved seeds and fertilizer                          
• Assess differences in knowledge, attitude and practices between (i) listeners and non-listeners of the radio program within project districts , (ii) listeners and non-listeners of the radio program within non-AGRA-supported district, (iii) baseline and endline listeners within AGRA districts and value chain, Assess the potential and actual changes in external investment and institutional support for sustainable agricultural radio programming amongst partner radio stations.

Approach

The endline evaluation will consist of quantitative and qualitative approaches. Quantitative data will be collected through household surveys, while the qualitative component will involve Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions(FGDs.) The quantitative survey will collect data on key project indicators, with reference to the baseline established on Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice to measure changes and facilitate attribution of change in communities targeted by the project. The KIIs and FGDs will be done with key stakeholder groups concurrently with the quantitative survey in the selected communities. 

The survey will also collect data on radio program sustainability indicators. The evaluation will target non-partner-targeted and partner-targeted communities in these locations within the reach of Nobiya FM, Radio Bar, Radio Savannah, Radio Upper West, and URA Radio. These will include parts of Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions Data will be collected from 543 respondents in 26 districts across the four project regions

Evaluation and reporting will be completed for all value chains and regions by the consultant, who will submit a single report on the results in the regions covered by the radio stations they’re covering. The quantitative survey will feature farmer interviews using structured questionnaires administered to a sample of farmers in target communities. A rigorous sampling method will be collaboratively developed with the consultant, FRI will work with the consultant to choose the specific districts, communities, and households to be interviewed. Data on the level of external investment and sustainability of agricultural radio programming in selected radio stations will be collected from the stations.

The process will be conducted following COVID-19 prevention measures and laws in place. 

The evaluations will be conducted in close collaboration with FRI and AGRA and require meetings to coordinate the activities and meet with representatives from the local institutions and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Regional levels.
Outcomes will be elaborated per value chain in separate reports.

Deliverables & activities

Key activities:

• Note from Inception meeting with Consultant, FRI and AGRA
• Evaluation design 
• Sampling design including formula for calculating clusters
• Recruitment and training of enumerators
• Data collection
• Cleaned qualitative and quantitative datasets
• Data analyses
• Reporting and presentation

Regular meetings will be held between the consultant, FRI MEL team at Global and Country coordination levels.

The expected deliverables include: 

• A report per value chain with relevant quantitative and qualitative data on project indicators. The raw data used in the analysis and reporting must be submitted alongside the report.
• All activities must comply with USAID laws on data protection,  and all material produced must be handed over to AGRA after the assignment has ended.

Timeline / Deadline

• Activity/deliverable: 15 June  2022
• Receipt of applications: 15 June 2022
• Completion of report reviews: 15 June 2022
• Notification of successful consultants: 20 June 2022
• Contracting and start-up: 25 June 2022
• Enumerators Training and Data collection: 05 July 2022
• First draft reports (per value chain): 30 July 2022
  • Final reports 
  • Raw data used in the analysis and reporting