Project:
“Building Assets, Unlocking Access”
Terms of Reference
Consulting job: Mid-Term evaluation of the HFHI’s
“Building Assets, Unlocking Access” project
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Background
Established in 1976 with a vision of a world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live,
Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) mobilizes volunteers and community partners in
building affordable housing and promoting homeownership as a means to breaking the cycle of
poverty. HFHI collaborates with local communities in more than 70 countries, including 15
countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and have supported four million people to gain access to decent
shelter through a number of housing initiatives. Motivated by the belief that barriers and
stereotypes are broken most effectively when people from different socio-economic groups work
together, HFHI is engaged in bringing communities together to build homes.
Habitat for Humanity International has witnessed a growing demand amongst Microfinance
Institutions (MFIs) and clients for financial services that address housing needs. It has been
estimated that up to 1.6 billion people in the world live in sub-standard shelter. Rapid
urbanization in Africa contributes to a massive housing shortage; the demand in Ghana, Kenya
and Uganda is as high as four million units. Most low-income people improve or build their
housing incrementally. MFIs are not providing the right type of financing to address these
needs, lacking the technical know-how and the capital. Studies estimate that the housing finance
market for the African continent could be as high as $8 billion dollars.
In response, HFHI launched the Center for Innovation in Shelter and Finance (CISF) to provide
institutional technical assistance to market actors, among which are financial service providers
(FSPs). This is done in order to increase their capacity to effectively deliver housing products
and services, including housing microfinance products, and appropriately designed non-financial
housing support services that have the most impact in the low-income families. HFH also has
created the MicroBuild Fund, a new capital fund of $50 million for housing microfinance. HFH
and a group of investors launched the Fund with $5 million of equity and leveraged another $45
million in debt from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). The Technical
Assistance for Housing Microfinance in Sub-Saharan Africa is supporting FSPs to refine and
strengthen financial products for housing in response to growing client demand. FSPs are
selected through a careful assessment of overall capacity, size, performance, governance and
management structures, management information systems, and commitment to client needs.
Debt capital could be provided to the strongest FSPs that demonstrate successful housing
microfinance pilots, show the capacity to scale significantly, lack the needed capital and qualify
for the Micro Build Fund’s investment criteria.
Through similar work funded by the Citi Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank
(IADB) in Latin America, HFHI has already successfully piloted and taken to scale housing
microfinance and non-financial housing support services with eight FSPs. Through this work,
valuable insights have been learnt about housing microfinance, market research, product
development and piloting the product. As a result of this work HFHI CISF honed its experience
and expertise in housing microfinance, and put together a housing microfinance toolkit, which
has been used to directly support more than 48 FSPs, globally, and train more than 200
practitioners. www.habitat.org/cisf
HFHI will use lessons learned in Latin America and globally to refine and adapt the approach in
Sub-Saharan Africa to demonstrate that housing microfinance is scalable. Ghana, Kenya and
Uganda have been selected as implementation countries because of the institutional capacity to
move to scale and high demand in their markets.
The Project
Habitat for Humanity with support from The MasterCard Foundation (the Foundation) is implementing a
5 year program model of building capacity in nine partner financial service providers (FSPs) in Ghana,
Uganda and Kenya as they diversify their product offerings to include vibrant and viable housing
microfinance products with the potential for scale. HFH is implementing this project through its Center
for Innovation in Shelter and Finance (CISF), by engaging in strategic partnerships with FSPs that show
commitment and institutional potential to deliver housing microfinance to low-income sectors at scale.
Specific project objectives are to: (1) Develop, validate, and pilot scalable housing microfinance
products at nine financial service providers (FSPs), across Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda, and
strengthen their institutional capacity to increase the potential of taking the HMF product with
HSS to scale; (2) Develop, validate, and pilot scalable housing support services at nine financial
service providers (FSPs) across Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda; (3) Demonstrate and document the
impact of housing finance and housing support services on households, and communities, in
areas such as health, education, greater base of assets, and secure tenure; and on institutions’
performance through rigorous research; and (4) Disseminate practical knowledge on housing
microfinance to other providers in Africa, and for the broader industry, and influence the housing
and finance industries.
The goals by the end of the project are:
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Nine partner financial service providers acquire enhanced capacity and
successfully pilot and refine a housing product that they can take to scale.
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17,000 housing microfinance interventions enable clients to improve their
living conditions and household security.
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Learning outputs capture promising practices that advance the housing
microfinance in Africa.
A Theory of change was elaborated for the project, which is presented in the following graphic, and has
served to elaborate the learning agenda.
Figure 1. Theory of Change of the Project
The learning questions to be answered as part of the mid-term evaluation are:
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Do the households perceive an added value of the housing support
services they are receiving, and are they willing to pay for those services as a result of the
perceived added value?
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# of HSS cases at each level
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# of client complains
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Is HSS adding value to the HMF product? From both household
and FSP perspective
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# of clients that perceive added value of HSS - within total # of
clients within FSP receiving HMF with HSS
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What is the impact of HMF products on the performance of the FSPs?
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Commitment – scaling up, team in place, position of product
within overall portfolio, proportion of HMF portfolio (10-20%)
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offering
Overall health of HMF portfolio
Is HMF a profitable product? By comparison to broader portfolio
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What is the impact of the project implementation, and the ITA provided by
HFHI’s CISF?
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Was the project implemented as planned?
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What was the level and depth of the ITA offered by HFHI’s CISF?
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What is the multiplier effect of the project, and its impact?
A monitoring and evaluation system has been developed and implemented at the FSP, household/client;
and at the project management levels. Periodic information is collected using standardized templates and
formats. Monitoring at FSP level includes monthly and quarterly reports on the FSPs performance, as
well as virtual and on-site monitoring meetings. At the client level a baseline questionnaire has been
elaborated, which will support the production of learning outputs, and draw some conclusions on trends.
A household level Impact Evaluation is being implemented in two of the project countries with two FSPs
(the Impact Evaluation is being implemented by another consulting firm). Monitoring system at the
project management level is supported by templates that collect periodic information around three key
components of project implementation: budget, timeline, and quality.
As part of the project monitoring and evaluation a mid-term term and final evaluation of the project has
been scheduled. The mid-term is intended to support continuous improvement in the project
implementation, generate early findings and the final evaluation will consolidate evidence and summarize
the project strategic learnings. The mid-term term is scheduled to be implemented during the second
quarter of year 3 (January through March, 2015); and the final evaluation right after the end of the project
in year 5 (July to September, 2017). This consulting assignment will focus on the mid-term evaluation.
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The consulting assignment
General Objective
Conduct the mid-term evaluation of the project in order to provide insights on how to improve
the implementation of the current project, and to inform the key aspects to increase the success
of similar projects in the future; by analyzing the process of implementation, progress and
completion of objectives, goals, and expected outputs.
Specific Objectives
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Evaluate progress and performance of HFHI’s CISF towards achieving the
intended outputs, outcome and impact of the project
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What is the quality and level of satisfaction with Habitat’s technical
assistance package to FSPs?
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Is the project on track towards achieving intended outputs and outcomes?
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What are the gaps and potential reasons explaining the success or
challenges to the achievement?
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Evaluate the early performance (i.e. clients served, loans disbursed, PAR etc.) of
the housing microfinance products at each FSP.
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What is the quality of the portfolio compared with other portfolio (in
term of profitability, cost per client, portfolio at risk, etc.)?What is the relevance of the
product offered?
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What are the types of clients outreached (looking at their socio-economic
status)?
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Evaluate the perceived and actual value add of housing support services when
offered as one of the components of the HMF product.
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What are the perceived strength and limitation of the non-financial
housing support services when offered as part of the HMF product?;
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What are the perceived profitability of the products;
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Are FSP willing to pursue/scale the product in the future? Are the
structures and monitoring systems structured to address the business case for housing
microfinance?
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Assess clients’ participation, satisfaction and empowerment in the early phases
and throughout the implementation process
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To what extent have the clients been involved in the process?
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How appropriate and relevant are the products to the client need?
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What is the level of satisfaction of the clients with the process, outcome
and impact of the products?
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Assess the process through which institutional technical assistance has been
provided to partner FSPs by the CISF team
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Was the manner of ITA provision effective
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Was the manner of ITA provision efficient
Identify and document unintended outcomes during the project implementation.
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Document relevant lessons learnt from the project which could advance housing
microfinance in Africa
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Assess project Sustainability and potential to influence echo-system actors
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Provide recommendations for achieving any unfilled objectives, goals, and
outputs; and for future similar projects.
To perform the work, the consultant will:
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Have an inception meeting with the executive committee (execom) to
clarify the scope of work. This meeting will be held in Atlanta, GA (expected to happen
during the second week of December)
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Elaborate a detailed implementation plan, evaluation questions and areas
of inquiry, covering the mid-term evaluation of the project.
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Review preliminary information provided by HFHI such as technical
proposal, monitoring logical framework, Impact Evaluation inception report and updates,
quarterly and annual reports submitted to the Foundation and other relevant documents
that have been produced and/or used by HFHI to oversee the project implementation.
Reports from FSPs, and any other related information that can support the evaluators and
leverage the efforts in gathering information.
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Conduct field visits to each of the participating countries (Kenya, Uganda,
and Ghana), and interview with the HFHI’s CISF country teams, FSPs participating of
the project, a sample of housing microfinance clients; and other stakeholders the team
may have interacted with during the project implementation.
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Conduct stakeholder interviews with the Foundation, MicroBuild, national
and regional Housing Microfinance stakeholders to understand the perceptions of this
work, its potential and any early demonstration effect.
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Prepare a written report and make a formal virtual presentation of the
results to the project’s executive committee and representatives of the Foundation.
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The products
The consultant will deliver the following documents in written and electronic manner:
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Detailed Implementation plan, including methodology, tools to be used,
and timeline. To be validated before field work.
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A summary of the field visits conducted to each of the countries.
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A draft and a final document with the written mid-term evaluation report,
using the following (suggested) outline:
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Title Page
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Executive Summary (maximum four pages)
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this area)
Project description (including rationale for HFHI taking on work in
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Objectives of project mid-term evaluation
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Methodological approach to conduct the mid-term evaluation
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Mid-term evaluation findings and analysis
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Conclusions: insights into the findings; reasons for successes and
failures; trends and patterns
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Lessons learnt, barriers to success
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Learning for the Foundation and HFH
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Follow-up section: comment on aspects of the mid-term evaluation
that could not be adequately assessed by the evaluator. In addition, provide
guidance for replication or scaling the project where appropriate.
Annexes to the evaluation report
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Terms of Reference for the mid-term evaluation
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Mid-term evaluation work plan with timetable
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Data collection tools, including questionnaires, interview protocols and
other tools as appropriate
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List of individuals interviewed and of stakeholder groups and/or
communities consulted if relevant
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List of supporting documentation reviewed
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Short biography of the evaluator/ evaluation team
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Place and dates for the consulting assignment
The consulting assignment will be on-site and off-site. The on-site work will be performed in
Atlanta (USA), Accra and Kumasi (Ghana), Kampala (Uganda), and Nairobi (Kenya). The
consulting will be implemented between December 15th, 2014 and March 30th, 2015. The
estimated total of days is 40 days of consulting work.
The consulting will be considered finished when the last deliverable is submitted and approved
according to the objectives described herein.
Timeline for Deliverables:
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Inception Report
1st week of January
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Field Visits (It is estimated a maximum of 5 days per country)
1st week of February
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Stakeholder interviews
1st week of February
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Data analysis
End of February
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Draft Report
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Final Report
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Coordination and Supervision
Middle March
End of March
The consulting assignment will be overseen by the project’s executive committee, and directly
coordinated and supervised by Sandra Prieto-Callison (Lead of the MEL committee for the
project), or by the person designated by it.
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Fees
The consulting fees will be paid in tranches according to the table below.
All other expenses incurred by the consultants in order to achieve the objectives of this
consulting assignment such as airfare, lodging, meals, and local transportation will be covered by
The Master Card Foundation project, according to HFHI’s policies for travel expenses.
Table of payments
Deliverable
% to be paid
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Sign of the contract
15%
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Detailed Implementation plan, including methodology, tools to be used,
and timeline for the mid-term evaluation of the project
35%
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A summary of the visits to each of the countries during mid-term
evaluation of the project
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Draft document with the written mid-term evaluation report
20%
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presentation
A final document with the written mid-term evaluation report and virtual
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Consultant)
Qualifications of the Evaluator (Consulting Firm or Independent
30%
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Proven experience evaluating microfinance related projects; experience in
housing microfinance strongly preferred.
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Experience working with and evaluating programs/projects that seek to
catalyze market responses that promote financial inclusion.
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Experience working with projects in Ghana, Uganda, and/or Kenya is a
plus.
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Excellent English proficiency is required and proficiency in one of the
local languages of Uganda, Kenya, and/or Ghana is a plus.
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Superior writing and communication skills (writing sample required)
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Ability to facilitate and relate to stakeholders at multiple levels (e.g.,
MasterCard Foundation and HFH staff, other housing and shelter organizations)
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Process and deadline to submit the proposal
Consulting firms and/or independent consultants meeting the above qualifications are invited to
submit a proposal by email to Habitat for Humanity International at: elamothe@habitat.org.
Proposals should be received no later than November 3, 2014 with an emailed expression of
interest to submit a proposal received by October 22, 2014. The main body of the proposal
should be approximately 10,000 words (maximum 20 pages) and should include the following:
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A cover letter showing expression of interest
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Background and context of the initiative that demonstrates an
understanding of the project and the requirements of the ToR.
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Experience in project evaluation and in evaluating similar types of
programs/projects, including any experience evaluating microfinance projects and/or the
relevant geographies.
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Outline of the project evaluation methodology and approach including any
recommendations or modifications related to the learning questions in the ToR.
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needed.
List of activities and deliverables, providing details where possible and
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of days.
Proposed schedule and the evaluator’s daily rate, with suggested number
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Estimated budget, including personnel, travel, etc.
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List of two referees who can speak to the evaluator(s) experience and
expertise as it relates specifically to the terms of this project.
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Appendices (not included in the 10,000 word limit):
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CVs of the evaluation team members, outlining previous
evaluation experience and accomplishments as it relates to demonstrating the
skills and knowledge needed to fulfill the requirements of the ToR.
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Two examples of evaluation reports recently completed. At least
one of the reports must be relevant, or similar, to the subject of this evaluation.
Habitat for Humanity International’s CISF will review proposals closely against this
recommended outline in combination with the preceding section (Qualifications of the
Evaluator) and the price range of the proposal.