Terms of Reference for the Mid-Term Review of the Strategic Plan 2023–2027

Reference Number: HIHEA/05-2025/EXEC

Task: Mid-term Review-2023-2027 Strategic Plan

Type of Contract: Consultancy

Type of Selection: Firm Selection Only

Electronic submission: procurement@handinhandea.org

Consultancy Period: 21 working days

Deadline for submission: 23rd May 2025

General Information

This document is being issued to solicit applications from potential consultant(s) to conduct the Hand in Hand Eastern Africa, (2023–2025) Strategic Plan Mid-term review. The overall purpose of the review is to assess progress, identify challenges, recommend and make adjustments to enhance the effectiveness of the remaining strategic period. The terms of reference contains the background information, the desired methodology, including objectives, the timeframe for conducting the mid-term review, and a list of deliverables. This document also contains information about the expertise required to execute the mid-term review and guidance on how to submit a proposal for review. HIH EA anticipates awarding a fixed award for its Strategic Plan Mid-term Review and will make payments based on submission and HIH EA’s approval of deliverables.

Background

Hand in Hand Eastern Africa

Hand in Hand Eastern Africa (HIH EA) is registered in Kenya as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with a mandate to operate within the Eastern Africa region. It is a member of the Hand in Hand Global Network that comprises affiliated organizations that mutually pursue the shared goal of poverty alleviation while supporting poorer communities to create sustainable enterprises and jobs. The organization strives to work with the marginalized communities in the areas of economic and social empowerment using a participatory approach aimed at helping people fight poverty and vulnerability. The Hand in Hand (HIH) enterprise and job creation approach is based on a philosophy of self-help, providing training, skills and support to enable poor people, particularly women and youth, to create and develop enterprises. This provides for a higher level of income for them and their families, which in turn contributes to improved housing and overall improved livelihoods. HiH EA has so far mobilized, trained and is training over 350,000 members (80% women, 40% youth) who have created over 300,000 enterprises and over 450,000 jobs. To facilitate enterprise creation, HIH uses a 4-step enterprise model that entails seven training modules that starts with set-up or mobilizing self-help groups that act as savings groups, delivering enterprise skills through training, enhancing financial management as well as financial access and providing linkage to broader markets. While entrepreneurship is the strategic focus of HIH, the work is complemented by efforts in thematic areas that increase resilience to climate change, promote advocacy and human rights, and enhance gender mainstreaming, regenerative agriculture and circular economy.

Strategic Plan background

HIH EA developed a five-year Strategic Plan (2023-2027) to guide its operations, programmatic interventions, and institutional growth. The plan outlines key strategic objectives, outcomes, and performance indicators aimed at achieving the organization’s mission and vision.

HIH EA is midway in implementation of this five-year strategic plan and looks to conduct a mid-term evaluation to assess progress towards achieving its strategic objectives, identify challenges, and recommend adjustments to enhance the effectiveness of the remaining implementation period. The findings will provide essential insights to realign priorities, improve implementation and ensure that organizations remain on track to achieve its mission.

Strategic Pillars and Specific Objectives

1. Sustainable Enterprise Development

• Grow enterprise viability (average net profit per year per enterprise supported) from Kshs 97,250 (~$2.3/day) to Kshs 276,000 ($8/day)
• Strengthen the resilience of enterprises and build their capacity for survival
• Entrench evidence-based and quality programming

2. Strategic Communication

• Position HIH EA as the to-go-to enterprise development agency
• Enhance internal and external communication.

3. People And Processes

• Build a high performance and people-centric culture
• Improve effectiveness and efficiency of organizational processes.
• Implement growth-supportive and strategy-aligned organizational structure
• Strengthen corporate governance
• Expand to 40 counties in Kenya and support regional expansion of the HiH EA network to a third country by the end of 2027

4. Enhanced Resource Mobilization and Management for Institutional Sustainability

• Grow institutional funding by 20% year on year and diversify funding sources.
• Enhance internal controls for increased Social Return on Investment (SROI).
• Establish data-driven responsive and effective design processes

5. Partnerships And Advocacy

• Improve HIH EA's strategic positioning and engagement on advocacy in the next 5 years
• Grow and maintain a strategic partners' portfolio
• Leverage partnerships and collaborations to increase and deepen impact.

Strategy Mid-term Review Purpose and Objective

The overall objective of the Mid-term review process on 2023-2027 Strategic Plan is to facilitate organizational learning, provide an overview of the performance to date, identify successes and respond to emerging issues. The assignment will facilitate institutional learning as well as steer the realigning of KPIs for the remaining strategy period. The aim is to steer the institutional learning, evaluate performance against key pillars and recommunicate the objective delivery using the balanced scorecard.

Summary of the Strategic Plan Mid-term Review

Project Hand in Hand Eastern Africa (2023-2027) Strategic Plan

Study Type Mid-term Review

Study Objectives

• Assess the extent to which the strategic plan’s objectives and key results have been achieved.
• Identify successes, challenges, and lessons learned.
• Provide actionable recommendations to enhance performance in the remaining period.
• Ensure alignment with the organization’s mission, vision, and emerging external factors.
• Re-vamp the strategy with the learning generated

Proposed Methodology Mixed methods consisting of quantitative and qualitative techniques:

• Document Review: Strategic plan, progress reports, performance data, and other relevant documents.
• Key Informant Interviews (KIIs): With management, staff, and stakeholders.
• Focus Group Discussions (FGDs): With beneficiaries and partners (if applicable).
• Surveys & Data Analysis: Quantitative assessment of KPIs.
• Benchmarking: Comparison with industry best practices.

Scope of Work

The Mid-term Review should use both qualitative and quantitative methods. It is envisaged that during this review, the scope of work for the consultant(s) will include, but not necessarily limited to the following key tasks.

1. Review key documents

• Do an in-depth analysis of 2023-2027 organization strategy and other key documents including the organization BSC and performance reports.
• Assess the alignment of implemented activities with strategic objectives and organizational mission.

2. Assess performance

• Present a clear methodology to inform the process and stipulate the process of strategy review.
• Evaluate the progress and impact made towards meeting strategic objectives, using key performance indicators and available data.
• Assess the performance of the on-going strategy within the last two and a half years with organizations mission to identify gaps and achievements.

3. Key stakeholders’ engagement

• Engage staff, project participants and organization partners to collect information and gather insights into the HIH EA 2023- 2027 strategy implementation and achievements.

4. Learnings and best practices

• Compare the organization’s strategic alignment to key industry standards and Identify gaps and positive lessons to improve strategy implementation.

5. Recommendations and adjustments

• Provide data driven recommendations and adjustments to improve strategy implementation and effectiveness.
• Re-vamp the strategy to entail the recommendations and the learnings gained
• Develop an action plan for addressing identified implementation and resource gaps to optimize impact.

6. Presentation of findings

• Develop a comprehensive evaluation review detailing analysis, findings and recommendations for feedback and discussion.
• Develop a revamped 2023 -2027 strategic plan
• Develop an abridged version on PowerPoint presentation with key takeaways and actionable insights and disseminate to the organization’s Leadership.

Quality Control and Oversight

To ensure quality control, the mid-term review process will be participatory involving the consultant(s) and HIH EA management team. The activity shall begin with holding inception meeting with the consultant(s) after selecting the best proposal to ensure that both the consultant(s) and HIH EA management team have a common understanding regarding the whole mid-term review exercise. Thereafter, the consultant(s) and the HIH EA Strategy, Business analysts, MEL team and Heads of Departments shall review KPI’s and data collection tools to ensure that the evaluation generates relevant data.

We propose that the consultant(s) shall generate the findings in a participatory manner including all the key stakeholders like the board, entrepreneurs, community members, HIH EA staff, management and the MEL team among others. Lastly the consultant(s) shall produce and share draft reviewed strategy with HiHEA management for review. The HiHEA team shall review the draft and provide feedback to the consulting team for consideration. 

Ethical Considerations

The review must conform to International ethical guidelines for research and evaluations. Accordingly, the selected evaluation firm will be responsible for safeguarding and ensuring ethics at all stages of the review process. The review firm will be responsible for managing any potential ethical risks and issues and must put in place processes and systems to identify, report and resolve any ethical issues that might arise during the implementation of the evaluation. Consequently, the consultant should ensure the assignment is designed and aligned to internationally accepted norms and standards of quality evaluation. The consultant should also clearly indicate challenges and dependencies that might be encountered and how each will be mitigated, to deliver a credible review. All principles of evidence such as voice and inclusion, appropriateness, triangulation, contribution and transparency must be observed in the review process.

Expected Deliverables

1. Inception Report detailing the work plan, methodology, tools and timelines, staff and stakeholders’ consultations.

2. Collaboratively with HIHEA team schedule a consultative and validation workshop to discuss preliminary findings, incorporate feedback and refine insights to align expectations for the initial draft strategy.

3. A final reviewed strategy incorporating stakeholder feedback from the consultative and validation workshop.

4. An executive summary with key findings and recommendations.

5. A re-vamped Reviewed Strategic plan 2023- 2027.

Required expertise, skills and knowledge are as follows:

The consultant profile should include:

1. A master’s degree in organization development, strategic management, monitoring and evaluation, business administration or any other related field. A PhD will be an added advantage.

2. At least 10 years’ experience in strategy development, organization capacity assessments and monitoring and evaluation or related field preferably for NGOs and CSOs.

3. The lead consultant should possess deep understanding of organizational development models, strategic planning frameworks or performance management systems.

4. The consultant should be proficient in research and evaluation methodologies

5. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience in report writing and presenting findings to diverse stakeholders.

6. Strong facilitation skills, with the ability to engage multiple stakeholders including staff, partners and project participants.

7. Demonstrated ability to deliver high quality outputs within agreed timelines.

Anti-Corruption and Safeguarding

Hand in Hand Eastern Africa does not condone bribery or corrupt practices within its operations or those working with the organization including vendors, contractors and service providers.

HIH EA staff are therefore prohibited from accepting any gift/s, consideration or benefit/s of any kind which may constitute illegal or corrupt practices, either directly or indirectly, as an inducement or reward for the award of a contract.

HIH EA and all its employees undertake to create a safe environment for our staff and project members and to prevent any form of exploitation or abuse.

We are committed to acting in the best interests of our members and any willing vendor, contractor or service provider is required to commit and comply with our safeguarding policy.

Budget and Submission

The expression of interest by the consultants should state the charging rates (in Kenya Shillings). Interested consultant(s) should submit a detailed technical and financial proposal with a clear methodology on how to meet the intended deliverables.

The proposal should be submitted via email: procurement@handinhandea.org specifying the reference number HIHEA/05-2025/EXEC as the email subject on or before 23rd May 2025.