Team Member - Livelihoods and Inclusive Finance Expansion (LIFE) Evaluation

Assignment Description:

Under this contract, Social Impact has been asked to support a final performance evaluation of a USAID-funded activity, the Livelihoods and Inclusive Finance Expansion (LIFE) through the provision of a consultant who would act as the Team Member for the evaluation. 

USAID’s LIFE project is a five-year (2016 -2021) $20.3 million project to improve economic opportunities for low-income individuals and microenterprises by advancing the business skills of small entrepreneurs and expanding their access to financial services.  In its earlier years, LIFE was expanding finance to unbanked and previously excluded microbusinesses, leading to wider access to credit, checking and savings accounts, debit/ATM cards, credit information, and financial literacy training. However, in October of 2019, street protests began in Lebanon, and lasted for more than six months. This was accompanied by a gradual deterioration of the Lebanese Lira, as foreign currency reserves started to deplete at the Central of Lebanon. This resulted in controls on cash withdrawals imposed by banks in Lebanon, resulting in further liquidity shortage and further currency devaluation. This posed a heavy economic burden on microenterprises, the end-beneficiary of the LIFE activity, which found themselves in dire need of liquidity to continue operations. The situation was further exacerbated by a prolonged lockdown imposed by the outbreak of COVID -19. On December 6th, 2019, the USAID Mission began a conversation with all economic growth implementing partners to adjust their portfolio in response to the multidimensional crisis. LIFE immediately proposed creative ways to pivot to approaches that served to sustain partner microfinance institutions (MFIs) and their clients (an estimated 175 thousand micro businesses across Lebanon). LIFE pivoted three times, in response to 1) the financial crisis; 2) Impact of COVID 19 on businesses, and 3) August 4, 2020 blast that hit Beirut Port and impacted Beirut businesses. The first shift was in December 2019, as the contractor shifted activity to assist businesses suffering from lack of liquidity as a result of the financial meltdown. LIFE refrained from its financial inclusion activity and worked on microfinance interventions to assist microenterprise in meeting their liquidity needs. As a result of COVID 19, the contractor was asked to pivot again in February 2020 to assist businesses affected by the pandemic and the subsequent forced closure. As a result, its provision of Business Development Services (BDS) directly to businesses shifted to  to virtual BDS. LIFE also supported microenterprises affected by COVID 19 through microloans and in-kind grants.

Following the August 4, 2020 explosion of the Beirut Port, LIFE was among the first respondents to submit a plan to pivot again and support microenterprises that were affected by the blast. In three weeks, LIFE established a partnership with two NGOs/MFIs that offered assistance to more than 200 businesses affected by the blast.

The LIFE project has three components:

1. Inclusive Finance Policies enacted through empowered local organizations: With a focus on elevating the discourse on access to finance and banking services to the national level, the project works through the Lebanese Microfinance Association (LMFA), commercial banks, and other stakeholders to develop policies that promote a vibrant, sustainable financial sector that economically empowers the unbanked, low-income, and underserved clientele, particularly in rural areas;
2. Expanding the range of products available to poorest:  The project is improving the ability of commercial banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to increase their range of products and services and expand their reach of clients and borrowers to include microenterprises and the poorest, with an emphasis on higher-risk, conflict affected areas (areas where economic pressures and social tensions have increased significantly due to high influx of refugees).  This requires an emphasis on youth, those currently without a bank account, the disabled, and low-income women-headed households; and
3. Livelihoods and business support:  This involves providing customized business management training, technical know-how, mentoring, and basic business development skills to micro, mostly family owned enterprises to give them the skills they need to grow their sales and income.  Often, the objective is to enable these small businesses to position themselves to gain access to commercial finance for the first time, a critical ingredient for business growth.  The project provides small grants that generally support technology adoption for improved productivity.

As mentioned above, during the last two years of the project, LIFE responded to the new operating context focusing on livelihoods assistance, limiting its inclusion efforts, as Lebanon’s financial system remains unstable while financial exclusion has increased.

USAID tasked Social Impact PMSPL II to conduct a final performance evaluation for the LIFE program.  The purpose of this evaluation is not only to assess the performance of Palladium under LIFE, but also to closely examine and analyze the effectiveness of the shift that LIFE has undergone in the past two years. The evaluation should also look at alternative sources of finance, particularly for microenterprises, as Lebanon’s financial sector is in a state of restructuring following the collapse of the banking sector and the Lebanese Lira.  The evaluation also is to look closely at the microfinance sector, examine its ability to recover from the crisis and to continue serving microenterprises. The evaluation is to look at potential ways for USAID to help the microfinance sector in its recovery. 

The objective of this mid-term evaluation is to provide the mission with input on the program’s approach and activities in achieving outputs and outcomes. It will also look at and document successes, challenges, and lessons learned as well as sustainability for future programs.

SI is seeking an Evaluation Team Member (TM local), with experience evaluating projects.  The Team Member for the LIFE final evaluation should have a professional background in international development and a robust knowledge of financial inclusion, access to finance, livelihoods, support to associations etc. The TM will work with the Team Leader (TL) and Evaluation Team (ET) to coordinate and direct the overall evaluation, including preparation and submission of the draft and final evaluation report. 

The Team Member will be responsible for the following tasks:

• During the pre-field work period, the TM together with TL and ET will develop the final performance evaluation framework, fine tune the questions, design the methodology and data collection strategy, evaluation tool guides (KIIs & FGD), and prepare an outline for data analysis.
• During the kick-off period, the TM will work with the TL and ET to finalize the interview guides, the logistics for the field work, draft and submit the inception report for USAID.
• At the field level, the TM will work with TL and ET to interview (virtually or in person should there be a pemissive environment) key stakeholders and carry out focus group discussions (if possible and needed) as well as prepare summaries of the interviews and meetings to be included in the final evaluation report.
• At the post-field work level, the TM with TL is expected to work with the evaluation team to analyze the qualitative data (desk review, KII and FGD), any quantitative data that may be collected, write up the report and prepare the key findings and recommendations for USAID/Lebanon.
• The TM is expected to support the TL in finalizing the key findings and recommendations to USAID/Lebanon.
• Taking into consideration of feedback from interim findings presentations, the TM is expected to support the TL in writing the draft final evaluation report and presenting main findings to USAID/Lebanon.
• The TM is expected to support the TL in responding to USAID comments on the draft report and support the team in submitting a final report to USAID mission.
• Other responsibilities, as assigned by the PMSPL II Chief of Party and TL with due regard to overall LOE requirements.

Qualifications:

• He/ She Team Member must hold a Masters in Business, Finance, Microfinance, Development studies and/or related field.
• He/ She should have at least 5 years of experience working in the finance, microfinance, and/or economic and social development sector specifically managing, assessing, evaluating economic growth, financial inclusion and livelihood programs. 
• He/ She should have at least 3 years of experience working on evaluating development projects, with knowledge of USAID evaluation requirements and protocols.
• He /She should have good understanding of alternative sources of finance, particularly for microenterprises, ability to MFIs and NGOs to serve MSMEs.
• He/ She should have good understanding of the current structure, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing economic, business, finance and micro-finance sector in Lebanon and existing gaps and mismatch between demand and supply of finance and grants for MSMEs. Previous knowledge and work experience working in Lebanon is an advantage.
• He/She should have demonstrated ability to design and manage data collection processes (both qualitative and quantitative). Abilities should include the development of questionnaires for telephone or in person interviews for quantitative survey data collection, but also to include conducting, transcribing, and coding KIIs, FGD for qualitative data collection. Ability to analyze the data and undertake programs needs and provide concrete practical recommendations for moving forward.
• He/She should have knowledge of USAID and other international donors that provide support to economic growth, finance and micro finance sector.
• He/She should be fluent in English; Arabic is a plus.
• He/ She is expected to work closely with the evaluation team members.

Come join our energetic and innovative team!  We offer you the opportunity to play a leading role in the growth of our company, work as part of a creative and committed team, and make a difference in the well-being of our world.

To learn more about Social Impact, please visit our website: http://www.socialimpact.com

SI is an EEO/AA/ADA Veterans Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

Only selected candidates will be contacted for an interview. Please, no phone calls.