October 19^th, 2022, 10:00 AM | OPEN CALLS

1. Introduction

ACTS is looking for an expert required to design, plan, carry out and implement project mid-term evaluation. The mid-term evaluation will be conducted for the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada and Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), Sweden funded Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D) Africa Scholarship Program. The program envisions a future where AI empowers Africans to have a more prosperous, inclusive and greener future.

The purpose of this contract is to engage an expert to implement program mid-term evaluation. The expert will conduct an overall independent assessment about the past 18 months performance of the program, paying particular attention to the impact of the program actions against its objectives and to identify key lessons and to propose practical recommendations for follow-up actions.

2. Background

The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), in collaboration with five regional partners and two international partners, are implementing a program on Financial Management of the Scholarship for the African Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D). The overall objective of this program is to design and administer a scholarship program that will foster the talent needed to meet a growing demand for research and development in responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in African public universities. The specific objectives are: (a) to support at least 12 scholars to undertake and successfully complete PhD research in AI and ML in African universities for 24 to 36 months; (b) to support at least 8 Early Career Academics (ECA) to strengthen their R&D capacities in AI and ML for a period of at least 24 months; and (c) to facilitate professional development for the PhD and ECA scholarship holders.

In designing the scholarship program, ACTS Consortium gave special consideration to responsible AI innovation for sustainable development, gender equity, equitable regional distribution, and low-income countries. As a result, the designed scholarship plan will provide 8 PhD scholarships to successful registered PhD students (4 female and 4 male), two each from the 4 regions of the Sub-Saharan Africa. Considering that Women may be disadvantaged to finance PhD education, it is expected that not many women will be found who have registered for PhD. Therefore, a special support will be given to Women candidates who have completed MSc in areas relevant to AI and ML to pursue PhDs studies. Some 4 Women will benefit from this scheme, one per each region. The same approach will be given to low-income countries.

In designing the Early Career Academic (ECA) Program, ACTS consortium has strived to address the following two challenges. First, whereas majority of doctoral graduates expect to secure jobs in academic and research, a postdoctoral period is desirable to develop fully-fledged, independent, and competent researchers. Secondly, currently there are very few universities in Africa that offers MSc and PhD programs in AI and ML. The bulk of the departments, however, do offer MSc and PhD in ICT related courses with some potential to supervise PhD in AI and ML. Therefore this ECA scholarship program, apart from supporting research capacities of ECAs, will also enhance the capacities of the existing ICT departments to offer MSc and PhD in AI and ML by supporting them with research tools such as data bases, GPUs and related infrastructure for AI and ML. This will not only facilitate the research activities of the ECA but will also be made available to other postgraduate and final year undergraduate students within the departments.

The program design has also lined up a series of complementary activities that will be provided to capacity build the beneficiaries of the scholarships (PhD and MSc students, ECA, and Supervisors). These include short-courses; PhD Academy; quarterly seminars; annual workshops organized; regional conference; online training workshops for supervisors and PhD mentoring.

At the end of the three years, the program expects the following immediate outcomes: 22 new PhD scholars will be available to enhance research and development in AI and ML related fields, in African universities; 20 MSc graduates will have acquired good foundation to pursue PhD program in AI and ML related fields; capacities of at least 8 universities enhanced to provide postgraduate training in AI and Machine Learning;  access by policy makers to evidence for policy and decision making on AI and ML related issues enhanced; access to knowledge by researchers and practitioners on AI enhanced; networking opportunities of the AI and ML scholars enhanced; and a working model of AI4D scholarships for PhD and Early Career studies in Africa, that can be referred to in similar future efforts, established. These immediate outcomes will contribute to the long-term outcomes of the AI4D program - capacity of African scholars to undertake research and development in AI enhanced; and the contribution of African scholars to global AI research and debate enhanced.

3. Purpose and Coverage

The goal of the engagement is to implement project mid-term evaluation. An engaged expert is requested to perform a mid-term evaluation of the project and to prepare a mid-term evaluation report.

4. Consultancy deliverables

The following will be the expected deliverables of the consultancy:

• Work plan for implementing mid-term evaluation;
• Draft and Final report on the implementation of the tasks including recommendations;
• Mid-term evaluation report

The main evaluation report should be concise and not exceed 25 pages, excluding annexes (supporting data and details can be included in annexes).       

A Power-Point presentation with the preliminary findings and recommendations to be presented ACTS and key stakeholders.

All draft and final outputs, including supporting documents, analytical reports and raw data should be provided in electronic version compatible with WORD for windows. Ownership of the data from the evaluation rests jointly with ACTS, AI4D Africa, IDRC/ Sida and consultant. The copyright of the evaluation report will rest exclusively with ACTS, AI4D Africa, and IDRC/ Sida.

5. Duration and time frame

The mid-term evaluation shall be expected to be completed within 10 - 15 days beginning as soon as possible.

Two (2) days after signing of the contract the expert will submit to ACTS a refined inception report that articulates the overall requirements of the ToR including proposed methodology, work plan with clear timelines, and division of labor where necessary.

6. Evaluation and Selection Process

This application is open to experts who are specialized in implementing project/ program evaluations. The selected expert will be responsible for designing and executing all the activities described in this ToR in collaboration with ACTS AI4D Staff.

The selection process of the expert will be based on the set of criteria developed by ACTS Evaluation Committee to evaluate the proposals. The Evaluation Committee will evaluate the proposals by using the combined scoring method. The technical proposal will be evaluated on 60%; whereas financial proposals will be evaluated on 40%. The shortlisted bidding consultant or firm may be asked for a formal presentation prior to the final selection.

Further the evaluation will examine the project implementation against the hereunder criteria by addressing the following questions. The evaluator will develop a more detailed analytical framework of questions and sub-questions to carry out the evaluation. Therefore, this questionnaire is not final and the selected evaluator should review this list with ACTS AI4D team.

#	Aspects	Possible questions
1	Relevance and strategic fit of the project	To what extent the project objectives and outcomes are relevant to the needs of the beneficiaries? Were project methodologies and approaches in line with partners’ capacities and expectations? To what extent have the project’s action so far contributed to improving uptake and adoption of responsible AI & ML? Should the project design and methodology be modified to improve its relevance in the second half of the project? If so, how?
2	Project progress and effectiveness	To what extent has the project been making progress towards the planned objectives and outcomes? What have been achieved so far? What are the major constraints so far? How can be explained the delay in delivery? Have the project approaches appropriately matched the capacity of the project partners for their action? What measures are required to improve the capacity of the project partners/ collaborator/ beneficiaries in the second half of the project?
3	Efficiency of resource use/ utilization	Have resources (funds, human resources, time, expertise, etc.) been allocated strategically to achieve outcomes?
4	Effectiveness of management arrangements (including monitoring and evaluation)	Has the project received adequate political, technical and administrative support? Was there a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities by all parties involved? How effective is communication between the project team, beneficiaries, collaborators/ partners and donors?
5	Sustainability and Impact of the project	How effectively has the project built necessary capacity of people and institutions? How effectively has the project built national/ regional ownership and capacity? How likely the project will achieve its objectives in the second half of the project and what elements need to be taken into account to ensure sustainability of outcomes?

 

7. Consultancy Competencies, Experience and Skill Requirements:

• Experience in project monitoring and evaluation and learning of programs
• Extensive knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods and techniques
• Ability to use participatory approaches for evaluation
• Good knowledge of the Sub-Saharan Africa context: Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone communities, and dynamics of the consortium work
• Good probing and analytical skills
• Excellent communication and written skills in English knowledge and French added asset.

8. Deadline and submission of expression of interest (EoI)

ACTS invites interested experts to submit the following documents by or before 28/10/2022, 17:00hrs to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and copy to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Expression of interest (EoI) outlining how the expert meets the selection criteria and their understanding of the ToR.
• Curriculum vitae (CV) outlining relevant qualifications and experience.
• A summarized description of the scope of work and the intended methodology to be used as well as a tentative work plan including activities and time frames.
• Itemized financial proposal.