The project also targets specific activities towards women and youth, who are among the most vulnerable, to ensure equality of participation and remove underlying vulnerabilities. Finally, Outcome 3 supports the development and implementation of a monitoring and assessment framework for global environmental benefits, and socio-economic benefits.
Since May 2018, the Government of Uganda through MAAIF with support from FAO/UNDP/GEF has implemented the SURE FS project supporting institutional and capacity development at the district level on both policy and policy adaptation/implementation, delving into transfer of technologies for efficient food production and enhanced product marketing systems.
Being halfway the project life, this MTR will help to document the progress made so far, recommend strategies that will enhance delivery of intended project results commensurate with the investments made. According to the GEF guidance notes, MTEs are a monitoring tool to assess project status and challenges, identify corrective actions to ensure that projects are on track to achieve planned outcomes. As such, MTEs are required for full-sized UNDP supported projects with GEF financing such as this one.
The overall goal or development objective of this project is to improve food security by addressing the environmental drivers of food insecurity and their root causes in Karamoja sub-region. The Project objective is to contribute to enhancing long-term environmental sustainability and resilience of food production systems in the Karamoja Sub-Region.
The project was designed to deliver on the objective through 3 outcomes including:
Outcome 1: Supportive policies and incentives in place at district level to support improved crop and livestock production, food value-chains and INRM;
Outcome 2: Increased land area under integrated natural resources management (INRM) and SLM practices for a more productive Karamoja landscape;
Outcome 3: Framework in place for multi-scale assessment, monitoring and integration of resilience in production landscapes and monitoring of global environmental benefits (GEBs).
Objectives of the mid-term review:
The MTR will review the project design and strategy, assess progress towards the achievement of the project objectives and outcomes as specified in the Project Document, assess early signs of project success, or failure including risks to sustainability. The goal will be to identify and recommend the changes necessary to set the project on-track to achieve its intended results.
Approach and methodology:
The MTR must provide evidence based information that is credible, reliable and useful. The International Consultant will work with a counterpart National Consultant; the latter to provide the local content while the former will be the Lead Consultant to ensure the deliverables are realized. The MTR team will review all relevant sources of information including documents prepared during the preparation phase (i.e. PIF, UNDP Initiation Plan, UNDP Environmental & Social Safeguard Policy, the Project Document, project reports including Annual Project Review/PIRs, project budget revisions, lesson learned reports, national strategic and legal documents, and any other materials that the team considers useful for this evidence-based review). The MTR team will review the baseline GEF focal Area Tracking Tool (AMAT) submitted to the GEF at CEO endorsement, and the midterm GEF focal area Tracking Tool that must be completed before the MTR field mission begins.
The MTR is expected to follow a collaborative and participatory approach[1] ensuring close engagement with the Project Team, government counterparts (the GEF Operational Focal Point), the UNDP Country Office(s), UNDP-GEF Regional Technical Advisers, and other key stakeholders.
Engagement of stakeholders is vital to a successful MTR.[2] Stakeholder involvement should include interviews with stakeholders who have project responsibilities, including but not limited to: Ministry of Agriculture, animal Industry and Fisheries, Ministry of Water and Environment, UNDP, FAO, Busitema University, project coordinators from the 6 District Local Governments and CSOs operating in the Karamoja Region.. If possible (given the COVID restrictions) the MTR team is expected to conduct field missions to selected 6 districts (Kotido, Moroto, Karenga, Nakapiripirit, Nabilatuk,and Kaboong) where the MTR team should be able to meet the project responsible parties and conduct site verification.
The final MTR report should describe the full MTR approach taken and the rationale for the approach making explicit the underlying assumptions, challenges, strengths and weaknesses about the methods and approach of the review.