Consultant for LEARNING EVALUATION OF THE LANDRISE PROJECT

About the Rainforest Alliance

The Rainforest Alliance (RA) is an international nonprofit organization working at the intersection of business, agriculture, and forests to make responsible business the new normal. We are building an alliance to protect forests, improve the livelihoods of farmers and forest communities, promote their human rights, and help them mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.  We envision a world where people and nature thrive in harmony. The Rainforest Alliance is creating a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities. For more information, please visit http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/about. 

Overview

The Rainforest Alliance, with funding from The Coca-Cola Foundation, has been implementing the Landscape-Driven Resilience and Income Strategies for Community Empowerment (LANDRISE) project since June 2025. The 1-year initiative spans across five ecologically significant agricultural landscapes: Mt. Kenya (Kenya), Sui River (Ghana), North Luwu in South Sulawesi (Indonesia), Selva Maya (Mexico), and San Martin (Peru). These regions are not only biodiversity hotspots but also key contributors to global commodity supply chains such as tea, coffee, palm oil, cocoa, and Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs). Yet, the communities inhabiting these landscapes face persistent economic vulnerability, limited access to finance, and mounting pressures from climate change, land degradation, and volatile markets.

LANDRISE was designed to address these structural challenges through a holistic economic empowerment strategy that integrates environmental sustainability, inclusive finance, and green enterprise development. The program will focus on enhancing the resilience of rural communities—particularly women and youth—by supporting the establishment of green microenterprises, revolving fund mechanisms, and innovative climate-smart livelihood models.

To strengthen adaptive management and deepen understanding of project performance, RA is commissioning a learning evaluation at the end of the project. The evaluation will generate critical insights on changes in socio-economic conditions, access to finance, livelihood diversification, and participation in the green economy across the target geographies. It will also examine progress against the project’s objectives, including improvements in financial inclusion, enterprise growth, and community participation in sustainable land use practices, with a strong focus on identifying what is working, what is not, and why.

The consultancy will provide robust, evidence-based insights on project processes, performance, and emerging outcomes. The findings will be used to inform real-time learning, support adaptive management, and guide strategic decision-making for ongoing and future programming. This learning evaluation is therefore essential for fostering continuous improvement, capturing practical lessons, and enhancing the effectiveness and responsiveness of LANDRISE interventions in supporting economically vulnerable communities.

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Consultancy Scope of Work

Main Objectives

The overall objective of the endline evaluation is to collect both quantitative and qualitative data to assess changes in the project’s outcome and impact indicators, as outlined in the project log frame, by comparing endline results with baseline benchmarks and evaluating the overall effectiveness, impact, and sustainability of the project interventions.

The project’s five objectives are:

1. Promote business development for women and youth to increase income and economic stability.
2. Enhance access to finance through revolving fund mechanisms that support smallholder farmers and green enterprises.
3. Support green enterprises to create environmentally sustainable jobs for youth and women.
4. Advance community-led conservation through large-scale tree planting and ecosystem restoration.
5. Improve agricultural productivity and market access through training, input supply, and sustainable practices.

 

Purpose and Scope of the Consultancy

RA seeks the services of a consultant or consulting firm to support data collection and analysis as part of the LANDRISE project’s learning evaluation. The purpose of this assignment is to generate accurate, gender-sensitive, and landscape-relevant data at the household and community levels across the project sites. The data will be used to provide timely insights on emerging outcomes, implementation progress, and learning questions across all five project objectives, with a focus on understanding what is working, what is not, and why.

 

This consultancy will focus on primary data collection, data entry, and basic data validation and analysis using digital tools provided by RA. The consultant will support initial data checks, cleaning, and generation of summary outputs to facilitate real-time learning and adaptive management. All survey tools, training, and supervision frameworks will be provided by RA’s MEL team. The consultant is expected to ensure high-quality data collection, uphold ethical standards in engagement with respondents, and deliver clean, well-organized datasets and report in a timely manner to support ongoing learning and decision-making.

 

Activities

The selected consultant or consulting firm will be responsible for primary data collection and analysis for the LANDRISE project learning and adaptation within the project area. This work will be conducted using standardized tools developed by RA and under the technical guidance of RA’s Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) team. RA will also be responsible for compiling and reviewing the datasets, compiling the reports from each landscape to produce the final report.

The consultant is expected to undertake the following activities:

1. Inception Meeting and Orientation

• Participate in an inception session with Rainforest Alliance to align on the scope of work, methodology, data collection timelines, and roles.
• Receive training on the use of RA-designed digital data collection tools, survey instruments, and standard operating procedures.

1. Sampling Design and Validation

• Propose and finalize a detailed sampling strategy in line with the project’s target groups and indicators.
• Ensure the sample is representative across key categories, including gender (women and youth), type of livelihood activity, and geographic coverage within the project area.
• Validate the sampling approach with RA’s MEL team before field deployment.

1. Recruitment and Training of Enumerators

• Recruit a team of qualified enumerators with demonstrated experience in household or enterprise-level surveys.
• Organize a training session (with support and facilitation from RA) to familiarize enumerators with the survey tools, digital platforms (e.g., Kobo), research ethics, and data quality assurance protocols.

1. Piloting of Data Collection Tools

• Conduct a pilot of the survey tools with a small subset of respondents to test clarity, functionality, and cultural/contextual appropriateness.
• Provide feedback to RA on any issues encountered and incorporate feedback before full-scale rollout.

1. Field Data Collection

• Implement field data collection in the selected communities across the project area using digital tools.
• Record the audios from qualitative interviews – FGDs and KIIs
• Ensure ethical data collection practices, including obtaining informed consent and safeguarding respondent confidentiality.
• Monitor enumerator performance and data quality in real-time, making adjustments as needed.

1. Data Entry, Transcription and Quality Control

• Oversee real-time digital data entry during interviews using approved platforms.
• Transcribe the audios into English and correctly label them based on the group and date
• Conduct internal data cleaning and verification to eliminate incomplete, inconsistent, or duplicate entries.
• Deliver a finalized dataset that meets Rainforest Alliance’s quality standards.

1. Data analysis and reporting

• Conduct comprehensive analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data using appropriate statistical and thematic analysis techniques to generate actionable insights for the learning evaluation.
• Apply suitable analytical models, including regression analysis, to examine relationships between key variables and assess factors influencing project outcomes.

1. Handover of Materials

• Submit all signed consent forms (where applicable), field logs, enumerator attendance records, and other documentation.
• Handover final clean datasets in the prescribed format (e.g., XLSX), including raw and cleaned.
• Draft Report for review and validation
• Analysis scripts

 

Deliverables

Deliverable	Estimated Submission Date / Timeline
1. Finalized fieldwork plan including sampling methodology, schedule, and enumerator list for approval by Rainforest Alliance (RA)	Day 2 after contract signing
2. Completed data collection across target locations using standardized tools provided by RA (including signed consent forms, if applicable)	Day 10 from contract signing
3. Cleaned and validated dataset in prescribed format submitted to RA (including metadata and field notes)	Day 13 from contract signing
4. Share analysis plan for review	Day 14 from contract signing
5. Share Draft 0 of the report in a format prescribed by RA for review.	Day 20 from contract signing
6. Share finalized report with input from RA	Day 25 from contract signing
7. Handover final report, including an annex of field report summarizing methodology followed, data collection challenges, mitigation strategies, lessons learnt, photos and videos and submission of all consent forms	Day 30 from contract signing

General Terms and Conditions for Request for Proposal

 

• Applicants must provide all requisite information under this RFP and clearly and concisely respond to all points set out in this RFP. Any proposal, which does not fully and comprehensively address this RFP, may be rejected.
• Proposals and/or any additional information received after the submission time and date are subject to rejection by RA. Incomplete proposals may be rejected by RA at its discretion.
• RA reserves the right to request additional information at any time during the procurement process.
• RA is at liberty to make multiple or no selections as part of the proposal process. RA also reserves the right to cancel the procurement.
• All proposal costs shall be borne by the applicant and will not be reimbursed by RA.
• It is the responsibility of every bidder to identify any information of a confidential or proprietary nature contained in its proposal so that it may be handled accordingly. However, RA cannot guarantee confidentiality.

Consultant qualifications

The consultant or consultant firm should comply with the following minimum qualifications:

1. Academic Qualifications - Advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in relevant fields such as Monitoring and Evaluation, Development Studies, Agricultural Economics, Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management, Social Sciences, or a related discipline.
2. Technical Expertise and Experience - Demonstrated experience in evaluating programs related to climate-smart agriculture, sustainable land use, livelihoods, financial inclusion, and green enterprise development. Experience conducting gender-responsive and socially inclusive evaluations.
3. Data Collection - Demonstrated ability to manage large-scale field data collection, including use of digital data collection tools (e.g., KoboToolbox, ODK, SurveyCTO). Strong analytical skills, including proficiency in statistical software such as SPSS, STATA, R, or similar tools.
4. Team Composition (for Firms) - Availability of qualified field enumerators and supervisors with local language proficiency.
5. Ethical Standards and Compliance - Demonstrated commitment to ethical research practices, including informed consent, confidentiality, and data protection.

 

Selection Criteria

Selection of the consultant or consultant firm is based on the following criteria:

 

Criteria	Weight (%)
Technical proposal	25%
Methodology	10%
Team composition and expertise	10%
Previous experience	10%
Financial proposal or budget	40%
Availability	5%

Proposal Process and Format

Interested consultants or consultant firms should submit their proposal including the following:

1. Statutory Requirements: Upon request, the consultant should supply all required legal documents as may be required by RA and/or local law, e.g. work permit, bank details, registration details, tax documents etc. When opportunity is restricted to a specific location, only candidates authorized to work in the location will be considered.

 

1. Technical proposal requirements:
   • Project team profile (if a Consultant Firm)
   • Work plan
   • Technical proposal
   • Methodology
   • Timeline for deliverables
   • List of previous engagements that addresses the above experience desired
   • Current CV(s) of the lead
   • Contact details of at least 3 recent references
2. Financial proposal requirements:
   • Budget needed to complete deliverables.
   • Financial proposals must include rates for costing
   • State currency required

 

Submission of proposals

All proposals must be submitted to [email protected] and cc. [email protected], [email protected] with the subject ‘Proposal for LANDRISE Endline Evaluation’.

Finalists will be notified of their selection by 25^th April 2026. 

Contact person for questions	Collins Adoyo, Senior Associate, MEL Email: [email protected]
Deadline for submission of proposals	20th April 2026.