Evaluation of the National Registration and Identification Systems Project

Malawi developed a National Registration and Identification System Project in October 2016 following a successful proof of concept phase.   The goal of the project is to establish a permanent and continuous national registration and identification system in Malawi.  The project has the following outputs:

• Up to 9 million Malawians are registered and issued with a National Identity card in 2017
• NRIS is transitioned to a permanent and continuous registration system 
• Government MDAs are assisted to adopt the use of the NRIS.
• Project is efficiently managed, staffed and coordinated, and is implemented with national ownership.

The project has been implemented with financial and technical assistance from DFID, EU, USAID, Norway, Irish Aid and UNDP from 1 November 2016 through basket fund arrangement with UNDP as the managing agent.  The initial budget for the project was $50,868,742 of which $20,858,400 was government contribution and the rest was provided by the development partners. 

The project implemented a mass registration exercise between 01 November 2016 and 31 December 2018  during which period 8.94 Million Malawians were registered and issued with national identification cards.  To date 9.3 million Malawians have been issued with national identification cards.  UNDP and the National Registration Bureau under the Ministry of Home Affairs are the main implementing partners for the project. 

During the mass registration phase the project engaged over 4200 Registration personnel who were deployed in centres throughout the country. Given the complexity of the exercise PricewaterhouseCoopers were engaged to provide human resource services.  Card production was outsourced to a firm in France. Subsequently, the project has deployed registration personnel in all 28 district councils and selected Post Offices across the country in registration and card distribution exercises.

The project was designed to be completed by December 2018 but was extended to 31 December 2019 to provide time for refurbishing of some Post Office buildings to host registration services and support use of national identification cards by service providers in the public and private sectors.

The project has been further extended and revised to incorporate outputs on child registration, issuance of birth certificate and use of birth certificates.    This component is being implemented with technical support from UNICEF.   The current phase of the project has been extended to 31 December 2021.

The project has not been evaluated since its inception.  According to UNDP policies it is mandatory to evaluate projects of its resource size twice: at mid-term and at the end of its life.    While some elements of the project which started in 2016 are continuing, most components were completed by December 2019.  It is important to evaluate the project now while would-be key informants to evaluators and project personnel are still around and still remember important details of the project.

The evaluation is going to take place during a Covid-19 pandemic which has affected almost all countries in the world.    As of 28 September, 2020 Malawi had 5,770 confirmed cases of which ………..  have recovered and 179 have died.   Among the measures taken to prevent the spread of the virus, Government has ordered use of masks in all public places, in government offices and public transport.  Regular flights in and out of the country were suspended from March 2020.  However, government has announced the opening of its airports from 1st October 2020.   Schools which were closed in March are opening in a phased manner from 7 September 2020.  All classes will be open from 12 October 2020. 

Purpose of the Evaluation

The main purpose of the evaluation is to provide an independent assessment of the progress made towards the achievement of the expected results, impact of the National ID vis-à-vis its linkages, and identify challenges to improve project implementation and make necessary course corrections. In addition, to fulfilling UNDP’s accountability requirements, the evaluation will also document lessons for improving project design, efficiency effectiveness and impact of similar projects in future. 

The evaluation findings, lessons learned, and recommendations will be shared with key government stakeholder including financing and technical partners, namely: DFID, EU, Government of Ireland, Norway, USAID, UNICEF and GoM.

Scope

The evaluation will assess the performance of the project using OECD/UNEG standard evaluation criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and sustainability.  The evaluation will also assess the implementation strategy including the implementation modalities and extent to which the design, implementation and monitoring of the project incorporates a gender equality perspective and human rights-based approach and environmental considerations.  Project evaluators will be required to re-produce a theory of change for the project to provide a conceptual framework for the analysis of its key elements.

The exercise will cover the period 1st November, 2016 to 31, December, 2019 but only addressing outputs and parameters which were included in the project document developed in October, 2016.  The evaluation will cover all districts of the country be executed within 40 working days from  26 October to 31 December, 2020.   A relatively long period of time is being provided to ensure thorough interviews in the wake of Covid 19.

Objectives

More specifically, the objectives of the evaluation will be:

• To assess progress made towards the achievement of the expected results;
• To assess effectiveness of the project in achieving the specific expected results and analyze any factors contributing and which hindered progress ;
• To what extent was gender equality and human rights issues were incorporated in project design, implementation, monitoring and reporting;
• To what extent are district post offices ready to provide registration services after the development phase?;
• To analyse the appropriateness of post offices as centres for registration and issuance of national identify cards;
• To what extent have the established registration centers offered services to citizens, and prospects of sustainability once the project is phased out?
• To review factors aiding and impeding use of ID cards by public sector, private sector and civil society organizations;
• To make recommendations, if any, to improve the design, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and strategies and directions of similar projects in future;
• To document lessons learnt to inform future national identification and registration projects.

Corporate Competencies:

• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Demonstrate integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

• Organizational Development and Management
• Strategic thinking

Education:

• The consultant must be a holder of a minimum of a Masters Degree in Social Science, management sciences or related field

Experience

• Extensive expertise, knowledge and a minimum of 7 years’ experience in institutional development and programming in civil registration or related field
• Profound evaluation experience with a minimum of 3 evaluation assignments carried out in a leading position. 
• Experience in development programming in sub-Saharan African countries.
• Experience in gender mainstreaming

Skills

• Teamwork and leadership skills
• Strong analytical, reporting and communication skills

More details can be accessed through the following link:

https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=71236