TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE END OF PROJECT EVALUATION

Program/project title /affiliate identification code

Tax Dialogue in Kenya

Partner organisation/s if applicable

1. Oxfam

2. University of Nairobi

3. IPFK

Geographical coverage:

Nairobi

Program/project lifespan (from mm/yy to mm/yy)

2017-2020 (36 months)

About Oxfam

Oxfam is an international development and humanitarian Non-Governmental Organization that works with others to overcome poverty and suffering. Oxfam has been operating in Kenya since 1963. The geographical focus of our programmes has been the urban areas mainly Nairobi City and arid and semi-arid lands, where we have been working with the poor and vulnerable groups to realize a transformed Kenyan society that challenges poverty and inequality to claim their rights.

Overview of the project

Corporate tax dodging constitutes a global challenge that deprives governments of billions of dollars in revenue each year. The OECD estimates that 4-10% of corporate income tax is lost to multinational companies’ aggressive tax planning, and the IMF and others estimate that developing countries are disproportionally impacted.

To address this challenge, Oxfam has been part of the struggle for tax justice for more than a decade, calling for an end to tax havens and a stop to multinational companies’ aggressive tax behavior. This work has taken many forms. One line of the tax justice work has focused on engaging some of the world’s largest multinational companies and investors to influence them to adopt a more responsible approach to their corporate tax affairs.

Oxfam affiliates in the US, UK, Spain and Denmark have engaged in this kind of structured dialogue on responsible corporate tax for some years. The approach has to a large extend relied on the understanding of what responsible corporate taxation is as outlined in the publication ‘Getting to Good – Towards responsible corporate tax behavior’. Oxfam IBIS (Denmark) established a project entitled The Tax Dialogue in 2014 to engage with the Danish private sector on responsible corporate tax. Some of the experiences with this engagement and the results achieved are documented in a recent report ‘Moving beyond compliance – Responsible corporate taxation in Denmark 2014-20’.

In 2017 Oxfam IBIS (Denmark) decided to pilot the approach of structured engagement with the private sector for responsible corporate tax outside of Europe and North America. As a result, the Tax Dialogue in Kenya and Ghana was initiated. In both countries, the Tax Dialogue approach has been piloted with Danida Innovation funds. This means that the project has tried to maintain an open-ended approach of not defining the end-result from the beginning and being open to adapting the project along the way. The pilot of the Tax Dialogue approach has not assumed that a dialogue on responsible corporate tax would work or be relevant in the same way in Kenya, but has instead tried to test whether the approach would make sense, and what changes would be needed for the dialogue to be meaningful.

Despite Kenya achieving lower middle-income status in September of 2014 and being a preferred investment destination in East Africa, the reality remains that poverty and inequality remain high. Out of Kenya’s 44 million citizens 42% live below the poverty line and the richest 8300 people in Kenya holding over 50% of individual income, compared to only 2% for the poorest[1]. Expanding its revenue base in a progressive way and investing it in pro-poor essential public services is one way to address the widespread poverty and the gulf between the rich and poor in Kenya.

Corporate taxes make up 21% of the overall tax revenue in 2014 in Kenya. However, it has been argued that this is considerably lower than tax revenue potential. This could possibly mean that many corporations in Kenya are taking advantage of tax neutralization strategies such as tax holidays, tax incentives, tax reliefs, transfer pricing and other legal and less legal procedures[2]. The Kenyan tax authorities are committed to ensuring that corporations pay the right amount of tax in Kenya and have also actively participated in the OECD BEPS project. Nevertheless, it is believed that there is a great discrepancy in the amount of tax paid by corporations in Kenya and a need to develop a shared understanding among relevant actors about the reasons for this and whether it is legitimate or what could be done. If no such understanding develops there is a risk that the public debate becomes polarised and continues to focus on the challenges rather than the solutions and best practices already observed by some corporations in responsible corporate ta practice.

The Tax Dialogue in Kenya initiative will seek to gain new insights and lessons from a developing country context by contextualising the activities and discussions to factor in both domestic and foreign private sector actors – investors and companies as well as the national tax authorities and civil society.

In collaboration with local national tax authorities and with the participation of local civil society Oxfam is inviting foreign and domestic private sector actors – investors and companies – to participate in a series of activities - roundtables and conferences - on responsible corporate tax practice in developing countries.

The aim and purpose of the roundtables will be to build mutual understanding of the challenges and opportunities arising from big businesses operating more and placing more activities and investors placing more investments in developing countries as markets develop. Through dialogue and exchange of perspectives the ambition is to build trust and create an environment for improved practices and recognition for efforts to enhance responsible corporate tax practice. It centres on the ambition and needs to create safe spaces for constructive multi-stakeholder dialogue on responsible corporate tax behaviour with the aim of enhancing domestic resource mobilization to finance sustainable development and the social contract between taxpayers, governments and the whole of society. The approach will test whether the results achieved through corporate engagement for responsible tax will also work in Kenya, and if so, what adjustments are needed to make it work.

The specific objectives of the project were as follows: -

1. To establish a systematic dialogue on responsible corporate tax between the private sector, government and CSO’s in Kenya.

2. To publicly demonstrate the interlinkages with the agenda for business and human rights and financing for development and through informed roundtable discussions at national and global level influenced the global corporate responsibility standards for corporate tax planning:

3. By 2020 a number of upfront running progressive global corporations and governments actively and publicly support the Even It Up campaign goals reflecting national level dialogue recommendations

In addition, the project has had a fourth internal objective to secure financing for the possible continuation of the project from an external donor.

Purpose of the assignment

The objectives of the evaluation are:

· To assess the pilot’s achievements against original objectives looking at implementation of activities, use of resources, coordination between stakeholders, and ownership of stakeholders;

· To assess what the key learnings of the pilot have been with a focus on whether the corporate engagement on responsible corporate taxation has been useful in Kenya, and to document what changes have been introduced to adjust the project to the Kenyan context;

· To assess the relations created and the future perspectives for collaboration between the people and organisations brought together.

· To provide guidance for how the project could increase its impact and obtain a more sustainable approach;

· To assess the replicability/scale up/continuability of the entire project or elements of it.

· Present 2-3 realistic scenarios for ‘Tax-dialogue post-Oxfam-funding’.

Specific objectives of the evaluation

1. To document what the three biggest achievements, challenges and lessons learned of the pilot have been according to the perceptions of the stakeholders involved in the project.

2. To critically asses to what extent Oxfam in Kenya and the partners under the pilot succeeded in becoming conveners of the private sector, government and civil society, and highlight the key lessons learned on how to approach this convener role.

3. To evaluate the inclusion of cross-cutting issues that include gender consideration and accountability to project stakeholders.

4. To analyze and advise on the relevance and appropriateness of project’s theory of change to the context in Kenya.

5. To document what changes were made in the pilot design during implementation and present learnings on what these changes tell us in terms of what adaptation were necessary to make the Tax Dialogue approach work in Kenya.

6. To assess the partnerships strategic, programmatic and operational functionality, relevance, efficiency in relation to the pilot’s objectives.

7. To provide a critical analysis of the interventions deployed during implementation from the perspective of learning and propose recommendations that will be useful for future programming.

8. To advise on what aspects of the pilot that would be particularly relevant to seek to continue beyond the pilot stage and with which core partners, and what aspects – if any – that would not be worth continuing.

9. To provide an assessment of the sustainability of pilot and the relationships built under it.

Methodology

The evaluation should use a mixed method approach which will involve reviewing the relevant project documents and relevant literature including but not limited to the project’s results framework, the scoping study; activity reports, session presentations, Focus Group Discussions, meetings and Key Informant interviews with a broad range of stakeholders that were involved in the project including project partners, key stakeholders in the private sector, government representatives, and representatives at the Kenya Revenue Authority. The evaluation team should also interview stakeholders outside of Kenya, including the Tax Dialogue coordinator at Oxfam in Ghana and the Tax Dialogue coordinator and Innovation Officer at Oxfam IBIS (Denmark). Based on the literature review, the consultant will decide on the methods and methodology of data collection as informed by projects purpose, objectives, indicators, results areas and the theory of change.

Sample Size:

The consultant(s) will determine the appropriate sample sizes in consultation with Oxfam and partners taking into consideration the activities carried out and stakeholders. The consultant(s) will visit all the sites and interview the stakeholders. The sampling should therefore include both purposive and random sampling within the purposively sampled areas. An effort should be made to have equitable proportion of type of respondents.

Timelines and Deliverables

The evaluation will consist of 5 phases:

1. Recruitment of evaluation team; preparatory meeting with partners to discuss TOR, design and agree on methodology and to draw up a detailed work and evaluation plan; Initial briefing with partners to ensure that the evaluation team is clear on the principle proposition for this evaluation exercise.

2. Preparatory desk review: drafting evaluation matrix with evaluation questions, indicators, data requirements and sources; secondary data and literature review

3. Main evaluation phase: design of data collection tools, possible pretesting of tools, training of data clerks, planning of field visits and discussions/interviews with implementing partners’ staff and other stakeholders including Government offices, other local and international humanitarian actors in the areas of operation to get their feedback to reach conclusions. Conduct field visits to collect data through a combination of data collection methods including PRA methodologies. It is expected that the team will apply a gendered lens and participatory approaches to seek the views of beneficiaries and, where appropriate, non-beneficiaries.

4. Reporting: Analysis of data (data should be collected, analysed and disaggregated by gender and data sets), production of a draft report and discussion of this report with partners to give opportunities for the team/s to agree on action points, learning and recommendations; submission of final report which addresses the objectives of the evaluation, and responds to each of the nine specific objectives outline in these terms of reference. In addition, the report should include 2-3 realistic scenarios for the future (prototyped with potential partners or owners).

5. Follow up: Partners follow up on evaluation findings and dissemination of final report to donors and partners.

The expected deliverables from the evaluation exercise are the following:

1. Complete bibliography of documents/materials/data used during desk review of secondary sources.

2. Power point presentation of evaluation plan, timelines and activities.

3. Final data collection tools, data bases and analysis plan.

4. First draft of evaluation report.

5. Final evaluation report.

6. Power point presentation of main findings and conclusions for debriefing purposes; and

7. All data collection questionnaires, hard copies of filled in questionnaires, clean data set and analysis files.

Confidentiality of issues discussed MUST be stressed during interviews and safeguarded by the partners and the evaluation consultant(s). The data should be disaggregated by gender and age as it is extremely important when identifying key issues of the response and assessing community vulnerability.

Evaluation report **

The production of the evaluation report will be the liability of the evaluation team covering all the aspects as outlined in the ToRs. Partners’ staff and partners’ management will be responsible for coordinating the evaluation exercise. The evaluation report should be:

· Produced in English language and should be simple in expression and easy to understand.

· Maximum of 25 pages with some short annexes.

· The report format and text should be an A4 paper size and a legible font (e.g. Times New Roman 11 or 12, Arial 10 or 11.

· The evaluation team will be liable to submit at least 02 hard copies and 01 electronic copy of the evaluation report by the agreed deadline.

Outline of The Evaluation Report **

An evaluation report should contain the different elements mentioned below. All parts should be clearly distinguished from each other and of sufficient quality.

· Cover page (evaluation title, Program/project title /affiliate identification code, Geographical coverage, date that the evaluation report was finalized, evaluator(s) name(s) and logo, Oxfam logo, appropriate recognition of institutional donor support).

· Glossary

· List of abbreviations.

· Executive summary that can be used as a stand-alone document

· Introduction, stating objectives of the evaluation and evaluation questions

· The intervention and context

· Methodology, including an indication of any perceived limitations of the evaluation

· Presentation of the findings and their analysis

· Conclusions

· Learning and Recommendations including scenarios.

• Appendices: (Terms of reference; Evaluation program; a list of interviewees (name, function and working environment) and places visited; List of documents and bibliography used; Details on composition of evaluation team (names, expertise, working environment); Link to Methodological appendices; The evaluation proposal; Evaluation instruments such as questionnaires and interview guides; Data collected).

*Confidentiality of information: all documents and data collected will be treated as confidential and used solely to facilitate analysis. Interviewees will not be quoted in the reports without their permission.***

Evaluation responsibilities and management arrangements

The consultant shall work under the supervision of the Tax Justice Strategist with strong liaison with Oxfam’s MEAL Advisor and Programme Officers as well as with the Tax Dialogue team at Oxfam IBIS.

Evaluation team: qualifications and skills needed, plan for organizing the evaluation team

The desired specification and qualities of the consultant(s) are as hereunder:

· At least a master’s degree in Law or Political Science or other relevant subjects.

· Technical competency in monitoring and evaluation, programme management and development issues

· In depth Knowledge and a minimum of 5 years’ experience of evaluation and/or data collection methods

· Experience working in the country or region where the project was implemented

· Knowledge of and practical experience in the application of conceptual frameworks of analysis related to the programme or project/ management unit

· Demonstrated understanding of constitutional and policy environment, national strategies and programs, county integrated development plans and strategies.

· High quality skills and demonstrated experience in similar pieces of work.

· Strong analytical, communication and report writing skills.

· Good spoken and written communication skills in Kiswahili and English.

· Proven experience of using participatory methods for data collection and analysis in programme evaluation.

· Capacity to manage processes and facilitation skills

Process of the selection of the evaluator or evaluation team and expectations for evaluation proposal

Consultant(s) who meet the above requirements should submit bids, which at minimum include the following:

· Suitability statement, including commitment to availability for the entire assignment in the months of October, November and December 2020.

· Brief statement of the proposed evaluation methodology including a detailed work plan. A Detailed financial proposal, including daily costs.

· Information on the team composition and level of effort of each team member – include updated curriculum vitae that clearly spell out qualifications and experience.

· Contacts of three organizations that have recently contracted the consultant to carry out relevant evaluation.

N/B: The entire bid should be a MAXIMUM OF 13 (13) PAGES inclusive of CVs and Budgets. Bids not meeting this requirement will not be considered.

Application process

Interested and qualified consultants should send their applications before or by November 24th, 2020 at 5.00 P.M. and indicate Application for the Tax Dialogue Project Evaluation in the subject line, and send to the email address: Kenya.Logs@oxfam.org.uk

[1] New World Wealth, ‘Wealth in Kenya 2014: The Future of Kenyan HNWIs

[2] Marta Matosek, ‘Who Foots the Tax Bill? Tax Burden Analysis in Kenya’ (2015)

SOURCE: http://www.etd.ceu.hu/2015/matosek_marta.pdf