Background
The RBF+ program supports the development of agrifood Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Myanmar by enhancing their productivity, environmental performance, competitiveness, and access to domestic and international markets. Building on the earlier Responsible Business Fund (RBF Myanmar), RBF+ employs a challenge fund approach, offering matching grants and tailored technical assistance to agrifood MSMEs, suppliers of sustainable technologies, and business support service providers. This approach aims to catalyze private-sector-led innovation and investment.
The program operates across three outcome areas. The first focuses on enhancing awareness and technical capacity among agrifood MSMEs to adopt sustainable inputs, clean technologies, and good environmental practices. The second aims to improve productivity and competitiveness, particularly for MSMEs and primary producers operating in fragmented and under-resourced value chains. The third outcome seeks to increase MSME sales by strengthening their access to both domestic and export markets, recognizing that market linkages are key to long-term viability.
Given Myanmar’s volatile and conflict-affected context, RBF+ is grounded in principles of adaptability, conflict sensitivity, and Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI). The program promotes inclusive and context-sensitive programming that addresses structural inequalities and prioritizes resilience. These cross-cutting themes are embedded across all grant-making, technical support, and market engagement activities.
Purpose and Objectives of the Evaluation
The primary purpose of the MTE is to provide an objective/independent, evidence-based assessment of the program’s progress, performance, and relevance. It is intended as a formative evaluation, supporting learning and reflection midway through implementation, and informing any necessary course corrections. It also serves an accountability function by reviewing results against intended objectives and assessing the overall effectiveness of the program strategy.
Key objectives of the evaluation include:
• Assessing whether the program is on track to meet its intended outcomes and outputs
• Evaluating the continued relevance of its design and delivery mechanisms in the current Myanmar context, and the need for adaptation, if any
• Exploring the performance and suitability of the challenge fund mechanism as a tool for private sector development.
• Examining how effectively GESI and conflict sensitivity have been translated into practice.
In addition to performance assessment, the evaluation is expected to capture early results and signs of systemic change, identify good practices and emerging risks, and provide practical, actionable recommendations for improving implementation in the remaining program period. Findings will contribute to program learning, adaptive management, and strategic orientation for future programming.
Scope of the Evaluation
The evaluation will cover the period from the program’s inception in July 2024 through to the evaluation point in mid-2026. It will assess activities and outcomes across all three of the program’s thematic areas, including grant disbursement, technical assistance, and market development interventions. In addition, the evaluation will review the functioning and performance of the program’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) system, as well as the research collaboration with the Bern University of Applied Sciences.
It will include an examination of both strategic and operational dimensions, including how grants are selected and managed, the design and delivery of technical support, and the extent to which the program has influenced behaviors and capacities among grantees. Special attention will be given to how the program engages with and adapts to fragile and conflict-affected environments, including constraints on mobility, access, and local governance.
Geographical coverage will reflect a selection of regions where RBF+ is operational. Regions will be chosen based on diversity of interventions, accessibility, and relevance to the evaluation questions. Due to security constraints, some data collection may need to be conducted remotely.
These Terms of Reference (ToR) define the framework for the Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) of the Responsible Business Fund Plus (RBF+), a four-year initiative running from July 2024 to June 2028. The program is implemented by Helvetas Intercooperation GmbH in partnership with Inclusive Systems Myanmar (ISM), Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, and the Bern University of Applied Sciences. It is funded by the European Union (EU), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the Embassy of Denmark.
Helvetas is an international network of politically and confessionally independent affiliate member organizations working in the field of development cooperation and humanitarian response. Our vision is a just world in which all people determine the course of their lives in dignity and security, using environmental resources in a sustainable manner. The Helvetas network builds upon six decades of development experience. With 1400 collaborators, it
is engaged in more than 30 countries.