Anthropological study consultancy in Kenya&Somalia 247 views0 applications

Background information

CCM, Comitato Collaborazione Medica, is a non-for profit nongovernmental organisation founded in 1968 in Turin, by a group of medical doctors from Piedmont Region in Italy.

Our key mission is to promote the right to health and ensure access to essential health care.

· We are a lay and independent organisation, guided by the values of solidarity, equity, non-discrimination and cultural respect

· We works through long term development projects, believing that health can be really promoted only with stable and durable interventions

· In case of natural disasters or epidemics in the areas where we work, we implements emergency interventions

CCM – Comitato Collaborazione Medica is looking for a senior anthropologist who shall:

1. Conduct an anthropological study (as well as follow up and update on the preliminary research conducted in October 2018) in North Horr sub-County/Marsabit County (Kenya) on the behaviours, attitudes, perceptions and accessibility of pastoral communities in the area towards health and health services for their families and their livestock, as well as their attitudes and interpretation of the natural environment in which they live and that is significantly changing over time.
2. Over the same period, scientifically mentor, lead, guide and supervise (from Kenya) a local anthropologist who shall conduct a study in Somalia (Gedo region) on the same aforementioned topics (behaviours, attitudes, perceptions and accessibility of pastoral communities in the area towards health and health services for their families and their livestock, as well as their attitudes and interpretation of the natural environment in which they live and that is significantly changing over time).

Background

1. The study relating to the project in Kenya sees CCM as the leading agency of the project, which is implemented in partnership with Vétérinaires Sans Frontières-Germany, Translating into Meaning (TriM) and Dipartimento Interateneo di Scienze, Progetto e Politiche del Territorio di Torino (DIST).

The project aims at improving and facilitating the access to and coordination among human and animal health services and strengthening the alert systems and response to dangerous events (especially climatic extreme events) for contributing to the health and well-being of the pastoralist communities of North Horr sub-County (Marsabit County-Kenya).

A One Health approach is adopted, as integrated approach to human, animal and environmental health. The One Health concept recognizes the relationship between humans, animals and environment, and represents the combined effort of several professional disciplines (operating at local, national and global levels) to achieve the optimal and integrated health status of people, animals and the environment itself. The One Health approach not only defines the integration between different disciplines, but also the systemic integration as a working methodology. The approach is first and foremost a way of observing and analyzing health in the complexity of its determinants and of the strategies to be implemented in order to guarantee it (AMVA, 2008).

1. The study relating to the regional project (Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia – HEAL Project) sees CCM as the human health partner within a consortium constituted by Vétérinaires Sans Frontières-Suisse (leading agency) and ILRI – Institute for Livestock and Research, implementing a regional project addressing the health of humans, animals and environment, from a One Health perspective (see above).

Field mission overall goals

· Kenya – Reviewing the gaps in (human and animal) health services and their accessibility among pastoral communities and designing new approaches aimed at easing the accessibility and promoting sustainable links between pastoralists and the existing Kenyan healthcare, veterinary and environmental systems;

· Somalia – Providing an overview and good insight of accessibility and affordability of the existing animal and human health services and the acceptability of new integrated service delivery (i.e., OH mobile/static unit), through an in-depth understanding and analysis of local pastoralist communities’ needs, perceptions and behaviours towards human and animal health and their relations to their environment

Terms of Reference

Kenya

• Understand and master the results and findings of the previous anthropological study and of the main social studies conducted in/related to the area of intervention
• Revise the project activities with the lens of the previous studies, understanding whether the project adaptations and revisions are addressing what high-lightened and suggested by the anthropologist
• Assess the understanding and attitude of local pastoral communities towards the interrelation among human/animal and environmental health and their modifications/new attitudes over the last year, by means of observation, interviews and focus groups
• Suggest and investigate new research focus and deepen some specific promising research components (e.g. nutrition, etc.)
• Evaluate the effective engagement of local communities in the project, assessing their active participation and proper ownership of objectives and activities as primary actors of the proposed intervention and changes;
• Tune-up with ongoing project settings and activities, by meeting personnel and authorities
• Coordinate with the partners in order to organize an informative activity for a continuous flow of information and feedback about the bio-climatologic parameters and info to be collected, analysed and utilised
• Identify specific sets of learning and acquiring information among the project personnel, health professionals, authorities and local communities involved in the training activities; the activity aims at considering the production of training material (scientific and informative) as culturally specific
• Write a full report, with due emphasis to the project components’ opinions, interviews and focus groups.

Somalia

• Guide the development of a sound and context-specific methodology to accomplish the research objectives and ensure its careful application on ground, through a constant supervision of the local social expert.
• Train, guide and scientifically supervise a local junior anthropologist/social scientist who can conduct the direct research within the community
• Understand needs, perceptions and behaviors of local pastoral communities towards human and animal health, and their strategies of adaptation to the environment, also in relation to climate change, by means of observation, interviews and focus groups
• Investigate possible hindrances that prevent local communities to access the existing human, animal and rangeland health system
• Identify the different therapeutic resources, locally available and usually used/preferred for people and livestock care and healthy rangelands (including traditional medicines, domestic and self-treatments);
• Explore perceptions, acceptability and behaviors of local pastoral communities towards mobile/static OH units.
• Write a full report, with due emphasis to the project components’ opinions, interviews and focus groups.

Timeframe

The mission shall be conducted and finalized before the end of October 2019 and the mission report must be submitted before 31^st December 2019.

The consultant has to plan to visit the project’s areas for minimum 35 days full days (in Kenya only) to be able to fulfil the set objectives.

Required Qualifications/Expertise

The individual or team should have the following specific experiences and qualification:

· University degree in Anthropology, Social Science or related subjects

· PhD in the same areas is an asset

· At least 7 years of experience in social and anthropological research (4 of which on the field)

· Deep understanding of socio-anthropological environment and components in developing countries, with a focus on pastoral communities

· Understanding and ownership of the One Health approach

• Sound and long-lasting experience in conducting socio-anthropological research in the frame of development and humanitarian projects
• Working experience in Kenya and/or Somalia and specifically in pastoralist areas, and/or in other comparable settings;
• Excellent reporting and communication skills;
• Capability to liaise among different relevant stakeholders at national and local level;
• Good English mandatory (written and oral). Italian is an asset
• Academic and/or sectoral magazines publications is an asset.

Evaluation criteria

The consultant candidacy will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Academic Background (max 20 points)

· Qualifications in anthropology/social sciences (max 7 points)

· Magazines/Academic publications (max 5 points)

· Magazines/Academic publications on the topic documenting existing best practices to enhance pastoralists’ resilience. (max 8 points)

Working Experiences (max 40 points)

• 10 points for each year experienced in Kenyan or Somali pastoral communities, and/or comparable settings
• 8 points for each year spent working on socio-anthropologic research regarding the knowledge and perceptions of local pastoral communities about diseases, and in particular zoonosis, and environmental risks in Kenya and or comparable settings

Linguistic knowledge (max 10 points) · Knowledge of written and spoken English (B1 / B2: Independent user Common European Framework of Reference of Languages)· Knowledge of the local language

Methodological proposal (max 2 pages) showing the approach the candidate intends to use (max 20 points)Other skills useful for carrying out the assignment, which can be found in the training and professional experiences and in the motivational letter (max 10 points)**