Baseline Survey for EU-Restore and SIDA Projects 142 views0 applications

Terms of Reference

For

Baseline Survey for EU-Restore and SIDA Projects

Compiled by

Somalia Resilience Program

World Vision Office

Somalia

27 February, 2019

Table of Contents

Acronyms. ii

1.0 Background. 1

1.1 Project Outcomes and Indicators. 1

1.2 Purpose and Objectives of the Baseline. 3

1.3 Guiding Evaluation Questions. 4

2.0 Methodology. 5

2.1 Study Population and Sampling Frame. 5

2.2 Sample technique and Sample Size Calculation. 5

2.3 Data Quality. 6

3.0 Management of the Consultancy and Reporting. 6

3.1 Authority and Responsibility. 6

3.1.1 World Vision/SomReP. 6

3.1.2 Consultant. 7

3.1.3 World Vision German. 7

3.2 Standards of Ethics and Child Protection. 7

3.3 Outputs/ Deliverables. 8

3.4 Logistics. 8

3.5 Time frame and estimated working days. 9

6.0 The desired profile of the baseline external consultant. 9

Acronyms

ACF Action Contre la Faim

ADRA Adventist Development and Relief Agency

COOPI Cooperazione Internazionale

CSI Coping Strategies Index

CV Curriculum Vitae

DRC Danish Refugee Council

EU European Union

EWEACs Early Warning Early Action Committees

FCS Food Consumption Score

FGDs Focus Group Discussions

HFIAS Household Food Insecurity Access Scale

HH Household

IDPs Internally Displaced Persons

Io Intermediary Outcome

KII Key Informant Interviews

M & E Monitoring and Evaluation

RCSI Reduced Consumption Strategy Index

SIDA Sweedish International Development Agency

So Strategic Objective

SomReP Somali Resilience Programme

TU Technical Unit

VDCs Village Development Committees

VSLAs Village Savings and Loans Associations

WMCs Water Management Committees

1.0 Background

Building resilience is a priority in Somalia. 2017’s drought had a massive negative impact on the country; while rainfall improved in 2018, flash floods and strong winds caused additional shocks in the north and south of the country. In order to contribute to the resilience of already vulnerable households and communities in Northern Somalia, and specifically to sustainably improve food security and livelihoods and build resilience through effective risk management, protection and restoration of productive assets and governance of natural resources in Puntland and Somaliland, the SomReP consortium members and local partner Shaqodoon through EU-Restore and SIDA phase II projects propose a joint strategy to address the specific needs and constraints of pastoral, agro-pastoral and peri-urban communities. This consists of: 1) Empowering communities and supporting community groups, such as Village Development Committees (VDCs), Early Warning Early Action Committees (EWEACs), Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs), and Water Management Committees (WMCs), in effective and sustainable community development and contingency planning, including restoring productive assets and social protection mechanisms; 2) Capacity building and support to government agencies and line ministries to effectively work with communities to enable them to respond to the current drought and prepare for future hazards and to enhance the management and governance of natural resources; 3) Enhancing livelihood restoration and diversification for pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, and peri-urban populations through adoption of agricultural technologies, livestock support, value chains, entrepreneurship and marketable skills, and access to financial facilitative instruments.

SomReP[1] Consortium’s approach builds on previous experience in dealing with these shocks and stresses, and explicitly designs programme components to promote the existing local adaptive capacity of households and communities, while building institutional capacity, strengthening the natural resource base and preventing loss of lives and livelihoods through early action.

The rationale behind the theory of change and impact pathways is that implementation of push and pull interventions would eventually result in lasting positive changes in well-being indicators which implicitly is indicative of enhanced transformative capacity. The program is targeting 36741 households (under EU Restore) and 41, 872 households under SIDA phase II project. The SIDA phase II and EU-Restore projects will be implemented in 87 Villages of which 79 villages are in the North and 8 villages are in the South. SomReP therefore seeks the services of a consultant to conduct the baseline study to establish and document benchmark values for the key indicators of the projects before the project intervention.

1.1 Project Outcomes and Indicators

The specific objective of the EU-Restore and SIDA Phase II projects is to sustainably improve food security and livelihoods and build resilience of the targeted communities in Somaliland and Puntland. To achieve this, over the next three years SomRep will work towards the following 4 intermediary outcomes:

1. Enhanced risk management and disaster preparedness through community action and contingency planning in villages across Somaliland and Puntland.
2. Enhanced food security and capacity to meet social needs through sustainable cash-based assistance mechanisms and improved access to social capital targeting HH in the targeted villages
3. Enhanced livelihood diversification for women, men, and youth in targeted villages through the restoration and protection of productive assets, value chains and the uptake and adoption of agricultural technology.
4. Enhanced management and governance of natural resources, including soil and water systems to support sustainable pastoral livelihoods in target villages.

Table 1 below provides a summary of the key outcomes and outcome indicators of the two projects.

Table 1: Key outcomes and indicators of the projects

Objective/ Outcome

Key Indicators

Principle Objective: To increase the resilience of already vulnerable households and communities in Northern Somalia, and specifically to sustainably improve food security and livelihoods and build resilience through effective risk management, protection and restoration of productive assets and governance of natural resources in Puntland and Somaliland to protect their livelihoods over continuing shocks.

% of target households who have improved and/or diversified their livelihood (or income generation) sources by end of the project (Target: 50%) [gender disaggregated]

Specific objective/ Outcome: Sustainably improve food security and livelihoods and build resilience through effective risk management, protection of productive assets and governance of natural resources for pastoral, agro-pastoral and peri-urban communities in Puntland and Somaliland.

SoI1: % of households using new community contingency resources.

SoI2: % change in HH income levels per season (seasonal trends)

SoI3: % increase in community assets score.

SoI4: % change in perception of effectiveness of local leaders/institutions in issues of livelihoods, DRR, conflict mitigation and natural resource management.

Intermediary Outcome 1: Enhanced risk management and disaster preparedness through community action and contingency planning in targeted villages across Somaliland and Puntland.

Io1I1: % of communities with greater involvement by women or marginalized groups in local planning and decision-making processes.

Io1I2:** % of targeted communities indicating improved Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices on contingency planning.

Io1I3: % of community initiatives supported by sub-national and national institutions and authorities.

Intermediary Outcome 2 : Enhanced food security and capacity to meet social needs through sustainable cash-based assistance mechanisms and improved access to social capital in the targeted village

Io2I1: % of target HH who have improved Food Consumption Score (FCS) index. **

Io212: % of target households who have improved Coping Strategies Index (CSI). **

Io2I2:** % of most vulnerable HHs benefitting from social community transfers during stress and shocks (safety nets).

Intermediary Outcome 3 : Enhanced livelihood diversification for 8,196 number of HH women, men, and youth in targeted villages through the restoration and protection of productive assets, value chains and the uptake and adoption of agricultural technology.

Io3I1: % of HHs newly engaging in diversified livelihood strategies (data disaggregated by sex, livelihood group and strategy employed).

Io3I2: % increase in diversification of asset ownership (access) at HH level (data disaggregated by sex, type of asset and livelihood group.

Intermediary Outcome 4: Enhanced management and governance of natural resources, including soil and water systems to support sustainable pastoral livelihoods in target villages.

Io4I1: % of target population with all year access to multi-use water (for irrigation, domestic use & livestock).

Io4I2: % of water infrastructure with operational maintenance systems.

Io4I3: #of hectares of land benefiting from improved agricultural management).

Intermediary Outcome 5: Program learning and research generated and shared among relevant stakeholders (including communities, NGOs, and government)

Io5I1**:% of the government stakeholders with knowledge and capacity to participate in Resilience monitoring, evaluation and research studies

1.2 Purpose and Objectives of the Baseline

The main purpose of the baseline survey is to establish and document baseline values for key outcome indicators of the projects so as to serve as a basis for measuring change through future evaluations. Specifically, the baseline assessment seeks to achieve the following objectives:

I. To gather appropriate data to establish benchmark values for key indicators of the project as provided for in section 1.1, table 1.1.

o Establish the current household and community practices in relation to resilience building.

o Establish current household and community asset holdings in the impact area.

o Establish the current economic practices and livelihood strategies used in the impact area.

o Establish the current agricultural practices and market challenges that households face.

o Establish the current food situation in the impact area.

o Establish the food consumption practices and copping strategies households adopt in time of food shortages.

o Establish the current natural resource management practices used by households and communities in the impact area.

II. To establish the vulnerabilities and gender disparities in the impact area

o Gather information on vulnerabilities and gender disabilities and identify groups which are especially most affected.

o Gather information on community attitudes and beliefs towards different vulnerable groups for example women and girls, lesser-clans, people with disabilities, landless farmers, and single-headed households.

o Assess the level of awareness on issues of inclusion and gender in the project impact area.

o Establish economic opportunities that exist for vulnerable groups (i.e. women and girls, lesser-clans, people with disabilities, landless farmers, single-headed household).

III. To establish priority areas of the project which should inform programming and scope of implementation and monitoring

o Establish the extent to which the project addresses the identified community vulnerabilities and gender disparities.

o Map out project priorities and recommended interventions and strategies based on the baseline findings and indicate if project priorities, implementation and strategies or timing need to be rearranged.

o Identify opportunities and strengths within the operational environment in the impact area that the project can leverage on to achieve its intended outcomes.

1.3 Guiding Evaluation Questions

IV. What are the baseline values for the key indicators as provided for in section 1.1?

V. What are the current household and community practices in relation to resilience building, agriculture, natural resources management, income generating activities, livelihood strategies, food consumption practices, and copping strategies?

VI. What are the current household and community asset holdings in the impact area?

VII. What are the common vulnerabilities and gender disabilities in the impact area and which groups of people are most affected?

VIII. What attitudes and beliefs do people in the communities have towards different vulnerable groups for example women and girls, lesser-clans, people with disabilities, landless farmers, and single-headed households?

IX. What is the knowledge level of people in the impact area on issues of inclusion and gender?

X. What economic and livelihood opportunities exist in the impact area for vulnerable groups (i.e. women and girls, lesser-clans, people with disabilities, landless farmers, single-headed household)?

XI. Based on baseline findings, design assessments and other assessments, does the project address the identified community vulnerabilities and gender disparities?

XII. Do the baseline findings indicate need to rearrange project priorities, implementation approaches or timing?

XIII. Based on design assessments and other assessments, are the appropriate gender, disability and environmental indicators present in the project design?

XIV. Based on design assessments and other assessments, what baseline values should be used for gender, disability and environmental indicators?

XV. What opportunities and strengths exist within the operational environment in the impact area that the project can leverage on to achieve its intended outcomes?

2.0 Methodology

For this baseline survey, it is suggested that a cross-sectional survey research design should be used and a mixed methods approach (i.e. combining qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis techniques) is recommended. Qualitative data shall be collected through focus group and key informant interviews with communities (pastoral, agro-pastoral, peri-urban or in some cases, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)), government stakeholders, and strategic partners. Qualitative data will include data on community level infrastructure and services, community and household experiences of covariate and idiosyncratic shocks.

Quantitative data shall be collected through household survey Questionnaire. Key data to be collected using household questionnaire include household demographics, household’s exposure to shocks (both covariate and idiosyncratic), household resilience and wellbeing indicators for example household productive assets, household expenditure/income, household food security and copping strategies –I.e. Food Consumption Score (FCS), Household Hunger Scale (HHS), Reduced Consumption Strategy Index (RCSI), and Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS).

2.1 Study Population and Sampling Frame

The study population will comprise of 87 villages (in the 9 districts[2]) where the projects will be implemented. The districts comprise of three livelihood zones (i.e. pastoral, agro-pastoral, peri-urban or in some cases, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)). The study sample (for quantitative survey) will need to be representative of these livelihood zones and the villages within these zones.

2.2 Sample technique and Sample Size Calculation

For qualitative survey, a purposive sampling technique will be used to sample direct beneficiaries (pastoral, agro-pastoral, peri-urban or in some cases, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)), community members (i.e. men, women, boys and girls including people with disabilities), government stakeholders, and strategic partners for key informants and focus group discussion. The sample size for qualitative group will governed by the golden rule of data saturation[3]. The focus group discussions at community level shall ensure all gender groups (men, women, boys and girls) and marginalized groups (lesser-clans, people with disabilities, landless farmers, and single-headed households) are given equal opportunity to participate in the study.

For quantitative survey, a probability proportion to size sampling technique will be used to sample beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. The non-beneficiaries sampled will be treated as a comparison group in this study and other future evaluations. To ensure that the comparison group has similar characteristics (for example demographics[4]) to the beneficiaries group and face the same pre-program measures of the outcome the programme seeks to improve, the comparison group shall be sampled from the neighboring villages of implementation. At each household, a household head shall be interviewed. In the event that a household is not available, a spouse shall be interviewed.

To determine the sample size for quantitative survey, two important statistical parameters will be considered: the survey’s margin of error and confidence level. A margin of error of 8% and confidence interval of 95% confidence levels are recommended[5] to arrive at the total number of respondents per district. The sample size will be determined using the formula below given by Krejcie and Smith[6], 1979.

2.3 Data Quality

To ensure data quality is maintained throughout the processes, it is strongly recommended that the consultant shall:

· Ensure that all data collection tools are translated in local language (i.e. Somali)

· Ensure that all research assistants are adequately trained prior to commencement of data collection exercise

· Ensure that data collection tools are pre-tested and refined accordingly based on the feedback from pre-testing

· Ensure that there is consistent supervision of research assistants throughout the data collection process.

· Ensure that data collected is reviewed consistently and corrective measures are put in place and implemented

3.0 Management of the Consultancy and Reporting

The consultants to undertake the assignment will report directly to the M&E Manager for SomReP to make sure compliance with the intended goals. Regular consultation meetings will be arranged between the SomReP Technical Unit (TU) and the consultant as need arises.

3.1 Authority and Responsibility.

3.1.1 World Vision/SomReP

· Ensure that the consultant and his team adhere to research ethics and child protection policy

· Ensure quality assurance throughout study implementation

· Provide the selected consultant with necessary documents to enable a clear reporting and understanding of the EU-Restore and SIDA projects.

· Create linkages with field staff, Implementing Partners and other stakeholders to ensure effective accomplishment of consultant research study.

· Review report and provide feedback to the consultant to ensure consistency with SomReP implementation objective.

· Arrange key informant interviews and focus-group discussions as per the evaluation methodology.

· Liaise with local implementing partners on behalf of the consultant to plan data collection

· Provide necessary orientation and training to the consultant.

· Review and approve field approaches to be used by the consultant.

· Review the draft report and provide feedback to the consultant.

· Approve the inception and final reports contingent on the reports meeting the intended objectives and quality assurances

3.1.2 Consultant

· Develop inception report before actual roll out of the assessment detailing study methodology and appropriate/relevant data collection tools.

· Work closely with SomReP M&E manager, the partners and project staff during the design of the methodology/ tools; agree on the tools that will be used.

· Incorporate feedback into tools and reports which will be given from the team.

· Train enumerators, guide and supervise enumerators during data collection in the field.

· Make visits to data collection site and do Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs).

· Approximately one hour PowerPoint presentation of results and discussions to be delivered at either the Nairobi office or on Skype.

· Do de-briefing on preliminary findings to the field team soon after data collection Report writing. The result is expected to be shared with the stakeholders and the consultant needs to give due attention for the quality of the report.

· Submit draft and final assessments reports as per assessment schedule

3.1.3 World Vision Australia

· Provide technical guidance to Somali Country office on overall design of the study to ensure quality assurance throughout the process

· Support Somali Country Office in review of inception report and data collection tools

· Support Somali Country Office in review of baseline draft report

· Support Somali Country Office in enforcing quality control check throughout the evaluation office

3.2 Standards of Ethics and Child Protection

The lead consultant will be responsible for ensuring that data collection and analysis approaches are designed to mitigate child protection risks and protect participants’ privacy and wellbeing by establishing and following credible ethical evaluation principles:

· The lead consultant shall ensure that all research assistants are oriented on research ethics and child protection policy prior to commencement of data collection.

· The lead consultant shall ensure that each member of the research team adheres to research ethics and child protection policies.

· The lead consultant shall ensure that every piece of information collected is treated with all the confidentiality that it deserves.

· The lead consultant shall ensure that survey participants to be involved in the study are well informed of the objectives of the study and their consent is sought prior to starting data collection. Participants will be informed of their rights to decline participation in the evaluation and that they will be at liberty to withdraw from the process if they wish to do so.

3.3 Outputs/ Deliverables

The following deliverables are expected from the consultant:

a) Inception Report. The consultant shall submit an inception report 3 days after signing of the agreement. The inception report shall explicitly provide details on the survey methods, tools and work plan. The outline of the inception report shall be as follows:

· Introduction (brief concept) includes problem statement,

· Research objectives

· Research questions,

· Methodology

· Work plan including schedule for field work

b) Presentation of the key field findings to the World Vision.

c) Draft report. The draft report is expected from the consultant before final report. The report will be written in simple English language and must be comprehensive.

Final report. The consultant shall submit a final report in both hard copies and electronic copies along with all survey data (in Excel or SPSS compatible formats), transcripts of the FGDs, KIIs, photographs and ethical approval etc. The final report should be well edited and incorporate all comments and corrections if any. Completed checklists, questionnaires, case stories, quotes, photos have to be submitted to World Vision Somalia.

3.4 Logistics

WV will facilitate any travel logistics including, access to operational area, flights and accommodation. The lead consultant is expected to be available to spend approximately 21 days in project impact area for data collection preparation, collection and debrief in the month of April, 2019 (subject to refinement at contract stage).

The evaluation budget will cover the costs of travel visas, transit to and from their designated home point to the project locations, and accommodation, for the duration of the data collection period. However, such costs will form part of the overall cost consideration for selecting the consultant.

The consultant will be responsible for his or her own insurances, vaccinations, health, and security preparedness. The Security situation in the project impact area has remained relatively calm even though occasionally some places have experienced pockets of attacks. There have not been any record of any major armed conflict incidents, over the past months though.

3.5 Time frame and estimated working days

The assignment is estimated to be undertaken within 35 working days beginning from April and to be completed by May 2019.

Table 2: Time frame for deliverables

Task/Deliverable

Estimated Time frame

No. of work days

Inception Report

3-5 April, 2019

3 days

Field Work

15 April – 3 May, 2019

15 days

Data entry, cleaning, and analysis

6 – 10 May, 2019

5 days

Prepare draft report

13-17 May, 2019

5 days

Submission of the draft report (with data sheets)

20 May, 2019

Presentations of the findings

23 May, 2019

1 day

Consultation, feedback collection, refine report, incorporating in the report

24-30 May

5 days

Submission of final report

31 May

I day

Total work days

35 days

4.0 Limitations

· Somali-English translation, important information may be lost in the process.

· Time and security are considered to be one of the major limitations to assessment processes as the fragile and versatile context in Somalia makes it often challenging to keep up strictly with a set agenda.

· To address the issue, there is a plan to have extra overflow days for field data collection for each District. SomReP team will work closely with the security department to ensure that the Baseline field processes are conducted in the most appropriate time and secure conditions.

· The capacity of the external data collectors also represents a limitation for the baseline study and to mitigate this, three days of training will be allocated for them.

5.0 Proposal Content

Proposals from Consultants should include the following information (at a minimum)

· Technical Proposal with clear methodology, describing the data collection methods, sampling techniques, and data analysis plan to be used

· CV of key consultant(s) attached to the technical proposal

· Proposed budget

· Proposed assessment schedule

6.0 The desired profile of the baseline external consultant

· In-depth knowledge and experience of Somalia and its regions including government and community level service delivery structures

· Masters/PhD degree in; Social sciences, Development studies, Monitoring and Evaluation and International studies, project planning and management and other related fields.

· Has a minimum of 5 years of technically sound experiences in conducting livelihood projects evaluations or Resilience measurements

· Has at least 3 years of extensive experiences in food security and livelihood programing/resilience programing

· Strong written, communication, and interpersonal skills in English, with substantial experience in training and managing teams

· Has experiencing in writing impact evaluation reports and presenting the same to diverse audience

· Prior experience working in Somalia and relationships with Somali-speaking field data collection supervisors will strongly be considered.

Applications from qualified firms/individuals should be submitted by 30 March, 2019 to [email protected]

[1] SomReP is consortium comprised of ACF, ADRA, CARE, COOPI, DRC, Oxfam, and lead agency World Vision that aims to enhance resilience of chronically vulnerable people, households and systems in targeted pastoral, agro-pastoral and peri-urban livelihoods zones in Somalia by strengthening adaptive, absorptive, and transformative capacities, improving eco-system health and program learning and research on resilience.

[2] Lughaye, Hargesia, Laas Caanood, Burco, Eyl, Bussaso, Baidoa, Dolow, Laasqoray.

[3] Data saturation was reached, ie till no new data seemed to be emerging

[4] Age, sex, ethnicity, education, employment, earnings

[5] They are recommended because previous resilience measurements used the same statistical parameters and for our results to be comparable, we need to maintain the same values of margin error (8%) and confidence interval (95%).

[6] Krejcie, R. V. and D. W. Smith. (1970). Determining Sample Size for Research Activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement. Vol 30, Issue 3. Pp. 607-610. Sage Publications Inc.