TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR)
CONSULTANCY SERVICES TO REVIEW DISASTER EARLY WARNING, EARLY ACTION SYSTEMS IN BUNGOMA COUNTY
BUNGOMA INCLUSIVE CLIMATE RESILIENCE INCLUSIVE PROJECT DOCUMENT
Document Release Date: 8th April 2024
Last Date for Receipt of Proposals: 17th April 2024
Time: 11:00HRS
Tender Number: PRF16965
Submission Method: email to [email protected]
Tender Opening Venue and Time: Virtually via Microsoft Teams at 1200HRS
1. Summary of the Participatory Action Research (PAR)
1.1. Purpose:
The primary purpose is to conduct Review of Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) Systems in the County under the Bungoma Inclusive Climate Resilience Inclusive Project. The EWEA will provide relevant insights into existing integrated system of hazard monitoring, forecasting and prediction, disaster risk assessment, communication and preparedness activities systems and processes that enables individuals, communities, businesses and others to take timely action to reduce disaster risks in advance in Bungoma County.
Partners
CBM Global Disability Inclusion, Kenya Red Cross Society and County Government of Bungoma.
Duration
45 Days
Estimated Dates
24th April to 7th June 2024
Geographical Location
Bungoma County, Kenya.
Target Population
Targeted community members, including children (boys and girls) and adults (women & men) including persons with disability.
Deliverables
Inception report and tools, protocol, and final report, plus all data sets and manuscripts.
Methodology
Quantitative and Qualitative methods.
Evaluation Management Team
KRCS M&E team, ICHA Representative, Program representatives and CBM Global representatives.
2. Background Information
Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS).
The Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) is a humanitarian organization established under Cap 256 of the Laws of Kenya as the National Red Cross Society in Kenya. KRCS serves as an auxiliary to both the National and County Governments, whose key mandate is humanitarian with the objective of alleviating suffering and saving live throughout the territory of Kenya. It is a volunteer-based organization that draws its strength from a strong network of over 200,000 members and volunteers with diverse skills and professions. The volunteers and members are drawn from the local communities and, therefore, possess the local knowledge and understanding of community priorities. They actively contribute to the local actions in delivering the organisation’s mandate. They deliver humanitarian services, help strengthen community resilience, develop social cohesion, engage in civic processes and advocate fiercely on behalf of the communities.
CBM Global Disability Inclusion (CBM Global)
CBM Global is a dual mandate organisation working alongside people with disabilities in the world’s poorest places to fight poverty and exclusion and transform lives by promoting disability inclusion in both development and humanitarian contexts.
Drawing on over 100 years of experience and world-leading expertise in disability-inclusive community development and humanitarian action, inclusive eye health and community mental health, CBM Global works with partners to break the cycle of poverty and disability.
CBM Global works to implement development and humanitarian projects in partnership with organisations of persons with disabilities in the areas of community-based inclusive development, humanitarian action, inclusive eye health & neglected tropical diseases and community mental health. CBM Global works in over 20 countries, investing in long-term, authentic partnerships with the Disability Movement and maximising impact through a coordinated mix of inclusive community-based programmes, local to global advocacy and delivering disability inclusion technical assistance to other organisations.
Overview of The Bungoma Inclusive Climate Resilience Inclusive Project (Background; Overall Objective; Specific Objective; Results)
Climate Change is a threat to the development of the global economy and the greatest impediment to the achievement of sustainable development goals. This can be proven as current global weather extremes affect millions of people, resulting in food and water insecurity in addition to affecting agricultural productivity. In Kenya, Climate Change has resulted in extreme weather events that have led to loss of lives, reduced agricultural productivity, displacement of populations, and destruction of infrastructure, among other adverse impacts. Bungoma County has also not been spared with increased cases of flooding, landslides, and drought, resulting in displacement of people, damage to infrastructure and low agricultural yields. Climate Change presents enormous challenges and opportunities for mankind everywhere as it has to be tackled in order to ensure sustainable development is achieved.
According to the 2019 Kenya census report, 2.2% of people with disabilities remain marginalized, dependent on poorly integrated livelihood systems with high rural burden, operate within disabling or weak disaster risk management and climate change adaptation policy framework, with low level or absence of service provision with systems of poor representations, therefore there is need for sustained support and programmes to strengthen livelihoods and provide access to basic services and protection to ensure better adaptation, preparedness, mitigation and higher resilience to the environmental challenges that climate change brings and affects people with disabilities. Barriers to their full participation in society prior to disasters and other emergencies, including inaccessibility of the physical environment, tend to be exacerbated by natural disasters and conflicts. Failure to consult with persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in the development of plans to respond to emergencies leads to the exclusion of persons with disabilities, increasing their risks and vulnerabilities.
With support from and in partnership with CBM Global, the Kenya Red Cross is implementing a 3-year project dubbed “Promoting Inclusive Climate Change Resilience in Bungoma County”. The project intends to reduce risks to communities and infrastructure resulting from Climate-related disasters such as floods and droughts. The project focuses on enhancing the adaptive capacity, livelihoods, and health of active groups of people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, especially women and the youth, in project target sites in Bungoma County.
The Overall Objective of the project is to reduce risks to communities and infrastructure resulting from climate-related disasters such as floods and droughts.
Specific Objective: Enhance the resilience of marginalized people in Bungoma County to better cope with the impacts of climate change.
Project results include:
a. Communities, including people with disabilities and other at-risk populations, are enhanced in their resilience to cope with the impact of climate change.
b. A community based, inclusive early warning and response system is operationalized (focus on risk knowledge and risk communication and dissemination).
c. Advocacy strategy to improve coordination and delivery of inclusive disaster risk management is implemented.
d. Kenya Red Cross are equipped and able to deliver quality, inclusive interventions.
1. Purpose of the consultancy
The purpose of this consultancy is to review EWEA existing structures and systems for emergencies early warning and early action in Bungoma County. This will support strengthening and enhancement of the existing Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) in Bungoma while identifying areas of innovation where other counties and countries can learn from.
The assignment will be awarded to a consultant or a team of consultants who are able to carry out the review as per the scope of work and who individually or collectively meet the required qualifications.
2. Scope of work for the consultancy
The scope of work for the study is divided into three parts, as described below.
A. Assessment of existing disaster early warning communication mechanisms in Bungoma county.
The consultant will carry out an assessment of the effectiveness and gaps of current disaster early warning communication in Bungoma County. This will consider the availability, content, formats, access, understanding, reach and use of (action on) disaster early warning information in the Bungoma County, including forecasts and
their interpretation and dissemination to the communities. The assessment will involve both literature review, discussions with key informant and discussions with the larger community.
Key informants will be drawn from the target county, as will be identified in consultation with the project team. Discussions with key informants will include the communication chain, stakeholders involved in the chain and the roles they play, and barriers to information flow and coordination of communication. This will explore flow of and gaps in disaster early warning information in the two counties. The team will also explore engagement of other significant stakeholders in the counties especially on advisory, planning and mitigation of the impact of the emergency.
Deliverable 1: Assessment report on existing disaster early warning communication in Bungoma County.
B. Existing mechanisms for disaster early warning systems in the county
Based on the assessment, the consultant will develop a draft disaster early warning communication strategy for each county. The strategies will include development of a draft template for converting forecasts information into early warning messages, developed in consultation with the project team and selected key informants.
Deliverable 2: Draft disaster early warning systems for the target county.
C. Stakeholder workshops to agree on appropriate early warning communication
The consultant will organise stakeholder workshops in the County to present, discuss and validate the draft disaster early warning communication strategies as well as the draft template for early warning messaging. Agreement on particular key stakeholders who will play a role in disaster early warning communication will also be an expected outcome of the workshops. The project team will provide support in organising the meetings.
Using feedback given, the consultant will be expected to finalise the communications strategies.
Deliverable 3: Workshop reports and a finalised disaster early warning communication strategy for each target county
3. Duration of the consultancy
The consultancy is estimated to take Forty five (45) working days from the date of official engagement with the Kenya Red Cross team.
4. Reporting
The consultant will report to the MEAL HOD & Project Manager in KRCS, and work in close collaboration the larger project team.
5. Required qualifications for the consultant(s)
i. Masters or higher degree in mass media communication, Geography, Community Development public relations, or a related field.
ii. The team composition should include a key team member with Climate Science knowledge.
iii. Demonstrate good knowledge of the Early Warning Early Action (EWEA), disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and humanitarian emergency context in Kenya.
iv. Team composition to include a member with working knowledge of disability inclusive development.
v. At least 4 years’ experience in communication development, analysis and planning, and strategy development will be required.
vi. Experience with facilitating multi-stakeholder participatory discussions and organising workshops will be essential.
vii. Excellent skills in synthesizing information, report writing, and generating summaries.
viii. Fluency in English
6. Submission of Expression of Interest
Interested consultants should submit proposals for the consultancy. Soft copies of the proposals should be sent through email to [email protected] to reach on KRCS or before 17th April 2024, at 11:00 a.m. Proposals received after the above-specified date and time shall not be considered.
Any proposal received by KRCS after this deadline will be rejected.
7. Evaluation and award of Consultancy
KRCS will evaluate the proposals and award the assignment based on technical and financial feasibility. KRCS reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal received without giving reasons. KRCS is not bound to accept the lowest or the highest bidder.
8. Confidentiality
The Bidder shall treat the existence and contents of this RFP, and all information made available in relation to this RFP, as confidential and shall only use the same for the purpose for which it was provided.
The Bidder shall not publish or disclose the same or any particulars thereof to any third party without the written permission of KRCS, unless it is to Bidder’s Contractors for assistance in preparation of this Tender. In any case, the same confidentiality must be entered into between Bidder and his Contractors.
9. Corrupt or Fraudulent Practices
KRCS requires that tenderers observe the highest standard of ethics during the procurement process and execution of contracts. A tenderer shall sign a declaration that s/he has not and will not be involved in corrupt or fraudulent practices.
KRCS will reject a proposal for award if it determines that the tenderer recommended for award has engaged in corrupt or fraudulent practices in competing for the contract in question
Further a tenderer who is found to have indulged in corrupt or fraudulent practices risks being debarred from participating
Please report any malpractices to [email protected]
Annexes
Annex 1: Response Expression of Interest Format
Consultancy firms should use the following format during submission of proposal
i. Introduction: Description of the Firm, the Firm’s Qualifications and statutory compliance
ii. Understanding of the Requirements for Services
iii. Proposed Methodology
iv. Firms Experience in undertaking assignments of similar nature and experience from the geographical area for other major clients
v. Proposed Team Composition and CVs of the individual(s) who will work on this
vi. References
vii. Work Plan
Annex 2: Budget Template
Item
Unit
# of Units
Unit Cost
Total Cost (Ksh.)
Annex 3: Proposed Team Composition Template
Name of Team Member
Highest Level of Qualification
General Years of Experience related to the task at hand
Number of days to be engaged
Roles under this assignment
Interested consultants should submit proposals for the consultancy. Soft copies of the proposals should be sent through email to [email protected] to reach on KRCS or before 17th April 2024, at 11:00 a.m. Proposals received after the above-specified date and time shall not be considered.
Any proposal received by KRCS after this deadline will be rejected.
