Consultancy to Support the Development of the Multi-Annual Country Programme for Kenya 290 views0 applications

Consultancy to Support the Development of the Multi-Annual Country Programme for Kenya on “Sustainable Socio-Economic Integration of Refugees and IDPs in Host Communities”

Context

Kenya is the fifth largest asylum country in Africa and the eleventh biggest asylum country in the world. The population of asylum-seekers and refugees in Kenya at the end of June 2019 stood at 474,044 persons. The refugee situation in Kenya is marked by a high degree of encampment; of the total population of refugees most are in refugee camps in Dadaab (44%), Kakuma (32%), Kalobeyei Settlement (8%) in Garissa and Turkana counties; while only 73,824 are in urban areas.

Both refugees and host communities struggle to find a sustainable route out of poverty. For refugees, humanitarian assistance remains the main source of income and employment. Meanwhile, host communities are challenged by frequent droughts and famines and the depletion of grazing fields over time, affecting pastoralism. On the positive side, an informal economy, based on trade and services and partly fueled by remittances has also emerged within and around the camps, providing additional incomes to the most entrepreneurial among refugees and host communities.

The opportunity ahead is to enable more refugee and host community households to move out of poverty, to lessen dependence on humanitarian assistance, to strengthen existing self-reliant efforts and help foster new ones. The Government of Kenya has made a series of statements in support of greater self-reliance for refugees and expanded socio-economic opportunities for host communities. In 2016, during the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, the Government of Kenya (GoK) committed to enhance refugees’ self-reliance and inclusion in Kenya. Subsequently, in March 2017, the Government of Kenya signed the Nairobi Declaration; committing, “to enhance, with the support of the international community, education, training and skills development for refugees to reduce their dependence on humanitarian assistance, and prepare them for gainful employment in host communities and upon return; to align domestic laws and policies, including civil documentation, in line with refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention obligations in order to enable refugees to access gainful employment and self-reliance; and to progressively advance alternative arrangements to refugee camps and facilitate the free movement of refugees and their integration into national development plans and access to services.”

The Partnership between ILO, UNHCR, UNICEF, WB and IFC is intended to contribute towards the Government of Kenya’s realisation of these commitments. In addition, Kenya also participated in the IGAD Conference on Jobs, Livelihoods and Self-Reliance for Refugees, Returnees and Host Communities in the IGAD Region held in Kampala, Uganda, March 2019. Alongside IGAD member States, Kenya signed up to the Kampala Declaration emerged from this conference that focuses on advancing livelihood opportunities and economic inclusion to improve self-reliance of refugees, returnees and host communities.

Partnership for Improving Prospects

In response to this context and with the generous support and engagement of the Government of the Netherlands, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank are developing a joint and fully integrated approach to respond to the forced displacement situation in Kenya under the global title: “PROSPECTS Partnership Programme on Inclusive Jobs and Education for Host Communities, Refugees and other Forcibly Displaced Persons”.

The Partnership recognizes that with greater investment, the target refugee and host communities in Kenya have the potential to make significant economic contributions to their families, communities and towards the greater development of the area. The working assumption of the Partnership is that to stimulate livelihood opportunities for refugees and host communities, many existing constraints need to be overcome. These constraints lie both on the ‘supply side’ (constraints to refugees and host community members and young people being well equipped and empowered to access job opportunities) and the ‘demand side’ (constraints to employment and income generating opportunities within the hosting context). The constraints lie in the following specific areas: Education and Learning (with youth being especially vulnerable), Legal and Regulatory Barriers to Self-Reliance, Economy of Refugee-hosting areas (discussed further below). The overall goal is to ensure social and economic inclusion by supporting refugees and their host community counterparts to overcome these constraints and to gain access to livelihood opportunities and to become self-reliant.

Almost 40% of refugees in the camps in Dadaab and Kakuma and Kalobeyei settlement are youth and Kenya is a challenging place to be a young person. Despite Kenya’s economic success – with average economic growth of 5% over the last decade – this has not proven enough to create sufficient employment opportunities for the growing youth population. Kenya has an alarming 22.1% youth unemployment rate. This young population faces a host of challenges which include lack of relevant education and skills training, lack of protection and minimal livelihood or career prospects. Factors, which contribute to youth unemployment include low levels of education, a skills mismatch between training and the actual skill demands of industry, theory-based curriculum and prevalence of supply-end push instead of the desired market-end pull. For refugee youth, there are additional impediments to their employment based on their protection needs and legal status. They are therefore at risk of an idle life in the camps or settlement, susceptible to the myriad challenges and health hazards including sexual exploitation and abuse, exploitative labor, early marriages and substance abuse.

The focus on young people in the Partnership is therefore deliberate: agencies have prioritized integrated and protection-informed programming to engage young people to enhance access to formal and non-formal education, skills development and employability in line with government policy. However, it is well understood that to be effective private sector and other interventions focusing on job creation, need to focus on services and products for a broader group of host community and refugees than just youth alone.

To this end, the partners in Kenya have developed a strategic joint Country Vision Note. This will be followed by the development and design of a Multi-Annual Joint Country Programme (MACP), built on the basis of the Country Vision Note and in line with Results-Based Management (RBM) principles. The MACP will be developed between September 2019 and March 2020 in order to be submitted to the Embassy of the Netherlands in Kenya by 1 March 2020.

Scope of work

Under the leadership of the Partners, the consultant will facilitate the development of the MACP for Kenya, building on relevant Partner inputs, with specific attention to results-based management principles and approaches. The MACP will contain the following parts:

· Situation analysis;

· Theory of change;

· Narrative on proposed activities to meet agreed outcomes;

· Joint results framework;

· Approximate budget and principal activities for the 4 year programme (including 2019-2020 budget that has already been established and approved to ensure coherence and consistency);

· M&E framework;

· Governance structure.

The MACP should be in alignment with the MACP template, UNDAF, national development plan, various sectoral strategies and other key national and refugee hosting counties development strategies. The consultant will coordinate the planning, consultations and will draft the programme documents and ensure timely and quality inputs on programme design from the involved agencies (UNHCR, UNICEF, WB, IFC and ILO), the donor (Embassy of the Netherlands), government, private sector, social partners, beneficiary groups (including from among the refugee, IDP and host community populations) and other stakeholders as relevant.

The programme design should be in line with the Global Vision Strategy, the Country Vision Note, the 2019 Call for Funds and the M&E framework to be developed by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and should be informed through regular consultations and communications with the relevant stakeholders.

In terms of the tasks and activities to be carried out by the consultant:

· The consultant will be located in Nairobi for the duration of the contract. It is also anticipated that travel may be required to the field, in particular the geographical intervention areas of the programme.

· A secondary desk review of existing and relevant research and assessments and activities will be essential to ensure coherence and integration with other relevant humanitarian and development programmes and activities, including those of national bodies.

· The consultant will support the programme governance structures, including the Embassy of the Netherlands, UNICEF, UNHCR, ILO, WB and IFC, and ensure close consultation and communications with these stakeholders in particular.

· The work will require engagement with different government ministries and institutions, other UN agencies, other international organisations, donors, national social partners, civil society, beneficiary groups and other relevant stakeholders to be identified.

· The process will be informed by relevant M&E frameworks, experience and expertise developed at the global level and to be adjusted to the context.

Duties and responsibilities

· Organise thematic discussions with all partners on issues of key relevance.

· Propose format and programme of further consultations with stakeholder groups, including national and local actors and beneficiaries.

· Plan, undertake, guide and follow up stakeholder consultations.

· In consultation with the Partners, including the Embassy of the Netherlands, develop and review the RBM approach and the country-specific M&E framework in line with the Partnership M&E framework and in light of the outcomes of previous workshops at international and local levels.

· Draft the programme documents, which should contain as a minimum a clear:

o Situation analysis;

o Theory of Change (including risks, assumptions and mitigation measures);

o Results framework;

o Operational risks and mitigation.

· Based on the draft programme documents, plan and undertake further stakeholder consultations to validate the draft programme document.

· Submit a near-final version of the MACP for approval and agreement by the key partners.

· Support the partnership with updates and respond to feedback from the Government of the Netherlands based on stakeholder consultations.

· Carry out other relevant tasks that may arise during the contract period.

Timeline

The consultant is expected to be available between October 2019 and March 2020 to deliver:

1. Inception report – incorporating work plan as per consultations with stakeholder groups to identify viable options for effective programme design by October 2019.
2. Situation analysis – Desk review and analytical assessment to inform development and design of the programme, based on the Country Vision Note, Year 1 Call for Funds and secondary desk review of existing research and assessment resources, focusing in particular on proposed geographical areas by October 2019.
3. Programme of consultations with identified stakeholders at national and local levels and regular meetings of the partnership. This will include timely technical and thematic workshops, including theory of change by October-November 2019.
4. Draft programme document developed based on above and continued partner technical inputs by December 2019.
5. Final draft programme document validated by key stakeholders by January 2020.
6. Review final programme document incorporating inputs from Government of the Netherlands (final version to be submitted to the Embassy of the Netherlands in Nairobi by 1 March 2020) by February 2020.
7. Respond to the comments of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, if any, following the submission in March 2020.

Desired background qualifications, experience and competences

The consultant will be expected to have the following qualifications and skills:

1. Education (knowledge)

· Post-graduate qualification in relevant field (social science, social policy, economics, development studies, etc.).

2. Experience

Required:

· 10 years of progressive experience in designing and managing complex multi-stakeholder and multi-year programmes. It would be an added advantage if this included in refugee settings.

· Experience with Results Based Management training and application.

· Experience in coordinating /facilitating development of multiple agency joint programmes.

· Experience in and ability to coordinate UN agencies and interact at the professional level with donor representatives and other stakeholders, particularly government (national and local).

· Experience working in Africa and experience working in Kenya an asset.

Preferred:

· Current knowledge and understanding of the latest development and evidence on learning/education, skills, employability and employment creation.

3. Skills and competences

· Demonstrable analytical and research skills, review and synthesis of data and information.

· High level of competency in working with people, drive for results and communication.

· Ability to work efficiently and effectively with programme members in various locations and from multiple organizations, including remotely writing and revising proposal documents.

· Ability to integrate different experiences, methodologies, and approaches from a diverse range of stakeholders, organizations, and technical experts from multiple sectors.

· Excellent oral and written English skills.

Responsibilities and line of reporting

The consultant will be under the supervision of the Partners (based on governance structures yet to be determined). The consultant will be located in Nairobi and will be provided office space in which to complete the assignment.

Timing and duration of contract

Approximately 5 months between October 2019 and March 2020.