Final Evaluation for Improving Food Security for Vulnerable IDP and Host Communities Project in Luuq District Gedo Region, Somalia 83 views0 applications

Project Title: Improving Food Security for Vulnerable IDP and Host Communities Project in Luuq District Gedo Region, Somalia

1. INTRODUCTION

Background

Trócaire is an Irish organisation that works in partnership with communities in over 16 countries to

• Defend human rights and promote access to justice
• Achieve climate and environmental justice,
• Support women’s girls’ protection, voice, and influence,
• Save lives and protect human dignity and
• Mobilize the public to achieve global justice

Since 1992, Trócaire Somalia has been providing comprehensive, safe, and inclusive humanitarian and development programme in the Gedo region of the Southern Somalia by integrating health, nutrition, WASH, protection, resilience, and basic education to address needs among the most marginalised and vulnerable people during emergencies and building resilience of communities to prepare for and mitigate future emergencies.

Trócaire’s work is best understood as taking a long-term developmental approach in a complex emergency, creating the conditions for recovery, by linking relief and development. In Somalia and particularly in the Gedo region, Trócaire’s continues to implement quality, sustainable and harmonised health, nutrition, WASH, education, and food security programmes to address acute livelihood and humanitarian needs.

Overview of the Project

Decades of conflict and natural hazards have severely affected food production systems in Somalia with the worst affected segment of societies being women and children experiencing high displacement, enormous human, social and economic losses and severe levels of food insecurity and malnutrition**.** In the first phase of the project, Trocaire, working in partnership with CERID, targeted 100 women and their households from five IDP communities (Jazira, Dhuyacley, Kulmiye and Dogob, and Busley) and host communities engaging them in a range of activities to improve food production at the household level and increase their access to nutritious foods in the effort to curb malnutrition. In the second phase, the project targeted an additional 50 women and their households, totaling to 150 women and households (120 from IDP community and 30 from the host community). Activities include land preparation for cultivation, provision of agricultural inputs include diverse crop seeds, trainings in environmentally friendly and resilient agricultural and nutrition practices, and engagement in micro-gardening activities. The project also accommodates a Cash for Work scheme targeting 150 representatives from the target households to cushion beneficiaries from extreme food insecurity the lean months of the year. Project beneficiaries also received livelihood assetsand informal financial services through savings and loaning groups, to encourage good financial planning and financial preparedness in the face of shocks and stresses.

Ninety young students from the Luuq Agricultural Training Centre benefitted from hands- on experience acquired from an attachment programme with the farming groups in the first phase of the project. Trocaire sought to improve the technical capacity of CERID as a local partner working to provide quality services to the communities in Gedo. This included close, joint monitoring of the project, monthly sessions to evaluate quality of work, and on-the-job mentorship and trainings on key elements of effective delivery of services including safeguarding, financial management, and gender mainstreaming.

The Rationale for the Evaluation

As the project ends, a final evaluation is being commissioned to assess progress towards achieving its objectives. The evaluation will be required to track and ascertain progress against the outcomes of the project towards achievement of the overall goal of the project, identify lessons learnt, good practices and provide concrete recommendations for future similar interventions, to enhance adaptive programming. The end line evaluation will also be an opportunity to share progress achieved and recommendations with all stakeholders involved, including community members and partner (CeRID).

Main Stakeholders of the Evaluation

The evaluation will involve participation of various stakeholders at different levels to draw lessons, gather data on impact of the interventions, identify challenges and successes and triangulate all information gathered. Stakeholders that will be involved include Trocaire and CeRID staff, target beneficiaries and their households, community members, community leaders relevant line ministries and local authorities from specific district departments, Luuq Agricultural Training Centre teachers and students.

2. EVALUATION OBJECTIVES

Evaluation Objectives:

The objective of the evaluation will be to:

1. Assess the extent to which the project has achieved its purpose based on intended outputs and results
2. Make key recommendations to inform similar future programming and draw lessons learnt/ good practices.

The evaluation will be guided by the project’s specific objectives and commitments in the proposal document and log-frame.

Goal: To strengthen the resilience of communities in Gedo so that they are able to cope with recurring humanitarian shocks and stresses

Specific Objective (purpose): To improve food security for vulnerable IDP and host communities in Luuq District Somalia.

Expected Results:

1. Improved nutrition outcomes for targeted children Under- 5 and pregnant and lactating women from IDP and host communities.
2. Improved food security for target households
3. Improved knowledge on food production by project participants both targeted women, and students of the Luuq ATC.

Working hypotheses:

• Food production at the household level has a direct correlation with nutrition outcomes of individuals in the household.
• Inclusion of male participants from the households targeted encourages better relations at the household level and increases women’s decision-making power at the household.
• Practical implementation of skills learned in the field will not only motivate farmers to adopt more agricultural activities but will also promote knowledge sharing and social cohesion among IDP farmers and their neighbours.

Project Outputs included the below:

• 120 IDP and 30 host communities secure land for farming
• Female farmers receive training on environmental – friendly food production techniques
• Beneficiaries receive appropriate agricultural inputs and support – seeds, tools, fuel for irrigation
• Beneficiaries are engaged in Cash for Work (CfW) activities
• 80 IDP and 20 host communities are provided with grants to purchase livelihood assets
• IDP women farmers, and vulnerable host women are supported to set up savings and loaning groups
• Demonstration plots at the Luuq Agricultural Training Centre maintained to promote learning
• Field days for target beneficiaries to the Luuq Agricultural Training Centre demonstration plots for learning.

The evaluation will be conduted using the DAC-OECD criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and coherence; additionally, additionally, impact, accountability, gender mainstreaming, group cohesion, environmental stewardship, and Do No Harm will be considered.

3. METHODOLOGY

The evaluation will be conducted in Gedo region, Somalia in Luuq District with households supported by the project. The evaluation will employ both qualitative and quantitative methodologies including in-depth interviews with households in the targeted communities and document review, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and observations for triangulation, gathering information from beneficiaries, the community, and relevant stakeholders.

A sample of households will be drawn from project beneficiaries and a random sampling will be used to select household respondents for the evaluation to eliminate bias in selection. Household sample size will be determined by sampling proportionate to size, with a 95% confidence interval and 5% margin of error.

Key stakeholders will be sampled from the community for qualitative discussions through FGDs and KIIs.

The evaluation respondents will include, but not limited to target beneficiaries, community members, community leaders, local authorities, relevant stakeholders, Trocaire and CeRID staff.

The data will be analysed and reported in line with the logical framework and commitments in the project proposal.

4. SCOPE OF WORK

The consultant will be responsible for the following:

• Developing a detailed draft and final inception report.
• Conducting desk review of existing programme documents (including but not limited to the proposal, monthly activity progress reports, baseline and midline evaluation reports, and secondary sources of information).
• Developing evaluation tools and scripting them in CommCare.
• Training and overseeing enumerators’ work.
• Organise the pretesting of study tools.
• Data cleaning and analysis.
• Conduct qualitative key informant interviews and focus group discussions.
• Developing draft and final report.
• Presentation on the evaluation, including feedback on findings, to Trocaire management and programme team.

Expected tasks and outputs will include:

1. Inception meeting with project staff, review of key relevant documents, the selection and training of enumerators.
2. Develop and submit inception report/ protocol, which will include an interpretation of the tasks and study design & methodologies, sampling procedures, and detailed work plan
3. Develop appropriate tools and instruments for gathering information and present them to the Trocaire team for approval.
4. Conduct survey interviews in the field
5. Undertake KIIs and FGDs with key stakeholders in the field
6. General oversight and coordination of the evaluation process, including logistical arrangements for data collection in collaboration with the Project Coordinator and MEAL Coordinator.
7. Process and analyse the data and develop a draft report. Revise the report based on internal Trocaire technical feedback, and submit a final report to the Project Coordinator and MEAL Coordinator.
8. The final report will follow the reporting framework below:

• Executive Summary
• Background and Context
• Introduction
• Description of Methodology
• Main findings
• Conclusions
• Recommendations

9. Develop actionable recommendations context-based, including specific recommendations based on evidence from the evaluation findings.

10. PowerPoint presentation on the evaluation to Trocaire management and programme team.

On the other hand, Trocaire will:

• Provide accommodation to the consultant (max 2 pax) in the organisation’s guest house; otherwise, for any accommodation preference outside of this, the organisation will extricate herself.
• Cater for flight costs of consultant (max 2 pax).
• Cater for enumerator remuneration and logistics.
• Cater for training venue and any stationeries that may be required.
• Provide tablets for data collection.
• Facilitate some of the training sessions.
• Review and provide comments and suggestions to the consultant’s deliverables.
• Approve the consultant’s deliverables.

5. REQUIRED COMPETENCIES

1. Minimum 5 years’ experience in Agriculture and Livelihoods, humanitarian work, evaluation and/or related fields (Experience in Somalia context and the specific qualifications are desirable).
2. Demonstrated experience in conducting assessments of humanitarian programmes preferably Resilience/ agriculture/ livelihoods (experience of a similar assignment in Somalia will be an advantage).
3. Demonstrated experience in agroecology.
4. Proven strong skills and experience in qualitative and participatory approaches is mandatory.
5. Solid analytical skills with ability to correlate different data sets to actionable conclusions.
6. Result based planning, report writing, communication and diplomacy skills.
7. English language skills (report should be written in English). Ability to make clear presentations and disseminate findings to both technical and non-technical audience.

6. ETHICAL CONSIDERATION AND INTELLEACTUAL PROPERTY

The evaluators should:

• Take all reasonable steps to ensure that the evaluation is designed and conducted to respect and protect the rights and welfare of the people and communities involved.
• Ensure that the evaluation is accurate and reliable, is conducted in a transparent and impartial manner and contributes to organizational learning and accountability.
• Commit to adhering to Trócaire’s Safeguarding Programme Participant Policy and Code of Conduct.

All products arising from this evaluation will be owned by Trocaire. The evaluators will not be allowed without prior authorization in writing to present any of the analytical results as his or her own or to make use of the evaluation results for private publication purposes.