TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR BASELINE SURVEY IMPROVING LOCAL CAPACITY TO RESPOND TO COVID-19 AND WITHSTAND ITS SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT IN SOMALIA

Job Description

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR BASELINE SURVEY IMPROVING LOCAL CAPACITY TO RESPOND TO COVID-19 AND WITHSTAND ITS SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT IN SOMALIA

1. Background

On 16^th of March 2020, Somalia recorded its first case of corona virus and since then morbidity and mortality rates have been growing although it is assumed that the actual number of cases is substantially higher than the officially recorded figures. To some extent, this is due to the government’s limited testing capacity, yet many people feel that testing is not worthwhile due to a lack of treatment options and limited access to health care. This situation has happening when Somalia is already grappling with cyclic climatic shocks, conflicts, natural disasters, poverty, insecurity, and locust infestation that continue to devastate most parts of the country. According to the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis (4th February 2021), up to 2.7 million people across Somalia are expected to face food consumption gaps or depletion of livelihood assets indicative of Crisis (IPC Phase 3 or worse outcomes through mid-2021 in the absence of humanitarian assistance. The drivers of acute food insecurity in Somalia include the compounding effects of poor and erratic rainfall distribution, flooding, desert locust infestation, socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19, and conflict.

CARE Somalia implements various programs comprising food security and livelihoods, education, water and sanitation, governance and peace building and health across different regions in Somalia helping the most vulnerable households to cope with the different risks they face and achieve self-reliance. It has identified and selected two impact groups (Rural Women and Urban Youth) as its core programming focus/strategy and each program has a comprehensive Theory of Change spanning over 10-15 years of implementation period. In an effort to address the health and economic impact that COVID-19 placed on vulnerable Somali households and most notably women and children in IDP camps, rural and peri-urban areas in Benadir and Lower Shabelle, CARE received funds a multi-national company to implement a project entitled: ‘Improving local capacity to respond to COVID-19 and withstand its socio-economic impact’. The projects aims to enhance the capacity of vulnerable women, youth, and service providers to cope with medium and long-term shadow effects of COVID-19 pandemic on economic, social and health wellbeing. As a member of the Somalia Resilience Program (SomReP) consortium, CARE has been implementing resilience building activities in Afgoi district and hence has built partnerships with communities and local authorities there and there will integrate this COVID-19 response in its already existing programing. The project has three main focus areas – a) awareness raising; b) health services and c) economic resilience.

It will partner with civil society organizations, government authorities and service providers to effectively contribute to the prevention of the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate its negative impact on the most vulnerable communities in Somalia.

 

The project’s specific objective and outcomes are:

Specific objective: Enhance the capacity of vulnerable women, youth, and service providers to cope with medium and long-term shadow effects of COVID-19 pandemic on economic, social and health wellbeing

Outcome 1: Increased safety, knowledge, skills and practices to prevent and respond to Covid-19 and related vulnerabilities

Outcome 2: Improved access to equitable and qualitative health services with a focus of vulnerable women and girls

Outcome 3: Increased economic resilience of vulnerable groups against the social and economic impacts of Covid-19

2. Profile of project target areas and beneficiaries

The project will be implemented in Afgoye district and Mogadishu. Afgoye is thirty kilometres from the capital city of Mogadishu and is a very strategic town that joins many regions to the city. Its population depends on agriculture and livestock for their livelihood. The district has hosted 15,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) communities affected by the armed conflict that is currently affecting neighbouring locations around Afgoye region. The complexity of displacement and drought and its impact on IDPs and host communities in Afgoye has increased the vulnerability of these people leading to a humanitarian crisis. Mogadishu is the capital city of Somalia and is a home to about 2.5 million people with nearly 200,000 IDPs living in crowded settlements. The capital is devastated by conflict and limited health facilities and personnel to tackle with disease outbreaks, most notably COVID-19 at the present time. The beneficiaries of project activities will be mainly urban and peri-urban communities in Mogadishu and farmers in Afgoi district.

 

3. Baseline survey purpose and objectives

The overall purpose of the survey is to establish the current status of COVID-19 prevention and response awareness and health services provision in project areas. This will provide a reference point for assessing changes and impact by establishing a basis for comparison before this intervention. Furthermore, it will seek to understand the root causes and inherent complexity of vulnerability of target populations to the impact of COVID-19 so that project interventions are guided by critical analysis of social, economic and health factors surrounding capacity to respond to COVID-19. In other words, the baseline survey aims to understand the current social, economic and health environment by which the project is determined in the target areas while measuring the current status of the project indicators and establishing base values.

Specific objectives

1. To assess awareness level and skills of health workers and communities in preventing and managing COVID-19 and related vulnerabilities
2. To assess the coverage, efficiency and quality of health services in target communities that will enable existing health facilities and its workers to cope with COVID-19 and related vulnerabilities
3. To examine the economic resilience and adaptive capacity of target communities that will enable them withstand the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 and related vulnerabilities
4. Baseline survey methodology

The survey will adopt a participatory approach, and use mixed methods i.e. quantitative and qualitative research methods to collect and analyze the data. The focus will be to obtain an in-depth understanding of vulnerability to COVID-19 project in the two districts from the perspectives of the relevant stakeholders including MoH, selected beneficiaries’ groups, CARE implementing staff and other sector-relevant actors in the concerned districts. The quantitative component will generate baseline estimates of project indicators and measure awareness levels of COVID-19, capacity of existing health services in relation to COVID-19 management and prevention and economic resilience of beneficiary households in relation to coping with the socio-economic impact of COVID-19. On the other hand, the qualitative component will aim to examine the factors that assist target households to withstand the impact of COVID-19 reasons for adopting particular strategies as well as to further illuminate quantitative results. Mush as we expect the consultant to propose an appropriate and detailed methodology for delivering this assignment, below are the possible strategies to be used for collecting the baseline information:

1. Desk review of project documents and other background documents like, project proposal, log frame, MoH data, COVID-19 impact assessment reports, etc.
2. Survey to collect quantitative indicators that cannot be assessed through secondary data.
3. In-depth interviews with key informants
4. Observations from fieldwork (heath facilities)
5. Key lines of inquiry
6. What evidence can be drawn for establishing project base values that demonstrate the current awareness, health services and economic resilience status of the target households and communities (urban, peri-urban and farmers ) in line with the project logical framework?
7. What are the current coping mechanisms in the target communities in regards to COVID-19 and related vulnerabilities?
8. What evidence and conclusion can be drawn from the existing COVID-19 prevention and management practices at household and community levels as well as in target health facilities in order to improve COVID-19 awareness, bolster health services and strengthen the economic resilience of the target communities?
9. What are the current NGO, government, local community coordination and information sharing systems/platforms as well as awareness raising activities and identify coordination and awareness raising gaps?
10. What are key recommendations for quality project implementation in the project areas?

6. Time-line

The expected time-frame of this review is 30 working days, and the draft report will be submitted within two months of signing contract. CARE Project Manager will collate feedback from stakeholders (CARE Germany, donor and government), and share with the consultant within two weeks of receiving the draft. The final report must be submitted after one week of receiving the feedback

7. Work plan

The detailed work plan for the baseline survey will be finalized by 31^st March 2021 in consultation with the program team after a consultant is identified to undertake this survey. The roles and responsibilities to execute the process will be determined based on consultation with CARE Germany.

8. Ethical considerations

The survey’s objectives will be clearly explained to all the respondents prior to gathering any form of information from them. Written consent of the respondents will be taken before collecting information where possible. The team will further be required to follow the CARE ‘Policy on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse’ throughout the baseline survey process.

9. Key deliverables 

1. An inception report outlining the approach and methodology including the sampling approach of the baseline survey
2. A draft report that addresses the expectations stipulated in the objectives and key questions of the survey
3. A debriefing presentation for CARE Somalia, where the overview of the findings and the recommendations will be discussed
4. Final evidence based report as per objectives and evaluation questions stipulated in the ToR and following the reporting outline incorporating all feedback, suggestions and recommendations from CARE and other key stakeholders.
5. All datasets and tools are submitted with the baseline survey.
6. All necessary permissions, approvals, etc. required prior to data collection

10. Report outline
11. The final report will contain the following elements:
12. Title Page
13. Table of Contents and Other Sections That Preface the Report
14. Executive Summary
15. Introduction and Background description
16. Rationale: (scope and purpose of the survey)
17. Methodology
18. Results Chapters or Key Findings.
19. Conclusion and Recommendations
20. References and Appendices
21. List of references
22. Expected Qualification and Experience
23. Bachelor’s degree in public health, data management, monitoring & evaluation or relevant disciplines
24. 5 years of experience in similar evaluation/survey in context of or similar to Somalia
25. Knowledge and demonstrated experience of designing and leading baseline and mid-line surveys and project evaluations
26. Strong knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methods and sampling strategies
27. Statistical analysis skills and strong proficiency with data analysis packages such as SPSS or STATA and qualitative data analysis software including ODK
28. Fluency (verbal and written) in English and Somali is essential and presence of the key survey team in Somalia
29. The proposal may include a team instead of an individual. If a team is proposed, their roles should be clearly specified 

12. Expression of Interest

Applications should contain:

1. A brief cover letter (not exceeding one page), clearly indicating experience in the area of planning, designing and conducting baseline surveys and similar research activities
2. Technical proposal, financial proposal and Up to date curriculum Vitae (CV) , copy of Bachelor’s degree of the consultants that will be involved in the baseline study. A profile of the consulting firm,
3. Specific roles and responsibilities of the team leader, supervisory chain and other core members of the evaluation team.
4. A technical proposal including:
5. Research methodology, study design, sampling technique, sample size, data collection instruments, data collection and analysis plan
6. Detailed work plan showing the different activities the baseline survey process will comprise – training of enumerators, data collection, reporting, etc.

• Financial proposal covering all costs – fees of the key team, transport costs, cost of enumerators, stationery, etc.

1. How to apply
2. The consultant firm/individuals is expected to send a technical proposal including updated CVs, copy Bachelor’s Degree and financial proposal , the finical proposal should be included every cost to som.consultant@care.org with the subject line baseline survey covid 19 project ”. Applications should be submitted no later than (29-May-2021)
3. Note: Submitting the financial proposal is a key requirement and if missing, your application will not be considered for further processing.

 

 

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