Terms of Reference for Operational Research on Natural Resource Management El-Afweyn District, Sanaag region, Somaliland

OXFAM

Terms of Reference for Operational Research on Natural Resource Management El-Afweyn District, Sanaag region, Somaliland

 

Terms of Reference for Operational Research on Natural Resource Management

El-Afweyn District, Sanaag region, Somaliland.

 

BACKGROUND

Oxfam is a global movement of people working together to end the injustice of poverty. It has been working in Somalia/Somaliland since the 1970s, play a key foundational role in supporting Somali people and communities to provide development and lifesaving programs.

It provides civil society development and has been called by many current and past partners “the mother of Somali civil society.” Support for women’s rights, women’s advocates, and gender equality has been a steady component of the program, and many leading advocates for women’s rights, gender equality, and women’s issues were once partners or trainees of Oxfam. We are an international confederation of 19 organizations (affiliates) working together with partners and local communities in humanitarian, development, and campaigning, in more than 90 countries. All our work lead by three core values: Empowerment, Accountability, Inclusiveness.

In 2021, Oxfam developed a 10-year strategy with new program directions focusing on just economy and economic development, Inclusive governance, gender justice, Conflict-sensitive humanitarian response, and resilience to climate and fragility.

Oxfam is part of a larger SomRep consortium that unites seven international organizations to reduce disasters by building community resilience. Oxfam has chosen to work in the most challenging and marginalized areas in the Somaliland-El Afweyn district, plagued by recurring droughts and prolonged conflict.

The Somalia resilience program (SomRep) is a platform united by seven international non-governmental organizations to respond to climate-related shocks’ risk by introducing resilience and livelihoods interventions targeting the pastoralist, agro-pastoralist in a rural and urban setting. The program aims to build the absorptive, adaptive, and transformative capacities of the people in Somalia by maximizing their capabilities to revive and improve natural resources to withstand recurrent climate stress. The consortium composed of seven international organizations (Oxfam, AAH, Care, DRC, ADRA, COOPI, World vision) which were formed following the famine of 2011 to find better ways to leverage collective sectoral expertise and long-lasting relationships with communities to tackle the challenges which recurrent shocks pose to families in Somalia. The Somalia resilience program (SomRep) goal is to increase the resilience of chronically vulnerable Somali people, households, communities, and systems to climate shocks and other related risks in pastoral, agro-pastoral, and peri-urban livelihoods zone.

 

The project’s main objective is to increase the resilience of chronically vulnerable people, households, communities, and systems in targeted pastoral, agro-pastoral, and peri-urban livelihood zones by improving adaptive capacity, absorptive capacity, ecosystem health, local civil society capacity to manage resources and promoting learning and research. The following are the overall project goal and the expected results.

Project overall goal Increase the resilience of chronically vulnerable Somali people, 

households, communities, and systems to climatic shocks and other related

risks in targeted pastoral, agro-pastoral, coastal, and peri-urban livelihood

zones by 2023.

Project expected results 1.     Improve households’ capacity to implement effective disaster risk reduction and positive coping strategies to mitigate the immediate effect of exposure to shock. 

2.     Improved capacity of individuals, households, and communities to adhere to positive development trajectories; despite exposure to shocks and utilize strategies designed to allow adaptation to rapid and slow-onset hazards

3.     Improved capacity to engage strategies for sustainable livelihoods and economic growth to enhance food security and resilience

4.     Transparent and accountable governance structures at the community, district, and national levels to ensure an enabling policy and regulatory environment for sustainable livelihoods and economic growth.

5.     Monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning systems, including a data management platform, form the evidence database for informed decisions support analysis and strategic programming with learning and research generated and shared among relevant stakeholders.

Project background and context

The DFAT7 project interventions are now in seven years of implementation. Implementing the interventions started after conducting vulnerability assessments such as GCVCA(gender climate vulnerability capacity assessment), which allow Oxfam to holistically study and understand the gender and climate factors aggravating the community vulnerability to shocks and stress. The GCVCA ensures full community and local government involvement in developing community resilience plans.

Once the GCVCA assessment gets completed, the development of community adaptation action plans(CAAPs) and contingency plans followed, which help communities articulate the needs/gaps, potential activities to address these, and what each stakeholder would contribute towards each scheduled set of actions.

DFAT7 has implemented numerous interventions that are entirely in line with the above-expected results. Key activities carried out include establishing saving groups, supporting early-warning committees, NRM committees, devised CAAPs for 15 communities in the El-Afweyn district and set up pastoral farmer field schools, and provided agricultural inputs and tools to enable pastoralist to adopt climate-smart agriculture practices.

The infrastructural interventions financed by the DFAT7 project consist of rehabilitating and constructing irrigation canals for either full or supplemental irrigation. The irrigation canals aim to increase water access by farmers to boost crop and fodder production and, on the one hand, as a mitigation measure against shocks from drought, especially at times of drought. Ongoing activities include fodder production and preservation training, kitchen gardening, environmental impact assessment to inform suitability of soil and water for crop production, and solarization of water points to leverage access to water for irrigation.

The DAFT7 project considers lessons learned from the DFAT6 and incorporated them into the DFAT7 proposed activities. The DFAT6 achievements included the following; increase in the proportion of more resilient households due to the expanded financial inclusion. 23% of families are engaged in savings groups’ activities; additionally, at least 70% of these populations have accessed a loan from village saving and loan associations. This project has translated into more robust shock responses among households in project sites. In 2019 despite more than 50% of SomReP sites being either under Stress or Crisis, according to IPC ratings, program participants in savings groups had a 15% higher chance of attaining acceptable food consumption scores or a 20% lower chance of achieving poor consumption scores. SomReP project invested in the coverage expansion of Village Savings and Loans Associations across the El-Afweyn district.

Scope

The research will be conducted within target project communities in the El-Afweyn district. The consultant will ensure to capture the information related to the Operational Research on Natural Resource Management.

Description of the Consultancy

Oxfam is looking for a trustworthy firm or an experienced researcher to conduct a wider analysis on natural resource mapping across all of the El-Afweyn district’s target communities. The mapping exercise will focus on identify natural resources in target areas and their current state, determining the extent of ecological damage to the identified natural resources, and finally proposing the most feasible and appropriate conservation and improvement measures that should implemented to ensure increased efficiency and long-term use of the defined natural resources. The study will propose and develop tools for monitoring and improving the conservation of the identified natural resources.

Proposed Methodology

Oxfam expects the consultant to employ a methodology that is suitable for consultant objectives and deliverables. However, it anticipates for the consultant to use quantitative and qualitative methods, availing of participatory tools and data collection techniques, including but not limited to household/individual interviews, FGDs and KIIs. The consultant should pursue a desk review of relevant documents. Other literature may exist, such as government policy/ strategies, project documents, reports.

Major Tasks and Responsibility of The Consultant

Oxfam expects the consultant to undertake the following tasks:

  • Prepare and submit a proposal outlining the Natural Resource Mapping analysis methodologies.
  • Prior to the study’s implementation, a desk analysis of relevant documents was conducted, with an emphasis on the logical framework and other relevant documents (including Somaliland’s government policies on natural resource management)
  • Submit an inception report outlining your understanding of the assignment.
    • In collaboration with project staff, develop data collection tools.
    • Train research assistants/enumerators in data collection tools and conduct a questionnaire pre-test.
    • Conduct quality control on the data gathered by qualified enumerators to ensure consistency and viability of the data.
  • Submit a comprehensive report on the available natural resources and the actions that should be taken to maintain sustainable natural resource management system.
  • The primary and secondary data associated with NRM are critically analyzed and triangulated.
  • The existing gaps within the linkages/systems between the villages and the regional offices are identified and adequately documented.

Timeline of the Consultancy

The proposed assignment is expected to be completed within 30days

Qualification and Experience

Oxfam is looking for qualified consultants or firms who meet the following criteria to submit a comprehensive proposal (both technical and financial including 6% government tax) on how to complete the assignment. If the application is made by a firm, the firm must be registered with the relevant authorities in Somaliland (proof required), and have at least 7 years of experience working in arid and semi-arid lands with agro pastoralists or pastoralist in the Horn of Africa preferably in Somalia, and provide the CVs of the technical team that will undertake the assignment. However, below are the minimum requirements of the consultant:

  • Should at least have a master’s degree in Environmental science, Economics, and, Development Studies with a minimum of seven (7) years of substantial experience in natural resource management.
  • Demonstrate a good understanding of Somalia with practical working experience or research/surveys in such environments
  • Sample of previous work conducted is required/ recommendation letters.

Application Procedure

  • The consultant must meet the above-required qualification and experience. Interested applicants who meet the requirements should submit a detailed technical proposal, including a detailed work plan, a proposed budget for the assignment. Similar previous work conducted will be a necessary. All applications should submit on or before the deadline via SOM-Consultancies@oxfam.org by latest 25th April 2021.
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