2022-04-05

Terms Of Reference for Strengthening Disaster Risk Management Capacity Of Village Committees And Revitalizing Local Early Warning System – Somaliland

Somaliland
Posted on April 5, 2022

CARE

Terms Of Reference for Strengthening Disaster Risk Management Capacity Of Village Committees And Revitalizing Local Early Warning System – Somaliland

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Strengthening Disaster Risk Management Capacity of Village Committees and Revitalizing Local Early Warning System

Background

CARE implements various programs comprising food security and livelihoods, education, water and sanitation, governance and peace building and health across different regions in Somaliland 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. CARE’s approach acknowledges that shocks and stresses are a likely occurrence, and will work with the communities themselves to map and identify the negative coping strategies which have a long-term detrimental effect on families and communities. CARE’s experience in Somaliland and globally also suggests that inequitable distribution of rights, resources, and power is strongly influenced by gender. CARE’s approach therefore acknowledges that gender is a critical factor in understanding vulnerability – and thus resilience – and the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women is a proven strategy to overcome poverty. CARE’s resilience approach focuses on securing and enhancing what people already have against predictable shocks, and strengthening governance and monitoring systems to ensure that dynamic and cumulative risks are understood and inform planning at all levels from household upwards. In addition, resilience-building strategies need to be rooted in a holistic, responsive approach that addresses the intra-household disparities and creates the enabling environment to correct the wide range of risks and barriers that women face. Therefore, a two-pronged approach is necessary, focusing on technical capacity to withstand shocks and secure livelihoods, and shifts in gender power relations and behaviors. CARE’s resilience building includes good governance and women’s empowerment as crucial paths for sustainably improving resilience to recurring shocks and stresses.

In 2021, CARE received funds from the German Ministry of Development to implement a project in Sanaag region, Somaliland. The project aims to strengthen the economic and social resilience of vulnerable groups in a person-centered approach. Strengthen the capacity of local structures to continuously monitor indicators related to shocks and initiate appropriate responses (emergency plans) is one of the project activities which contributes to outcome 3 of the project – Increased capacity of government and local institutions in disaster risk reduction and management, including COVID-19.

Early warning is an important step in disaster risk management and can only be effective and efficient when local communities are involved and local systems are integrated in existing country and regional systems. Community-Based Early Warning Systems (CBEWS) are anchored in the communities and managed by the communities. It is based on a “people-centered” approach that empowers individuals and communities threatened by hazards to act in sufficient time and in an appropriate manner in a bid to reduce the possibility of personal injury, loss of life, damage to property, environment and loss of livelihood. The village committees will serve as key instruments in the entire process of CBEWS. Participation of at risk community at all levels and empowering their capacity has been given due attention in the project. Some of the indicators that will be used to track community based early warning information are pasture availability; water level in shallow wells, berkads and water pans; livestock body condition; livestock disease outbreaks and trends; terms of trade between livestock (small stock) vis-à-vis cereals; and migration in/outside district. Two village community per community will be selected and used as key informants to provide early warning information using symbols and visual analogue scales corresponding to the identified indicators. The project will make efforts to link this grassroot level system with existing systems so that regional and national government institutions can produce blended communication materials and make informed decisions on both. The project will also support the village committees to translate early warning information into contingency planning and action depending on available community capacities. They will also have to seek external assistance from government and others to prevent negative impacts of imminent shocks.

CARE is, therefore, looking for two experienced facilitators to lead early warning and contingency planning training for village committees. The training will build the capacity of village leadership to monitor stresses and shocks before they occur and take appropriate measures to prepare for it. The training will also document local knowledge in early warning in relation to common shocks.

Objectives of the training

The goal of the training is to help communities develop a community based early warning early action system and contingency planning framework at local level that is linked to national/regional systems. In other words, the training will enable village leadership to monitor disaster risks, plan and implement preparedness and mitigation measures and activities.

Specific objectives of the consultancy are:

Explore the disaster context with the village committees and discuss vulnerability factors and preparedness and mitigation measures in relation to the most common stresses and shocks, by profiling the historical timeline of the localized hazards.

Conduct situational awareness, risk analysis and Hazard prioritization exercises with the community and document.
Identify early warning indicators for these most common stresses and shocks and support village leadership to design a monitoring system for the same
Demystify simple-to-use and appropriate contingency planning framework with the village leadership to adopt and update during pre-emergency situations

Scope of the training

This is a three-day training for village committees. The facilitators will have read some background information on the disaster context and early warning systems prior to the training The training will cover a number of topis/areas including disaster profiling, vulnerability analysis, collection and analysis of hazard-specific early warning information, and development and activation of contingency plans.

Training methodology

The facilitators shall be expected to design and employ appropriate methods that will yield the best results with regard to the achievement of the training objectives. This shall include but shall not be limited to subject matter presentations, Q&A, brainstorming, plenary discussion and group work. A participatory and trainee-centered approach should be employed. Facilitators should avoid long theoretical sessions but use real-life and practical scenarios and example to illustrate each topic.

Time-frame

The facilitators will work for a period of 10 days which will include developing and preparing training materials, travel, training facilitation and reporting.

Activity	# of days
Preparation of training materials and travel to Erigavo	3
Facilitation of training	6
Report writing	2
Total	10

Deliverables

Training materials and agenda prepared
Training facilitated for 40 village committee members and government officers
Training report with detailed proceeding and community-based early warning system model as well as contingency planning template
Prepare number of Contingency Planning with the community using an emergency preparedness tool that looks at potential future situations to increase readiness to deal with potential crises.
Documented a number of community actions and contingency planning – annexed to the report

Key requirements and competencies of the consultant

Advanced university degree in social science, disaster management, development studies or a related discipline
Extensive experience in climate information services, early warning systems, disaster risk reduction, and contingency planning
Excellent writing skills to document and articulate training proceedings
Strong facilitation skills
Reporting

The facilitators will write and produce a precise final report written in simple and clear English language. The draft report shall be shared with CARE for comments and inputs for inclusion in the final report by the consultant. The report should have the following format:

Cover page: title of the work, title of the project, names and logos of the donor and implementing partner, dates of the exercise, etc.
Table of contents, Executive Summary (maximum 3 pages) and main report including proceedings and achievements of the training and conclusion
Annexes
Expression of Interest