2021-12-06

Terms of Reference for Tracer (TOR) Tracer Study, Vocational Skills Training Graduates – Hargeisa and Berbera, Somaliland

Hargeisa and Berbera, Somaliland
Posted on December 6, 2021

NRC

Terms of Reference for Tracer (TOR) Tracer Study, Vocational Skills Training Graduates – Hargeisa and Berbera, Somaliland

Terms of Reference for Tracer (TOR) Study of Vocational skills training graduates under King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) & UNHCR funded Livelihood’s project

Tracer Study, Vocational Skills Training Graduates

Location: Hargeisa and Berbera, Somaliland

Duration: 16 Calendar days

Critical interface: Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator – Somaliland

Consultancy type: Local

Travel: Travel required for this consultancy

Introduction

1.1. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent humanitarian organization

We protect displaced people and support them as they build a new future. We started our relief efforts after World War Two. Today, we work in both new and protracted crises across 35 countries. NRC specialize in six areas including food security, education, shelter, legal assistance, camp management, and water, sanitation and hygiene.

2.0. UNHCR Project:

During last three years (2019 -2021), NRC implemented UNHCR funded integrated programs which focused on enhanced protection, building resilience and self-reliance capacities through the provision of shelter, education, and livelihoods opportunities for refugees, asylum seekers, returnees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities in Somaliland. Somaliland has been a friendly country to host refugees and Asylum seekers; mostly from Yemen & Ethiopia. Somaliland is also home to approximately 85,000 internally displaced persons most of whom are protracted IDPs displaced by conflicts from the neighboring regions due to natural hazards such as the recurrent droughts, conflict and limited basic services.

During 2019, NRC trained 476 male and female youth including refugee, returnees and vulnerable host community market led vocational skills training in skill production center managed by NRC and in partnership with several vocational centers. Under UNHCR livelihood grant, NRC also supported 229 PoCs of refugees, returnees IDPs and poor host community, providing with businesses cash grants to create self-reliance of persons of concerns by assisting both continuous and existing enterprises using the livelihood vulnerability selection criteria and standard operational procedure (SOPs). Because of COVID pandemic, government-imposed movement restrictions during 2020 and markets functionality was slowed down. UNHCR and NRC planned to conduct refresher training for 280 jobless youth so that they could integrate in market and get a decent income source. Therefore, one month refresher training followed by one-month apprenticeship was organized for these identified trainees. Out of total registered trainees, 249 completed their training. At the time of successful completion, 158 refresher trainees were provided with a top up tool kit with the resources received from King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief). Synergies between UNHCR and KSrelief funded projects helped to reach more beneficiaries. In addition, NRC also trained 168 male and female youth (123 from Somaliland and 45 from Juba land) in certified basic skills trainings from displacement affected and poor host communities with the resources provided by King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief). Goal of KSrelief funded project was ‘Integrated protection solutions for women and children affected by displacement in Jubaland and Somaliland’. Following were KSrelief project goal, outcome and outputs.

Goal: ‘Assist displacement affected communities develop resilient capacities necessary to address protection issues affecting women and children in Puntland and Somaliland’.

Outcome: Challenges impeding the protection and recovery potentials of women and children affected by displacement substantially reduced.

Output – Livelihood and empowerment: Recovery potentials for displaced women and youth consolidated Livelihood’s output focused on Empowering women and youth through skills development and provision of trade specific tool kit. Trainees in both projects and all regions were also provided with entrepreneurship, basic financial management and other life skills trainings

In line with the program design, NRC is committed to follow up trained beneficiaries periodically for on the job mentoring and through systematically organized tracer studies.

Objectives of the tracer study

The main objective of the tracer study is to track the effectiveness of TVET & beneficiaries who received business cash grants to start up program in equipping youths with the necessary skills for gainful employment. The tracer study is meant to track the beneficiaries of the trainings to establish what they are currently doing as part of evidence of the project’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability:

4.1. The specific objectives of the tracer study are:

To generate information about the marketability and employability of the chosen course and challenges at market place.
To benchmark and evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen TVET/SSB and entrepreneurship courses offered at different centres in Hargeisa and Berbera.
To establish the factors inhibiting the employment (wage or self-employment) of TVET students & to learn the real opportunity and challenges to the self-employments sectors in order to improve the future programming in Hargeisa and Burao districts

4.2. Scope of the tracer study

The Tracer study will assess the employment status of graduates of UNHCR and KSrelief projects. The study will focus on the following:

Review of the project document(proposal); TVET policy documents; MoE standardized TVET curriculum materials and training guides used by the centres
Evaluate employment and income status of graduates (TVET & SSB) considering decent job;
Evaluate employer satisfaction on the performance of the graduates;
Explore the challenges for sustainability of employment and career progression of the graduates;
Information on the employment status of the graduates;
Evaluate socio-economic changes of graduates and their families;
Identify the efficiency, relevance and quality of programme;
Assess Value for Money (VfM) of the skills and job placement program;
Provide data driven recommendation for improving employment opportunities and competency of TVET & SSB graduates.
Any other information that may be relevant toward enhancement of training programmes and services of training providers.

The study will be conducted in Hargeisa and Berbera, Somaliland. The tracer study will establish what the graduates are currently doing and include details as part of the evidence of the project’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability.

4.3. Tracer Study design/methods

The consultant shall use a mixed approach, which includes desk review, key informant interview sample survey, and interviews with the TVET graduates. The tracer study will target all TVET graduates or a sample size must be statistically representative of the population. The consultant will have interviews with the Ministry of Education and Science (particularly TVET directorate), and selected partners to gather more information on some of the objectives listed above as well as planning and policy development priorities.

Desk review of secondary data (proposals, progress reports, baseline and mid-term evaluation and beneficiary databases)
In-depth interviews with business Cash grants receipts & TVET graduates/beneficiaries and Small-Scale Business owners (including disaggregation by gender and nationality) at their business/employment sites or homes.
Key Informant Interviews with Ministry of Education and Science (particularly TVET directorate) and implementing partners.
Sharing of initial findings and learning with regional team and partners in-country

Target Population and Sample Size

The key target population of this study is 828 beneficiaries, who received vocational skills training and Small-Scale Business (SSB) support. 691 in Hargeisa and 137 in Berbera.

With a 5% margin of error, a 95% confidence level, and a 50% response distribution, the minimum correct statistical sample size needed is 263. This sample will be proportionately distributed according to the type of support given (Vocation Skills Training and SSB), cohort and location. Equal gender representation of the interviewees should also be enforced.

Students Data per cohort, assistance and location

Donor	Cohort	Total	Vocational Skills			Small Scale Businesses			Comments
			Hargeisa	Berbera	Sub-Total	Hargeisa	Berbera	Sub-total
UNHCR	2019	601	383	93	476	124	1	125	158 of the 476 VST given equipment/kits in 2020 under Ksrelief
UNHCR	2020	104				61	43	104
KSrelief	2020	123	123		123
Total		828			599			229

Sample Size

Donor	Cohort	Total	Vocational Skills			Small Scale Businesses			Comments
			Hargeisa	Berbera	Sub-Total	Hargeisa	Berbera	Sub-total
UNHCR	2019	191	121	30	151	39	1	40	50 of the 151 VST interviewees will be those given equipment/kits in 2020 under Ksrelief
UNHCR	2020	33				19	14	33
KSrelief	2020	39	39		39
Total		263			190			73

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

All questionnaires and interviews will open with statement aimed at obtaining the consent of the interviewee(s). Potential respondents will be briefed about the purpose of the survey, the confidentiality and anonymity and that it is 100% voluntary. The interviewer will then expressly seek their consent to participate in the survey. Respondents who decline to participate will respectfully be left out.

NRC Responsibilities

Adherence to the contract terms and conditions
Oversight of the exercise
Develop jointly with the service provider assessment questions and refine indicators
Work with the service provider on the preparation of tools, selection of sampling and data gathering methodologies.
Sign-off technical plan/proposal
Sign-off tools before deployed for fieldwork
Participate in validation workshop to give feedback and endorse assessment findings
Assign a focal point that regularly liaises with the service provider

Expected Deliverables

Technical Proposal including work plan
Assessment indicators
Desk review report
Data collection tools
Preliminary findings for initial review
Validation Workshop
Raw data for storage with NRC
Final report issued and provided as a result of which;

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

The deliverables will be approved by the NRC Country Office M&E Manager. The consultant/firm will be expected to arrange and cover the costs of consultancy fee, field work and other logistics associated with the assignment. NRC will provide useful project documents that will inform this exercise.

DURATION OF WORK

The work is expected to be completed in 16 calendar days – the exact timing will depend on the final agreement with NRC.

QUALIFICATIONS

The consultancy firm must be registered with all relevant authorities and specializes in conducting qualitative and quantitative research.
The consultancy firm must have more than 7 years’ experience of conducting a variety of surveys in Somalia/Somaliland.
The consultancy firm must demonstrate ability to field experienced teams to conduct face-to-face interviews in both Hargeisa and Berbera regions.
The consultancy firm has impeccable record of confidentiality and sensitivity, and be able and willing to handle sensitive information, ensuring anonymity of respondents whilst safeguarding access to the raw data for partners stated in this Terms of Reference.
The consultancy individual/firm can demonstrate sound financial accountability.
The consultancy firm be able to use to a high level, data entry and data analysing software such as CS Pro and SPSS, and be able to provide visual graphics of data, such as charts produced in Microsoft Excel. Experience in graphic design will be an advantage, but not required.
The consultancy Individual/firm has a good track record of working with international organisations such as international NGOs or the UN in Somalia; in particular, a good track record in previous work with NRC is required.

Tentative Timeline

SNO	Activity/Task	Duration	Dates	Responsible
1	Advertising, selection and contracting of the consultant	14 days	5^th-18^st Dec 2021	NRC
2	Inception Meeting with NRC	1 day	21^st Dec 2021	NRC/Lead consultant
3	Inception report	1 day	23^nd Dec 2021
4	Desk review of relevant project documents	1 days	24^th Dec 2021	Lead consultant
5	Developing data collection tools	2 days	25^th-26^th Dec 2021	Lead consultant
6	Validating/testing data collection tools	1 day	27^th Dec 2021	NRC/Lead consultant
7	Data collection process	6 days	28^thDec2021 2^th Jan2022	Lead consultant
8	Initial analysis and validation workshop	2 days	3^rd -4^th Jan 2022	Lead consultant
9	Final analysis and report righting, submission and getting feedback from NRC	1 days	5^thJan 2022	Lead consultant/NRC
10	Submission of final report (both narrative and financial reports) & PowerPoint presentation	1days	6^thJan 2022	Lead consultant
	Total	16 days

APPLICATION PROCEDURES AND REQUIREMENTS

The consultant/consulting firm interested are expected to provide following documentation:

A cover letter introducing the consultant. In the case of a firm, the cover letter should introduce the team composition and specifying the role to be played by each team member.
A technical proposal of not more than 10 pages outlining how to execute the task with a clear framework, methodology and timelines. Proposed methodology should demonstrate a clear understanding of the ToR (sampling framework, data collection strategy/methods)
Resume of the consultant, or each team member for firms
Evidence of experience conducting similar assignments
Proposed budget indicating consultancy fee, costs of enumerators/ data collection, and all other auxiliary costs in USD.

Submission

Consultant/firm that meet the requirements mentioned above are invited to

submit detail technical proposal and financial proposal on or before 18^th December 2021

and should be addressed to so.procurement@nrc, referencing ‘Tracing Study in Somaliland’ in the subject of the email.

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