Short Assignment: Pastoral Situational Assessment Consultancy
Position Location: Nairobi, Kenya (with travel to Somalia/land for data collection)
Duration: 100 days
Start date: Immediate
Application deadline: 7th February 2011
Vacancy contact: Please send applications to vacancies@hornrelief.org – with a proposal, detailed time schedule, and total budget.
ASSIGNMENT SUMMARY
Horn Relief is seeking 3 qualified consultants (1 lead and 2 others) specialized in social surveys and statistics, with experience in undertaking research in the education sector. The consultants will provide leadership to the survey team in the planned comprehensive situational assessment of pastoral needs on education. The consultancy is for a period of up to 100 days with tasks that will include desk work, training enumerators/data clerks, field data collection, data analysis, sectoral briefs, drafting final reports, and presentation of findings. Horn Relief encourages consultancy firms or individuals with sufficient experience in the areas required.
BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
The protracted complex humanitarian and livelihoods crisis in Somalia has resulted, among other problems, in increasing socio-economic vulnerability and worsening poverty. According to the United Nations (UN), Somalia represents one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world with almost 50% of its people in need of urgent external assistance and close to 1.5 million internally displaced, approximately 16% of Somalia’s 9.3 million people. Livestock and their products account for 80% of export income in normal years, but trade has been significantly interrupted by drought and international bans in the last decade. The cycle of drought in the last 4 to 5 rainy seasons has led to a significant loss of livestock, severely affecting the livelihoods of pastoral communities, with a rise in pastoral dropouts.
In education, Somalia has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world at ranging between 19.2 to 34.9 % for rural and urban populations respectively . The overall enrollment rate in primary schools is less than 30% with significant gender and region based differences. While there has been some progress in recent years, there is also a marked divide between education provision, enrolment and quality between urban areas and rural areas. Many rural locations have no schools and often children cannot access formal schooling. Differences in access to education also exist within the rural areas where the lowest levels of provision and investment for education are found in pastoral communities as opposed to rural settled communities.
It is estimated that pastoralists constitute 65% of the Somali population yet their needs are often not taken into consideration. The proposed intervention intends to assemble a comprehensive knowledge base on pastoralist communities in Somalia to gain an understanding of their livelihood, environment, health, sanitation, protection and education needs. The knowledge base will benefit future planning by the government, local and international NGOs as well as donors. The assessment aims to create the knowledge base through an efficient use of funds and through maximizing the use of resources already deployed in the field by coordinating with a wide range of implementing agencies and drawing on whatever knowledge and analysis currently exists.
OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The overall objective of this assignment is to conduct a comprehensive study on the pastoral community needs in Somalia with a focus on education. Information gathered will form a baseline and will be used for programming by government authorities in Somalia, implementing partners, UN bodies and donors.
DELIVERABLES
• Development of appropriate questionnaires and survey tools including setting up necessary software.
• Training enumerators on data collection tools and data entry procedures
• Training reports of both enumerators and research assistants/trouble shooters
• Data entry/cleaning and initial analysis with project teams
• Data analysis
• Detailed assessment/survey report including summaries on key sectors (Education, Health, WASH, protection, environment and Livelihoods). PowerPoint presentation to the Pastoral education task Force, the Education Sector and other development partners.
• Detailed survey plan including sampling techniques that specifically take into account the pastoralist’s circumstances, and the research tools to be used at the inception stage
• Study tools as per the methodology agreed, project monitoring tools and processes
SCOPE OF WORK
The following key areas of work are included in this consultancy. The list however is not exhaustive and additional issues might come up during the consultancy.
The lead consultant will provide leadership to the consultancy team who will undertake the following tasks:
• Be responsible for and provide technical expertise for the design and implementation of the survey
• Develop appropriate data collection instruments, including:
o A household survey that includes, but is not limited to, demographic information, education levels (past and present) of all adults and children, education access and preferred education modalities for children and youth, rural food basket content and costs, income and expenditures, livestock size and health, access to health care for humans and for livestock, coping mechanisms, environmental factors and management strategies, access to water/sanitation, and child protection factors including security.
o Community focus group items derived from household survey, particularly regarding education access and modality preferences.
o Analytical framework for a literature review
• Develop measures for assuring inter-rater reliability and consistency among enumerators and team leaders and for standardizing data entry and data analysis processes
• Develop training for team leaders, enumerators and data entry personnel and a timely training schedule for the 3 zones
• Develop monitoring tools for ongoing monitoring of the project and develop training for team monitors
• Provide overall supervision and coordination of the survey teams
• Provide supervision of data entry and analysis
• Develop survey report and present report at appropriate venues
METHODOLOGY
Desk work
The consultancy will include a period of initial desk work to review project documentation (proposal, past project reports, other relevant materials) and to develop appropriate survey tools (as per scope of work). Once the survey is complete, deskwork will involve analysis and reporting of the survey findings as well as supervision of two other consultants through analysis and cleaning of data.
Field Work
The consultancy is to include period/s of fieldwork in the project areas/s in Somalia and Somaliland, depending on security. This will be necessary for training of the survey team, providing support during data collection, reviewing data and providing training on the project monitoring tools.
The field work is expected to take approximately 15 days but is subject to review.
WORK PLAN FOR THE ASSIGNMENT
The consultants will generate a detailed work plan for this assignment in in relation to the methodology in the general PSA TORs , and the number of timelines set for this assignment.
ACCOUNTABILITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Overall coordination of the assignment and liaison with any partner agencies will be ensured by the Programs Director based in Nairobi, Kenya. The lead consultant will work closely with the project teams throughout the length of the consultancy, as well as Horn Relief staff both in Nairobi and Somalia in carrying out the assignment. The design and organisation of the Pastoral situational assessment, including approval of technical aspects will be done by the Head of Programmes in Nairobi.
The Programs Director is responsible for:
Overall responsibility and accountability for the consultancy;
Guidance throughout all phases of execution; and
Approval of all deliverables.
The Consultant will report directly to Horn Relief's Programs Director.
QUALIFICATION PROFILE
• Post graduate degree in a social anthropology or related social science with a strong background in education.
• At least seven years of hands on experience in conducting surveys/assessments.
• Must have knowledge of pastoral livelihoods, education and other related fields
• Familiar with the livelihood contexts in Somalia.
• Must be experienced in developing and implementing gender sensitive baseline methodologies ;
• Ability to analyze complex livelihood systems.
• Good knowledge and experience in survey design, implementation of surveys and statistical data analysis is required;
• Knowledge of Somali people, culture and the Somali political dynamics an advantage.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS:
All the deliverables produced by the project will be made available to the Education Sector Committee, education partners and other interested sectors. All other project documents will remain as the property of Horn Relief and partnering agencies. The visibility of donors and implementers will be ensured on all product outputs.
How to apply
Applications should be submitted no later than 7th February 2011. Horn Relief will conduct interviews on an on-going basis. The selection committee will review all applications as they arrive. All applicants must meet the minimum requirements described above. Only short listed candidates will be contacted. Horn Relief is an equal opportunity employer.
Each application should include the following:
• An application letter addressing the selection criteria including how the candidate’s previous experience matches the consultancy objectives as well as his/her interest for the position. It should also indicate the candidate’s availability and consultancy rates. The letter should be no longer than two pages.
• An updated CV including relevant work experience and qualifications.
Only short listed candidates will be contacted.
All applications should be sent to Horn Relief at vacancies@hornrelief.org with the subject line: “Pastoral Situational Assessment” or by post to: Horn Relief Kenya - P.O. Box 70331 - 00400 Nairobi, Kenya. Applications should be submitted no later than 7th February 2011.
