The Member States of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region share borders that extend 8,382 km, while the external borders of the IGAD region (with non-IGAD States) extend to 6,910 km.[1] Borders and borderlands in the IGAD region are inhabited by millions of people who pursue a range of economic pursuits, including pastoralism, agro-pastoralism, agriculture and trade. Borderlands in the HoA are situated in arid and semi-arid lands inhabited by communities vulnerable to climate change shocks and processes such as desertification, deteriorating rangelands, drought and famine. In the IGAD region, borderland areas exhibit some of the lowest human development indicators in terms of access to basic social amenities. Issues such as interstate and intrastate conflicts and tensions, human trafficking and smuggling, and trafficking in small arms and light weapons afflict borderlands and further threaten the human security of communities.
A critical aspect of the conundrum that faces policy responses to borders and borderlands has been the lens through which borderlands and their inhabitants have been viewed, which has tended to emphasize varying aspects of illegality from the ‘criminal’ to the ‘subversive’.[2] This lens has exacerbated the marginalization of borderland communities through its legitimation of policies and actions that inadvertently criminalize borderland communities’ strategies of survival and adaptation to borders. Perspectives such as the ‘borders as constraints’ view or perspectives that increasingly view borders as irrelevant also have a distorting effect in terms of their narrowness of focus or inability to appreciate complexity and/or the context-specificity of borderlands.[3]
The member states’ governments of the IGAD have adopted a range of policy initiatives to respond to the human security challenges of borderland communities. Governments have implemented decentralized forms of governance which should allow borderlands communities a say in the political and economic decisions that affect their lives. IGAD member states governments have also utilized bilateral agreements and regularized meetings of joint border commissions to address the varied hard and soft security challenges in borderlands. The IGAD has also sought to respond to the pressing human security challenges of borderlands through initiatives such as the IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI) and, also through focal agencies such as the IGAD-Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (IGAD-CEWARN). The IGAD through its Peace and Security Strategy has also foregrounded borderlands in the IGAD region as a thematic focus.
Small scale informal cross-border trade (ICBT)in the IGAD borderlands is a critical source of support to precarious livelihoods. ICBT is a crucial source of food security in arid and semi-arid lands, a source of employment for millions and a mechanism to generate alternative sources of income and capital. It is the youth and women, the most marginalized in borderland communities, who are the biggest beneficiaries of ICBT. However, policy and regulatory frameworks in the IGAD region have not kept pace with these realities.
The 20 and 21 June meetings of IGAD Member States’ Experts and Ministers of Trade held in Mombasa, Kenya, adopted a policy framework (PF) on the Informal Cross-Border Trade-Cross-Border Security Governance (ICBT-CBSG) Nexus.[4] The PF articulates five policy objectives and defines strategies to actualize each of these policy objectives.
The adoption of the PF represents a critical advancement for regional integration and cooperation in the IGAD region.[5] It will also assist IGAD member states’ governments to tackle the multifaceted, socio-economic and security challenges in the Horn of Africa’s borderlands. The policy recommendations in the PF will ensure the economic empowerment of the most marginalized groups in the borderlands such as women, youth and people with disabilities, through employment creation and the facilitation of their participation in ICBT.
The adoption of the PF represents a key milestone, however, the policy recommendations in the framework still need to be cascaded to the IGAD member states level, ratified and applied to ICBT-CBSG policies and regulations. In order to test and learn, build evidence and political will surrounding the recommendations in this policy, the Quartet (coalition that led this policy through formulation and adoption) envisions a pilot project in a cross-border site in the IGAD region. Testing the policy recommendations plays an essential role in, not only showcasing the implementation of the PF, but through its lessons and successes play a key role in promoting the topicality and utility of the PF for the IGAD region.
With this end in view, the Quartet organized a reflection and planning workshop in Bishoftu, Ethiopia in November 2018 which, through a process of joint reflection and planning, led to the development of an inception phase plan to implement policy recommendations in the PF. The inception phase plan outlines a range of activities that entail implementation of participatory pilot project design to realize the policy recommendations in the PF. This project design is a central component of the PF.
The proposed pilot project will particularly seek to implement two of the central policy objectives in the PF:
Objective II: trade facilitation-easing of barriers to cross-border trade in subsistence goods
Objective IV: promoting the participation of borderlands communities in policy spaces and discussions.[6]
The identification of a suitable site is the first stage in the design and implementation of the proposed pilot project. The determination of the site for the proposed pilot project should take into account a number of factors including:
· degree of relative security and stability which would impact the feasibility of the project
· optimal value-added of pilot project (i.e. a cross-border site where ICBT flows are critical to local communities and face multiple regulatory and policy barriers)
· proximity and convergence with other complementary IGAD cross-border projects
· readiness & approval/collaboration of host IGAD member states governments and their respective local administration structures.
Therefore, the Quartet seeks to commission a rapid assessment of many Horn of Africa borderlands by a team of researchers to assess and determine the optimal cross-border site for the location and implementation of the proposed pilot project. Furthermore, the team of researchers will also be expected to outline the modalities/design for the participatory pilot project.
The key objectives of the assessment are as follows:
I. Determine the optimal site for the proposed pilot project in a specific cross-border site in the IGAD region
II. Outline and define the key components and stages in the design and implementation of the participatory pilot project
The rapid assessment will address the following key questions/issues:
I. Determine the key socio-economic indicators in a borderland (population, key socio-economic activities, populations and settlement patterns, key indices of socio-economic wellbeing, patterns/features of ICBT in the borderland, key border crossing points for ICBT etc).
II. Identify and analyze the key human security issues in the borderland from the local perspective.
III. What are the key socio-economic contributions of ICBT to the livelihoods of borderland communities?
IV. Identify the key obstacles to ICBT/CBT in the borderland.
V. From the perspectives of the local, what can/should be done to facilitate ICBT/CBT in the borderland (i.e. in terms of policy/regulations, in terms of documentation/certification requirements, in terms of currency usage and exchange issues, in terms of infrastructure relating to ICBT etc.)
VI. Outline and define the key aspects and stages of a participatory pilot project design process.
The assessment team will work closely and in collaboration with the Quartet. and will review the outputs from the policy formulation process.[7] Researchers will consult the authors and/or organizations that produced the research reports for the the KH. The research team will also be expected to conduct field visits to at least two of the potential cross-border sites for the proposed pilot project. Suggested methods in research design include but are not limited to key informant interviews (KIIs), focus group discussions and review of relevant studies and reports. The researchers should ensure that the assessment process takes into account the views of a cross-section of the borderland community, local civil-society/community based organizations, local officials etc. as well as engaging marginalized communities within the larger borderland communities (including women, youth, young women, and persons with disabilities). The rapid assessment process is expected to be carried out on both sides of a contiguous borderland. The Quartet will assist the assessment team in logistics, facilitating some of the interviews and provide the team with the reports and studies from the KH process.
I. Quartet organizations
II. IGAD secretariat and focal agencies
III. Research reports and studies from the KH process
IV. IGAD member states’ focal agencies and officials
V. Local government officials in border areas
VI. Representatives of borderland community-based organizations and borderland community representatives
VII. Civil society organizations engaged in cross-border projects
VIII. Relevant studies and reports on borders and borderlands in the IGAD region
The team will be expected to produce the following outputs:
I. Inception report and negotiated research plan that details lines of inquiry, definitions, data sources, methods for data collection, methods for data analysis, conflict considerations and time and budget planning
II. Data collection instruments and protocols
III. Draft study/report at the conclusion of the field visits
IV. A validation workshop for initial findings
V. Final copy-edited report/study following review (no more than 30 pages excluding annexes), including a stand-alone executive summary of no more than 5 pages.
I. Copy of the primary data collected
The assessment is expected to be carried out in 30 working days i.e. 45 calendar days and should be completed by July 15 2019. 15 2019
[1] International Boundaries Research Unit, ‘International Boundary Demarcation in the IGAD Region: A review of existing practice and thoughts on future developments’, unpublished report, April 2008.
[2] Korf, Benedikt & Timothy Rayemaekers. “Introduction: Border, Frontier and the Geography of Rule
at the Margins of the State” in Benedikt Korf & Timothy Raeymaekers eds.Violence on the Margins: States, Conflicts And Borders. 213. Palgrave Macmillan: NY. Pg: 9.
[3] Hoehne, Markus Virgil & Dereje Feyissa. ‘’Centering Borders and Borderlands: The Evidence from Africa’’ in Benedikt Korf & Timothy Raeymaekers eds. Violence on the Margins: States, Conflicts And Borders. 2013. Palgrave Macmillan: NY. Pgs: 56-64.
[4] CBSG is defined as cross-border multilateral or bilateral cooperation, coordination and collaboration among States, civil society and/or borderland communities to address threats and harness opportunities along their borders toward commonly shared peace, integration and prosperity.
[5]The policy framework document is the outcome of a research and consultative process led by the Collaborative Policy Analysis and Engagement (CPAE) Pilot, a joint initiative between the Intergovernmental Authority on Development-Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (IGAD-CEWARN), Organization for Social Science Research in Southern and Eastern Africa (OSSREA), Inter Africa Group (IAG) and the Life & Peace Institute-Horn of Africa Regional Program (LPI-HARP), (henceforth the Quartet) which began in 2014.
[6] Refer to section 4 of the IGAD policy framework on the ICBT-CBSG nexus.
[7] This refers to the Knowledge Harvest (KH) process: a research and analysis phase of the policy formulation process where existing knowledge and research was ‘harvested’ for input into the PF. The KH process led to the production of over 20 outputs and included seven member states of the IGAD (Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Sudan). It covered eight borderlands and border crossing points; Busia (Kenya-Uganda), Liboi-Dobhley (Kenya-Somalia), Moyale (Kenya-Ethiopia), Togowajale (Ethiopia-Somalia), Nimuley (South Sudan-Uganda), Abyei-South & West Kordofan(South Sudan- Sudan), Afar-Dikhil (Ethiopia-Djibouti), Metema-Al Qadarif-Kassala-Gash Barka (Ethiopia-Sudan-Eritrea).
The team will be expected to fulfill/possess the following qualifications and experiences:
I. Master’s degree or higher in relevant social science discipline
II. Prior experience or knowledge in project implementation and/or supervision in IGAD borderlands
III. Prior experience in research and assessments or on IGAD borderlands
IV. Prior publications from research in IGAD borderlands
V. Ability to communicate in any one of the relevant local languages (e.g. Arabic, Somali, Afar, Swahili, Oromifaa, Tigrinyaa etc.) would be an advantage
LPI will pay a daily fee for an agreed number of payable days. The number of days will be agreed upon
informed by the technical proposal of the evaluation team. The fee will be subject to negotiation.