Invitation for Consultancy Service to conduct
Assessment to determine factors that contribute to increasing community and household resilience and increase perception towards disaster-drought
About CRS: “Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.”
In Ethiopia, CRS has a long and rich history of providing emergency relief and development assistance to the people of Ethiopia since 1958. At present, CRS/Ethiopia implements multiple projects through different partner organizations. CRS/Ethiopia has a highly diverse portfolio ranging from very large food-supported emergency response to cutting edge development programs. The current CRS/Ethiopia budget stands at around $100 million with funding from the U.S. Government, UN agencies, private foundations, individual donors, and CRS private funds.
CRS strictly adheres to its Policy on Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults among its staff, consultants, volunteers, and affiliates. CRS is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer: women, minorities and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
1. REAAP Background
1.1.CRS and implementing partners
CRS Ethiopia in partnership with three consortium members: ECC-SDCOH, Cordaid and Handicap International implements a three-year USAID-funded Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CM-DRR) activity called Resilience through Enhanced Adaptation, Action-learning and Partnerships (REAAP) in six drought prone and chronically food insecure woredas (Fedis, Midhega Tola and Meta) of East Hararghe zone and (Mieso, Oda Bultum and Tulo) of West Hararghe Zone of Oromia Regional State. REAAP is designed to sustainably increase resilience and reduce long term vulnerability to current and future climate change and climate-related shocks and stresses in 100 kebeles of targeted Woredas. It will strengthen linkages and learning through a focus on CM-DRR process, which will enhance community learning and action by highlighting the link and inter-dependencies among livelihoods, food security, nutrition, and natural resource management and by creating community DRR action plans.
REAAP has reached 371,000 people out of the total target of 475,000 (95,000 direct and 380,000 indirect) people affected by frequent drought and chronic food insecurity. As a strategy the CM-DRR method will be the vehicle and community DRR facilitators and community DRR committees will be the drivers to iteratively develop, refine, and share technical and indigenous knowledge to inform livelihood choices and develop successful adaptation models.
REAAP purpose: Communities of East and West Hararghe have sustainably increased resilience and reduced long term vulnerability to current and future climate change and climate-related shocks and stresses. With this overall purpose is working to achieve the following three intermediate results (IRs) described below:
IR 1: Communities have improved access to technical information and analytical tools for decision making.
IR 2: Communities identify and implement actions that increase resilience to climate variability, long-term climate change and climate-related shocks.
IR 3: Systems for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation around DRR and climate change adaptation are established and strengthened through working with government and other stakeholders.
The purpose of the assessment is to determine factors that contribute to increasing community and household resilience and increase perception towards disaster-drought.
Specific objectives
Identify improved technologies that make communities resilient to 2015-2016 El Niño by livelihood zones.
Identify factors to be promoted to increase communities’ resilience to disaster- drought.
Examine how REAAP increased communities’ perception on drought (before, during and after drought).
Develop community resilience framework for three livelihood zones (via examining REAAP promoting adaptive practices to increase innate resilience).
2. Use of assessment findings
REAAP will use the finding for implementation of pending activities towards to ensure sustainability and adaptability. In addition, REAAP will share its learning and good practices with donor, partner, local government and people it serves.
3. Scope of Work
REAAP would like to conduct this assessment based on the livelihood/agro-ecological zones in its operational area. The assessment will be conducted by consultant. Data will be gathered from the six Woredas (Meta, Fadis & Midhega Tola) of East Hararghe zone and (Mieso, Oda Bultum and Tullo) Woredas of West Hararghe Zone based on the three livelihood zones: farming, agro-pastoral and pastoralist. To address the specific objectives, the multi-disciplinary team is expected to apply standard methodologies and measurement tools that will identify determinant factors for increment of household or/and community resilience.
The consultant is advised to employ quantitative and multi-qualitative techniques; and approaches of data gathering, analyzing and validation in order to produce standard reports. And also to analyze profile of beneficiaries into wealth groups per livelihood zone: working with different wealth groups – research land holding size and what the associated trends are.
The method and tools should analyze beneficiary perception of the 2015-2016 el Nino drought, help to develop a 20-year drought severity time line. Map this with a three or four-fold drought classification: very severe – severe - moderate – weak. Then find out from the informants what ‘indicators’ they use to determine severity. Then using these indicators – try to discuss the impact of the different drought classes. In addition, REAAP suggest use of appropriate framework (USAID’s Resilience Framework) during development and implementation of the assessment.
3.2. Sources of data and data collection methods
Quantitative technique: Population-based quantitative household survey to measure how the households have benefited from REAAP interventions. The consultant is advised to employ structured household questionnaire involving community members and implementing partners’ staff.
Qualitative techniques: the consultant is advised to employ multiple qualitative approach such as key informant interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), document reviews and site observations.
The consultant (s) shall select appropriate methods of quantitative and qualitative data analysis using narration or any other relevant packages of statistical software. S/he shall use quotation, photos and case stories to substantiate the narrative findings.
Share reports and other relevant documents with consultant;
Explain TOR and other related issues if not clear;
Support the consultant in understanding purpose of REAAP; and
Review research design, methodology and data collection tools and draft report and give comments.
Responsible for developing comprehensive evaluation questions, and research design including sampling strategy, methodology, and data collection instruments and tools;
Review and analyze key project documents: technical proposal, annual work plan, Result Frame Work and theory of change;
Work closely with CRS, implementing partners (ECC-SDCOH, Cordaid and Handicap International) and woreda government sector offices in planning and implementation of the field work;
Discuss and agree on schedule, and other arrangements for the assessment;
Ensure the collected data is to the standard and with integrity;
Submit all the raw and processed data with disaggregation;
Ensure the assessment is an input for the project implementation and improvement;
Conduct validation forum/workshop at community level so that overlooked points can be incorporated and draft report finalized;
Facilitate consultative meeting (dissemination event) with CRS and other stakeholders;
Produce and submit progress reports: field report, first draft, second and final reports; and
Provide evidence based recommendation for the REAAP activity.
3.6.Reporting and dissemination plan
3.6.1. Assessment report
The program management unit requests different reasonable reports to make sure that the work is done. So, some of major reports will be:
Report 1: Report produced before the actual field work that contains final field data collection tools and proposed methods of analysis.
Report 2: Report regarding piloting the data collection and analysis tools and reflection on feedback on the tools from the pilot, if any.
Report 3: It refers to reporting the output of the field work: challenges encountered, changes made to data collection tools, points/feedback that needs immediate action and response from PMU.
Report 4: Cleaned raw data
Report 5: Draft and final report in standard format. The final report shouldn’t exceed 30 pages and of the following format:
Cover page: Title page with date, logos and RFA #, name of the organization.
Executive summary: a brief of maximum of two pages description of the objectives, main findings (key action and learning points), methodology, recommendations and conclusions of the assessment.
Introduction
Objective of the assessment
Brief description of REAAP
Methodology
Detail analysis of findings in depth discussion
Summary of disaggregated findings
Cross cutting issues: Gender and disability inclusion
Key learning and action points
Promising and good practices
Conclusions and Recommendations
Annexes: TOR, case study , data collection tools, action plan, list of sites visited, list of key informants, FGD, and other credentials.
The major findings and recommendations of the assessment will be communicated to both communities and other stakeholders. The approaches to be employed could be meeting/workshop and report.
3.7.1.Timeline
The timeline for the activity will be 25 days: major activities such as data collection; data processing/analyzing; conducting validation forum/workshop; first draft and final report with suggested number of days are depicted in the following table.
No. of days | Activity | Deliverables | Approach |
1 day | Development of study plan with data collection checklist/tools to be used & logistical requirements included if required | Inception report on the proposed activities a maximum of 10 pages (report 1) | Desk review |
1 day | Incorporating feedback into plan and data collection tools | Finalized plan and tools (report 2) | Office work |
1 day | Researcher (s) orient the co-researcher on study plan and final tools\checklists | Orientation session | Meeting |
12 days | Data collections from communities | Raw data (report 3) | Participatory |
2 days | Data collections from sector government offices and other stakeholders | Raw data (report 3) | Interview |
5 days | Data analysis and draft report writing | First draft comprehensive report (report 4) |
Office work |
Data analysis and compilation of draft, final report and documents | Draft documents/report | ||
1 day | Community level validation workshop | Proceeding of validation workshop | Workshop |
2 days | Submit a final report after comments from reviewer and validation workshop | Final report (report 5) | Office work |
Inception report with comprehensive assessment questions, and research design including sampling strategy and methodology for the assessment (maximum of 10 pages);
Finalized plan and data collection tools;
Raw data collected and stored in appropriate soft/hard copy format;
A processed/analyzed data using appropriate methods;
Proceeding of validation workshop;
First draft report;
A comprehensive report of not more than 15 pages with clear findings, actions and recommendations that support implementation of REAAP;
Case study;
High resolution and self-explanatory photos.
The financial proposal (2 page max) should be drafted by the consultant during submission of the bid. As part of the financial proposal, the budget needs to be provided for each line of activities to be accomplished.
The consultant (s) should adhere to the following ethical issues:
All terms/conditions stipulated in the contract agreement.
Conducting the assessment in a respectful manner: this includes not making any commitments to communities and any other persons, on behalf of CRS Ethiopia, USAID and partners.
Adhering to time-frame and conditions outlined in the SoW and agreement.
Confidentiality of the collected and analyzed data and photos.
Location of work: The assessment will be conducted in the selected woreda among Tullo, Fedis, M/Tola, Meta, Miesso, Oda Bultum Woredas.
The consultant (s) should have the following qualification and experience:
Master’s or Ph.D. that included high-level coursework or professional continuing-education training in Agricultural Economics, Rural Development, Food Security and Disaster Risk Management or related field.
At least 10 years of practical work experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative evaluation/ assessment of ongoing project and producing quality reports.
Demonstrable experience of knowledge and information management system.
Familiar with project intervention areas.
Expertise level in English writing and communication as well as Afan Oromo Language.
Demonstrable experience in use of mobile data collection for household survey is desirable.