TERMS OF REFERENCE:
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
BACKGROUND.. ................................................................................................3
Country Context ...................................................................................................3
PURPOSE OF THE THIRD-PARTY MONITORING SERVICES CONTRACT. ....3
Scope of Work...................................................................................................... 3
Condition of work................................................................................................... 4
Main Activities to be implemented:.......................................................................... 5
METHODOLOGY. ...................................................................................................6
Quantitative beneficiary sample surveys:............................................................... 6
Qualitative Rapid Rural Assessment (RRA) ............................................................6
Sampling Plan:........................................................................................................... 7
Location(s):.................................................................................................................. 7
Timings. ........................................................................................................................7
ORGANIZATIONAL REQUIREMENTS. ........................................................................7
Others:............................................................................................................................ 7
Expertise profile. ............................................................................................................7
Deliverables /Reports. ..................................................................................................8
BACKGROUND
Country Context
Somalia is a country of 637 540 square kilometers, situated within the Horn of Africa with a population estimated to be between 15 million. About 60% of the population lives in the rural areas, where livelihoods are largely dependent upon livestock and agriculture. The incidence of poverty in Somalia is very high both in rural and urban areas. The harsh, predominantly arid climate characterised by erratic rainfall and recurrent dry spells severely limits the potential of agriculture and livestock production. Somalia’s natural environment is extremely fragile, and must support a rapidly growing population.
Despite the tremendous challenges faced over the last three decades and those still looming, the livestock and crops sectors remain the main sources of economic activity, employment and exports for Somalia. Historically, the sector represented about 40-60% of the country’s GDP and its share has in all likelihood grown substantially in recent decades. Improving the agricultural sector’s performance will not only contribute to the country’s overall economic recovery and growth, but will also have important effects on cementing peace and security, strengthening livelihoods, alleviating poverty and malnutrition, increasing resilience to increasingly frequent and severe weather shocks, and enhancing health outcomes in both rural and urban areas. The role of IRWS in supporting the building resilience and developing the provision of basic services and agricultural sector is crucial. This support extends across the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) nexus, whereby IRW Somalia is providing relevant support to the Somali people depending on the context.
‘’Normal rainy seasons” are no longer the norm in Somalia. The damaged and degraded infrastructure, climate change with frequent drought and floods, and global impact of COVID 19 pandemic is compounding the situation. An estimated 3.5 million Somalis are acutely food insecure based on updated projections issued by Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) in September 2021.
Rural people need urgent access to WASH, health, Education and livelihood assistance to purchase and produce food. Cash transfers offer a vital safety net to families that lost production, assets and income, and cannot otherwise meet basic needs. Providing cash in rural areas not only fights hunger, but also minimizes displacement and the sale of productive assets that ultimately feed people. When a pastoral family sells its last animals, it loses out on the milk, income, offspring, and other food security benefits of those animals. The same goes for farmers who sell off their land in distress. Cash can be especially effective in preventing displacement when combined with livelihood and social service support or linked to cash for work.
IRWS experience and assessment show that providing shelter, cash transfer and WASH facilities for the displaced people reduces impact of emergency shocks. Provision of farm inputs and seedlings and timely animal health intervention early improves resilience. Integrated provision of primary health and education, sustainable livelihood intervention is critical in building the pathways to recovery and economic growth.
PURPOSE OF THE THIRD-PARTY MONITORING SERVICES CONTRACT
The Third-Party Monitoring Contract has the main objective of monitoring the delivery of key inputs and services as well as assessing the impact of the program on the target beneficiaries. This will also contribute to organizational learning as new modalities are set.
Scope of Work
The scope of work of this TPM contract covers the provision of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) services to IRS upon request of specific studies or exercises. The period of this service will be twelve (12) months from the date of contract signature, and renewable based on the performance of firm.
The scope of work covers the entire geographic areas where IRS operates in Somalia, which includes all regional states.
The stakeholders of the project for TPM shall be specified and will be provided by IRS when the contract is activated. Stakeholders typically may include Government line ministries at both federal and regional levels; Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), both national and international; professional associations, Community elders and leaders, Community groups (youth/ women etc), business groups (VSLA, Business associations etc), Religious leaders, project beneficiaries, community-based and civil society organizations; universities, regional/ international organizations where applicable, for example IGAD and United Nations agencies.
General scope of works will either be of a high- or low-profile nature. The exact nature of the assignment will depend on proposed methodology, sensitivity, type of information being requested and local security context at the time of deployment.
The TPM Contractor will focus mainly on routine monitoring, verification/information gathering activities, and impact assessment studies. The purpose of the TPM report is to provide additional information about a situation and/or ascertain the veracity of claims made by project team or partner (if any) relating to the project, including in contents where the facts may be complex, hidden or seemingly contradictory.
For each technical study or verification mission, the TPM Contractor will be provided with a detailed Terms of Reference, with clear information about the project’s activities, the total targeted beneficiaries, the areas of intervention and all relevant documentation pertaining to the project. The TPM Contractor will be expected to have the ability to use mobile phones for data collection, GPS enabled cameras and knowledge of data analysis and report writing. They will also be able to adopt combined research methods and approaches that utilize, for example, both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. The TPM mission will be expected to conduct the TPM mission independent of IRS staff and facilities.
The procurement of these services is not expected to replace the project audit undertaken or the internal monitoring and evaluation systems of IRS. These third-party services are expected to provide an independent perspective of IRS project activities. The TPM contractor should expand M&E services into areas inaccessible to IRS staff due to security reasons and/or enable the expansion of the project M&E for the IRS project activities.
Condition of work
The third monitoring monitor will be responsible for its own arrangement for security, transportation, communications, logistics, accommodation and insurance within Somalia.
Facilitators are employed and supervised by the TPM, and all administrative and entitlement-related matters (including salaries, allowances, insurances, working premises, stationery and office equipment/supplies, computer equipment and transportation) will be provided and managed by TPM contractor.
TPM provide a service to IRS, and are not considered IRS staff members or consultants. Being contracted by the TPM does not carry any expectation of being considered for IRS positions. The TPM staff are not expected to work at IRS offices.
Upon signing of the contract with the TPM contractor, facilitators will be asked to sign a Code of Conduct which will bind them to an agreed set of standards governing their conduct. While facilitators are not IRSstaff members, they are required to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the Principles of the IRS code of conduct as well as humanitarian principles.
Main Activities to be implemented:
The M&E activities that will be implemented by TPM contractor will cover technical studies and verification missions of the IRS programmes and projects. The TPM Contractor will be requested to conduct M&E activities that include data collection from beneficiary, household and community levels using both quantitative and qualitative methods in line with activities included the project documents. These assessments and data collection tasks will mainly cover the below activities of IRS program:
· Undertake regular field visits to monitor projects/programmes. Field monitoring will focus on:
o Assessing project/programme implementation according to the Work Plan
o Verification of supplies delivered, any delays and bottlenecks;
o Post-distribution monitoring of supplies to assess the beneficiaries’ views in terms of quality, timeliness and relevance of supplies delivered. Within 3 days following the field visit the facilitator produces a field trip report according to the standard format
· Monitor the overall performance of project/programme implementation and validate the data in the progress reports prepared by implementing partners. Reports any actual or potential deviation from implementation plans.
· Monitoring and assessment of cash-based interventions: including Cash for Work and Unconditional Cash. This activity is to confirm that beneficiaries have received the cash assistance in the right amount, on the right time and that no taxation took place. The activity will confirm compliance with selection and targeting criteria. The activity will also assess double registration, correctness of beneficiary list, and the impact of cash in meeting food security, and other, needs of the household, as well as the management of the infrastructure rehabilitated by CFW.
· Monitoring of WASH facilities- this includes checking water trucking, quality and performance of water facilities and water points, usage and quality of emergency and permanent latrines, review the application of SPHERE standards in the provision of facilities, quality of water trough for livestock consumption, irrigation canals, water tanks etc. provided to improve livelihood.
· Vaccination, provision of primary health care and emergency treatment: mainly confirming activities, quality and ensuring compliance with standards.
· Fodder and drought tolerant seeds provision and production: confirming relevance, quantity and quality and PDA.
· Agricultural Inputs Distribution: post distribution monitoring of agricultural inputs and training in GAP (Good Agronomic Practices).
· Crop yield assessments: assessing the impact of the agricultural inputs using PET (Pictorial Evaluation Tool) that includes car and walking transects to estimate yields.
· FSL assessment: Fisheries and VSLA: monitor and verify registration of members, selection criteria, and distribution of startup capital, inputs and assess the impact of the interventions on target beneficiaries.
· Capacity development assessment of all stakeholders, including VSLA members, beneficiaries, elders, market actors and government counterparts, applying the Kirkpatrick model of training evaluation.
· Impact assessments using standardized tools for above activities. This also includes WASH, agricultural, VSLA, and Fisheries project Impact assessments
· Resilience impact measurement and analysis surveys.
· Compliance verifications and assessment missions to assess compliance with standards and risk mitigation measures of IRS. This includes interviewing Key Informant persons, community representatives, VSLA traders, elders and beneficiaries.
· Beneficiary verification and feedback for Accountability to Affected Populations
· Direct observation and on-site verification on the implementation of programmes
· Service delivery verification
· Post-distribution monitoring
· Situational Analysis of population and operational environment.
· Seasonal programmes Ramadhan, Qurbani, Aqeeqa, Zakat)
METHODOLOGY
IRS has developed various approaches and tools for M&E for compliance with standards, results monitoring/measurement and impact assessment. These methodologies and tools are available on EBMS platform and may be made available to the TPM contractor for use. If needed.
For the technical review, the TPM contractor will adopt a combined approach that utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methods. The TPM contractor will conduct a sample survey to collect quantitative data from beneficiaries to measure the direct impact of the interventions on beneficiaries on the household food security as well as the impact on the livelihoods. The contractor will design and administer rapid rural assessment (RRA) approaches /exercise to collect and analyze qualitative information.
A Post Distribution Assessment (PDA) will be conducted for all interventions to assess compliance with standards for distribution of assistance and to measure the impact of the interventions on beneficiaries, especially in relation to building their resilience through ensuring food security and protecting their productive assets.
Quantitative beneficiary sample surveys:
To collect quantitative data, a sample survey will be conducted for each study or mission and will cover a representative sample of beneficiaries adopting a stratified cluster random sampling technique. The data collected during the survey should be entered instantly at the field level using Open Data Kit (ODK) in mobile phones and instant quality assurance protocols will be applied at zonal and Nairobi levels to ensure the quality of the data collected and entered. If the mobile phone cannot be used in data collection for technical or security reasons, hard copy questionnaires should be used and the data should be entered and uploaded once a suitable site has been reached. The refined data will be stored on IRS EBMS system to avoid breach of data protection.
The IRS technical team have developed standard/generic questionnaires and tools, which collect data that will enable the measurement of the indicators needed for assessing the impact of interventions on the beneficiaries. The questionnaires may be modified by the Contractor in consultation with IRS technical sections and should be tested in the field to ensure its applicability before it is finalized.
Qualitative Rapid Rural Assessment (RRA)
The beneficiary Impact Assessment study methodology will also apply a qualitative Rapid Rural Assessment (RRA) approaches/ exercise. The RRA approach used should apply all principles of participatory research and evaluation including the adoption of multiple tools as appropriate to enable verification and triangulation of information. These may include the following RRA tools:
· Review of Secondary Information
· Key Informant Interviews (KII)
· Group Interviews
· Focus Group Discussions (FGD)
· Direct Observation
· Visual methods (Mapping, ranking and scoring)
The RRA exercise will be designed and administered by the TPM Contractor to collect and analyze information at the third and fourth levels of the evaluation model, which include the impact of the food security interventions at the Household and community levels, improvement of the livelihoods of the community as well as the spill-over impact on the community members.
Sampling Plan:
The TPM contractor is expected to apply a multi-stage stratified cluster random sample to select the study sample in terms of districts, villages and beneficiaries. The sample will be proposed by IRS and discussed with Contractor. The Contractor will perform data collection in all the sampled areas.
Location(s):
The study will be conducted in all the areas of IRS programme intervention in Somalia, which may include Puntland, Somaliland, and all states of South-Central Somalia. The actual sites will be confirmed by IRS for each study/mission.
Timings
The contract will commence from signature and will be completed within twelve months.
ORGANIZATIONAL REQUIREMENTS
The TPM contractor should meet the following criteria:
· Capacity to carry out field monitoring and reporting of development/humanitarian interventions;
· Capacity to arrange all the logistical arrangements for field staff and actual field work;
· Field monitors who are native Somali speakers, with knowledge of the culture/ practices/ security situation in the areas to be monitored;
· Trained and qualified female and male (preferably 50% each) staff available for monitoring and reporting.
Others:
· The TPM contractor should be a registered entity with the relevant authorities in Somalia and regions of operation.
· The TPM contractor should have experience in humanitarian/development operations. Experience of working in Somalia and monitoring of programmes would be an advantage.
· The TPM contractor should have field presence with established physical offices and adequate personnel in the Somalia sites.
· The TPM contractor should be apolitical and should be willing to provide services to all people regardless of race, nationality, ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, etc. It should be an organization with no political affiliation or association with parties to a conflict. It must also enjoy positive relations with community members. In addition, if no prior experience with targeted community the partner must work towards building a positive relationship with the community.
· The TPM partner should have a transparent institutional and financial management framework including but not limited to technical knowledge, information management systems and documentation, accounting and audit practice.
· Due diligence needs to be maintained through vetting of Third-Party partners against applicable counter-terrorism legislation and regulation.
Expertise profile
The Consulting firm should have a team that should be made up of at least one Team Leader, one Deputy Team Leader, two Data Analysts as well as supporting team in the field, which will include Field Data Collection supervisors and enumerators and. The experts must be ready to travel across Somalia, Puntland and Somaliland. The exercise calls for the deployment of the following team:
· Team Leader (1)
· Deputy Team Leader (1)
· Data Analysts (2)
· Field Data Collection Supervisors (10)
· Enumerators (20).
Deliverables /Reports
All reports shall be in English language. Technical reports will vary in terms of timelines depending on the study or mission undertaken. It is expected that all reports for compliance verification missions will be shared within 3 days of completion of data collection. The report summary should use flag and /or color codes (red, amber and Green) for each activity for ease of action. A Quick Action Report (QAR) will be expected two days after a mission has started. This will aim to ensure immediate remedial action is taken when red flag is raised. All technical reports for studies as mentioned in the activities section will be submitted to IRS not more than one month after the completion of data collection activities in the field. The Contractor team shall ensure the following, which will be prepared in English and which will be shared with IRS:
· Inception report including Methodology, Tools and SOPs within two weeks of signing contract;
· A weekly update of all studies or missions currently ongoing;
· Work plan and Timelines (including details on development and testing of monitoring tools, regular feedback between IRS and TPM. Any other key actions that the organization(s) should undertake should also be outlined in the work plan.
· Database of all information collected in the field, whether through mobile data collection or on paper-based forms. Reports for each site visited should be rapidly retrievable and deposited in IRS EBMS.
· Full sets of photos and videos collected including details of the dates, locations, and the project site visited. Where possible the field monitors should provide some more background information on each set of photos/ videos.
· Analytical monitoring reports one month after completion (covering - Beneficiary verification and feedback for Accountability to Affected Populations, Direct observation and on-site verification on the implementation of programmes, Service delivery verification, Post-distribution monitoring and Situational Analyses of population and environment) consolidating information from all sites visited and aggregating those reports by marker including the geographical area/ implementing partner.
· Quick Action Report as well as final mission reports for the verification missions undertaken;
· Technical reports one month after the completion of the study
· Two hard copy and soft copy of the reports shall be delivered to the country director. Depending on management decision, the TPM may be required to make presentation of the findings to the management team.
Reporting
The TPM Lead will report exclusively to the Country Director.
How to apply:
If you or your organization is interested to apply and have met all the criteria listed above, you can send your application which include: (i) Your understanding of the Terms of Reference including a detailed methodology, how and the process of carrying out the assignment, (ii) Financial proposal with clear details of costing etc. (iii) and all supporting documents to: Cd.Somalia@islamic-relief.or.ke
The deadline for application will be 5pm: 31st December, 2021