Consultancy: Qualitative Learning on BRCiS Community Water Voucher and Project Impact Evaluation

Background:

The Building Resilient Communities in Somalia (BRCiS) Consortium was founded in 2013. The Consortium comprises of six international organizations namely Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)—the lead agency—, Action Against Hunger (ACF), CESVI, Concern Worldwide (CWW), International Rescue Committee (IRC), and Save the Children plus two national NGOs—GREDO and KAALO. The Consortium touches upon the “humanitarian-development nexus” and complements short-term humanitarian aid with long-term development assistance. The overall aim of the Consortium is to build the resilience of the Somali communities to mitigate, cope and recover from shocks.

Consultancy rationale:

The BRCiS Consortium is currently implementing a humanitarian response to the ongoing drought in Somalia funded by FCDO’s Internal Risk Facility (IRF). The project supports the vulnerable households to meet their basic needs and withstand the impacts of the drought.

BRCiS is looking for companies to deliver a number of services in relation to the evaluation of the project impact and learning on community water voucher.

LOT 1: Project Impact Evaluation.

The Consortium aims to engage a consultancy to draft a report on the impact of the project based on the baseline, post-distribution monitoring (PDM) and endline surveys. More specifically, the data collection of these surveys will be conducted by the Consortium MEAL teams and the role of the consultancy will be to clean, analyse and draft a final report based on these datasets. Tentatively, the duration of the consultancy will be 25 days as detailed below. The baseline, PDM and Endline panel data set is around 5,000 HHs.

Check deliverables here

LOT 2: Learning partner to conduct a qualitative study on BRCiS community water voucher

The Consortium is looking for a consultancy to design and roll out qualitative learning on the BRCiS community water voucher through FGDs and KII interviews. The general objective of this learning is to look into the community water voucher cost analysis, value for money, implementing partners’ policies, risks & compliance, implementation challenges and community accountability. A detailed concept note will be shared with the consultant. The role of the consultancy will be to design the qualitative questionnaire, collect the data at field level through focus group discussion and key informant interviews, translation of interview discussions into English, qualitative data analysis and writing the final report. Tentatively, the duration of the consultancy will be 40 days as detailed below. The target locations are 6 districts in central and southern Somalia (southwest, Jubaland, and Galmudug). The consultant will conduct a minimum of one FGD with the community, and three KII interviews with local authorities, water suppliers, implementing partners, and community representatives in each district (a total of 6 FGDs and 18 KIIs)

Check deliverables here

Supervisor

The supervisor of the consultant is the BRCiS M&E Manager. More generally, the Consultant(s) will collaborate with the Consortium’s M&E and Program Teams and with relevant Technical Working Groups to produce and publish the commissioned report.

Estimated duration of the contract

It is estimated that the contract of the first and second slots will take approximately 25 and 40 days respectively between June and September 2022.

Official travel involved

For the first slot:

• This is primarily a home-based assignment, but the selected consultant may be required to travel to the region to present report findings. In this case, the Consortium will cover traveling costs, which are calculated based on economy class travel, regardless of the length of the trip. For context, NRC will do the booking for the flights, but applicants should consider all other potential travel costs, including meals, accommodation and in-country transport.

For the Second slot:

• This is field-based assignment and it requires travel to the field for qualitative data collection, quality control, presentation of the final report. The selected consultant should cover all expenses related to the expected travel.

APPLICATION PROCEDURES AND REQUIREMENTS

Each consultant should apply to only one of the two slots depending on their capacities. The consultant/consulting firm interested are expected to provide following documentation:

1. 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.
2. 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)
3. Resume of the consultant, or each team member for firms
4. Evidence of experience conducting similar assignments (Samples of similar work)
5. Proposed budget indicating consultancy fee, costs of enumerators/ data collection, and all other auxiliary costs in USD.

Qualifications or specialized knowledge and/or experience required

• An advanced university degree (Master’s) in Quantitative & Qualitative Social Sciences, Economics, Econometric and cost analysis, Statistics or a directly-related technical field(s) is required
• At least 4-6 years of experience in M&E/ impact evaluation and qualitative research or a related field
• Substantial research work in qualitative surveys or a related field with a geographical focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, preferably on the drylands of the Horn of Africa
• Extensive experience both in qualitative and quantitative methods
• Previous experience in similar assignments in Somalia
• Previous experience designing and implementing panel studies