Development of Humanitarian Programming Strategy in Hard-to-Reach Areas (H2)

BRCiS Consortium

Development of Humanitarian Programming Strategy in Hard-to-Reach Areas (H2)

Terms of Reference

Introduction and 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 overall aim of the Consortium is to build the resilience capacities of the Somali communities to mitigate, cope, as well as recover from shocks.

The BRCiS Consortium is currently implementing a humanitarian response to the ongoing drought in Somalia funded by FCDO’s Humanitarian Assistance and Resilience Building in Somalia (HARBS) and USAID. The project supports vulnerable households to meet their basic needs and withstand the impacts of the drought and reduce the prevalence of wasting by increasing supply and demand of nutritious foods in communities affected by the drought More specifically, the objective of the response is to avert increased use of negative coping strategies, as well as avert rising morbidity and mortality rates. The response is integrated and focus on immediate lifesaving interventions including Health and Nutrition, Multi-purpose cash Assistance, access to Water, Hygiene and Sanitation facilities, and increasing supply and demand of nutritious foods in the drought affected communities.

The impact of the drought is compounded by difficulties of access to large parts of the country, as well as by excluding social dynamics that are pervasive in Somalia. The defining dynamic of a Hard to Reach (H2R) context is the hardships and constraints that are affecting the delivery of humanitarian assistance by NGOs, INGOs and other actors of the aid system. However, even in accessible locations, some long established social norms mean that affected groups are side-lined from the humanitarian assistance that they most need.

Both marginalisation and lack of access therefore reduce the system’s ability to reach and support some of the drought affected people and to reduce the most critical impacts of the drought, namely mortality and morbidity.

BRCiS’ intends to advance comprehension and knowledge on the drought and assistance dynamics that are taking place in areas that are hard to access for humanitarian actors.

Purpose of the research

The main purpose of this learning initiative is to design a strategy on how do humanitarian agencies operate in H2R and to understand the most effective and efficient ways to deliver humanitarian assistance and reach out to the most vulnerable people with no one to turn to in H2R.

BRCiS and other consortia and actors in Somalia have been piloting and testing modalities to deliver services in H2R areas. These are some of the constraints and barriers that have to be considered by these actors and projects:

• Access is restricted due to security challenges or road safety.
• Staff direct supervision may be impossible if security is not conducive
• Humanitarian team may not have direct access to beneficiaries to ensure that the assistance that is provided is reaching the most vulnerable people.
• Engagement with beneficiaries may be reduced, conducted with remote tools, or not happen at all.

As such, the BRCiS Consortium seeks to engage a research firm to conduct a learning exercise in sampled H2R locations and/or respondents and support in the development of humanitarian programming strategy in hard-to-reach areas to improve the humanitarian assistance delivery.

The specific objectives of this study included the following key thematic areas

1. What are the external or contextual conditions that make a location “Hard to Reach” for humanitarian agencies? How do these vary across targeted locations in Somalia?

2. What are the internal or operational conditions that make a location “Hard to Reach” for humanitarian agencies? How do these vary for different types of agencies?

3. What are the most effective ways to conduct need assessment in “Hard to Reach” locations? How could these vary by location (level of/reason for inaccessibility)?

4. What are the most effective and efficiency ways to deliver humanitarian assistance in H2R, and how to ensure the service delivery quality?

5. When services become available in H2R locations do all groups have access to these services? If not, who determines access to services and who is excluded?

6. Considering the various conditions (external and internal) that may make a location “Hard to Reach” and the various experiences of people leaving in these locations, what strategies can be employed to ensure the inclusive targeting and effectiveness of humanitarian interventions?

   1. Provide recommendations for community engagement, identification, verification, registration, and intervention impact evaluation
   2. Consider approaches including community-led targeting, local partnerships, group cash transfers.

7. How does working in a remote/H2R context affect the project targeting strategy and the project’s overall quality? What are the risks (for both beneficiaries and humanitarian agencies) it poses, and how to mitigate them?

8. What are the most effective methods for remote Monitoring in the H2R context, including project beneficiaries’ identification, verification, registration, and intervention impact evaluation?

9. Methodology

This study will utilize qualitative study approach to effectively extract meaning and understanding from Key Informant Interview (KII) and Focus Group Discussions (FGS) collected from different audiences and ensure the triangulation of information. All FGD/KII interviews to be recorded and transcript into English.

Specifically, the qualitative methods to employ include.

1. Literature review of similar learning subject, reports, and consortium project documents and policies, and to answer the following questions: Why is it imperative we reach people in H2R locations? what does the literature in Somalia say about this? What would we be averting by quick investments in these locations when shocks hit? When (what phase of the crisis, and how should we do this?
2. Qualitative data collection
3. Field based Data Collection in two districts of Southwest state (TBD later)

• Focus group discussions (a total of 8 FGDs, 4 FGDs in each target district)
• Key Informant Interview (8 KIIs, 4 KIIs in each target district) with project beneficiaries and community leaders/representatives.

1. Phone based data collection:

• Key informant interviews (~40 KIIs) with BRCiS consortium members, different humanitarian agencies, local authorities, and other relevant audiences.

The BRCiS team will be organized induction meeting with the consultancy to give more information about the consortium structure and learning exercise including target audiences, research questions, methodology, and consortium documents and policies.

1. Deliverables

Deliverables

No. of consulting days

Deliverables Timelines

Inception report – 2 days.

The actual work should start in mid of January 2022 and the final report submission is on 20th of March 2022.

Survey Design – 5 days

Data Collection (FGD and KII interviews) – 15 days

KII and FGD audio translation and transcription – 10 days

Data analysis – 7 days

Report writing (Final report) – 8 days

Feedback-sharing and revision of Final reports – 3 days

Total consulting days – 50 days

1. 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.

1. Estimated duration of the contract

It is estimated that the contract will take 50 days between January and March 2023.

1. Official travel involved

Some part of this study requires field data collection and requires travel to target districts for the data collection, quality control, and presentation of the final report. The selected consultant should cover all expenses related to the expected travel, and the call centre cost to reach out to some of the learning respondents through mobile phone.

1. APPLICATION PROCEDURES AND REQUIREMENTS

The consultant/consulting firm interested are expected to provide following documentation:

1. 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 (Terms of Reference) (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, logistics cost 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 related technical field(s) is required
• At least 4-6 years of experience in M&E/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 in policy
• Previous experience in similar assignments in Somalia
• Previous experience designing and implementing panel studies