Vulnerability and Needs Assessment Scope of Work – Southeast Madagascar – Consultant

Vulnerability and Needs Assessment Scope of Work – Southeast Madagascar

Background:

ADRA is preparing for an upcoming RFSA funding opportunity in Madagascar which aims to help poor and vulnerable people in their efforts to combat poverty, improve food security, reduce vulnerability, and enhance household and community resiliency. The program development process will start with a vulnerability needs assessment in food insecure areas of Southeast Madagascar**,** so ADRA is seeking the services of a qualified consultant to conduct the assessment in the target areas.

The purpose of the assessment is to determine the vulnerability of the population to food and nutritional insecurity, health and WASH issues in the communities and to understand the shocks and response strategies of households and communities. It will also provide data to assess future changes in the vulnerability status among households and allow ADRA an unbiased opportunity to assess critical changes in the livelihoods of households living within program areas of the Southeast Madagascar.

In collaboration with ADRA International and ADRA Madagascar MEAL team, the consultant will concentrate in conducting the assessment in highly food insecure households and areas that are more vulnerable to shocks. The assessments will develop livelihood profiles of the communities and households and will serve as a key input for the 2024 Madagascar RFSA design. Quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis will: i) characterize the main issues and causes of food insecurity; ii)identify issues affecting the agriculture and livestock production/marketing iii) provide first-hand information on the characteristics of vulnerable and food insecure communities and households; iii) assess and analyze the current health and WASH issues affecting communities and iv) help understand HHs characteristics of the most vulnerable population including poor and extremely poor households for targeting purposes.

The consultant will lead the development of the assessment questionnaire with the ADRA M&E team including input and feedback form the technical teams and conduct the surveys and collect data. The consultant will also develop a qualitative questionnaire to collect data from the field. The qualitative assessment will include both Focus Groups and Key Informant interviews. The interviews with Key Informants will be conducted face to face by one of the team members, who will present the questions and will take notes on the responses. The gathered information will then combine with the preliminary report from the Focus Groups, to develop the final report on the qualitative assessment. Additionally, ADRA has data available from its current FIOVANA program that works in the same geographical area focusing on food security interventions. The data will be available to the consultant to be included in the assessment report. The consultant is expected to do a full desk review of the current data available from other food security projects and BHA documents on the food security situation in Madagascar and develop a secondary data collection report.

Assessment Objectives:

• Assess and evaluate the main challenges and risks including limited access to productive infrastructure and land, natural resources, agriculture and livestock production, marketing, and security and crime influence and their effects on vulnerabilities and food security in the region.
• Assess the risks and vulnerabilities of the population living in targeted regions of the Southeast Madagascar**;** and
• Understand the shocks and causes of vulnerability among different socioeconomic groups and regions and the coping strategies households employ in response to them.
  1. This should include the unique experiences of both existing residents and returnees/IDPs
• Identify strategies and interventions as potential solutions and ways of addressing the issues identified in the assessment.

The assessment will also address issues including livelihood strategies, income and expenditure patterns, food consumption patterns/dietary intake, access to services such as water and sanitation, education and health, social dynamics and the role of institutions and markets, each of which affects food security and nutritional status of the poor.

Data collection methodology

The assessment will focus on both quantitative and qualitative data that will be collected from the target households and communes, ADRA expects the consultant to collect information through household interviews, focus groups and key informant interviews. Analysis of qualitative data will enhance understanding about local livelihood systems – the economic, socio-cultural and political context and the constraints leading to food insecurity, vulnerabilities, marginalization, and risks of poor families living within this context. The consultant will develop a quantitative questionnaire and share it with the ADRA M&E team. Additionally, the consultant will develop qualitative tools that will be used for collection of qualitative data. ADRA M&E and technical teams will review both quantitative and qualitative tools and add more questions (if necessary) before the consultant start the data collection in the field.

The consultant is expected to oversee the completion of quantitative surveys within the sample area. The consultant will design a sampling strategy that allows findings from interviewed households to be generalized across the prospective target population. ADRA expect the sampling strategy and sampling frame in inclusive and include all the targeted communes for needs assessment. The consultant will need to budget for the logistics, enumerators and supervisors needed to collect quantitative household data as ADRA staff will not be available to assist at this level. Additionally, the consultants will provide the necessary training to these individuals and will conduct the qualitative data collection including focus group discussions and informant interviews.

Assessment Schedule and timeframe:

The consultant will develop a timeline (number of days) for the assessment that would include designing the quantitative and qualitative questionnaires, training enumerators, field work, data collection and cleaning, data analysis, report writing and presenting the assessment findings followed by a refinement stage as needed. The timeline should reflect a period of work beginning in August and terminating 1 week before the end of October 2023. ADRA expects the consultant submit a draft needs assessment report and initial data analysis by September 15, 2023.

All communication from the consultant to the ADRA M&E team will need to be in English, with all deliverables being provided in English as well. Translation of questionnaires for data collection from French/Malagasy-English or other local language will be provided by the consultant.

Main deliverables:

• Developing data collection plan including survey sample size and methodology
• Developing a quantitative and qualitative questionnaires in consultation with the ADRA technical and M&E teams after the bid is awarded.
• Conducting qualitative data collection including both focus group and key informant interviews
• Conducting a complete quantitative data set based on the survey questions
• Reviewing all the available current project data and BHA reports on food security, as well as secondary sources of data and incorporating the findings into the assessment report
• An interim report completed by first week of data analysis and incorporating and addressing ADRA team members comments/feedback into the report expected in mid-September.
• A final report of quantitative and qualitative surveys and findings
• Presenting the main findings of the assessment to ADRA team members during design workshop
• Submit all the final data sources, tools, datasets and all other relevant documents along with final report to ADRA M&E team.

Budget:

The consultant should provide a clear estimate of the cost associated with this bid for ADRA’s review. This is a competitive bid process with multiple applicants. However, ADRA maintains the right to select a final consultant based on their technical expertise, proposed methodology and timeline, and ability to deliver the final product. Cost does factor into that decision process, but should not be the main driver/limitation to the consultants proposal.

Proposal Contents:

The proposal prepared by the consultant for this bid should outline all of the information above. We expect the following documents to be shared as part of this proposal:

1. Narrative detailing:
   1. Background and Previous Experience of vulnerability needs assessment with similar USAID RFSA program
   2. Scope and Purpose of Assessment – How the consultant will accomplish the objectives stated above
   3. Propose sampling design including methodology for data collection and data analysis
   4. A timeline of activities showing when they would aim to complete key objectives
   5. List key team members (if additional team members are supporting the assessment) with their brief background in the humanitarian sector assessments and surveys
2. A budget detailing all the costs needed to accomplish the objectives above
   1. This should include all costs associated both with the consultant themselves and any logistics and staff (numerator) costs
3. Samples of previous relevant work (e.g. final reports, quantitative and qualitative tools) USAID RFSA relevant work documents preferred.