Somalia: TOR CARSP II Baseline Project

PROJECT SUMMARY
Cash Assistance and Recovery Support Phase II Project (CARSP II) by Adeso aims to promote food security and maintain livelihoods of poor households through cash assistance and livelihood support in Lower juba and Mudug regions of Somalia. The project is targeting an estimated 7,450 households distributed by region of Lower Juba and Sanaag.
CARSP II is a 12 Months project between FFP-USAID and Adeso. CARSP II will continue to employ a community-driven development approach to strengthen social, economic and respond to emergency and recovery projects in Lower Juba and Mudug regions to provide support to vulnerable groups affected by emergency crisis through unconditional cash transfers, livelihoods training and provision of livelihoods inputs. These interventions aim at improving access to food, livelihood and to build resilience among most vulnerable households. Though targeting new villages and new caseload of beneficiaries, the project will build on the gains realized in CARSP phase I project implemented by Adeso in 2014-2015 that provided humanitarian assistance as part of emergency and recovery response and adopts a multi sector integrated strategies that link recovery interventions to resilience by strengthening on recovery efforts of livelihood.
The project strategy adopted by Adeso in implementing this project is direct implementation in all the regions thereby establishing presence in the project areas to provide opportunity of strengthening existing relationships with communities and stakeholders to ensure successful and effective implementation of the project.
The objective of the project, target clients, criteria of selection and Cash entitlement per targeted household is communicated through public forums. The Village Relief Committees selected have equal representation of women. Vulnerable groups including women are part of the process in all project area interventions hence emphasize interventions specific to women as an integral part of the project strategy. Adeso has strategically targeted female headed households in order to reach the most vulnerable in supporting the household fully.
OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The assignment is to carry out a comprehensive baseline assessment in the project areas of Lower juba and Mudug regions of Somalia which will serve as a baseline against which outcomes results will be measured at the end of the project.
The assessment will also help in providing programming information to define the livelihood opportunities to be strengthened in the course of the project helping Adeso refine targeting criteria to be employed in this project.
The baseline assessment will help determine the necessary market information to confirm the capacity of the market to absorb the cash-programming and livelihood inputs including the kinds of cash for work structures to be rehabilitated per village. Specifically, the study will focus on project oriented indicators including the wider Adeso impact measurement indicators linked to food security and livelihood thematic area with a view to establish market system for agricultural products and the absorption capacity for various skills, particularly on market integration and access.
The baseline survey on the markets to be undertaken should include:
• Beneficiaries profiling - an analysis of the current situation, market opportunities, gaps, and vulnerabilities and challenges to be addressed. This will be through identification of value chains that have economic potential in both domestic and international markets, for further analysis.
• An comprehensive analysis of the market situation and capacity in relation to cash for work, cash relief, livelihood input provision and skills training - including but not limited to an analysis of purchasing patterns, transport and distribution networks, agricultural inputs systems, market absorption capacity of vocational skills and other livelihood products.
• An assessment of the urban and rural market drivers and their role in creating enabling conditions for the different livelihood groups, covering contextual factors and identifying the gaps to be addressed.
• Recommendations for programmatic approaches to address the immediate priorities with regards to strengthening and expanding livelihood opportunities and systems.
SCOPE OF WORK
Desk Review
Review of existing secondary information and reports relevant to the project will be done. This will provide an analysis and discussion of facts and data within the assignment context. The literature will include among others Project proposal, Project log frame; Cash guidelines and other relevant literature as will be found necessary by the consultant.
Survey Design
With the facilitation of Adeso CARSP II staff and Adeso M&E focal point, the consultant will develop a participatory design where the main project stakeholders will be involved to give their input and views in the survey process. The data collection tools to be used should capture crosscutting issues particularly gender, governance, environment and accountability to the extent possible. The tools developed will be pre-tested to ensure that enumerators and the study population alike have the same understanding of the assessment topics, and revised based on identified shortcomings. This also includes translation of the study tools into Somali language where necessary.

Sampling Plan
The project target areas have been clustered geographically into two regions (Lower Juba and Mudug) which the survey is expected to observe. Samples should be drawn from each of the districts in proportion with the size of the targeted population. This technique is proposed for this study as it is most useful when the sampling units vary considerably in size as it assures that those in larger regions have the same probability of getting into the sample as those in smaller regions, and vice versa. This method will also facilitate easier planning for fieldwork because of the pre-determined number of respondents to be interviewed in each unit selected, and enumerators can be allocated accordingly.
As highlighted previously, the qualitative study will use participatory assessment tools such as focus group discussions. This will require that questions and tools used in the survey are open-ended to allow the collection of descriptive and detailed information from respondents. The qualitative component of the survey will provide a detailed understanding of food security and livelihoods; cash intervention issues and problems faced by communities in target areas. It will also complement the quantitative survey particularly addressing issues that were not collected at the beneficiaries households.
Data Collection and Analysis
Field data collection will be implemented by enumerators selected from regions of origin and supervised by the consultant. This will give the exercise the credibility it requires for wider acceptance of the survey findings by the community. The consultant will decide which statistical software to use for data analysis and provide human resource to undertake the data analysis. A data mask will be developed for entering the completed questionnaires after finalization, following pre-testing. Enumerators will be trained by the consultant on how to collect and analyze data in the field to build capacity at that level. A combined analysis will be done for the collected data to allow program level conclusions to be drawn.
Presentation of survey findings
The consultant will be responsible for writing and presenting the survey report working closely with Adeso field teams. The report will document findings and provide a benchmark for measuring outcomes of Project interventions. The consultant will present preliminary findings to both field and Nairobi programme teams after field work.
Deliverables

1. Inception Report to be reviewed by Adeso project teams: includes initial work plan and proposal for the baseline survey outlining the proposed methodology, survey tools, process of data collection and analysis as well as final set of data-collection tools for all indicators in the log frame.
2. Draft report of the baseline survey for the feedback and comments from Adeso Project staff
3. Presentation on the main findings of the baseline assessment at field level involving project teams, community representatives and local authorities.
4. Final report (three hard copies and a soft copy on CD ROM) in English which includes:
   a. Summary;
   b. Introduction;
   c. Methodology;
   d. Findings of the baseline study. Baseline information per indicator shall be presented;
   e. Conclusions and recommendations as per the program’s outcomes, outputs, activities, and indicators;
   f. Electronic annexes with the site-by-site raw data used for the analysis.
5. Summary version of the final report to be shared with project communities.
   CONSULTANCY PERIOD
   The consultancy will be for 30 days including the travel days.
   QUALIFICATION PROFILE
   • Postgraduate degree in Economics, food security and livelihood or agriculture related field.
   • At least five years of hands on experience in conducting assessments especially livelihood and cash intervention programming.
   • Strong background in monitoring and evaluation techniques.
   • Familiar with the livelihood context in Lower Juba and Mudug regions of Somalia.
   • Experience in developing and implementing gender sensitive baseline methodologies in livelihood and cash intervention frameworks.
   • Ability to analyze complex livelihood systems.
   • Good knowledge and experience in survey design, implementation of surveys and statistical data analysis.
   • Knowledge of Somali people, culture and the Somali political dynamics an advantage.
   • Previous experience doing similar assignment with Adeso is an added advantage
   INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
   All documentation related to the assignment shall remain the sole and exclusive property of Adeso.

Applications should be submitted to consultancy@adesoafrica.org with the subject line: Application for CARSP II Baseline not later than 8th February 2016. The selection committee consisting of the Project staff will review all applications as they arrive. All applicants must meet the minimum requirements described. The application must have one page cover letter; Technical proposal and proposed budget for the whole assignment. The application package should include the following:
• A one page application letter addressing the consultant’s previous experience and how it’s relevant to the proposed assignment. It should also indicate the candidate’s availability and consultancy rates.
• Technical proposal.
• Detailed budget.
• A sample of a recently written report for a similar assignment.
• Updated CVs for all consultants including relevant work experience and qualifications.
• Contact details for three references.