Somalia: Baseline Assessment for the employment intensive project for youth in Lower Juba (Dhobley and Afmadow), Somalia

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

Adeso is an expanding and vibrant African based international development and humanitarian organization. At Adeso, we work with African communities who are yet to realize their full potential; working inside these communities to create environments in which Africans can thrive. Our belief that economic, social and environmental security is the bedrock of a healthy community drives the nature and intent of our programming. We work to prevent and overcome situations that adversely affect community well-being by: reinvigorating the economy, developing skills for life and work, providing humanitarian aid, and influencing policy.

For the past 20 years we have strengthened rural livelihoods through environmental awareness, training, technology transfer and innovative humanitarian projects in pursuit of a peaceful, self-reliant, and greener future. Currently, Adeso has programs in Somalia, Kenya and South Sudan. Adeso is an exciting and dynamic organization experiencing managed rapid growth. It offers sound employment conditions with opportunities for personal growth and development.

PROJECT SUMMARY

The employment intensive project for youth in Lower Juba region of Somalia aims at supporting youth in finding sustainable employment through creation of labour intense employment opportunities. This will be done through the rehabilitation of infrastructure and community assets through cash-for-work activities and the construction of youth friendly and income generating micro-projects. The intensive employment works are aimed at empowering vulnerable groups such as the unskilled and unemployed youth to improve their livelihoods. The infrastructure project will focus on building community resources and contribute to an overall reduction in poverty levels.

Adeso will target unemployed youths in Dhobley and Afmadow for this intervention that often lacks livelihood opportunities and sustainable incomes for their families.. Target youth beneficiaries will be permanent residents in the project area and willing to engage in the planned activities that will both benefits the communities and themselves directly. The project will specifically target the unemployed youth with no or very low household income. To ensure that women are not left out, Adeso will target 30% female beneficiaries in all the planned activities. The youth selection criteria will meet the definition of youths in the context. Adeso will engage registered youth associations that are operational in the project locations and facilitate the formation of youth groups where they do not exist

The project intervention strategy will employ the Inclusive Community Based Targeting (ICBT) methodology which engages the targeted community to ensure fair representation and public auditing of the beneficiary selection process. ICBT has been used by Adeso in the Somalia context extensively and successfully in previous interventions. The process of ICBT includes community mobilization, community-based selection of beneficiaries, public verification and validation of the beneficiary list and establishing a Village Relief Committee (VRC) to ensure full community participation.

The project design and delivery process is sensitive to the needs of the most vulnerable groups in terms of access, age, gender inclusion, safety and security thus will ensure that supervisors are created through open nomination and selection by community members, ensuring representation of all sectors and interest groups.

Adeso will closely work with the Afmadow and Dhobley communities in the implementation process, with communities having active role in the infrastructure identification for rehabilitation, having continuous joint monitoring of the intervention with regular and periodic reviews. In addition, the project will be closely coordinated with other stakeholders and actors on ground to ensure complementarity and synergy with the recovery and development initiative in the region.

Adeso is looking for highly qualified and suitable consultant to carry out the baseline assessment in the project areas of Lower Juba (specifically in Afmadow and Dhobley).

OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The objective of the assessment is to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the project areas of Lower Juba (Dhobley and Afmadow districts) of Somalia to generate first-hand information to be used for project planning and benchmarking against which will serve as a target setting exercise against which outcomes results will be measured at the end of the project.

The comprehensive baseline assessment will help determine the necessary socio-economic situation and bring forth data to inform the proportion, capacity and level of available resources in the communities. Specifically, the study will focus on food security and WASH indicators with a view to establish economic systems for food production and the market absorption capacity for various skills, particularly the level of market integration and access. The specific objectives will include:

• Community mapping and profiling of target communities - an analysis of the current situation, economic opportunities, gaps, and vulnerabilities and challenges to be addressed.
• An analysis of the market capacity including but not limited to an analysis of purchasing patterns, transport and distribution networks, seed and tool systems, market absorption capacity of vocational skills and other livelihood products.
• An examination of the costs of production, market interconnectedness, beneficiary perceptions and quality aspects for different livelihoods.
• An assessment of the other economic assets and infrastructure and their role in creating enabling conditions for the different livelihood groups, covering contextual factors and identifying the gaps to be addressed.
• An identification of value chains that have economic potential in both domestic and international markets, for further analysis.
• Recommendations for programmatic approaches to address the immediate priorities with regards to strengthening and expanding livelihood opportunities and systems.

SCOPE OF WORK

The assessment scope includes the review of the existing information through desk review process and the primary data collection in the field locations. The consultancy assignment 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; previous Adeso labour-intensive projects and other relevant literature as will be found necessary by the consultant.

Relevant literature (project documents and other existing literature) will be collected in advance and reviewed to get a better understanding of the research and to sharpen the following research processes. Some of the documents considered mandatory for this review would include information onYouth (survey and focus groups), local authority (survey and focus groups), and Policy makers (key informant interviews), community key leaders and the general public, other agencies in the region and the administration.

Adeso proposes to administer semi-structured questions to the sampled households in the targeted locations to review the status of structures with an aim to locate and map those in bad shape in need of upgrade or rehabilitation. Questionnaires will be developed and administered to youth especially women to elicit responses from the study areas. The data obtained from the survey will be quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed.

Survey Design

With the facilitation of Project staff and Adeso M&E manager, 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 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 study 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 Districts (Dhobley and Afmadhow) which the survey is expected to observe. Samples will be drawn from each of the districts in proportion with the size of the population through use of the Proportional Probability to Size (PPS) sampling technique. 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 the larger District have the same probability of getting into the sample as those in smaller District, 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, livelihoods, cash for work issues and problems faced by youths in target areas. It will also complement/supplement the quantitative survey particularly addressing issues that were not collected at the household level.

Data Collection and Analysis

Field data collection will be done by enumerators selected from districts of origin. This will give the exercise the credibility it requires for wider acceptance of the survey findings by the community. However, the consultant will decide which statistical software to use for data analysis. A data mask will be developed for entering the completed questionnaires after finalization, following pre-testing. Enumerators will be trained on how to collect and analyse data at field level 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 developing an assessment report working closely with Adeso project teams. The report will document findings and provide a benchmark for measuring outcomes of Project interventions.

The consultant will then present the findings to a panel of Adeso project management team for final consultation and review.

Deliverables

1. Inception Report: includes initial work plan and proposal for the baseline survey outlining the proposed methodology, survey tools, process of data collection and analysis, budget outline, as well as final set of data-collection tools for all indicators in the log frame within first week of contracting
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 baseline indicators;

f. Electronic annexes with the site-by-site raw data used for the analysis.

1. Summary version of the final report to be shared with project communities.

CONSULTANCY PERIOD

The consultancy will be for 20 days including the travel days.

QUALIFICATION PROFILE

· Postgraduate degree in a food security or livelihood related field.

· At least three years of hands on experience in conducting baseline surveys and livelihood and cash intervention programming.

· Strong background in monitoring and evaluation techniques.

· Familiar with the livelihood context in Somalia.

· Strong experience in infrastructure development, cash for work programing, youth employment works. Additional experience in construction and water engineering is desired.

· Experience in developing and implementing gender sensitive baseline methodologies in livelihood and cash intervention frameworks.

· Ability to analyse complex livelihood and WASH 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: Youth employment Intensive project baseline not later than 16^th September 2015. 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 for the baseline study with methodology and work plan.
• Detailed comprehensive budget capturing all the costs.
• A sample of a recently written report for a similar assignment.
• Updated CVs for all consultants including relevant work experience and qualifications.