Consultancy-Endline Survey for Integrated Emergency Drought Response in Turkana and Samburu Counties

Monitoring & Evaluation

Work Arrangement:

Job Description

Background of the Integrated Emergency Drought Response in Turkana and Samburu Counties - Project

The IRC has been implementing a 12 months BHA funded project in Turkana and Samburu counties aimed at improving food and nutrition security and enhancing a protective environment for drought affected communities. In line with USAID’s BHA Guidelines, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has been providing services to 84,083 individual beneficiaries in the following key sectors: Nutrition, WASH, Protection, Agriculture, and Food Assistance while activities in Samburu County were solely under the Protection sector, complimenting ongoing emergency programs by other actors. Of this total, 1,829 beneficiaries are Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). The IRC has been the prime implementer for the project’s 12-month duration, with partner TUPADO supporting agriculture and food assistance interventions in Turkana County.

Nutrition being the entry point for this project and given the heavy presence of other nutrition interventions in the target areas, IRC participates in and utilizes coordination forums to coordinate activities with other BHA and donor-funded organizations to reduce risks of overlapping and duplicative activities in target areas. To ensure coordination at the county and sub-county level, IRC has continued to maintain strong relationships with other humanitarian and UN actors, as well as government agencies, including the Turkana County Ministry of Health (MoH), and key implementing partners who are active throughout Turkana County via

engagements with the aforementioned technical working groups at sub-county, county and national level. Local stakeholders including local NGOs and community leaders have also been involved in coordination efforts to strengthen working relations between IRC and beneficiaries. IRC has also supported coordination and advocacy at the sub-county level for adequate leverage of resources. All these efforts have been harnessed towards providing nutrition assistance in the Management of Acute Malnutrition in line with the national Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) guidelines and Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition in Emergencies (MIYCN-E).

Interventions under the WASH outcome primarily focused on services to beneficiaries.

seeking nutrition and health services at static health facilities and outreach sites. WASH

services are be offered to reduce the risk of WASH-related diseases in households with

children under 5 years and PLW receiving health and nutrition services at the outreach.

sites and health facilities. Children under 5 and PLW undergoing treatment for malnutrition or at risk of malnutrition also benefit from increased access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene practices and this entails providing a context-specific minimum WASH package at mobile outreach sites, health facilities, and targeted households.

Prevention and Response to GBV, PSS, and Protection Coordination interventions are geared at strengthening the protective environment for women, girls, men, and boys. In Turkana County, the project prioritized clients accessing nutrition, WASH, and food assistance services for further protection services. In Samburu County, the IRC leveraged Concern Worldwide mapped sites, MoH-derived data trends, and partner feedback to identify Protection hot spot areas for interventions. At the target sites IRC is providing integrated protection prevention focused on intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual violence, teenage pregnancies, school retention, GBV response services.

To address food security needs, the response action prioritized food assistance intervention s to enable immediate access to food within local market. A market base approach was utilized for this action with cash prioritized as the modality for providing this assistance. Unconditional Cash was utilized to deliver food assistance to cover the acute household food needs. Alongside this, the IRC also implemented in the agriculture sector in the phase of drought that persisted in Turkana county with the aim of increasing survival and reducing mortality of core breeding stock asset to protect and curb destitution of the main pastoralist livelihoods hence improving potential for sale at the markets, and the resultant contribution to improved food security at the household level. Keeping in mind the criticality of building the resilience of the affected HHs, the response aimed at strengthening the health of the animals, increasing local and county-level capacity on disease surveillance as a means of livelihood protection. IRC seeks to align and build the response within existing systems established by the DoALF and other partners.

These implementation strategies were devised to enhance the project's overall outcomes as outlined within each targeted intervention sector. A baseline survey was conducted to assess the initial situation at the project's commencement. It is crucial to conduct an endline survey as well to gauge the progress towards achieving the set targets established at the project's outset.

Project Objectives

The integrated emergency drought response project aims to realize the following objectives.

Objective 1: To reduce morbidity and mortality amongst 40,147 Children under 5 years of Age (U5) and 11,948 Pregnant and Lactating Women (PLW) related to malnutrition while reducing the vulnerability and risk of acute malnutrition among children.

Objective 2: To reduce the risk of WASH related diseases for 52,095 households with children under 5 years and PLW receiving health and nutrition services at the outreach sites by increasing access to safe drinking water, sanitation and promoting safe hygiene practices.

Objective 3: To enhance access to targeted protection assistance and strengthen the protective environment for 36,261 males and 46,867 females by providing GBV prevention and response, Protection Coordination, Advocacy and information services.

Objective 4: To protect and enhance the food security, livelihoods, and nutritional outcomes for 36,000 targeted beneficiaries (18,360 Male; 17,640 Female) through emergency food and animal health assistance.

The expected outcomes of this project are:

- Women, men, girls, and boys are safe in their communities and receive treatment and support when they experience harm. - Drought affected communities have improved access to potable water supply, sanitation services and improved safe hygiene practices. - Children, pregnant and lactating women are prevented from and treated for acute malnutrition. - Drought affected communities have access to basic needs including quality food and sufficient resources to produce or purchase food and are supported to strengthen their livelihoods. - Drought affected pastoralists are able to protect their livelihoods, assets, and or income during emergencies.

Target Group

Through this action, the IRC has reached a total of 84,083 beneficiaries in both Turkana and Samburu counties as highlighted below:

- Nutrition program was the entry point for this project, with 52,095 targeted beneficiaries, among which, 40,147 will be children under 5 and 11,948 pregnant and lactating women. So far the project has reached 45,522 individuals (8,973PLW and 36,549 children under 5 years) - 33,059 beneficiaries have been reached with WASH interventions, derived from the 52,095 households of people with malnutrition targeted. - 38,561 beneficiaries in both counties have been reached with protection services. - 39,132 beneficiaries have been reached with food assistance and 29,828 through agriculture.

Computation of the total beneficiary numbers minimizes double counting of the beneficiaries that will be reached through different interventions.

Endline Survey Consultancy

The survey is a summative study that seeks to measure the extent to which the project produced its intended outcomes. The survey should therefore adopt both qualitative and quantitative methodologies that would measure the outcome indicators that were measured at baseline and concisely articulate the project’s progress. It analyses the post-project situation using methodologies that provide results for comparison against the baseline evaluation conducted at the start of the project.

Rationale

The endline survey will provide in-depth information on the main target groups in the project locations. This information will be used to gauge the project’s success, identify areas that may need improvements on, and guide the next phase implementation to ensure the project has maximum impact on the target groups. The survey report will be a vital component of the project Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) system and will inform the results-based management approach of the next phase of the project.

Survey Objectives

i) To provide endline data that will guide project planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting on the follow on integrated emergency drought response in accordance with project outcomes.

ii) Provide endline data for all current project interventions, including the outputs and outcome indicators and baseline data for the follow on phase to facilitate tracking of project performance; and

iii) Provide comprehensive recommendations on high impact and sustainable design and implementation of project.

Scope of Work

In consultation with the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning IRC Team, and referring to the available donor guidance, the consultant will be required to:

i) Participate in briefing and consultation meetings to discuss the assignment aimed at building consensus on the Endline survey design and implementation plan.

ii) Provide a brief overview of the methodology that will be used to conduct the Endline assessment. This should include a description of the overall approach, such as a mixed-methods approach that combines both secondary and primary data collection methods. This should articulate the context in the targeted intervention area, highlighting proposed programming.

iii) Describe the secondary data sources that will be reviewed as part of the Endline assessment. This may include existing project documentation, government reports, and other relevant literature. Specify the methods that will be used to gather and analyze this data, such as literature review, content analysis, or data triangulation.

iv) Describe the primary data collection methods that will be used to gather information on the current situation, needs, and challenges related to the project. This may include surveys, interviews, focus groups, or site visits. Specify the sampling strategy, data collection instruments, and data analysis methods that will be used to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the situation. A representative sample should be drawn from the targeted 424,123, across the two counties, within the specific sub counties and across the different sectors.

v) Develop data collection tools that will capture sufficient information required to provide baseline data for all the indicators in the project document and the priority needs of the targeted clients.

vi) Develop, in collaboration with IRC, a detailed data collection and analysis plan, including plans for: developing /adoption of tools; recruitment and training of research assistants; pre-testing and review of tools; sampling methodology; implementation of data collection in the field; quality assurance; ethical considerations; qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and reporting.

vii) Lead data collection in the field including designing and facilitating key informant interviews and focus group discussions.

viii) Analyze data in a rigorous, robust manner using appropriate statistical and qualitative analysis techniques.

ix) Draft a high-quality report written in good quality English and include robust and detailed analysis of the data findings including specific interpretation on each target group and location.

x) Present the draft baseline survey report to IRC and other stakeholder for input and validation.

xi) Develop and submit the final baseline survey report to IRC.

Deliverables / Outputs

i) Inception report detailing the framework for undertaking the survey, indicating the methodology, tools, report outline and a workplan highlighting the delivery framework.

ii) A comprehensive draft final report, not longer than 25 pages including all raw data collected in excel, word or any other format within the areas of interest.

iii) A final report highlighting implementation progress, current challenges and priority needs of the target groups, exacerbated by the drought situation; opportunities for strengthening prevention of further vulnerability of the target groups; innovations that optimize opportunities for the target group; and recommendations for best practices that will ascertain better outcomes.

iv) A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the results.

Qualifications

- A post-graduate degree in social sciences or another relevant field with training in the field of health, nutrition, food security, WASH and protection. - Over 7 years’ experience conducting evaluations, assessments or studies with evidence of publications or field reports on health and nutrition, WASH and protection thematic areas. - Experience conducting assessments funded by BHA, USAID, EU and UN donors and familiarity with their indicators and their definitions is an added advantage - Experience in working with marginalized and vulnerable populations in multidisciplinary setting i.e. the government and development partners; - Ability to communicate in English and Kiswahili. Ability to communicate using local languages in Turkana and Samburu is an added advantage. - The successful candidate will be required to: - Ensure ethical consideration when engaging with all participants in the survey. - Adhere to organization policy of different partners that will be involved in the assessment. - Ensure collaboration, cooperation, partnerships and meaningful engagement of marginalized people, vulnerable, persons living with disability among others.

Application

- Interested applicants should submit their CVs and technical and financial proposal to the IRC careers portal. - Consultants who meet the qualification above must submit the following documents: - Cover Letter. - CV of proposed consultant teams including reference details of previous clients; - 3 references with detailed contact address. - All the required legal documents including VAT registration certificate.

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Added 11 days ago - Updated 2 hours ago - Source: rescue.org