Terms Of Reference(Tor) For Consultancy for Independent Third-Party Monitoring of Joint drought response in Baidoa and Burhakaba districts 81 views

• BACKGROUND

For over 90 years, Save the Children has been working world over making a difference in children’s lives in more than 120 countries. Save the Children (SC) has been operational in Somaliland/Somalia since 1951, implementing programs across the following sectors: WASH, Food Security and Livelihoods, Health, Nutrition, Education, and Child Protection/Child Rights Governance. Save the Children has 6 field offices with experienced national and international staff across Somalia to facilitate project management, implementation, and monitoring of activities. The field offices are: Beletweyne, Adaado, Abudwaq, Dhobley, Baidoa, Kismayo, and Mogadishu in South Central Somalia.

Save the Children is implementing an emergency drought response project in Baidoa district and Burhakaba district through GREDO. The project is integrated water tracking and multipurpose cash grants to vulnerable households to meet their basic food and non-food needs.

1.1 PROJECT GOAL

Provide life-saving assistance to the drought affected in Baidoa and Burhakabo through increased access to food security and WASH Services.

1.2  Project Locations

Save the Children continued support of the health facilities, and unconditional cash transfer programming in the southwest state (Baidoa and Burhakaba District) as below:

1. General objective of the evaluation

The overall objective of third-party monitoring is to improve accountability and provide detailed information on the project progress and verify whether the project activities are being implemented in line with Save the Children cash transfer Standard Operating Procedures and humanitarian standards.

2.1.        Specific Objectives

The third-party monitoring will specifically provide feedback on the following areas of implementation:

1. Beneficiary selection and identification:

• Hold interviews with beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries and other stakeholders to document the beneficiary selection and identification process, specifically community participation, including both women and men, marginalized groups, and persons and children with disabilities (women, men, girls,

boys) disaggregating data by sex and by persons/children with disabilities in the selection and verification of beneficiaries.

• Document the process of identifying and selecting beneficiaries and committees and the role of the committee members (disaggregating data by sex and by persons with disabilities) as well as the roles played by the SCI and Partner staff in the selection and verification of project beneficiaries.

• Assess the appropriateness of the targeting criteria, the extent to which it was followed, and the overall fairness of the process.
• Identify if there were any shortcomings in the process, e.g., payment or diversion of assistance. Diversion of cash through voluntary or involuntary taxation or forced contribution should be properly scrutinized and reported.

• Determine how the targeted communities, i.e., boys, girls, women, men, marginalized groups, and persons with disabilities have benefited from the unconditional cash transfers and WASH interventions in their respective communities (focus on beneficiary selection and if it has been inclusive and transparent).

• Assess hygiene promotion activities and documentary and determine whether campaign undergoing as planned and hygiene promotor reaching their targets.
• Assessment water tracking center and identify whether beneficiaries receive their allocation amounts of water in desired quality.

1. Mobile cash transfer system:

• Determine how targeted project beneficiaries have benefited from the mobile cash transfer system in which they’ve received (unconditional cash transfer).

• Determine whether the delivery modality (mobile money) has imposed any risk to the recipients. i.e. protection risks

• Information sharing:
• Assess the extent to which the beneficiaries, including girls and boys, women, men, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups, are informed and aware of key project information, such as project objectives, activities, timelines, entitlement, number of cash payments
• Establish whether there is information that beneficiaries, including girls and boys and persons and children with disabilities, would like to receive about the project and its implementation but which has not been shared.

1. Feedback and response mechanisms:

• Establish beneficiaries’, including girls and boys and persons and children with disabilities, awareness of mechanisms through which they can give feedback or make complaints to SCI (how to give feedback or raise concerns about activities, what they can complain about, whom they can complain to, how and where they can complain, and issues of confidentiality).
• Assess the acceptance and level of confidence that beneficiaries have in the existing SCI feedback and response mechanisms.
• Generate ideas for improving the existing feedback-handling mechanism.

• Assess how SCI and Partner have succeeded in responding to the feedback and complaints received.

1. Participation:

• Generate information about how beneficiaries, including girls and boys and persons and children with disabilities, would like to / are participating in the project implementation.
• Collect feedback on how parents/caregivers have been selected to be part of the cash transfer.

1. Methodology

The consultant will employ a mixed-method approach to assess the quality of service and community satisfaction based on the above indicators and the scope of work in project-targeted areas. The consultant will also apply a participatory approach during data collection to ensure a positive learning process. The consultant will work with the advice and directions that will be provided by the Save the Children technical team. The consultant will design a sampling approach to appropriate data collection instruments. Save the Children is a child-sensitive organization therefore, Girls and boys will be consulted by using child-friendly and gender-sensitive methodologies; special attention needs will be put into ensuring that boys, girls, women, and persons with disabilities (both adults and children) will be able to participate. Everybody’s participation will be voluntary, meaningful, safe, and inclusive.

Rather than the above-mentioned methodology the consultant should fully understand the nature of the assignment and propose/develop a compatible data collection methodology and tools based on the project objective and result framework. the consultant should also justify their proposed methodology and explain why he/she/they prefer it.

The primary data and data analysis process will be disaggregated by gender, age, and disability by using Washington Group short-set questionnaire. Draft findings will be presented to the project team and key partners to validate.

1. Consultant role and expecting deliverables
2. Preparing an Inception report.
3. Develop study design and data collection tools including (qualitative and quantitative data collection tools).
4. Calculate the sample size for activities to be monitored (both cluster level and individual sample size)
5. Data collection, cleaning, and analysis.
6. draft of evaluation report produced.
7. A finalized end-line evaluation report including case studies, existing gaps, and recommendations.
8. Data sets (Excel, Stata – for all collected data (quantitative and qualitative). Qualitative data should be transcribed for future use by Save the Children Country Programmes. The data sets should be in an appropriate format (SPSS, Excel, and Word) and will be submitted together with the third part monitoring report.
9. PowerPoint presentation, summarizing the key findings from the third part of monitoring submitted together with the final report.
10. Evidence photos with GPS coordinates for the assessed location.

4.1.        Time Frame

The consultancy work will last approximately 30 days including induction and travel days. The days will start by the date the contract is signed.

4.2.        Terms and Conditions

Consultancy fee: The consultant will come up with his/her own rate which will be subject to negotiation within the bounds of donor requirements and set standards of SC in Somalia the consultant is expected to estimate all relevant costs for the exercise, including costs for data collectors, vehicle rent, venue, stationary, standardization test and accommodation while undertaking activities related to this assignment.

1. Code of conduct

Save the Children’s work is based on deeply held values and principles of child safeguarding, and it is essential that our commitment to children’s rights and humanitarian principles is supported and demonstrated by all members of staff and other people working for and with Save the Children. Save the Children’s Code of Conduct sets out the standards to which all staff members must adhere, and the consultant is bound to sign and abide by the Save the Children’s Code of Conduct.

A contract will be signed by the consultant before the commencement of the action. The contract will detail terms and conditions of service, aspects of inputs, and deliverables. The Consultant will be expected to treat as private and confidential any information disclosed to her/him or with which she/he may come into contact during her/his service. The Consultant will not, therefore, disclose the same or any particulars

thereof to any third party or publish it in any paper without the prior written consent of Save the Children.

Any sensitive information (particularly concerning individual children) should be treated as confidential.

An agreement with a consultant will be rendered void if Save the Children discovers any corrupt activities have taken place either during the sourcing, preparation, and implementation of the consultancy agreement.

1. Ethics And Child Safeguarding

The consultant is obliged to conduct the research in an ethical manner making sure children are always safe. The consultant should seek the views of various stakeholders, including children. Efforts should be made to make the research process child-centered and sensitive to gender and inclusion. The consultant must respect the rights and dignity of participants as well as comply with relevant ethical standards and SC’s Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct. The research must ensure voluntary, safe, and non-discriminatory participation and a process of free and un-coerced consent. Informed consent of each person (including children) participating in data collection should be documented.

A contract will be signed by the consultant before the commencement of the action. The contract will detail terms and conditions of service, aspects of inputs, and deliverables.

Intellectual property rights:

All data that will be collected should be considered SCI properties and can’t be used for other purposes. All products developed under this consultancy belong to the project exclusively, guided by the rules of the grant contract between BHA and Save the Children. Under no circumstances will the consultant use the information of this survey for publication or dissemination without official prior permission (in writing) from Save the Children.