Somalia Impact Study of Oxfam Humanitarian Programme (2017-2020) At Oxfam

1. Background and Context

Since 1991, Somalia has experienced a persistent complex emergency due to chronic food insecurity, widespread violence, and recurrent droughts and floods. The 2011 drought—widely regarded as the country’s worst in 60 years—severely deteriorated food security among pastoralists and populations. Somalia’s protracted humanitarian crisis is characterized by ongoing conflicts, climate-related shocks, communicable disease outbreaks and weak social protection mechanisms. Since the beginning of 2020, three additional shocks have contributed to a deterioration of humanitarian conditions and these include floods, desert locusts’ infestation and the COVID-19 pandemic[1]. These compounding shocks increased the humanitarian needs among a population already living under the strain of widespread poverty and decades of armed conflict and insecurity. The number of people in need continues to increase as reflected in the past 3 years from 4.2. million in 2019, 5.2 million in 2020 and 5.9 million currently in 2021. Vulnerable groups include female-headed households, children, the elderly, people with disabilities and marginalized communities. 3.2 million people are estimated in need of protection[2].

1.1. Oxfam Somalia/Somaliland Humanitarian Approach

Oxfam has a long history of local partnerships in Somalia. Hailed as ‘mother of civil society’ by partners and civil society leaders, the organization has 30+ years of working with Somali civil society and organizations, pioneering cash transfers, training partners on WASH, supporting women’s empowerment and amplifying Somali voices globally through our advocacy and campaigns work. Oxfam currently directly works with 10 local humanitarian partners in various humanitarian and nexus projects across Somaliland, Puntland and South-Central Somalia. Additionally, the Somalia team works with local entrepreneurs and start-up/innovation organizations which have for example developed a toll-free COVID-19 helpline for the Ministry of Health in 2020, which proved to be integral to information sharing and support in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Somalia.

From 2017 to date, Oxfam has employed an integrated approach to humanitarian response and resilience which focuses on Emergency Food Security and Vulnerable Livelihoods (EFSVL), Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Protection. Through this integrated approach, various methodologies such as cash-based intervention (cash for water, Unconditional cash transfers) safe programming and resilience work – including safety net programming, Agricultural support have been implemented to address the recurring needs of Somali communities. Oxfam has also strengthened its community engagement and accountability systems in humanitarian response through setting up feedback mechanisms that are easily accessible to communities. Effort has been made towards realization of the grand Bargain by ensuring that most of the humanitarian work is implemented through local partners with the current target of 60% of the funding being channeled through local partners.

For the thematic area of focus mentioned, Oxfam has set Overall Objective for its Humanitarian Program for each theme which are as listed below.

EFSVL – Vulnerable women, men, girls and boys facing crisis secure their right to determine their own food and nutrition security through appropriate gender responsive EFSVL support, resilience building, and sustainable food options.

WASH – To build the resilience of drought and cyclone affected pastoralist, agro-pastoralist and drought induced IDP communities in Somaliland and Puntland through timely delivery of water, sanitation and hygiene support.

Protection – To contribute to the reduction in protection risks and increase protection capacity for the targeted women, men, boys and girls.

2. Purpose of the Impact Study, Objectives and Scope

2.1. Purpose of the Impact Study

Oxfam Humanitarian and Resilience Programme is coming to of a 4-year cycle and is on the progression of developing a new programme strategies, it seeks to capture learning in all aspects of the programme from the past four years. The overall purpose of the impact study is to help Oxfam document the key impact Oxfam’s program achieved and capture learning for future programming to ensure maximum outcomes for its target communities. The findings, conclusions and recommendations of the impact study will evidence Oxfam’s impact and would provide considerable guidance to the design of next humanitarian programme cycle and will contribute to organizational learning at the global and country levels of the organization. For the purposes of this impact study will be understood as the wider effects of the programme – social, economic, technical and environment – on individuals (disaggregated by gender and age groups), communities and institutions level. The impact can be direct or indirect, intended or unintended, positive or negative, macro (within the sector) and micro (household).

2.2. Objectives of the Impact Study

The main objectives of this impact study is two-fold;

i) To measure and provide an independent assessment of the extent to which planned objectives to respond to the needs and concerns of affected people has changed as attributed to the Integrated Humanitarian Programme Approach implemented by Oxfam in Somalia/land as highlighted in the core planning documents and humanitarian strategies;

ii) To assess the extent to which the humanitarian strategy approach, response tools and coordination mechanisms, including the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC) and application of Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS), have successfully supported the response, and to recommend improvement-oriented actions.

2.3. Specific Objectives of the Impact Study – proving impact and improving practice

· Accountability – Assess and report if the evolving role of Oxfam as a Humanitarian Response and resilience organization is enabling the communities to augment their capacities to recover from impact of emergencies and support local actors including government institutional capacity development**

· Learning – To capture lessons learned and best practices to enable collective learning from the Oxfam humanitarian response in Somalia and provide actionable recommendations at operational and policy levels on how collective response mechanisms and advocacy might be strengthened or have to be restructured. Understand how and why Oxfam Humanitarian response Programme has been able to meet the emergency response needs of different categories of the affected people and what can be learned for the future implementation of humanitarian responses

· Generate evidence – positive and negative, intended and unintended, longer term and short impacts of Oxfam’s support to the vulnerable communities and localization agenda.

**

· Improve the effectiveness- of Oxfam interventions by determining the reasons observed for success/failure and draw lessons from experience to produce evidence-based findings that will allow the Oxfam Country Office (CO) to make informed decisions about specific interventions that should be undertaken to address community needs.

2.4. Scope

The impact study will focus on the Humanitarian Programmes and Interventions implemented by Oxfam and its national/local implementing partner in the targeted locations since 2017. The target locations are Sool, Sanaag, Togdheer and Awdal in Somaliland; Bari, Nugaal and Muduug in Puntland. The impact study will further explore the key factors that have contributed to the achievement or non-achievement of planned results and their sustainable impact including the impact of COVID-19 pandemic; and determine the extent to which the projects contributed to improving the resilience of vulnerable Somalis and responded to COVID-19 to the targeted beneficiaries and communities; addressing crosscutting issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment; and progressing on partnership at different levels, including with government, donors, UN agencies, and communities.

[1] https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/2021-somalia-humanitarian-needs-overview

[2] https://cccmcluster.org/operations/somalia

3. Impact Study Criteria and Key Questions

The impact study will be conducted against the Core Humanitarian Standards adopting the Comprehensive Impact Assessment Framework i.e. intermediate impact, people level impact and direct product of research with a view to draw lessons and make recommendations for future programme periods at country and global levels.

The consultant must consider the following key guiding questions when conducting the impact study, however he/she is at the liberty to develop more questions to ensure more relevant data is collected.

Criteria:

People Level Impact:

• Economic Impact ( direct/spillover effects)**
• Social/Cultural Impact
• Environmental Impact

Key Questions

1. What are long term impacts of Oxfam’s humanitarian and resilience programming per focused areas of interventions i.e WASH, EFSL, Gender and protection, Resilience and localization.
2. How Oxfam interventions contributed to local capacities for peace?
3. How have the Oxfam intervention affected the overall situation of the target beneficiaries and stakeholders?
4. Which groups have been affected (or unaffected) by the changes?
5. How were the changes brought about and how significant are they?
6. Are they likely to last (or have they lasted)?
7. Did the benefits reach the target group as intended, or did it reach a large portion of unintended population? Were benefits distributed fairly between gender and age groups and across social and cultural barriers.
8. How has the Oxfam Programme impacted the social and cultural life of the targeted communities
9. How has the Oxfam intervention impacted the household economy of the targeted communities what benefits at household level came about due to Oxfam Programming
10. Was the Oxfam Humanitarian Response Programme compatible with a sustainable use of natural resources? Or is it harmful to the natural environment? How can this be justified by the results?
11. Was the Oxfam Humanitarian Response Programme economically worthwhile, the available resources? If not, how should the resources allocated to the response have been used for another, more worthwhile, purpose?
12. To what extent can the identified changes be attributable to the Oxfam interventions rather than extraneous factors?

Intermediate Impact:

• Institutional changes **
• Changes in the enabling environment

Key Questions

1. What has changed because of the Oxfam intervention? Are there unintended positive or negative consequences of the Oxfam programming on target population, Government and/or on national partners?
2. To what extent do changes in the target geographical areas of Oxfam consistent with the planned outputs, purpose and goal of the Oxfam Humanitarian Response?
3. What are the key development changes as a result of the Oxfam Humanitarian Response? To what extent has the intervention contributed to capacity development and system strengthening of government and community-based institutions? To what extent can changes that have occurred during the period covered by the study be identified and measured?
4. Will the benefits produced by the Oxfam Humanitarian Approaches be maintained after cessation of external support? To what extend can it be maintained?
5. Is the Humanitarian Response Programme producing the most appropriate impact, given the context and resources available? To what extend can this be justified by results?

Methodology

The impact study will be carried out in a transparent and participatory manner by involving relevant stakeholders (Government ministries, Local Authorities, UN, INGOs, local partners and targeted communities). Since there is no baseline data available, the evaluator is expected to propose a strategy to assess the impact. The study would utilize both qualitative and quantitative approaches that substantiate findings and conclusion. Current situation of Covid-19 pandemic is a key consideration at the time of finalizing the methodology, however a participatory, cross-sectional, and mixed-method approach anticipated including, but not limited to, the following methods: –

• Desk study and review of all relevant program documentation: The consultant will examine Project Documents, Project Data, Implementation Plan, Case Studies, Proposal, Donor Reports, Project Evaluations etc. Consultant would also review relevant literature on humanitarian and resilience such standards, framework, and literature available.
• Design and agree on impact indicators in line with Oxfam programming areas (WSH, EFSL, Gender and protection, resilience and Localization) before designing questionnaire and data collection.
• Key Informant Interviews with key stakeholders (Project Teams, Senior Officials of National and International Partners, Cluster Leads, Humanitarian Consortiums, Government and UN Agencies)
• Focus Group discussions with targeted communities, Committees (DRR, WASH, Women Forums etc.)
• Survey questionnaire with project beneficiaries including both direct and indirect.
• Field visits and on-site validation of key outputs and interventions
• Case Studies: collect Case studies to show case long term and short changes associated with Oxfam humanitarian and resilience actions – target groups are institutions/stakeholders and program direct or indirect beneficiaries.
• Cost-analysis (considering value for money)

Deliverables and Time Frame

The expected deliverables and timelines for delivery will be as follows which is to be completed within 30 working days: –

Deliverable Description Timeframes

An Inception report

Should contain intervention logic of the programme (based on desk study), an impact study plan, and a list of reviewed documents, Oxfam Humanitarian Response Strategy, and data collection tools framework.

Timeline: 5 working days from the start of the contract

A detailed proposed study plan

Should contain proposed data collection methods, tools and data sources to be used for addressing each assessment question

Timeline: 1 day

A draft Impact Study Report

At the end of the field research, the consultant will hold a feedback meeting with the relevant Oxfam staff to discuss preliminary findings and conclusions of the study during the validation workshop. Should amend the report in light of the comments and feedback from the Oxfam technical teams.

Timeline: 15 days

Final humanitarian impact study report

The Study report should consist of: –

o Executive summary (not more than 3 – 4 pages)

o Table of content

o List of Acronyms

o List of Tables

o Programme description

o Study purpose

o Study methodology

o Main findings

o Good practices and Lessons learned

o Conclusions and recommendations

Annexes (including list of stakeholders consulted during the study, assessment TOR, maps, record of interviews and focus groups conducted, survey forms and aggregate findings, budgetary analysis, bibliography etc.

Timeline: 9 days

1.1. Consultant profile

The consultant impact evaluation lead should have:

· A master’s degree in social sciences, economics, or relevant;

· Expertise in two or more of the relevant technical areas for this response;

· A minimum of seven (7) years of substantial experience in the humanitarian and resilience context in Somaliland, Puntland and South Central Somalia;

· Demonstrated experience in impact evaluations of humanitarian programmes; sample of similar work conducted must be attached if any.

· Strong knowledge on the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) on Quality and Accountability; and Sphere Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response.

· Demonstrated analytical, communication and report-writing skills.

1.2. Schedule

The proposed assignment is expected to be completed within 30 days starting from the 15^th of November until the 15^th of December 2021

1.3. Impact Assessment Ethics and Considerations

The study will be guided by the following ethical considerations: –

· Openness of information given, to the highest degree to all involved parties.

· Publicity/public access – to results when there are not special considerations against this.

· Broad participation – the interested parties should be involved where relevant and possible

· Reliability and independence – the assessment should be conducted so that findings and conclusions are correct and trustworthy

· All interviews should be undertaken in full confidence and anonymity. The final impact study report should not assign specific comments to individuals

· In the context of Covid 19 pandemic, study activities should be done in accordance with Oxfam SoPs and WHO standards for Covid prevention.

· The consultant need to comply with global and Oxfam Data protection policy such the GDPR