TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CONSULTANCY – CLIMATE VULNERABILITY AND CAPACITY ANALYSIS (CVCA) At CARE

TERMS OF REFERENCE

DANWADAAG – Improving the social contract through inclusive and transparent Disaster Risk Management

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CONSULTANCY – CLIMATE VULNERABILITY AND CAPACITY ANALYSIS (CVCA)

1. BACKGROUND
   1. About CARE International

CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty and providing lifesaving assistance in emergencies. Its programs go beyond meeting basic needs at the onset of an emergency to helping affected communities recover and rebuild their lives long after the crisis ends. CARE has been assisting communities in Somalia since 1981. CARE works in partnership with the government, international NGOs, civil society, leaders, and local authorities to bring effective and lasting change to the most vulnerable communities. CARE currently works through three main programs: firstly, the Rural Women program, which supports poor, rural women and girls in addressing long-term underlying causes of poverty and vulnerability as well as social, cultural, political, and economic obstacles towards positive change. We help women and girls improve their economic status and access to education and support them to play a greater role in local leadership and conflict resolution. Secondly, the Urban Youth program focuses on job creation and livelihood opportunities for poor youth through interventions such as secondary education, vocational training, small business development, and microfinance. Thirdly, the Emergency program provides direct humanitarian relief to victims of drought and conflict in Puntland, Mogadishu, Lower Juba, and Galmudug state. CARE Somalia has three programmes: Rural Women, Urban Youth, and emergency. This project falls under Urban Youth.

1.2. About DANWADAAG Consortium

The DANWADAAG Project – with funding from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherland, is a consortium comprising VNG International (Lead Agency), Free Press Unlimited, Media Ink, and CARE Nederland, who will implement the project for a duration of five years (2020 – 2025), starting with 1st year containing an inception phase and the 4th year will contain a consolidation and exit phase.

The project entitled “Improving the social contract through inclusive and transparent Disaster Risk Management “aims to build inclusive disaster risk management (DRM) capacity at the local level. The project’s overall objective (Impact) is: **‘**improved social contracts through increased resilience to external shocks’ whilst the strategic objective *is ‘increased government legitimacy through efficient and effective disaster risk management (DRM) based on inclusive policies, strategies and services.*The project is being implemented in Somaliland and Puntland, targeting Hargeisa, Burco, Garowe and Qardho, communities (children, youth and adults, including vulnerable groups), civil societies, knowledge institutes, media, andpublic authorities for effective disaster risk management. The project aims to achieve the impact and strategic objective through the following outcomes:

• Outcome 1: Communities can contribute to inclusive and transparent DRM through equitable access to information, resources and decision-making processes
• Outcome 2: CSOs have the legitimacy and capacity to contribute to inclusive and transparent DRM
• Outcome 3: Public authorities have the legitimacy and capacity to coordinate and implement inclusive and transparent DRM
• Outcome 4: Media have the capacity to contribute to inclusive and transparent DRM through disseminating relevant information and creating spaces for inclusive dialogue between public authorities, civil society and communities

CARE targets communities in Hargeisa, Buroa districts in Somaliland and Garowe and Gardo districts in Puntland, where conflict and insecurity, chronic drought, and weak governance and natural resource management have deteriorated livelihoods and increased vulnerability to shocks and stresses, especially among women. Given the high, recurrent levels of vulnerability in Somalia/Somaliland, a focus on building household and community resilience is needed if the vulnerability is to be reduced over time. CARE’s approach acknowledges that shocks and stresses are likely to occur and will work with the communities themselves to map and identify the negative coping strategies that negatively affect families. CARE’s experience in Somalia and globally also suggests that inequitable distribution of rights, resources, and power is strongly influenced by gender. The proposed approach, therefore, acknowledges that gender is a critical factor in understanding vulnerability – and thus resilience – and the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women is a proven strategy to overcome poverty.

The CVCA methodology helps understand the implications of climate change for the lives and livelihoods of the people we serve. Combining local knowledge with scientific data builds people’s understanding of climate risks and adaptation strategies. It provides a framework for dialogue within communities and between communities and other stakeholders. The results provide a solid foundation for identifying practical strategies to facilitate community-based adaptation to climate change.

The project will contribute to resilience-building by focusing on three key areas. First, facilitating the identification of shocks, stresses,and changes that are impacting women and men’s ability to secure their basic needs, and the development of community-owned action plans to address areas where communities can be empowered to make a positive difference in their resilience at the household or community level. Second, strengthening the asset base on which women and men’s livelihoods rely.

A specific focus on asset protection and productivity during dry periods, asset provision only where recovery measures are needed before building a pathway towards resilience, and regeneration of degraded areas recognizing the role of healthy ecosystems in securing communities’ resilience. Finally, to ensure long-term resilience-building beyond the project timeframe, the project will also focus on strengthening local governance structures and building local capacity to understand and effectively manage risks and changes to enable resilience. In this respect, community-level monitoring of and learning about risks and changes over time is considered a resilience-building strategy in and of itself. Still, it also provides a platform for building responsible and informed governance structures to effectively support communities in managing risks and long-term changes.

CARE will also use well-established Climate Vulnerability and Capacities Analysis (CVCA) tools to help communities evaluate the risks they face, assess their own adaptive capacities and assets, and monitor changes and progress over time in an inclusive, participatory manner and make needed adjustments based on learning. Undertaking CVCA in the project’s target communities represents an important milestone in the project, which determines the implementation course of the interventions. The main objectives of CVCA are to a) analyze vulnerability to climate change and adaptive capacity at the community level and b) combine community knowledge and scientific data to yield a greater understanding of the local impacts of climate change.[1] Community Action Plans generated following the CVCA seek to reduce vulnerability and adaptive capacity for women and men in the community.

CARE will engage a qualified and dynamic expert to provide technical assistance in the planning and implementation of the CVCA exercise at both local and national levels and produce a high-quality and analytical report which meets CARE and donor expectations. Carrying out a rigorous CVCA exercise is expected to lead to a much better understanding of the risks, vulnerabilities, and capacities in these communities and open up avenues for robust and contextually relevant resilience programming in Somalia/Somaliland at large and in the specific geographical areas in particular.

1. OBJECTIVES OF THE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

The main purpose of the technical assistance consultancy is to oversee the design of the CVCA process, execution of the CVCA exercise, and preparation and compilation of the analysis in consultation with the CARE programme staff. CARE programme staff who have participated in CVCA methodology training shall undertake the exercise at the field level and participate or contribute to the CVCA exercise at district/regional and national levels.

The correct application of the CVCA tools, as well as the complete documentation and analysis of the CVCA information at all levels, is crucial to the CVCA exercise and hence the need for this technical assistance.

The specific objectives of the technical assistance are:

1. Contribute to the planning process of the CVCA exercise using the CVCA handbook as a guide and Terms of Reference.
2. Provide technical guidance in the CVCA implementation process and application of the different risk, vulnerability, and capacity assessment tools.
3. Ensure robust integration and synthesis of literature review information and community-level findings.
4. Lead the documentation, analysis, and reporting of the entire CVCA exercise at all levels.
5. KEY TASKS
6. Review and fine-tune CARE Somalia’s CVCA tools and other Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools that will be used for the CVCA exercise.
7. Hold a two-day planning and orientation workshop for the CVCA teams on the CVCA methodology/tools and documentation of information in the correct formats before the community-level analysis.
8. Literature review – reviewing assessments, baseline surveys and other relevant studies in the target districts and even in other regions in Somaliland and Puntland which have similar conditions
9. Facilitate district-level workshops on the CVCA and present community-level findings to stakeholders for validation and advocacy purposes.
10. Integration of desk review with community-level analysis.
11. Analysis of the CVCA data/findings (at all community levels) and compilation of the Village Profiles and CVCA report as the CVCA teams share information, including aggregation of all the CVCA exercises in the 20 villages.
12. Preparation and submission of the final report and a summary presentation.
13. METHODOLOGY

The exercise will be implemented by CARE programme staff in Somaliland and Puntland, technically supported by the technical consultant, and the process will be in four phases.

1. CVCA staff training

The training will be conducted for four days, including a simulation exercise in one of the communities, focusing on the whole process of conducting CVCA, including the analytical frameworks and disaster risk and vulnerability assessment tools. This aims to equip those unfamiliar with CVCA and PDRA (participatory disaster risk assessment) with the relevant skills and knowledge for the field exercise.

1. Community and stakeholders’ sensitization

The CVCA team will conduct a stakeholder analysis to identify potential institutions, individuals, and key actors in livelihood security (participants to the CVCA). The stakeholder analysis will take place in parallel with the community sensitization on the CVCA exercise.

1. Community Level Analysis

The community-level analysis will be conducted in twenty (20) communities in Hargeisa (5), Buroa (5), Garowe (5) and Gardo (5) districts. The community-level analysis process will be conducted for three (3) days in each community. It shall engage various community groups such as development/welfare committees, village councils, youth, and women groups. The CVCA shall apply Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools to assess and analyze risks, vulnerabilities, and capacities. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KII) shall also be employed with representatives from different communities to collect in-depth information and triangulate with information collected from the communities through the other tools. CARE CVCA handbook will be the main reference guide for collecting and analyzing information on risks, vulnerabilities, and capacities.

1. Integrating desk review with community-level analysis

The technical consultant shall perform a thorough desk review on climate change, disaster risks, disaster risk management policies and plans, and climate change vulnerability in Somalia/Somaliland, particularly in the project areas. In addition, he/she shall produce a synthesis CVCA report of the 20 communities integrating the community level findings and analysis with the desk review findings.

1. District/regional multi-stakeholder workshops

When the community level analysis is completed, two multi-stakeholder workshops shall be organized in Hargeisa and Garowe where presentations of the community level analysis will be made to community representatives, government authorities and other organizations working in these districts to collect further information from these groups and validate the available the community-level analysis.

1. SCOPE OF WORK

This technical assistance consultancy provides support in different areas and at different levels. Facilitation of multi-stakeholder and community workshops, overseeing the CVCA exercise and providing technical backstopping, staff capacity building on CVCA approaches, processes and tools, desk review and analysis, and documentation and report writing are the key focus areas the technical assistance shall involve.

As part of the assignment, the consultant will closely work and interact with CARE programme staff, communities, and government officers. The consultant shall be in constant touch with the CVCA teams, providing technical guidance, receiving reports and raw information, and asking for clarifications during report writing and compilation. The technical assistance consultancy is required for a period of about one month with varying degrees of engagement.

1. AREAS OF INVESTIGATION OF THE CVCA
2. Contextual analysis (physical, social, political, economic, institutional, etc.)
3. Common climate-related risks in the specific community, their patterns, severity, impact, etc.
4. Vulnerability and capacity dimensions – social, geographic, economic etc.
5. Vulnerable elements – people, assets, environments etc., and their degrees/levels of vulnerability
6. Characterization and mapping of the climate-related disaster risks – causes, warning signals, duration, frequency, period of occurrence, forewarning etc.
7. Capacity assessment – existing capacities to withstand the disaster risk and identification of gaps
8. The impact of the disaster risk on women and girls
9. Role of local authorities and government departments in averting the impacts of the disaster risks and where they need to be strengthened
10. Stakeholder analysis in disaster preparedness and response
11. Access and control of resources, such as land, livestock, water infrastructures, etc.
12. Policy analysis – land tenure, livestock marketing, water, etc.
13. Preparedness and action planning (solutions and activities to reduce vulnerabilities and enhance capacities in the face of the identified risks and changes) at multiple levels
14. Identification of advocacy issues and pinpointing entry points and possible allies
15. INDICATIVE TIMELINE

Activity

Timeline

Who is involved

Hold 1-2 days planning meeting with senior technical staff – 1 day

Consultant; CARE senior technical staff

Reviewing the CVCA/PRA tools and adapting them for use, and revising the CVCA planning and implementation process – 2 days

Consultant

Final CVCA planning and orientation workshop and overseeing the CVCA exercise in the first few communities (including travel days) – 10 days

Consultant; CARE programme staff

Desk review, reviewing the 20 Village Profiles and drafting consolidated CVCA report (CVCA teams shall share raw information regularly). This is an iterative process – 8 days

Consultant

Facilitating district/regional level multi-stakeholder workshops in Hargeisa and Garowe to present and validate CVCA findings (including travel days) – 5 days

Consultant; CARE programme staff

Preparation and compilation of the final report and summary presentation – 4 days

Technical expert

Total 35 days

1. RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE CONSULTANT

In line with the objectives of the consultancy and under the overall guidance of the Program Manager, the following deliverables are expected from the consultant:

1. CVCA methodology and tools reviewed and adapted for use
2. Strengthened staff capacity in CVCA, DRR and PRA tools through hands-on support
3. 20 Disaster Risk Village Profiles
4. Final synthesized CVCA report and summary presentation highlighting the key findings (including similarities and differences in the village profiles) and including detailed recommendations for the project design/implementation and how to achieve these and actions that should be considered at an individual, HH, community and district levels to achieve desired project aims.
5. RESPONSIBILITIES FOR CARE

a) Overall responsibility and supervision of the task

b) Provide updates as needed and provide relevant documents to support the task

c) Review draft and provide comments, approve the final report

d) Logistical support, including field travel, accommodation and per diem, will be provided as per CARE Somalia/Somaliland policy to facilitate field work processes

1. REPORTING – CVCA EXERCISE

The consultant will write and produce a precise final report in simple and clear English. The draft report shall be shared with CARE for comments and inputs for inclusion in the final report by the consultant.

The report should have the following format:

1. Cover page: title of the work, the title of the project, names and logos of the donor and implementing partner, dates of the exercise, etc.
2. Table of contents, Executive Summary (maximum 3 pages) and main report including; desk review and CVCA exercise findings, conclusions and recommendations for future action to build resilience.
3. Annexes

• Terms of Reference
• Village Profiles
• List of persons interviewed/engaged
• List of literature and documents reviewed
• List of sites visited
• List of abbreviations

1. Submit soft copies of the final report to CARE.
2. CONSULTANT’S PROFILE

A technical expert with sufficient knowledge and experience in disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, livelihoods analysis and participatory assessments is recommended for this assignment. The technical expert should be competent in facilitating multi-stakeholder workshops, developing and revising participatory tools, coaching and mentoring community facilitators, ensuring gender sensitivity/inclusion, conducting thorough desk reviews, integrating literature with research findings, and writing high-quality and analytical reports. He/she should have:

1. Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, resilience building, food security and livelihoods in arid and semi-arid areas.
2. Familiarity with the Risk and Vulnerability analytical skills using quantitative and qualitative information with Climate Change being an added value for the systems mapping.
3. Experience in humanitarian and development contexts.
4. First-hand knowledge of the socio-cultural, economic, and political situation in Somalia/Somaliland or a similar conflict-ridden country with high vulnerability to droughts is an advantage.
5. Advanced degree in disaster risk management, development studies or a related field.
6. Strong analytical and writing skills and the ability to clearly present findings and draw practical conclusions and recommendations.
7. Prior work experience in a similar technical exercise.
8. EXPRESSION OF INTEREST
9. Up-to-date CV
10. Up to three-page statement of capability (referencing the selection criteria) and the approach to be taken in undertaking this assignment
11. Financial proposal

Note: CARE Somalia/Somaliland shall provide for food, accommodation, visa fees, travel costs, etc. of the consultant

[1] CVCA Hand-book