IEC material development consultancy At Norwegian Refugee Council

Term of Reference (TOR)

Participatory development of Information Education and Communication Materials for community-based climate adaptation and regenerative resilience design

1. The BRCiS Consortium

Building Resilient Communities in Somalia (BRCiS) is a consortium of national and international organizations whose objective is to support and guide vulnerable communities in Somalia in building their resilience capacities, in their own ways. The Consortium was created in 2013 and is now implementing projects funded by multiple humanitarian and development donors, in more than ten regions of Somalia. BRCiS is currently implementing a multi-year project supported by FCDO entitled “Building Resilient Communities in Somalia III” (or “BRCiS III“) that will run from July 1st , 2023 until March 31st, 2028 as part of FCDO’s Humanitarian Assistance and Resilience Building in Somalia (HARBS) business case. The intended outcome of this project is that marginalised communities in disaster-prone, rural Somalia have sufficient social, financial and environmental assets to better cope with shocks and stresses and adapt to the effects of climate change. This objective will be achieved through a set of multi-sectoral outputs that focus on natural resource management/climate adaptation, agropastoral/market-based livelihoods, early and anticipatory response to shocks, and inclusion of marginalised persons.

1. Scope of the consultancy

Applying a community based and bottom-up approach guided by the principles of regenerative resilience design and agroecology, the BRCiS Consortium intends to strengthen the capacities of communities to work with nature to address existing environmental degradation, reduce the impact of future climate hazards, and to stabilize food and nutrition security in the face of shocks.

To achieve this objective, the Consortium has adopted different approaches including resilience participatory mapping, community led context monitoring, inclusive contingency planning, regenerative resilience design to ‘planting the rains’ managing water and soils, and agroecological inspired practices to producing food.

Different strategies are implemented by the Consortium Members and Partners to sustainably encourage communities, priority groups (Self-Help Groups and producer cooperatives) and households themselves to adopt climate adaptive behaviours including to:

• assess the severity of local environmental degradation in their communities and broader ecosystem services locations

• anticipate climate and conflict-related hazards,

• adopt inclusive leadership practices to plan and react to shocks,

• protect nature and restore ecosystems,

• develop livelihood approaches that positively partner with nature to contribute to food and nutrition security.

One of the strategies adopted by the Consortium in this perspective is a training of trainers’ approach to cascading regenerative resilience design to the community level, based on the USAID methodology. This approach is being rolled out since March 2024.

1. Objective

The BRCiS Consortium is looking to contract consultants to review training and cascading practices applied in the Consortium, and to co-develop IEC materials that will help regenerative resilience design facilitators in their work at community level. The IEC materials should also contribute to supporting community organic replication.

The consultants will lean on the ecosystem and regenerative resilience workstream under the BRCiS III Project and on field level facilitators, to understand what their IEC needs are, what might be relevant to community champions and early adopters, and which adaptations will be required to increase the relevance of the regenerative resilience package of tools for Somalia.

Based on this engagement, they will develop, test and validate with the teams different IEC tools addressing the identified needs.

1. Steps toward the objective

A. Prioritisation of IEC needs process

The consultants will be able to use data gathered and analyzed by the RAF Project Manager. The long list of practices is highlighted in annex 1, at the bottom of the Terms of Reference. The subsequent prioritization process with be done jointly with the ecosystem and regenerative resilience design workstream to:

1. Select the climate adaptive behaviours that are most worth promoting,

2. and the regenerative resilience design strategies that are the most contextually relevant,

3. or the regenerative resilience IEC materials which most need adaptation to the Somali context

4. Based on this mapping, finalise the selection of practices and behaviours to be targeted by the IEC materials with the ecosystem workstream and the RAF manager

B. Develop an IEC toolbox of community-facing communication materials

5. Develop an IEC toolbox of community-facing communication materials to be used by field facilitators and communities themselves, including at least the following materials:

a. Three mixed-media videos (combining illustration with actual video, including drone footage) explaining the site-level design and anticipated future impact of restoration activities in Yeed/Balicade (completed), Bonkay (completed) and Dhusamareb (planned under RAF). Each video will be 2-3 minutes in length in both English and Somali (May and Mahatiri). File size must be less than 16MB per video to enable optimal sharing via WhatsApp

b. 10 animated micro-learning videos in English and Somali (May and Mahatiri) explaining prioritized core concepts. Each video should be 30 seconds – 1 minute and optimized for sharing by WhatsApp

c. An image book containing at least 30 contextually-adapted, high resolution illustrations with captions/facilitator guidance in both English and Somali (May and Mahatiri) – delivered in both PDF format and with editable files in the consultants preferred design platform (i.e. InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator)

6. Other materials may be specifically proposed by applicants based on experience of effective communication for change, evidencing the applicants unique value addition.

7. Produce a short guide for frontline staff on how to use the IEC materials.

C. Develop external-facing communication materials

8. Develop a package of external-facing communication materials (Somalia donor, sector, and public facing) focusing on the following themes which will be fully finalized in partnership with the BRCiS Climate Adaptation Project Manager:

a. Exemplifying the opportunities for climate adaptation in Somalia/contextual suitability of Somalia for climate financing

b. Good practices/minimum standards for the avoidance of maladaptation/ greenwashing in humanitarian, resilience, and development funding

c. Lessons learned by BRCiS in the implementation of adaptation programming

Applicants should propose the relevant media proposed for external-facing communications based on experience of effective communication for change, evidencing the applicants unique value addition (i.e. interactive or 3D video, podcasts, etc.)

D. Validation and Socialisation

9. Applicants must plan for at least two rounds of review and feedback for all materials produced.

10. Facilitate either an in-person lessons event or an online webinar to present the findings and the tools.

1. Key Stakeholders

The Consultants will be working with the RAF project manager and extensively engage with the BRCiS Consortium Management Unit (CMU) and the Ecosystem Workstream.

1. Travel and Logistics

The consultants will have to travel to at least 3 field locations (Rabdhure, Baidoa, and Dhusamareb) for multi-day content collection exercises (duration may be proposed by the consultants)’. Additionally, the consultants will be expected to carry out at least two separate field-based validation exercises (locations to be recommended by the consultants) between the first and second draft of all content.

All travel-related logistics are the responsibility of the consulting team and needs to be costed under the consultancy budget.

Travels will be organised in coordination with the CMU and with Consortium Members in the respective locations.

1. Timeline

All the work needs to be completed validated and delivered by March 20th,2025

1. Profile of the consultants

Firms should present a team of qualified personnel that includes at minimum the below-mentioned profiles (not an exhaustive list; one candidate may fulfil more than one profile).

• Expert agroecology and agroforestry, Regenerative Resilience Design, and/or nature-based solutions

• Expert in communication for change and behaviour change

• Expert in Somali context

• Expert in IEC design, including graphic design, writing and editing as well as video and animation skills

In addition, the consulting team should have:

• Proven experience in working with communities in Somalia, ideally in climate adaptation

• Strong understanding of the various challenges (CC, environmental, social, political, economic) facing communities

• Networking skills and stakeholders’ engagement

• Curious and innovative mind. Strong interest in environmental preservation, social/human well being

• Willingness and availability to travel to rural Somalia

The level of effort (in days or % of time) for all positions and the consulting team’s management structure should be clearly specified in the proposal.

1. Application process

Applicants are expected to submit:

• a technical proposal (4 pages max. – including workplan);

• a financial proposal.

• the CVs of the team members

• Example of previous work included at least one video

• At least two endorsements of the satisfactory completion of similar work

Please refer to section 3 article 26 Evaluation of Bid, clause 26.1 of the ITB.

Annex 1

Listing adaptation best practices we will want to include – most practices relate to specific concepts and vice versa.

Practices

• Contour earthworks

• Diversion earthworks

• Permagardening

• Locally available resources for soil amendments and mulching

• Active and passive composting

• Use of gray water (including ablution water)

• Managed/holistic grazing (rooted in Xeer bylaws)

• Check dams/gabions for gulley closure

• Cover crops / intercropping

• A-frame/mapping contours

• Recessional agriculture

• Biofertilizers and organic pesticides

Concepts

• Groundwater recharge

• Shared resource management

• Soil moisture banking for drought resilience

• Living soil

• Overgrazing

• Biointensive planting

• Three thieves of water (sun, slope, and wind)

• Seed storage

• Reading the landscape/walking the landscape.