Save the Children Consultancy Job for Baseline Survey

Terms of Reference

Baseline Survey for Child Rights Governance Project in Somaliland

1. Introduction

Somaliland broke away from main Somalia during the country’s civil war in the 1990s. It has a young government that is struggling to maintain a fledgling piece and the country’s young democracy.

Somaliland has yet to be recognised by the international community, and the country has continued to suffer from huge capacity gaps at all levels of governance, civil society and the maintenance of human rights.

Majority of the children who survive are denied their rights and they suffer various forms of rights violations, abuse and neglect perpetrated by both state party actors and community individuals, including family members and traditional leaders.

Some entrenched negative traditional practices tacitly sanction certain violations as a norm.

For example, female genital mutilation and marrying off girls as young as fourteen years is customary, even if it means terminating their education. Children’s opinions have no space.

The situation requires external support since the government clearly lacks the technical capacity to raise awareness on the issue of rights and to promote the agenda of child participation.

Most of the issues stated above were vividly analysed in the Save the Children Alliance and UNICEF Child Rights Situation Analysis in 2003, and in a recent CRSA exercise (2010) commissioned by Save the Children, UNICEF, SOS ADRA, CESVI and other actors including the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

These reports, past experiences and the results of consultations with a wide range of stakeholders including children themselves have informed the SCiSom programme strategy planning over the years, and shall inform the implementation of the Child Rights Governance project.

2. Child Rights Governance project

“Space for Children’s Voice” project (2011-2013) seeks to enhance the realization of all children’s rights in Somaliland. The project’s primarily focuses on improving governance through strengthening civil society and child participation.

The indicators in the project logical framework closely follow Save the Children International Global Indicators for Child Rights Governance and Child Participation. The project is financed by the Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs through Save the Children Finland.

Expected outcomes and outputs of the programme:

I. Children influence decisions affecting their lives in the project target areas.

• Output 1: Active child rights groups and children’s forums in project target areas
• Output 2: Child rights groups have improved life skills and educate their peers
• Output 3: Local governance structures incorporate child participation
• Output 4: Children have capacity to advocate for their rights

II. Active civil society in support of child rights.

• Output 5: Networks of child rights organisations established/strengthened and functional
• Output 6: Improved capacity of civil society to support the realisation of children’s rights

3. Purpose and Objective of the Consultancy

The purpose of the consultancy is to generate comprehensive information on the current situation on child rights governance as per the project indicators in the project’s implementation locations in Hargeisa, Berbera and Borama in Somaliland.

The baseline should provide empirical evidence on project specific indicators and benchmarks for monitoring and evaluation. It is hoped that this information will inform child participation in the above stated regions and support Child Rights Governance (CRG) and the project team and the management to understand and monitor the progress and results of their child rights interventions in the regions.

Objective: To assess the situation of child rights to participation, child rights governance and the previous work on child rights governance and child participation and generate baseline data that will set benchmarks for the project take off and provide the overall direction for the Child Rights Governance project.

The specific objectives of the consultancy are to:

1. Generate baseline data that will set benchmarks and milestones in order to provide an analysis from the data collected to inform implementation of the CRG project and to better monitor and measure progress achieved through its child rights and child participation (CP) interventions in the targeted regions.

2. Produce contextually relevant set of CRG monitoring tools for use by SC in Somaliland.

3. Impart CP/CRG project staff and partners participating in the baseline survey with relevant skills in monitoring, collecting and analyzing data and effectively reporting. This will be gained through training and working together with staff and partners during the consultancy.

4. Scope of Work

The baseline survey will therefore focus on generating relevant data in the locations stated, with specific emphasis on baseline information relevant to the objectives, targets and indicators of the CRG interventions and the proposed strategies in the project document.

The consultant will be expected to undertake the following tasks:

• Participate in briefing and consultative meetings on the assignment at Nairobi and in the field.
• Familiarize with the local child participation context, the CRG Country Plans, and the CRG projects implemented by SCiSom in Somaliland.
• Design the baseline survey tools based on the CRG project plan, project monitoring plan, CRG log frame indicators and the projects’ M&E requirements and share with SCISOM for approval.
• Advise on the need of revising and/or specifying the project indicators in the monitoring plan.
• Design and deliver a one day training for the CRG project staff, partners and field researchers on key aspects of the baseline survey including how data will be collected (process, methods, and tools), analyzed, interpreted, and reported.
• Constitute the survey team (staff, partners and others).
• Set off the survey team to pre-test and refine the data collection tools and to collect required data.
• Collect data from the identified target persons/groups by administering the tools in the three target areas and at the national level.
• Make an analysis of the baseline data (jointly with selected CRG/CP project staff and partners – for learning purposes).
• Facilitate a validation workshop for the outcome survey report and input the feedback
• Debrief CRG/CP Programme management (including partners) and the respective staff from the Ministry of Labour (MOLSA) on the process and preliminary findings of the consultancy.
• Prepare and submit comprehensive report of the baseline survey in soft and hard copies to Save the Children.

5. Deliverables

The following are the key deliverables for the evaluation process;

• Detailed baseline survey design and implementation plan agreed with the SCiSom and partners.
• Detailed and comprehensive baseline survey tools to be used in capturing the required information in all the project locations. The tools should be discussed and agreed at the project level before utilization and thereafter be annexed to the baseline survey report.
• Orientation/ training of the CP/CRG project staff (and partners participating in the survey). The baseline survey tools will be discussed and finalized during this workshop.
• Comprehensive draft and final baseline survey reports. Data on the indicators listed in the CRG project log frame and M&E plan, among others identified by the consultant and the CRG project team should be covered and reported on.
• Report of a validation workshop in Hargeisa
• The three hard copies of the final report and a soft copy in CD-ROM to SC office

The consultant will submit the final report, 2 weeks after receiving consolidated comments from SCISOM.

The Program Manager will approve the report if it meets organizational minimum standards.

The report should be between 30-40 pages (excluding the annexes) and should contain relevant parts such as an executive summary, findings per each project indicator, lessons learnt, recommendations and annexes.

6. Time Frame

The entire exercise will take 19 days on June 10th – 28th, 2011.

SN: 1
Activity: Briefing and Document review
# of Days: 2
Responsible person: Consultant

SN: 2
Activity: Development of the baseline survey tools
# of Days: 2
Responsible person: Consultant

SN: 3
Activity: Training/orientation of project staff & partners
# of Days: 1
Responsible person: Consultant

SN: 4
Activity: Pre-testing/revision of the tools
# of Days: 1
Responsible person: Consultant

SN: 5
Activity: Fieldwork
# of Days: 7
Responsible person: Consultant

SN: 6
Activity: Data analysis & report writing
# of Days: 2
Responsible person: Consultant

SN: 7
Activity: Validation & debriefing meeting
# of Days: 1
Responsible person: Consultant

SN: 8
Activity: Preparation and submission of first draft Baseline Survey Report
# of Days: 1
Responsible person: Consultant

SN: 9
Activity: Travels between Nairobi and Hargeisa
# of Days: 2
Responsible person: Consultant

Total: 19 days

Support Available: Save the Children will

• Coordinate meetings and workshops
• Assign one project officer to support the consultant
• Ensure prompt payment of professional fee and other costs arising from the contract;
• Provide logistical support (transport, accommodation, food, etc during the assignment)
• Provide guidance and support during the exercise
• Comment on the draft report

Terms and Conditions Logistics:

The consultant’s travel from base to the field and back after the end of the contract (including airport tax), food, and accommodation will be covered by Save the Children (if the consultant is hired form outside Somaliland).

Professional fee: The consultant will come up with his/her own rate as part of the financial proposal. However, SC will be guided by the daily rates as provided for under its finance and consultancy policy

Tax and insurance: The consultant shall be responsible for his/her income tax and/or insurance during the assignment.

Code of conduct: Because Save the Children's work is based on deeply held values and principles, it is essential that our commitment to children's rights and humanitarian principles is supported and demonstrated by all members of staff.

Save the Children's Code of Conduct sets out the standards which all staff members must adhere to.

The consultant is bound by the principles and conditions of Save the Children’s Code of Conduct (This includes Child Safeguarding Policy, Fraud and Dishonesty Policy, Anti-Terrorism, Anti-Corruption. A contract will be signed by the consultant before commencement of the action.

The contract will detail terms and conditions of service, aspects on inputs and deliverables.

Location: The consultancy will take place in Hargeisa, Berbera and Borama in Somaliland.

Application Requirements:

All expressions of interest should include: Cover letter: A short (maximum three pages) letter addressing the base line criteria.

Technical Proposal: brief explanation about the Consultant with particular emphasis on the previous experience in this kind of work; profile of the Consultant, understanding of the TOR, the task to be accomplished as well as base line analysis framework and plan.

Financial Proposal: The financial proposal should provide cost estimates for services rendered including daily consultancy fees excluding: accommodation and costs of living; transport cost; stationeries, and supplies needed for training and costs related to the participants during the exercise.

Expertise Required

The following attributes are required for the selection of the Baseline Analyst:

• Postgraduate qualifications in social sciences or another discipline relevant to this assignment with a minimum of 5 years work experience.
• Competent and experienced researcher including in designing and conducting baseline surveys.
• Knowledge and experience of using participatory methodologies in child rights work in a developing country context.
• Excellent report writing skills
• Experience of working in post conflict contexts
• Knowledge of Child rights Governance and Child Participation frameworks
• Knowledge of Somali culture and the social political dimensions of CRG & CP

Interested and eligible applicants can send copies of their CVs, testimonials and at least two copies of reports of similar work, Technical proposal and Financial proposal to:

Applications should be forwarded to;

Human Resources Manager
Save the Children Somalia/Somaliland
email: vacancies@scsom.org

Latest date for receiving applications is 6th June 2011.

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