Background information and project summary
Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse (VSF-Suisse) is a charitable organisation focusing on preventing and alleviating suffering, disease and hunger, supporting socioeconomic development and assisting people whose livelihood mainly depends on livestock and agriculture with the aim of improving food sovereignty, nutrition security and resilience, working with disadvantaged communities to increase their standard of living, improve food security and livelihood sustainability through improved animal health and production.
Running from 01 December 2022 to 31 May 2023, ELPP focuses on providing emergency lifesaving support and to safeguard livelihoods and productive assets for drought-affected vulnerable households among pastoral, agro-pastoral and riverine communities in Dollow and Belet Xaawo Districts of Gedo Region in Somalia. The project gives priority to households who face the highest risk of food insecurity and malnutrition. These include notably households with children under five as well as households with pregnant and lactating women (PLW).
The provision of lifesaving support to vulnerable groups will be achieved through (1) increasing access to food through unconditional cash transfers (UCT) and (2) enhancing household production and consumption of a protein rich food (milk) by emergency feeding of the milking goats with range cubes. These interventions will improve household food security and nutrition status, especially for children under five years and for pregnant and lactating mothers. As cash transfers will enable vulnerable groups to source goods from the local markets, cash will be injected into and support the local economy.
Output Indicators:
For increasing access to food through unconditional cash transfers (UCT):
- 400 households (2,400 people) benefiting from the cash transfers
- Up to 93,600 CHF transferred to beneficiaries
For enhancing household production and consumption of a protein rich food (milk) by emergency feeding of the milking goats with range cubes
- 400 households reached
- 4,000 milking goats fed
- 80,000 kg range cubes distributed
The safeguarding of livelihoods and productive assets of vulnerable households is achieved through emergency veterinary services (livestock deworming, multivitamin administration, and curative treatments). Furthermore, it is envisaged that the emergency distribution of range cubes will not only increase household milk availability, but also protect the milking and core breeding goats for the targeted groups. As goats are owned mainly by the poor, especially women-headed households, the project is largely pro-poor.
Output Indicators:
- 8,000 HHs (48,000 individuals) reached
- 242,000 livestock heads treated/dewormed
VSF-Suisse is seeking to engage reputable organization or individual expert (s) to carry out an evaluation of the project. The evaluation will assess in a participatory manner the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, sustainability and reliability of the emergency action in addressing the needs of the targeted beneficiaries and in close collaboration with local authorities, communities and other stakeholders.
Objectives of the final evaluation
The evaluation needs to clearly address if objectives and outcomes were achieved and who benefited and to what extent. Specifically, the evaluation will establish the impact of the project in reference to the following:
- Evaluation of the Strategy and the Methodology used;
- Determination of the relevance of the intervention in terms of timing, targeting and design;
- Determination of the cost benefit of the emergency interventions;
- Documentation of the efficiency of the intervention based on the results achieved with available resources;
- Identification of indicators of success, including communities’ views on the benefits and impact of the interventions;
- Describe the effectiveness of the emergency interventions;
- Document successes, challenges and lessons learnt and provide recommendation for future interventions.
Results of evaluation
A detailed report indicating clearly the main impacts, lessons learnt, project successes and key recommendations
Methodology of data Collection
The following methods of data collection may be used in combination to collect all the required information:
- Desk review of VSF-Suisse project reports, relevant reports on ELPP project activities;
- Focus group discussion with stakeholders, (agro)pastoralists, riverine communities, IDPs and key actors in the region/districts;
- Key informant interviews with relevant experts in emergency interventions and heads of departments from the collaborating actors;
- Use of participatory skills and approaches and field data collection with pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, riverine communities and IDPs in target areas.
Proposed duration of the Evaluation
| Proposed activity | ||
| Result | Days | |
| 1.1 | Literature review in Nairobi | 2 |
| 1.2 | Focus Group discussions and key informant interviews | 10 |
| 1.3 | Compiling Evaluation report | 6 |
Location
The evaluation will take place in the project areas in Gedo Region-Somalia as agreed with the consultant(s).
Execution
- The consultant (s) should provide a detailed work plan and budget of the evaluation;
- The evaluation is expected to be completed in June 2023 over a period of 18 days.
Deliverables
The consultant (s) will be expected to submit a hard copy and soft copy of a detailed plan within two (2) days of signing the consultancy contract.
A detailed final report will be presented to VSF-Suisse Country Director and the Team Leader detailing the findings of the consultancy and recommendations for future similar interventions in Gedo Somalia. The entire report will be presented in English and will remain the property of VSF-Suisse. A hard copy and a soft copy (CD/DVD) must be submitted.
A draft report will be expected four (4) days after the end of the field mission and the final report is expected 2 days after VSF-Suisse’s comments.
The contents of the report shall be as follows:
- Executive summary;
- Background;
- Description of the objectives of the mission and execution methodology;
- Findings;
- Problems encountered;
- Recommendations;
- Annexes covering Terms of Reference, abbreviations, field locations visited, references, graphs, tables, etc.
Responsibilities
The VSF-Suisse M&E Officer will ensure overall coordination of the consultancy.
Qualifications
The consultant(s) are expected to have the following qualifications:
- An expert in food security, nutrition, animal production or related field with at least seven years experience in food security and livelihoods programming;
- Experience in carrying out similar consultancies and a proven track record of excellent results delivery;
- Excellent report writing skills;
- Working experience in Somalia is desirable
Contact information
Interested expert(s) should prepare and submit to VSF-Suisse a technical and financial proposal for the assignment by 28th May 2023 (23:59 Hrs EAT). The proposal should indicate qualifications and experience of the consultant with a detailed execution plan and budget. The proposals, CV and letter of motivation as well as three (3) referees should be sent electronically to office.nairobi@vsf-suisse.org.
All information provided above can also be downloaded as a PDf-file here.
