Organisation: Action Against Hunger - ACF International
Location: Multiple Countries
Department: ! URGENT VACANCIES
Type: Contracted
Min. Experience: Experienced
Pastoralist Livelihoods, Rights and Resources: Creating Resilience to Drought for 640,000
Cross Border Populations in Kenya and Uganda's Karamoja Cluster
1. The Background
DFID has launched a global call for application for Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disaster Programme (BRACED). BRACED is expected to directly benefit up to 5 million vulnerable people, especially women and children, in developing countries by helping them become more resilient to climate extremes. In its first phase it will deliver interventions in up to 10 countries in the Sahel and DFID focal countries at most risk and will be achieved through grants to NGOs and their partners (local government, research organizations, UN agencies and private sector) by scaling up proven technologies and practices; develop research and evaluation to build the evidence on what works on adaptation and DRR; and build national and international capacity to respond to climate related disasters. The grant will primarily focus on building the resilience of households and communities in DFID focal countries by improving and diversifying livelihoods, developing shared management systems of resources critical to resilience (water, rangelands, and forests) and embedding disaster risk reduction and adaptation into climate change and development responses.
A Partnership led by Action Against Hunger (ACF-USA), and composed of implementing partners Danish Refugee Council – Danish Demining Group (DRC-DDG), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and a number of local and research partners, submitted an initial concept note under Component B of BRACED, and has been invited by DFID to initiate a Project Development Phase to take the concept note to full proposal for submission in July 2014. The Pastoralist Resilience Partnership (PReP)'s proposal is for £7,260,832 accountable grant for a project to support pastoral and agro pastoral communities, particularly women, in the remote areas of Karamoja region in Uganda and West Pokot and Turkana counties in Kenya to build their resilience to climate extremes and disasters.
The proposed action is organized around four principal and interlinked areas of work, namely 1) drought resilient livelihoods, 2) natural resource management, 3) enhanced governance and reduced conflict, and 4) research and advocacy. PReP proposes an innovative model that combines improvement of a) climate information services, b) sustainable and climate-resilient livelihoods options, c) gender equity, and d) sustainable natural resource management. PReP has a wealth of experience relevant to the BRACED in the Karamoja Cluster upon which the proposed action will be built.
At this junction, PReP is looking for an experienced DFID grant writer (or team of more than one) with an excellent understanding of Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters in the context of Kenya and Uganda's Karamoja Cluster.
2. The Overall Objective of Proposal Development Phase
During February to July 2014, PReP will elaborate the full project design, establish effective partnerships, consolidate a strong baseline, undertaking research and piloting activities to strengthen the analysis and evidence base for the design, and develop a full proposal for submission to DFID.
3.The Specific Objectives of the Development Phase
- Establish the Partnership (internal governance structure) and collaborations (external, regional, national and local authorities, UN and INGOs) needed to implement the project activities at a full scale.
- Undertake pilot work and studies, to provide more evidence on the costs and benefits of the proposed approaches, including details on the unit costs of proposed actions. This will be essential evidence for the assessment of full proposals.
- Consolidate a strong baseline and develop a results framework with milestones, targets, and clear theory of change and an evaluation framework in partnership with wider BRACED programme.
- Document lessons learnt and best practices that can be shared under the knowledge management component. These should be made available/published in the public domain by the end of the project development period.
- Complete the writing up of the full proposal taking into account all the above
The role of the consultant is to lead the development of a successful submission through a design process building on the early design work in the concept note and engaging PReP members at the Headquarters, Region, and Country Office levels; and through the actual writing of the proposal.
5. The Methodology
- A small technical team composed of a pastoral livelihoods expert, study lead and M&E expert will be formed to provide technical backstopping and oversight of the Proposal Development Phase (PDP). The consultant is expected to lead this team of expertise during the development phase.
- Intensive engagement and development of partnerships with government authorities, regional institutions and a range of other collaborative partners will be at the heart of this exercise. This is expected to take place through in person bilateral meetings, workshops and other appropriate forms of lobbying and engagement.
- Desk reviews and primary data collection will be undertaken to produce study and scoping reports
- There are multiple stakeholders engaged in this Proposal Development Phase, and through coordination support from PReP, the consultant will be expected to manage inputs across country, regional, and headquarters levels for all Partnership members. The country teams of the partners will support the consultant with country-level coordination.
- The BRACED Concept Note is the primary reference document for the full proposal; hence the proposal development process should ensure coherence across the two documents.
(i) Work-plan for Proposal Development Phase.
The Proposal Development Phase involves multiple stakeholders and activities in order to produce development phase outputs and a credible final proposal. The consultant will be required to develop a work-plan for PReP to fulfill the requirements of this period including an appropriate timeline for proposal development (including baselines, pilot activities etc.) to allow maximum consultation on drafts across the partnership at all levels.
(ii) Engagement of regional bodies and government authorities in PReP project development.
The creation of sub-national government buy-in at project development phase is a critical precondition to the launch of the full project. Intensive outreach activities to sub-national government will build on the strength of existing partner relationships to secure agreement on the nature and scope of government partnership, develop coordination mechanisms and establish working relationships, while also identifying risks to these partnership arrangements. The achievement of this deliverable will be demonstrated through signed MoU documents, records of sessions and attendance of government bodies in PReP meetings, project monitoring reports showing level of government and regional body resources committed to PReP, and Framework agreements with national government to authorize and guide roles of sub-national authorities.
(iii) Engagement of other key collaborators in PReP e.g. private, semi-private, CSOs and other relevant stakeholders.
Other key alliances and partnerships necessary to implementing the project at scale will be established and serve as key entry points to the communities. This will be done through the development of alliances with private and semi-private, civil society and political actors. Various collaborators are already identified on the basis of existing PReP partner experience and have demonstrated their intent to collaborate.
Other activities will include the definition of roles and responsibilities, coordination mechanisms and internal Partnership governance structure with collaborating and implementing partners. The achievement of this deliverable will be demonstrated through the design and delivery of a Cross Border Inception Workshop with PReP partners, presence of a Workshop Report and signed MoU documents.
(iv) Undertaking of pilot work and studies to provide evidence on costs, risks and benefits of proposed PReP approaches.
The consultant will supervise the undertaking of pilot work and studies for evidence on costs, risks and benefits of proposed approaches. It will increase understanding of the operational environment through gathering of lessons learnt and best practice on comparable programming experience, such as the Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) in Karamoja and the DRRAP cross-border CMDRR approach in Kenya and Ethiopia, and produce a good practice review to inform strategic design and risk analysis.
A Household Socioeconomic Baseline study; a Market Feasibility study for dairy, leather, abattoir and meat value chains; and Community Action Plans will be undertaken and reports produced to establish baselines and inform strategic design. Pilot work involving new technologies for Market Information Systems (MIS) and weather alerts will be done. Lastly, a mapping of the scope of existing government development plans and community NRM, DRR and preparedness plans will be carried out.Pilot works and studies will need to feed into the design process. The consultant (and their team) will work with partners to bring studies to publishable standard, to draw out analysis relevant to informing project design, and to make recommendations for project design based on this evidence.
(v) Comprehensive PReP project implementation strategy and results framework designed, including development of a project Theory of Change (ToC), results framework with baselines and milestones, and M&E framework
The consultant will leverage the above outputs to support the design of a comprehensive implementation strategy and associated results framework through the constitution of core and technical advisory groups responsible for leading the development exercise, definition of project Theory of Change, identification of target groups and targeting strategies, definition of research scope and advocacy strategy and platforms, elaboration of M&E frameworks, development of a comprehensive results framework and associated operational handbooks to guide field action in a harmonized manner across the target areas.
(vi) Proposal submission.
The consultant is responsible for overseeing and coordinating the development of a high quality, credible and winnable project proposal narrative and associated documentation. The consultant is expected to understand and respond fully to DFID's requirements of a submission under BRACED, including addressing feedback from DFID on the initial concept note.
Please note that this is an indicative ToR to solicit Expressions of Interest, and subject to change as the Partnership enters into its planning and budgeting phases over coming weeks, and receives more information from DFID. Any revisions would be agreed with the successful candidate prior to signing contracts.
7. The Timeframe and Location
The Project Development Phase runs from February through July 2014. The consultancy will be a full-time assignment for the entire period of March through July 2014. The position will be based in Kampala, Uganda or Nairobi, Kenya, with >50 percent travel to field locations in both Kenya and Uganda expected.
8. The Budget
Please provide costs in the EOI. However, the Partnership will be responsible for all logistical arrangements and coordination for the workshop and expenses for attendance and travel in the region. The Partnership will also cover the PDP expenses of pilot studies and baselines as already agreed with DFID including a maximum of 3 technical staff that will be recruited by and work under the consultant. The consultant will be responsible for the general overview, follow up and management of the PDP budget, however all financial decision will be validated by the PReP Steering Committee.
9. The Profile of Consultant
Required Are:
- Demonstrated coordination, facilitation, negotiation, brokering and consensus-building, teamwork and partnership development skills.
- Climate change adaptation, resilience building, and/or sustainable livelihoods profile.
- Track record of leading on successful long term funding proposal development (DFID, USAID, EU etc.).
- Exceptional communication skills and excellent written English.
- Understanding of DFID's resilience work.
- Experience of writing successful DFID proposals.
- Previously worked on INGO consortium resilience building projects
- Demonstrated budget and staff management skills
- Demonstrated experience of publishing technical, policy, or programmatic outputs from the region.
- Understanding of chronic and acute crises in the Karamoja Cluster (Karamoja, West Pokot and Turkana) and working experience in the region.
Interested parties should send their applications by email to Melinda Lee, mlee@actionagainsthunger.org by the 20th of February 2014, under reference: PReP BRACED Application Form. We will consider applications from both individuals and teams. Only shortlisted applications will be contacted.
Applications should include:
- Up-to-date curriculum vitae
- One supporting document of up to 3 pages outlining previous achievements and core competencies in line with the assignment, the proposed methodology of work including timeframe, location and financial expectations.
- Evidence of past experience in undertaking similar assignments (three most recent documents of similar works done)
- At least three previous clients and their contacts.
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