Position title: Consultancy - Pastoralist Resilience Partnership Coordinator (BRACED program)
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
4. The Purpose of the Assignment
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.
6. The Key Deliverables
(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.
Desirable Are:
- 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.
10.The Application Procedure
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.
Application Closing date: 20th of February 2014
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