Consultancy

Terms of Reference

Livelihoods and Market Assessment in Turkana County – Kalokol and Kangatotha Wards

Overview

CBM Global is a dual mandate organization: working both in development and humanitarian action with its strategic goals operating at four complementary levels to pursue impact at the individual, community, and systems levels and in humanitarian emergencies. CBM Global’s strategic goals seek to a) Strengthen the voice and autonomy of people with disabilities, b) Build inclusive, resilient communities, c) Build inclusive and sustainable local and national systems and services and, d) Ensure populations affected by natural and manmade disasters have access to inclusive humanitarian assistance and protection. CBM Global seeks transformative change leading to improved quality of life for people with disabilities living in poverty, their families, and their communities, ending the cycle of poverty and disability.

Current context

CBM Global in partnership with KRCS is currently carrying out Inclusive Drought response project in Turkana County. The project began in October 2022 with the first phase ending in March 2023 and an extension to June 2023. A similar project was implemented in Meru and Tharaka Nithi counties in 2022. The project targets 4,018 households with unconditional cash transfers while supporting persons with disabilities to access humanitarian services through referrals for specialized services and issuance of assistive devices. This is in addition to capacity building to organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), humanitarian organizations, and government ministries on inclusive humanitarian programming. The OPD structure plays a critical role in the project and CBM Global ensures their continuous engagement and meaningful participation in the project cycle.

Over the years, Turkana County has experienced repeated episodes of droughts, floods and insecurity that have affected the community due to massive loss of livelihoods. The large resources allocated to respond to these disasters, little recovery times and large economic losses, have increased poverty levels of rural and peri-urban households and reduced ability of the county government to invest in key social – economic programs which are overall important in reducing poverty. Despite the humanitarian agencies and the county government implementing various projects and programmes geared towards disaster risk reduction, poverty reduction and improving food security in the County, vulnerability to disaster risks remains high with many of the rural households being poor and thus getting severely impacted by disasters.

The meaningful engagement of persons with disabilities and other at-risk groups remains limited with minimal or no involvement at various levels both in response and recovery phase.

Turkana County is currently classified at the Recovery phase and on an improving trend because of the normal rainfall received since the onset of the long rains in March with improved forage and water. At the height of the last drought in December 2022, the county was classified at IPC 4 (emergency) mostly in the pastoral livelihoods’ zones. However, despite the rains, the needs remain enormous with about 50 percent of the affected population of 613,664 still in need of food assistance or cash transfers. Turkana central remains a priority county ranked at number three after Turkana East and Turkana North. Generally, ‘emergency’ food insecurity outcomes persist especially in the Pastoral Livelihood Zone affecting poor households whose coping capacity remains eroded significantly due to loss of livestock. Various Humanitarian actors are developing and introducing innovation within their programs to build resilience e.g. cash for work especially within the irrigation schemes in addition to developing a culture of savings through financial literacy training amongst the communities.

CBM Global intends to support early recovery interventions in Turkana County and specifically in Kalokol and Kangatotha wards. The type of interventions and or livelihood support will be determined by the outcomes and recommendations of this assessment which would include the consideration of lessons learned and success stories gathered during the assessment, the local community context and their preferences.

Purpose and objective of the assessment

The main objective of the livelihoods and market assessment is to provide practical recommendations and inputs to inform CBM Global’s recovery and resilience programming in Turkana County (Kalokol and Kangatotha wards), which aims to enable and prepare project participants to proactively position themselves for livelihoods recovery and to actively participate in income-generating activities.

The assessment will analyze various approaches and interventions implemented by government and other humanitarian actors to determine successes and lessons learnt and this should inform the recommendations. The recommendations shall consider the relevant strategic objective priorities based on similar surveys/assessments conducted by other organizations and considering the specific needs of the project participants in the community. The study will inform CBM Global of any existing disability, age and gender-related barriers or any other obstacles to accessing livelihood opportunities for at risk individuals/groups which shall be considered for future planning. It shall also analyze project participants’ livelihood and market participation, behaviors, resilience status, and preferences.

All data shall be disaggregated by disability, age and gender/ settlement types and locations.

Location of the assessment

The assessment will be conducted in Turkana County targeting the project sites; Kalokol and Kangatotha wards and Lodwar, the main county headquarters. There might be instances of engaging stakeholders and conducting visits in other regions which are outside of the project sites.

Specific objectives

1. Identify viable opportunities which exist in the market and are demanded by the market. This is inclusive of innovative petty trade.
2. To identify strategies and approaches the government and other humanitarian actors use to recover livelihoods and build resilience and long-term food security in Turkana.
3. Identify key challenges faced by persons with disabilities and other at-risk populations as small business holders and propose a solution and or recommendations for the identified challenges.
4. Mapping of financial services and the challenges faced by the target communities in accessing them and especially persons with disabilities.
5. Analyze the impact of climate change on the livelihood activities of the target groups, with a special focus on persons with disabilities.
6. Provide recommendations based on the assessment on how CBM Global can best invest in viable and appropriate climate friendly livelihood activities in the targeted areas which are sustainable and promote positive coping mechanisms in addition to improving access to financial capacities within the targeted communities.
7. To recommend appropriate income generating activities in the current project location based on their feasibility, profitability, ease of access by persons with disabilities among other parameters.

Scope and methodology

The data collection process should use cross-sectional design incorporating both qualitative and quantitative methods. The methodology should look at business/enterprise viability and profitability, in-depth livelihoods and market structure, sustainability, challenges, and capacity/knowledge gaps at the community and government levels.

Reporting and accountability

The primary responsibility for this assignment lies with the CBM Global Programs manager and the Humanitarian Coordinator under the overall guidance of the Humanitarian Director who will provide overall technical oversight and guidance through the entire process.

CBM Global responsibilities:

1. Pay for the consultancy.
2. Support the consultant with stakeholders’ mobilization.
3. Provide the consultant with all necessary project documentation.
4. Review the assessment inception report.
5. Quality assurance of the assessment process
6. Review the draft report and provide feedback to the consultant.
7. Organize meetings on the presentation of key findings and data validation.
8. Review and approval of the finalized assessment report.

Consultant responsibilities:

1. Submit technical and financial proposals, workplan with timelines and all other relevant documentation.
2. Submit Inception report: detailing the methodology including the main research methods, the sampling framework, proposed sources of data, procedures for data collection and analysis, and detailed table of contents. The proposed research and data collection tools will be reviewed and approved by CBMG before data collection commences.
3. Train enumerators, guide and supervise enumerators during data collection in the field.
4. Lead in the data collection process through monitoring, verifying, cleaning and data collection.
5. Draft the assessment report and incorporate feedback from CBM Global team.
6. Presentation on the findings during a validation forum to be organized by CBM Global in Turkana.
7. Submit a final report to CBM Global as per the dates indicated on the schedule.

Plan of implementation/timelines

The workplan timelines for the consultancy should not exceed 30 days from when the inception report is received.

Required Qualifications and Experience

1. Master’s degree in social science, business development, developmental studies, or related field (lead consultant)
2. 5 years of experience of conducting similar evaluation/livelihood programs/multisector need assessments.
3. Strong knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methods and sampling design.
4. Statistical analysis skills and strong proficiency with data analysis packages such as SPSS or STATA and qualitative data analysis software.
5. Fluency (verbal and written) English, fluency and understanding of local language would be an added advantage.
6. Evidence of previous similar work conducted (attach two samples of previous similar work)
7. The proposal may include a team or an individual. If a team is proposed, their roles should be clearly specified with the team leader stating his/her availability for any scheduled interview.
8. All materials must be in accessible formats (Word, PPTs, Excel, videos). The consultant needs to ensure that all services and deliverables are fully accessible and compliant with the CBM Global Digital Accessibility Toolkit and other relevant standards.
9. The consultant should have experience of addressing disability inclusion in their training, assessment methodology and should be familiar with accessibility requirements for people with disabilities. Additional support can be provided by CBM Global around accessibility specific to this assessment as required.