Terms of Reference for the AFSC Africa Region SP 2020/2030 Detailed Mapping Process

The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice, as a practical expression of faith in action. Drawing on continuing spiritual insights and working with people of many backgrounds, we nurture the seeds of change and respect for human life that transform social relations and systems.

Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine light of each person, AFSC’s works with communities and partners worldwide to challenge unjust systems and promote lasting peace. Our vision is a just, peaceful, and sustainable world free of violence, inequality, and oppression.

Our work in Africa began in the late 1950s and ’60s, when AFSC provided relief services and skills training to Algerian refugees in Morocco and Tunisia during the Algerian struggle for independence from France.

Today our work in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe promotes lasting peace and reconciliation. Working in dynamic relationships with communities and partners in this region, AFSC seeks, secures, and sustains transformative shifts in systems of power to reduce all forms of violence and advance human dignity and equality.

Context of the Program

While there have been positive strides made in several African countries in strengthening democracy, civil war and violence continue in several countries on the continent. Somalia and South Sudan are notorious for their violent conflicts, Eritrea has one of the most suppressive regimes, and Sudan has just come out of decade long armed conflict, though with an uncertain future.

The Sahel region has complex conflict dynamics. The region faces multi-dimensional crises, that includes state weakness, proliferation of extremist groups, criminal networks, severe governance problems and environmental pressures. Southern Africa has neither been spared, in the ruby and oil rich coastal province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique, a mix of post-colonial era tensions and inequalities are flaming an Islamists insurrection that has led to tens of thousands of villagers being displaced and thousands killed. Conflicts are becoming more sophisticated and increasingly deadly.

On the other hand, stories of desperate Africans on makeshift rickety boats trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe and the perilous eastern trek are the norm. This is even though African migrant destinations are overwhelmingly not to Europe or north America, but to each other’s countries.

Meanwhile, the economies in the region continue to struggle because of the devastating impact of covid19 containment measures. Youth unemployment continues to rise, and young people are struggling to define their identities as Africans, amid the ongoing conflict and changing cultural and socio-political dynamics.

Background

In September 2020, AFSC launched a new strategic plan SP 2020-2030. The 10-year plan aims to guide AFSCs work globally during this period. At the end of the 10-year SP period, AFSC hopes to see a just, peaceful, and sustainable world free of violence, inequality and oppression. To achieve this SP, the organization identified three goals including.

• Shared and sustainable peace
• An economy that works for people and earth
• Just approaches to forced displacement and migration

In the SP the organization committed to

• Enact a more fully anti racists/anti oppression organizational agenda
• Embrace gender justice and feminism, and
• Engage young people
• Climate justice

The AFSC Africa region intends to align its work around two strategic organization wide programs on peace and migration, i.e., organization goal number 1 and 3. The region has further committed to the four organization wide commitments but prioritized climate justice, gender justice and youth.

Purpose of the Assignment

The AFSC Africa Program is seeking the services of a good analyst and writer as a consultant to review the latest drivers of violent conflict on the continent clearly providing details of the triggers and responses on the ground in segregated geographic locations.

The consultant will also analyze the migration status in Africa, identify the drivers of the migration, map out the major migration corridors, identifying the key actors and their responses, provide data of the migrants from available literature especially by IOM, UN agencies, NGOs working in this area and academia. The consultant will also assess the experiences of the migrants and host communities, the compacts available and interventions by governments including EU and middle eastern governments.

The consultant will refer to the AFSC SP 2020 – 2030 to provide further clarity on the proposed responses by AFSC to address the two priority organizational goals for Africa region i.e., sustainable peace and migration. The consultant will review the current geographic location of AFSC programs, review the PESTLE, SWOT, Power map, and systems map developed by the region to address some of the questions identified below.

To achieve the desired results, the consultant will divide the continent into seven distinct regions including Southern Africa, East Africa, Horn of Africa, Central Africa, West Africa, Sahel region and North Africa.

The information gathered will aim to answer the following questions for the AFSC Africa regions

• Are we doing the right work in the right places given the strategic goals?
• Are there clear geographic locations where we should be working?
• Are there areas we want to grow? Reduce? What are the new areas of work we want to pursue?
• Who else is doing the work and what value do we add?
• What’s our comparative advantage and how do we use a network approach to goal systems change?
• Who are the other actors at a country, regional and international level?

The final report should reflect good analysis summery of the geographic mapping report clearly capturing the intent of the assignment which is to:

• Identify the major drivers of conflict in Africa region
• Identify the conflict hotspots and rank these conflicts as high, medium, low
• Identify the efforts in place to address these conflicts by the various stakeholders
• Identify the key actors, responses, and strategies in place
• Identify the major triggers of migration in Africa
• Identify the main migration corridors and the experiences of the migrants along these corridors
• Identify the major destinations and host communities of the migrants
• Map out the main actors (including donors) responding to migration issues and their strategies
• Analyze the gaps in the various strategies deployed to respond to forced displacement and migration
• Affirm/recommend to AFSC where the organization should leverage its efforts
• Propose possible entry points for AFSC in areas where the organization is not present
• Provide a geographic map of the status of conflict and migration on the continent

Specific Terms of Reference

1. The consultant shall be required to read through the AFSC SP 2020 – 2030
2. Draw and summarize the drivers of violent conflict and situation of migration in the Africa region
3. S/he will analyze the effectiveness of the proposed AFSC Africa Programming approach to sustainable peace and migration.
4. The Consultant will seek to provide responses to the key questions identified in the section on the “purpose of the assignment”.

Methodology

This assignment will predominantly use secondary data most of which is already available online at AFSC including the AFSC strategic plan 2020 – 2030.

The consultant will meet with the Regional Director and may also interview the rest of the Africa leadership team as necessary to clarify and validate the information.

In terms of the approach, the consultant will:

• Carry out a desktop literature review and analysis conflict and migration status. Rreview online regional program reports from the AFSC Africa country programs and synthesize the information to get an understanding of AFSC’s response to sustainable peace and migration.
• Make explicit recommendations to AFSC based on direction of the new strategy.
• Submit final report that provides a clear map of conflicts and migration and the current responses by the different actors, recommendations as to the future AFSC programming and entry strategy

Deliverables

The independent contractor will be expected to

During Preparation phase – 2 technical days

Develop an inception report that captures the proposed methodology, approach, a review checklist, delivery plan, assumptions, anticipated risks, and mitigating strategies.

Review phase – 14 technical days

Research on conflict and migration context in Africa

Review AFSC internal documents including the SP 2020-2030, The global mapping process document, the Africa region PESTLES, SWOT, Power map and systems map among other

Document key findings and provide clear and specific recommendations

Reporting Phase – 2 technical days

At close of the assignment, prepare a comprehensive report detailing the process, findings, conflict and migration geographic map, analysis, and recommendations to AFSC.

Expected product

The inception report to include the study framework/design and implementation plan agreed with the party commissioning the assignment, data collection plan, data analysis plan and presentation of results.

Interim report (based on preliminary findings of data collection)

Draft of the final report

The final Report: The proposed report to be submitted shall be no more than 25 pages. Additional information may be included in annexes (This should be in English no more than 25 pages:1.0 spacing, Aerial, font size 12)

Qualifications

• The ideal candidate should possess post graduate qualifications such as peace and conflict management, political science or any other relevant social science discipline
• Minimum of seven (7) years of relevant experience in analyzing complex information with a strong bias peace and conflict, and migration.
• Demonstrable track record of delivering peace and justice programs
• Be able to work independently within stipulated timelines.
• For consultancy firm, one should have a legal status, a company profile, and tax registration.

Key skills and competencies

• Posses’ special skills to analyze complex information and make judgment with respect to relevance, responsiveness, and confidentiality.
• Have expertise and understanding of African conflict and migration context.
• Have proficiency in various document review tools and can adapt new technologies that are evolving.
• Possess strong oral and written communication skills
• Demonstrate possession of personal traits such as dependability, efficiency, positive attitude, team oriented, strong work ethics and flexibility.

Expression of interest/Proposal submission

Proposals may be submitted by individuals, teams of experts or consultancy firms. The selected contractor must demonstrate proven experience in reviewing and analyzing institutional documents. Knowledge and experience of conflict and migration context is essential. The consultants/consulting firms interested in this assignment are expected to submit proposals (both technical and financial) with CVs of the proposed team.

The technical proposal must detail the following:

• Objectives and understanding of the assignment
• Expected outputs and product
• Demonstrable experience in similar assignments
• Availability to deliver the assignment within the required timeframe.
• Financial proposal in USD for the entire assignment