Consultancy Services required for Multi-Sector Needs Assessment in Dadaab, Kakuma and Kalobeyei Refugee Camps by CARE International

Location: Kenya

Duration: 45 working days

Critical interface: Country Office Program Quality, Learning and Accountability Manager

Consultancy type: International/ Local

Travel: Travel required for this consultancy

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE

CARE (Cooperative for Assistance & Relief Everywhere) International is a leading global humanitarian and development organization dedicated to fighting poverty and gender inequality in more than 95 countries. Founded in 1945 as a U.S.-based organization providing aid to European war victims, CARE now has more than 75 years of experience assisting and empowering the most vulnerable people and communities in their local context.

CARE works for a world without poverty, in which rights and dignities are guaranteed and in which all people have the opportunity to realize their human potential. CARE is sensitive to the realities of the cultures in which people live, work, and raise their families, and tailors its assistance programs to support vulnerable people as effectively as possible.

CARE International in Kenya (CIK) has been working in Kenya since 1968, and currently implements major programs in 20 out of the country’s 47 counties, reaching and assisting approximately 2 million people per year. CIK’s programs align with national and county level priorities, focusing on refugee assistance, health, water and sanitation, financial inclusion, adaptation to climate change, disaster risk reduction (DRR), agricultural value chains as well as humanitarian and emergency response.

In all of its interventions, CARE keeps gender equality and women voice at the center of all its core programming areas, which are as follows: Climate Justice, Humanitarian Actions, Agriculture & Market Systems, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), Health, Equity & Rights (HER), and Women’s Economic Justice (WEJ). CARE Kenya’s approach is Kenyan-led, inclusive (in terms of promoting governance and key voices/advocacy efforts), market-based approaches, and works to strengthen existing institutions and systems.

CARE International in Kenya (CIK) is implementing projects in Dadaab refugee complex under the Refugee Assistance Program (RAP). CIK for over 20 years has been the lead partner of United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in the three camps within Dadaab: Dagahaley, Ifo and Hagadera. In addition, CIK is currently implementing a 24-months (2021 – 2023) DG ECHO funded project in Dadaab, specifically in the 3 camps, focusing on WASH programming.

With the enactment of the Refugee bill into law in 2021, opening possibilities for refugees to live and work in Kenya, CARE Kenya is determined to build more diverse areas of refugees’ programming better suited to a rapidly changing world, including resilience and livelihoods building; creating a network of support for refugees using CARE’s presence in the broader region through cross border programing; and advocating for refugees’ rights and wellbeing. These options are not mutually exclusive and will align with CARE’s program focus areas that include gender transformative WASH, protection, livelihoods & resilience building, the work along the triple nexus for durable solutions and advocacy in humanitarian work. The changes are in line with CARE’s Vision 2030 and will enable CARE International in Kenya to be more effective in working with partners and communities in the refugee setting to tackle the root causes that lead to the influx of refugees, help people to survive humanitarian crises and enhance inclusive and peaceful communities. CARE will be shifting more decision-making power to host and refugees’ communities and re-orientating it’s teams to work in ways and on issues that are more tailored to their specific local contexts.

In view of the above CARE intends to carry out a multi sector needs assessment in order to propose intervention modalities in line with the needs, realities and access context, preferences and capacities of the refugees and the host communities in Dadaab, Kakuma and Kalobeyei.

During the needs analysis phase, particular attention will be paid to the protection and gender dimensions, which will be integrated in a cross-cutting manner (analyzed across all sectors) in the intervention strategy and implementation methods.

ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES

The primary objective of this assessment exercise is to identify, map and analyze the overall humanitarian needs in Kenya’s refugee camps. Secondly, it is intended to provide an analytical insight into where different needs lie and to what extent, so that relevant program areas of CARE Kenya can prioritize, plan and respond.

The specific objectives are:

1. To provide an empirical overview of the status and developments of humanitarian needs across Kenya’s refugee camps, especially regarding the accessibility to basic services.
2. To enable evidence-based engagement with the donors and partners in the humanitarian sector.
3. To feed and strengthen advocacy efforts.
4. To support better planning and implementation of emergency and longer-term programs by allocating scarce resources based on needs and community capacity.

METHODOLOGY AND SAMPLING

Assessment methodology will be mainly household quantitative surveys and to a lesser extent Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions in camps targeted for the exercises. The formula to calculate sample size per individual target camp is 95% Confidence level, 10% margin of error. The sampling frame will be made up of ‘People affected by displacement’ i.e. IDPs, Host Communities, Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Returnees. The sampling formula will be applied exclusively to each camp and not to the aggregate population of the target camps.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

All questionnaires and interviews will open with a statement aimed at obtaining the consent of the interviewee(s). Potential respondents will be briefed about the purpose of the survey, the confidentiality and anonymity and that it is 100% voluntary. The interviewer will then expressly seek their consent to participate in the survey. Respondents who decline to participate will respectfully be left out.

KEY PRIORITIES /AREAS OF INTEREST FOR DATA COLLECTION

The assessment will be centered around the core humanitarian competencies of CARE in order to maintain relevance with CARE’s overall program policy. Below are key priorities for each of the competencies based on which data is to be collected.

The multisectoral needs assessment (MSA) should include data on:

• the context of intervention and priority needs, preferences and capacities of people affected by the crisis;
• the risks and vulnerabilities to which the population is exposed; and
• analysis of possible responses.

Overall, all data collected, and the needs identified should be analyzed according to gender, age, disability, and household status (returnees, displaced persons, returnees, hosts, etc.) and should include data on the following elements:

• Assess the humanitarian situation in the targeted localities, confirm the presence of displaced persons (IDPs/returnees, returnees), the situation of host families, and identify the different vulnerabilities suffered by the different categories of targeted populations, with their impacts on the different groups disaggregated by sex, gender, age and disability;
• Assess the security situation (forced displacement, inter-communal conflicts, attacks by armed groups) as well as accessibility to areas of displacement and return, with the impact on different groups disaggregated by gender, age and disability;
• Assess potential and observed protection problems in the targeted health areas, disaggregating the impact on different gender and age groups (identification of problems and victims), with a particular focus on the specific situation/vulnerability of women and girls; and
• The sectors to be assessed under this MSA are as follows:

Food security: main food crops, proportion of food produced and obtained on local markets, proportion of food obtained through humanitarian distributions, size of cultivated plots, estimation of harvested quantities (no. of months of reserve) and of food stocks, mitigation measures and survival strategies adopted by the most vulnerable groups;

Nutrition: access to health and nutrition services for vulnerable groups (children under five, pregnant/lactating women, elderly, people with disabilities and/or special needs);

Livelihoods: access to land and water for agricultural production, ownership of productive assets (means of production for agriculture (tools and seeds), livestock, processing, transport, etc.), main sources of income (in normal times) and alternative sources of income (other than agriculture), access to employment (most frequent activities, evolution of supply/demand on the labor market, evolution of the price of daily work), evolution of labor migration, evolution of the level of indebtedness;

WASH: access to safe water in quantity and quality (sources of supply, drawing, transport, storage, use/consumption, food preparation, food and water conservation, hygiene, etc. ….);

Protection and gender (especially SGBV): main threats and violations of fundamental rights, access to essential protection services, endogenous measures to prevent conflicts and violence against people, existing community services and possible referrals; people most affected by the crisis, specific needs of each category of people (women, men, girls, boys, etc.), socio-economic interaction between different categories of people within the household and in the community, rates and instances of SGBV and existing care services; and

Health: access to essential and emergency health services, capacity of health care providers, status and gaps in health care facilities, response to community and infectious diseases/epidemics, status and services for child and maternal health, and sexual and reproductive health.

CARE’s Responsibilities

1. Adherence to the contract terms and conditions
2. Oversight of the exercise
3. Develop jointly with the service provider assessment questions and refine indicators
4. Work with the service provider on the preparation of tools, selection of sampling and data gathering methodologies.
5. Sign-off technical plan/proposal
6. Sign-off tools before deployed for fieldwork
7. Participate in validation workshop to give feedback and endorse assessment findings
8. Assign a focal point that regularly liaises with the service provider

Expected Deliverables

1. Technical Proposal including work plan
2. Assessment indicators
3. Desk review report including the sources used
4. Data collection tools
5. Preliminary findings for initial review
6. Validation Workshop
7. Raw data for storage with CARE Kenya; including Maps of visited location, Mapping of other stakeholders/actors in the assessed locations; List of stakeholders (NGO representatives/staff, authorities etc.) contacted
8. Final report issued and provided in the result of which;

a. CARE Kenya team can identify community needs and priorities in targeted locations to be used as a basis for immediate response programs and strategy revision.

b. CARE Kenya obtains first-hand representative information on IDPs, Host Communities, Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Returnees in targeted locations, that can be used for programming and advocacy efforts.

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

The deliverables will be approved by the CARE Country Office PQLA Manager. The consultant/firm will be expected to arrange and cover the costs of consultancy fee, field work and other logistics associated with the assignment. CARE Kenya will provide useful project documents that will inform this exercise.

DURATION OF WORK

The work is expected to be completed in 45 working days – the exact timing will depend on the final agreement with CARE Kenya.

QUALIFICATIONS

1. The consultancy firm/individual must be registered with all relevant authorities and specializes in conducting qualitative and quantitative research.
2. The consultancy firm/individual must have more than 7 years’ experience of conducting a variety of surveys in Kenya.
3. The consultancy firm/individual must demonstrate ability to lead experienced teams to conduct face-to-face interviews in Kenya.
4. The consultancy firm/individual has impeccable record of confidentiality and sensitivity and is able and willing to handle sensitive information, ensuring anonymity of respondents whilst safeguarding access to the raw data for partners stated in this Terms of Reference.
5. The consultancy firm/individual can demonstrate sound financial accountability.
6. The consultancy firm/individual is able to use to a high level data entry and data analyzing software such as CS Pro and SPSS, and can produce visual graphics from data, such as charts produced in Microsoft Excel. Experience in graphic design will be an advantage but is not required.
7. The consultancy firm/individual has a good track record of working with international organizations such as international NGOs or the UN in Kenya;

SCHEDULE

• Inception Meeting with CARE Kenya
• Inception report
• Desk review of relevant project documents
• Development, pre-testing and validation of the survey questionnaire
• Finalization of assessment tools including scripting of questions on

ODK/Kobo tools, if applicable.

• Data collection
• Data analysis and preparation of the draft report
• Validation of draft report
• Final Report and PowerPoint presentation

APPLICATION PROCEDURES AND REQUIREMENTS

The consulting firm/individual interested are expected to provide following documentation:

1. A cover letter introducing the consultant. In the case of a firm, the cover letter should introduce the team composition and specifying the role to be played by each team member.
2. A technical proposal of not more than 10 pages outlining how to execute the task with a clear framework, methodology and timelines. Proposed methodology should demonstrate a clear understanding of the ToR (sampling framework, data collection strategy/methods)
3. Resume of the consultant, or each team member for firm
4. Evidence of experience conducting similar assignments
5. Proposed budget indicating consultancy fee, costs of enumerators/ data collection, and all other auxiliary costs in KSH.