Somalia: Local consultant to conduct end of project evaluation for emergency livelihoods and WASH response project for returnee reintegration

Feb 5, 2019 | CARE
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CARE is a global humanitarian organization providing disaster relief to areas in crisis, while providing long-term solutions to poverty around the world.

Background and context

In response to the dire humanitarian and persistent drought situation in Somalia, CARE Somalia and its local partners Wajir South Development Association (WASDA) and Jubba Land Refugee and IDPs Affairs commission (JRIA) implemented a two-year project dubbed “Emergency Livelihoods and WASH Response Project for Returnee Reintegration in Lower Juba, Somalia, 2017 – 2019”. The project was funded by the Global Affaires Canada-DFATD-IHA and commenced on 11th April 2017 and is expected to end on 31st March 2019. The intervention response has three components; (a) Meeting Immediate Needs and Livelihoods, (b) WASH assistance to affected populations in Kismayo, Afmadhow and Badhaadhe districts targeting returnees, IDPs and vulnerable households from the host community and (c) Protection, including capacity support to local partners in offering protection services.

The multiyear (2 Years) project was designed to build on the livelihoods and Water, Sanitation and Hygeine (WASH) gains made during the first phase of previous GAC–IHA funded project which was implemented between May, 2016 and June, 2017 in the districts of Kismayo and Badhadhe. In addition, the scope of the project increased to include the new district of Afmadow and scale up the response to reflect the influx of returnees. The project recognized the considerable protection needs of vulnerable groups and sought to address these in partnership with the state authorities responsible for coordinating protection services to the returnee and IDP populations. The project goal was to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity of the most vulnerable rural and urban households in the districts of Kismayo, Afmadow and Badhaadhe in the Lower Juba Region of Somalia through WASH, protection and livelihood interventions.

The interventions took the form of conditional cash transfers (Cash for Work – CfW), mainly targeting able and willing beneficiaries meeting minimum criteria to take part in rehabilitation of key community identified infrastructure such as water pans and market access roads; unconditional transfers (direct Cash transfer, mostly for the population displaced by floods, the elderly and women headed households and returnees from Dadaab - Kenya), restocking to pastoral dropouts as well as WASH interventions – rehabilitation of water sources (boreholes and shallow wells), provisions of latrines, hygiene education, hygiene kits, NFI kits and training of water management committees, training of village saving and loan associations (VS&L). Cash transfers to beneficiaries on monthly basis for work wages and unconditional cash was undertaken by CARE through Hormuud telecommunication Company using electronic cash voucher (EVC).

The intermediate outcome of the project is to reduce the vulnerability of crisis-affected people, especially women, girls and boys in Lower Juba (Kismayo, Afmadow and Badhaadhe districts), Somalia. In order to accomplish this, CARE implemented activities that addressed the immediate needs of returnees, IDPs and improve livelihoods of host communities, address WASH conditions, and provide protection related assistance to a target of 52,428 individuals (female 26,739; male 25,689) for a period of two years in Afmadow, Kismayo and Badhaadhe districts (Lower Juba region).

The initiative sought to assist women, men, boys and girls through the following activities:

• Conditional cash transfers through cash-for-work (CfW) activities provided to 700 pastoral and agro-pastoral households (4,200 individuals).
• Unconditional cash transfer (UCT) to 200 pastoral and agro-pastoral households (1,200 individuals) for 4 months in areas where CfW is implemented.
• Unconditional cash transfer (UCT) to 1200 households (7,200 individuals) for 3 months to drought/floods affected vulnerable households
• Productive livestock support for 400 pastoral households (2,400 individuals) who lost their livestock in the recent droughts.
• Unconditional cash transfer to Refugee returnees (return package) to support to 850 households (5,100 individuals) in line with Somalia return consortium guidelines.
• Train 30 groups each with 20 members on Groups Saving and Loan and link them to economic opportunities.
• Rehabilitation of strategic and high yielding water sources (5 shallow wells and 5 boreholes) that will benefit a total of 5,667 households (17,000 individuals).
• Emergency water supply to 343 households (2,058 individuals)
• Customized gender-sensitive WASH kits to 1000 households (6,000 individuals).
• Construction of 186 shared latrines for 558 households (3,348 individuals)
• Protection capacity building activities targeting 3,770 individuals (female 1,770; male 1,700)

This final evaluation is expected to provide an opportunity to determine whether restocking, cash-based, WASH services and protection interventions provided a viable and effective means of addressing severe, widespread household food insecurity, WASH and protection services in an extremely volatile context such as Somalia. The outcomes and findings of the evaluation will be useful to determine the extent of the response impacts in the project areas and to help in making informed decisions for future programming.

1. Objectives of the Evaluation

This evaluation will help measure the results of the project based on the five criteria (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact) recommended by OECD-DAC. The external evaluation will contribute to both strengthening accountability of CARE International in Somalia to its donors and key stakeholders including beneficiaries, and to learn from this experience to inform future Livelihood, WASH and protection project/s. The overall objective of the evaluation is to assess and provide reliable end-line information on project performance against set parameters (i.e. indicators, principle objective, and short-term impact) on the three project components i.e. Livelihoods, (including cash interventions), WaSH and protection based interventions in the target districts of Lower Juba region. This will be used to measure progress of achievements building on end line findings of the previous GAC funded project. The project evaluation is also expected to provide evidence based information on successful programmatic approaches lesson learnt and recommendations for similar initiatives in the future.The detailed TOR can be found on the link below: