Nigeria: Assessment of Boreholes for Repairs and Site Supervision

Mar 20, 2022 | Search for Common Ground
View Original

Search for Common Ground (Search) is an international non-profit organization that promotes the peaceful resolution of conflict. With headquarters in Washington, DC and Brussels, Belgium, Search’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict—away from destructive approaches towards cooperative solutions. With more than 600 staff worldwide, Search implements projects in more than 30 countries across the globe.

Search for Common Ground (Search) is part of a consortium and is responsible for implementation of objective 1 in Borno State, in partnership with Action Against Hunger and Neem Foundation. This will contribute to the creation of the conditions for a broad alliance in these territories by recreating social links between and within the communities most affected by the crisis and by helping victims of violence overcome their traumas and to resume trust. Collective and participatory activities will make it possible to offer means of analysis and shared actions to peacefully manage conflict, access and use of limited natural resources. 

About the RESILAC Project

The overall objective of the RESILAC project is to contribute to the economic recovery and to the strengthening of the resilience and the social cohesion of the territories of the Lake Chad basin most impacted by the Lake Chad crisis and the climate change. The specific objectives of the project are: 

1. Strengthening human capital, social cohesion and collective and sustainable management of natural resources in targeted territories;
2. Promoting economic recovery in targeted areas and the resilience of the most vulnerable populations, especially young people and women, through access to employment and agro-sylvo-pastoral production systems intensified and adapted to climate change;
3. Valuing and consolidating the actors of the targeted territories by encouraging dialogue and commitment, and reinforcing their capacities according to the skills and roles of each one; and
4. Producing useful knowledge for the quality of project activities in a crisis context and for decision-making by local actors.

Purpose of the Consultancy

Search is working with community and government stakeholders towards building community resilience to conflict, building social cohesion and management of natural resources. This is being achieved through community structures supported by the project to utilize community led initiative towards addressing issues militating against access and utilization of resources and delivery of a full range of project activities. 

Results from previous conflict scans within Jere LGA reveal that inadequate supply of water from the community water point results in conflicts between women and children. As a couple of the boreholes in the communities do not meet the full water needs of the population and are broken down, there tends to be congestion at the few functional boreholes by the community to fetch water. Due to the scarcity of water resources, women and children – the group involved in fetching water for domestic use – are forced to compete for the available resource, thereby resulting in contestation and conflicts among them. The issue of conflicts at water points has been a protracted issue that kept being reflected in the different community structure platforms. Despite the project’s actions to eliminate the root causes of the problem, all efforts proved unsuccessful.  Search is proposing to rehabilitate a total of five boreholes: two in Sabon Bolori, one in Kirbiri and two in Gongulong communities respectively. 

Search for Common Ground is seeking to hire a consultant that will assess the water facilities across all communities of Jere LGA. The consultant will do a comprehensive assessment of all identified nonfunctional boreholes in the community of implementation and share a comprehensive Bill of Quantity/Labor schedule for the repair of the boreholes. He/She will be responsible for all logistics during the assessment, supervision of the repairs and supervision of any construction work during the period of the consultancy. More specifically, the Consultant will have the following roles and responsibilities:

Deliverables:

• Conduct a robust assessment of all identified boreholes for repairs – This assessment will include; the functionality of the borehole, yield, level of damage and the estimated cost for repair.
• Produce an accurate Bill of Quantity and Labor Schedule for the complete repair of the boreholes (this document will content all materials and cost of the repairs)
• Developed a standard drawing/plan for the repair of the boreholes that will serve as a guide for the proposed repair work.
• Conduct an onsite/daily supervision of ongoing borehole repairs, this will be a comprehensive supervision to ensure appropriate materials are used for the repairs following the approved standard. 
• Conducting testing and quality assurance on the repaired boreholes to ensure they are accurately functional, are producing the required yield and will stand the test of time.
• The Consultant will work under the direct supervision of RESILAC Project Manager 
• A Degree/HND or Postgraduate in Civil and Water Resources Engineering, Geology and other relevant fields. 

Experience

• The Consultant must be familiar with the context of the region and experienced in community engagement, planning and execution of program in Peacebuilding and Humanitarian sectors.
• Experience on Construction, borehole repairs is an added advantage.

Other Relevant Requirements

• The consultant must be familiar with the context of Northeast Nigeria.
• Excellent facilitation skills and high capacity to plan at short notice
• Excellent written communication and report writing skills in English
• Basic computer skills is in MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel among other skills
• Fluency in Hausa and/or Kanuri and knowledge of other languages indigenous to Northeastern Nigeria will be an added advantage.
• Motivation and self-discipline to work without supervision
• 5% withholding tax will be deducted at source from the total cost of the consultancy fee
• All logistics arrangement should be included in the proposed budget

The consultant is required to respect the following Ethical Principles:

• Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review. Consultant should conduct systematic, data-based inquiries. He or she should communicate his or her methods and approaches accurately and in sufficient detail to allow others to understand, interpret and critique his or her work. He or she should make clear the limitations of the review and its results.
• Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities and skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practice within the limits of his or her professional training and competence.
• Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information.
• Respect for people: Consultant respect the security, dignity and self-worth of respondents, program participants. Consultant has the responsibility to be sensitive to and respect differences amongst participants in culture, religion, gender, disability, age and ethnicity.

Applications

Interested candidates are invited to send their letter of application and resume through our Career Portal.

Submitted offers will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and selection made according to the following criteria:

• Financial offer will be awarded based on the lowest cost basis but with following criteria: (i) Cost proposal submitted cites specific rates by each major items; and (ii) Relevance and consistency with technical proposal.
• Excellent experience with both the content/subject-matter area of what she or he will be training
• Consultant’s availability and ability to conduct the training on time.

As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above key responsibilities.