Ethiopia: Joint Emergency Operation Program Consultant

Nov 21, 2015 | Catholic Relief Services
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The JEOP consortium is an emergency free food distribution program targeting transitory or acute food insecure households (HHs) in 76 USAID approved woredas (districts) through a beneficiary targeting process led by the Government of Ethiopia’s (GoE) Disaster Risk Management & Food Security Sector (DRMFSS) under the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA). In addition to helping transitory food insecure HHs meet their food needs, the JEOP intends to mitigate asset depletion of targeted HHs. The JEOP serves as a food pipeline for up to 33% of the drought-affected woredasin five regions and one special administrative district, Dire Dawa, in Ethiopia. The JEOP operational area covers the highlands of eastern Tigray and Amhara regions to the North, as well as the eastern highlands and lowlands of eastern Oromiya Region, with additional locations in the lowland Rift Valley of central Oromiya Region and eastern Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR). The southern border regions of southern Oromiya and southwestern Somali regions also benefit from the JEOP.

The Joint Emergency Operation (JEOP) consortium is led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and includes CARE, Save the Children International (SCI), World Vision (WV), Food for the Hungry (FH) and the Relief Society of Tigray (REST). CRS works through its local implementing partners Hararghe Catholic Secretariat (HCS) and the Meki Catholic Secretariat (MCS). Both SCI and FH partly implement through the Organization for Relief and Development in Amhara (ORDA). In March, 2013, CRS and the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA)’ implementing partner, GOAL, entered into a sub-agreement that permits GOAL to access the JEOP’s supplies of Corn Soy Blend (CSB) and fortified vegetable oil to support their USAID/OFDA emergency nutrition program.

The CRS-led consortium began implementation of JEOP under a USAID/Food for Peace (FFP) approved award through Cooperative Agreement No. ****AID-FFP-A-12-00009****, initially effective from August 1, 2012 through July 31, 2014. In January 2014, through Modification # 6 of the Cooperative Agreement, USAID extended the award through July 31, 2015. Modification # 11 of January 2015 subsequently extended the program through July 31, 2016 (both cost extensions).

In addition to serving as the food pipeline for up to 33% of the emergency-affected parts of Ethiopia, the JEOP’s programmatic scope includes implementing CRS’ Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) and early warning data collection/analysis and).

The purpose of this consultancy is that the consultant will capture results and learning points to determine if and how the JEOP Early Warning System (EWS) has informed decisions and actions by key governmental and non-governmental humanitarian actors.

The specific objectives are:

  1. Identify key learnings and best practices from the JEOP experience
  2. Suggest improvements and appropriate sustainable EWS based on global best practices

The objectives will be fulfilled by an analysis of the EWS and answer the following scope questions:

  1. Relevant
  2. How does the JEOP early warning system complement existing early warning systems in Ethiopia?
  3. Effective
  4. How effective is data collected using the SMS data system?
  5. What information is gathered?
  6. How effective is data analysis and report?
  7. What additional information would key stakeholders require?
  8. What is the status and role of the EW TWG?
  9. Efficient
  10. Is the staffing structure appropriate to adequately support the system?
  11. How are data senders functioning? Was supervision adequate?
  12. What processes were undertaken to improve local capacity to manage the EWS?
  13. Impact
  14. How has JEOP Early Warning System informed decisions and actions by JEOP? Government actors? Community members)?
  15. Who receives the reports? Who reads the reports?
  16. Sustainability and Scaling Up
  17. What is the interest of key stakeholders in either continuing and/or scaling up the EWS?
  18. What are potential to scale-up the EWS?
  19. What are barriers and enablers to scale up the EWS?
  20. System Overview

In accordance to the project document and IPTT, IR 1:1 is “Targeted communities and project stakeholders use functional participatory Early Warning and Response System”. The outputs are:

  1. 1.1.1 Information systems established
  2. 1.1.2 Regular assessments forecast beneficiary numbers

In order to report progress, the following indicators are tracked:

  1. # of EW reports linked with response system in place
  2. # of assessments conducted
  3. # of early warning reports generated
  4. # of consortium members trained (in the Early Warning System)

The JEOP EWS captures data for 22 indicators (i.e. rainfall situation, crop condition/crop harvest, livestock, food consumption, market and labor prices, cases of severe acute malnutrition, etc.). Subsequently, CRS entered into an agreement with Data Winners in 2012 in order to put in place a SMS system which would allow JEOP partners to send raw data and which Data Winners would provide to CRS for analysis and action.

The general data flow is:Activity Person 1. Prepare GOE Data Collection Format · Early Warning Expert at the district (woreda) compiles GOE Data Collection Format from GoE sectors (i.e. agriculture, health, etc.) 2. Review GoE EW Data Collection Format · Warning Expert (EWE) and Data Sender (DS) 3. Complete JEOP EW Data Format (in duplicate) · DPPO EWE and DS 4. Enters encoded JEOP EW Data and send SMS to Data Winner Data Center at 911 525115 · DS 5. Extract raw data and send bi-weekly to JEOP partner · JEOP EWAR Coordinator 6. Disseminate Monthly EW Report, Raw Data, & Trends of Market Prices to JEOP partners and key external partners · CoP sends packet to JEOP Project Managers, JEOP partner senior management and USAID

· JEOP EWAR Coordinator sends to JEOP technical staff, FEWSNET, and WFP 7. Disseminate Monthly EW Report, Raw Data, Trends of Market Prices · JEOP partners head office send to relevant regional government and field offices.

· JEOP partner field officer sends to zone/woreda , who in gives report to DPP Commission 8. Disseminate Monthly EW Report to wider audience · JEOP send to wider audience (i.e. UN, INGOs, government sectors)

  1. Methodology
  2. Overview: The JEOP management team is soliciting a consultant to develop an appropriate methodology, incorporating a balance of quantitative and qualitative methods that will produce evidence-based results to the questions highlighted.
  3. Record Review: Prior to arriving in-country, the consultant will review relevant government and Ethiopia specific early warning systems documentation. CRS will provide to the consultant the following project documents:
  4. JEOP Project Proposal with extensions and proposed extension
  5. JEOP Annual Reports and Semi-Annual Reports for 2012 – 2015
  6. Joint Emergency Operation Plan (JEOP): A SMILER M&E Operating Manual (October 2012)
  7. Draft JEOP Early Warning Systems Standard Operating Guidelines
  8. Joint Emergency Operation (JEOP) Monthly Early Warning Update for 2012 – 2015 with datasheets

In addition, CRS will provide the consultant access to JEOP Datawinner’s SMS Data Center (CRS/Ethiopia to provide hyperlink, login and password details) to be familiar with the system and raw data sets.

  1. Primary Data Collection: The consultant will meet key stakeholders and users to understand their perceptions on what worked well and why; what didn’t work well and why; what could be done differently to improve the system. The consultant will meet in Addis Ababa with the GOE, USAID, FEWSNET, UNDP, and other agencies operating early warning systems. The consultant, EWAR Coordinator and DCOP/PQ will then visit a total of 6 woredas (3 woredas in 2 JEOP project areas) to meet with the woreda-level Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Office staff, data senders and JEOP partner staff.
  2. Report Writing: At the end of the consultants in-country travel, the consultant will submit a draft report and present preliminary findings and recommendations to JEOP program managers and JEOP early warning staff. The consultant will submit a draft report 3 days later and a final report 2 days after receiving comments from the JEOP DCOP/PQ.
  3. Dissemination Event:JEOP will host a 1/2 day dissemination event, whereby USAID, GoE, FEWSNET, UNDEP, JEOP partners and other relevant actors would be invited. The consultant may be requested to be available remotely during this dissemination event to address audience questions.
  4. Scope of work
  5. Consultant Qualifications and Experience
  6. Master Degree in Development Studies or other Social Science subject;
  7. 5 year (for MA) or 7 year (for BA) experience in developing and supporting EWS, ICT4D programming.
  8. The consultant have at least 5 year’s experience in establishing, managing and monitoring early warning systems with preference working in food insecure areas prone to long-onset emergencies.
  9. Demonstrated experience in EWS development project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
  10. Knowledge of EWS issues and dynamics in Ethiopia context.
  11. Proven experience in EWS, FS and LH analysis.
  12. Strong analytical and report writing skills.
  13. Excellent in Microsoft Office applications (word, excel, power point, etc.)
  14. Expected Outputs:
  15. Review Report: The review report should not exceed 15 pages (excluding annexes and attachments) and a format agreed upon by the consultant and CRS. The report shall include an executive summary, introductions, description of the methodology findings, and recommendations.
  16. PowerPoint presentation summarizing key findings for an external audience
  17. Two page summary clarifying key findings and recommendations and their relevance to EW programming within JEOP and CRS, in general.
  18. Success Stories/Lessons Learned for Annual Results Report (ARR): The consultant will identify and write up success stories and lesson learned that can be incorporated in the ARR. The consultant will also be expected to take photos in a resolution appropriate for reports.
  19. Payment Plan:
  20. 100% of the payment will be released upon report acceptance and approval by JEOP Chief of Party.
  21. Communication with CRS:
  22. The Consultant will communicate with and report to the Deputy Chief of Party Program Quality during the assignment.