Somalia: Natural Resource Mapping Consultancy in Somaliland

Nov 26, 2018 | Norwegian Refugee Council
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The Norwegian Refugee Council is a humanitarian, non-governmental organisation that protects the rights of people affected by displacement.

1. Consultancy assignment background

 Background

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has been present in Somaliland since early 2006. Over these years, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has demonstrated a regional competence and expertise in working with displaced populations with programs in Food Security, Education, Water and Sanitation, Shelter, Information Counselling and Legal Assistance. Candle light on the other hand has been present on Somaliland since 1995 implementing activities in number of key pressing sectors in Somaliland including environmental restoration/protection, provision of primary education and skills training, humanitarian response during droughts and outbreaks and awareness creation on FGM and health issues.

In Somaliland, EU-DEVCO through Building Resilient Communities in Somalia/Somaliland (BRCiS) consortium has funded NRC and Candle light to implement a three-year resilience Project. The resilience program is intended to contribute to resilience of the target communities to shocks of drought, flood, conflict and diseases partly through natural resource planning, sustainable utilization and conservation.

Project location, length and starting date;

This is a three-year Project whose implementation started in November 2017 and will end in November 2020. The target locations for NRC are Baki district (Sabwanaag, Hamarta-Durdurcad, Old Baki and Calihayd Villages) and Burco districts (Nasiye, Dhoqosay, Waraaabeye and Haradagubataxil villages) While Candlelight implements the project in Burco district (Boodhleey and Qori-Lugud villages) and Gabiley district (Gogeysa village) and Sabowanag district (Balli Shire) and Odweyne (berato).

 Rationale for the project

Somaliland has, in the past decades, experienced climate stresses ranging from intermittent recurrence droughts and floods as well as cyclones. The seasonal rains have trajectorially fallen short in an almost predictable pattern and interval of two to three years. This has resulted into death or decimation of livestock herds, total to near total crop failure plunging many families into impoverishment. According to SWALIM Drought Impact Needs Assessment, the 2016/2017 drought led to the death of almost 40% of the entire livestock population in Somalia.

Lack or poor development for the natural resources majorly- lands (farm and rangelands), water and forest resources and the constraints to improving livelihood and economic development for vast majority of pastoral and agro pastoral communities has been blamed for Somaliland’s vulnerability to agro-climatic shocks.

Furthermore, the pressures on natural resources are mounting due to increasing population, and urbanization that require food and products from the natural resources. That notwithstanding, the existing natural resources have great potential of meeting these needs if measures are put in place to ensure sustainable use and conservation. This consultancy therefore will aim to provide road map to sustainable natural resource use in Somaliland.

2. Objectives and scope of work

2.1 Objectives

The Project’s target locations are endowed with vast natural resource base including land for rangeland and farming, water and sparse forest/shrubs which support the pastoral and agro pastoral livelihoods in the areas. The objective of the consultancy is to undertake a comprehensive Natural resource mapping in project areas in Somalia. This mapping exercise is required to be completed by December 2018 to allow for implementation of its findings starting January 2019.

NRC is seeking to engage a reputable firm or individual/s to undertake a border area natural resource mapping exercise around all target communities. The mapping will focus firstly on identification of the Natural resources in the target areas and their state at the time of the mapping, secondly establishing how close the gazetted national range reserves thirdly, extent of ecological damage to the identified natural resources, fourthly propose the most feasible and acceptable conservation and improvement measures that should be put in place to ensure enhanced productivity and sustained utilization of the identified natural resources and fifthly to propose and develop tools for monitoring improvement on the conservation

2.2 Scope of work

To achieve the above objectives NRC seeks the services of a consultant to carry out a natural resource mapping that generates baseline information on natural resource management status in the project areas as well as other relevant information to support sustainable utilization of the natural resource base by undertaking the following actions:

a) To review of existing materials, literature, data and knowledge covering both quantity and associated quality of Natural Resources of Somaliland. The review will also explore in details the resource conservation and management initiatives already employed by government, private sector and donor community.

b) Assess and produce a robust and evidence based mapping of the renewable natural resource; land (Arable and rangelands), water and of forest resource and potential for meeting demands for their use by targeted pastoral and agro pastoral communities. This can include an assessment of the spatial and temporal variability of range and forest vegetation, ground and surface water as well as farmland in terms of quantity and quality, including periods of stresses.

c) Explore and ascertain the available and gazetted national range reserves and potential of the project contributing to revamping of the conservation measures.

d) General assessment of the balance between available range, farmland, water and forest resources versus the demand for productive use e.g in irrigation/ livestock drinking, fodder/ pasture and crop production and considering topographical and available socioeconomic characteristics.

e) To identify major problems, challenges, threats to the identified farmland, range, water and forest resources and priority areas for improving these resources.

f) Provide an economic analysis of the different natural resource use and conservation techniques (e.g construction of earth dams, wells, concrete built dams, construction of soil conservation structures – gulleys, check dams, bands-trapezoidal, half-moon or line, rotational grazing and range grazing planning etc)

g) Provide an expert analysis of the most cost effective solution (including provision of cost estimates for such solutions) that can better support sustainable productive use of the farmland, range land and forest resources. A component of this should focus on long term solutions that enable better resilience and greater capacity -perhaps at governmental or community level – to withstand climatic shocks.

h) Incorporate aspirations of the Somaliland national development plan in sustainable natural resource management in the areas.

j) Assess viability of natural resource management cooperatives/groups in sustaining rangeland resources as a shared economic resource in within individual location and at cross-border level of the project area.

k) Disseminate the findings of the assessment to local stakeholders in Natural Resource Management value chain (authorities, traders and NGOs) through a workshop to be held in Hargeisa Somaliland.