Somalia: Team Leader – National Water Resources Strategic Plan

Nov 29, 2019 | Committed to Good
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Overview:

Somalia’s paradox as a country is that it is becoming increasingly water scarce & economically water dependent. In the north, over 80% of the country’s landmass is classified as Arid & Semi Arid Land (ASAL), making it relatively unproductive for agriculture, with nomadic pastoralism the only potential livelihood option. Somalia’s ASALs house the greatest national proportion of pastoralists in Africa. In the south, the country is considerably more lush with rivers that often flood. The riparian areas are unable to capture & use flood runoff effectively, such as for irrigation.

Water & climate trends show reduced surface water availability, reduced groundwater reserves & increased occurrences of drought & flood events. National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA) revealed that flash flooding has created significant erosion & loss of fertile topsoil into the sea while extensive dry seasons have adversely impacted food security. In recent years, gully erosion has destroyed important valleys creating deep gorges that often restrict mobility of both pastoralists & their animals. Erosion is a growing problem due to Somalia’s alarming deforestation rate at 4%. The recent drought following consecutive seasons of poor rainfall & low river water levels reduced average harvests by 70%, caused significant livestock deaths, contributed to drought related stress migration. 

Issues with water scarcity & flooding are expected to be aggravated by the impacts of climate change, future scenarios project dry periods that are predicted to be less prolonged but more frequent than those that have marked the country over the past decade. Though total annual precipitation is expected to increase, reversing a trend of frequent prolonged droughts that have marked the country over the past decades, it is highly likely that this will be associated with an increased frequency of extreme wet days.

Compounding the economic impacts on agro pastoralism is the lack of basic water governance structures. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been an internationally recognized methodology since 1992 when the Dublin principals were jointly concluded at the international conference on water & environment. These principals emphasize that water management & development should be participatory, including with the involvement of women & that water is an essential & crucial economic good. Developing a national strategic plan for IWRM, which focuses on rainwater harvesting, groundwater & surface water capture was highlighted as an urgent need by the federal govt. of Somalia.

In July 2019, the Prime Minister (PM) decided to develop a strategic plan for water resources development in Somalia. The Ministry of Energy & Water Resources (MoEWR) has been tasked to develop National Water Resources Strategic Plan (A Framework for Action) following an inclusive process & along the principals of IWRM. The Ministry will ensure national ownership as well as inputs from all relevant stakeholders, with the technical, financial & administrative support of our client. in Somalia.

A Team Leader (TL) will work on the development of the strategic plan for a period of 8 months, reporting to our client with day to day guidance from the MoEWR & our client. Details of the assignment are presented in subsequent sections of the TORs

Role objectives

The scope of the TL’s assignment is to formulate national strategic plan for water resources development in Somalia. While the national strategic plan will be the main objective of the assignment, this will be associated with sub outputs, including:

  • Water resources development roadmap.
  • Water resources compact.
  • National water forum or dialogue.

The objective of the assignment should be achieved following all inclusive process along the principles of IWRM. 

Development of Strategic Plan is part of our client / GEF Project titled: “Support for IWRM to ensure water access & disaster reduction for Somalia’s agro pastoralists”

The TL, with support of a national team member(s) & relevant govt. & our client staff, will draft the national strategic plan that is cognizant of the context & challenges in Somalia. The specific tasks grouped would include:

Literature review & compilation of relevant documentation & holding of national dialogue: 

  • Compile & review publications, independent articles, research studies, UN reports, govt. documents that cover the issues associated with water sector (differentiated by sub sectors for different water uses) in Somalia & the region.
  • Review of existing policies, institutions & regulatory frameworks of all relevant sectors (agriculture, livestock, domestic, industry etc.) to:
    • Collect, review & present the chronology of the various policies, legal, institutional & other relevant instruments existing in Somalia.
    • Identify the gaps at the institutional, policy, legal, political & technical levels that emerge as areas requiring specific focus in the national strategic plan.
    • Present the linkages of national strategic plan with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate change, cross borders water sharing & the priority areas of national development plan, peace building Initiatives, federal member states development plans, strategic country programs of development / humanitarian organisations, donors.
  • Compile & review sectoral policies to reflect a mainstreaming approach for IWRM.
  • Compile & review selected water sector policies / strategies from Sub Saharan countries to understand best practices.
  • Compile & review all documentation related to international, regional & national financing sources for implementation of the expected priority actions in national strategic plan. 
  • Hold a workshop for exchange of ideas, information, experiences & present the analysis from literature review, interaction with key stakeholders, secondary data etc.

Design consultative tools:

  • Preparation of a semi structured questionnaire to collect firsthand information from the key govt. functionaries dealing with national planning, natural resources management, disaster management, law enforcement, youth, women affairs, human rights, IDP's, external affairs, etc.
  • Prepare presentations, facilitation guidelines & other tools for conducting workshops with the key govt. institutions, CSO's, academia, research organizations, representatives of agriculture communities, municipalities, private sector, representatives of pastoral communities, development / humanitarian organisations, donors, organisations working on gender issues & media to collect the evidence on the extent of sensitisation about water issues & prioritization of actions to address the challenges in the sector management.
  • Prepare consultation & stakeholders analysis reports & annexures to feed in the national strategic plan.

Analysis of intra / inter member states & neighboring countries water management challenges & options:

  • Prepare structured questionnaire or other tools to map out the water management & water sharing options for intra / inter member states & neighboring countries.
  • Hold meetings with the key decision makers (national, regional & international) to distill out actionable recommendations on water sharing & management.
  • Prepare documentation with annexures to feed into the national strategy. 

Develop the strategy:

  • Collate information collected & prepared in the previous tasks.
  • Present the information, notes, summaries, data & other information for each chapter of the strategy. 
  • Update the draft strategy based on comments provided by the Somali govt. & other stakeholders. 

Develop road map:

  • Based on the strategy developed, identify & collect such strategic activities that are thematically linked & group these together into project proposals. Project proposals are developed into overviews, according to a uniform format, that provides an easy understanding of their focus & linkages. The uniform format can include:
    • Project title.
    • Objectives.
    • Key activities.
    • Expected results.
    • Potential stakeholders to engage in writing, funding & implementing each proposal. 
  • Building a road map. Based on the project proposals developed above & ongoing or planned projects, proposals are assessed & mapped in terms of time, space, priority & order of implementation.

Develop a water sector compact:

  • In close communication with the stakeholders involved in the strategy formulation, in particular the top level decision makers, like govt. ministries, large expert organizations & donor agencies. Develop a short report stating activities & results that all agree should be achieved over a specified period. It is a consensus document, bringing key stakeholders together in taking the national strategic plan to implementation.

National water forum:

  • In coordination with the Office of the Prime Minister & MoEWR organize a national water forum to present the national strategic plan & associated outputs.

Final product / Deliverables:

The assignment will be monitored & facilitated by the Portfolio Manager – Resilience & Climate Change. The quality of the deliverables mentioned in the next section will be jointly assessed by the Portfolio Manager, our client & Director General, MoEWR. The consultancy fees would be released upon the certification of Portfolio Manager. The payment schedule will be on a monthly basis against following deliverables:

  • Inception report (month 1).
  • Water sector investments mapping & analysis (month 3). 
  • Water sector stakeholders analysis report (month 4). 
  • Draft national strategic plan (month 5).
  • Draft road map (month 6).
  • Final national strategic plan & road map (month 7).
  • National water forum, water sector compact & water forum report (month 8) 

Key competencies

Academic qualifications: 

  • The TL should have PG Degree in Water Resources Management, Development Economics, Environment, Climate Change, Natural Resources Management, Social Sciences, or Engineering. 

Years of experience: 

  • More than 10 years of professional work matching the TOR.

Experience & skills: 

  • Expertise in analyzing national plans, policies & building cross sectoral linkages for undertaking the task mentioned in the scope of work. 
  • Specialization in analyzing national plans, policies & build cross sectoral linkages for undertaking the task mentioned in the scope of work. 
  • Good communications & presentation skills as well as an excellent English language communication skills (written & spoken) as well as computer literacy. 
  • Ability to analyse the root causes of the issues & come up with an implementable set of interventions. 
  • Past experience of working with multi sectoral teams. 
  • Sensitivity towards the opinions of the stakeholders/team members, gender mainstreaming, possible institutional partners & Somali communities. 
  • Strong presentation, analytical writing & time management skills. 
  • Experience of effective interaction with policy makers, UN agencies, donors, communities, CSO's, private sector etc. 
  • Experience of formulating & analyzing multi dimensional projects. 

Language requirements:  

  • Strong written & spoken English.