Consultancy: Assessing Livestock Herd Management Practices in Isiolo County Project, Building Drought Resilience in Isiolo County through Sustainable Livelihoods

Nov 14, 2020 | Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse
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Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse is an international network of non-profit organizations working all over the world in the field of agriculture and livestock production, animal health and animal welfare, to support small-scale farmers. 

Terms of Reference: Assessing Livestock Herd Management Practices in Isiolo County

Project: Building Drought Resilience in Isiolo County through Sustainable Livelihoods (DRIC)

Background information

Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse/Kenya (VSF-Suisse/Kenya) with its partners Comitato Collaborazione Medica; E4IMPACT Foundation; Social Ministry Research Network Centre; and WeWorld Onlus is implementing the European Union co-founded DRIC Project in Isiolo County. The project duration is 48 months running from 28 December 2019 to 27 December 2023. It will be implemented mainly in seven selected Wards, namely Oldonyiro, Ngaremara, Chari, Cherab, Kinna, Sericho and Garbatulla. In total, the action will target 5,218 pastoralist and agro-pastoralist households in Isiolo County, including youth and women, that are highly vulnerable to droughts and other negative effects of climate change, especially food and nutrition insecurity. Based on the County mean family size of 6, this constitutes approximately 30,000 people.

The project has the following objectives and results:

Overall Objective: To contribute towards increased resilience to droughts and other negative impact of climate change for vulnerable groups and reduce number of children under 5 years who are stunted in Isiolo County (WHA - Global Nutrition Target 1 for 2025).

Specific Objective: To enhance Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) for vulnerable Pastoralist and Agro-pastoralist Communities in Isiolo County, generating Sustainable livelihoods, protecting productive assets and improving climate smart County service delivery. In line with these objectives, the planned action is based on three Expected Results (hereafter referred to as Outputs): **

Expected Result/Output 1: Improved drought resilient and nutrition-sensitive agriculture/livestock production, integrated with conflict resolution and peace building strategies: by delivering a wide range of social and technical support to pastoralists and agro-pastoralists covering pasture and rangeland management; fodder, animal husbandry and veterinary support; animal products enterprise development; enhanced crop production; nutrition-sensitive approaches to food production, processing and storage; climate-resilient production techniques; and linkages to relevant inputs/services and climate information. Peace building activities will be integrated into this livelihood support work to protect gains.

Expected Result/Output 2: Key productive household (HH) assets and community investments are sustainably built and recovery capacities against recurrent droughts are strengthened, with a particular focus on women's economic empowerment: by creating/strengthening self-help groups for savings; building financial capacities and livelihoods diversification/IGAs; productive and domestic water resource development; and mobilisation for participation in the One Village One Product initiative.

Expected Result/Output 3: Isiolo County is empowered to address FNS issues, improved data collection and cross-sectoral collaboration to facilitate local political commitment and awareness raising: by supporting establishment and strengthening of county level multi-sectoral Nutrition-Sensitive Intervention Platforms (NSIP); mainstreaming climate change adaptation into CIDP; supporting grassroots and community-based networks; resilience building and food and nutrition-sensitive approaches; harmonised Monitoring & Evaluation mechanisms; and linkages with the National Information Platform for Food and Nutrition (NIPFN); complemented by awareness raising and advocacy to support increased resilience and sustainable food and nutrition security.

Assessing Herd Management in Isiolo County:

Among other interventions, the DRIC project will promote better herd management as a key measure to improve the resilience of pastoralists to drought through controlled herd size, breeding management and livestock insurance. These interventions will be linked to strategic livestock marketing via livestock off-take cooperative(s) and other measures that will be supported by the project.

Prior to activity implementation, an assessment will be conducted to help understand the practices, perceptions, challenges and knowledge gaps on controlled herd size, breeding management and livestock insurance. The assessment will provide benchmarks against which the project achievements will be monitored and evaluated in terms of its objectives and results during and at the end of the project’s lifespan of 48 months.

It is recognized that (a) pastoralists’ herd strategies reflect a complex set of priorities and experience (b) the indigenous breeds on which most pastoralists rely have exceptional adaptive traits but overall low productivity and are increasingly less productive due to inbreeding and (c) the uptake of the Index Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) scheme is low, a product specifically designed for pastoralists with satellite imagery used to assess forage availability and detect drought related forage scarcity.

The consultant will assess the following herd management factors in Isiolo County:

1. Controlled herd size: the production objectives of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, why herd size matters in mitigating the effects of increasingly frequent and severe droughts, and practical steps (other than mobility) that could be taken to control herd size in order to adapt to the impact of climate change.
2. Breeding management: animal breeding knowledge and practice and advise on the development of tailored training modules, to be delivered to livestock owners/herders.
3. Livestock Insurance: the knowledge and practise on livestock insurance with a focus on the IBLI scheme. The consultant will advise the project on how to (a) organize for conversations between the insurance underwriters, implementing agencies, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, livestock keepers and regulators to discuss the scheme and encourage policy uptake (b) strengthen linkages with existing input/market/feed suppliers/service providers, to enable pastoralists access inputs or buy fodder to sustain their key breeding stock during droughts.

Proposed Methodology and Duration of the Consultancy

VSF-Suisse/Kenya proposes that the Consultant(s) apply a number of methodologies in data Collection. The methods of data collection that will be used in combination include (e.g qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods):

1. Desk review of relevant project documents e.g. the project proposal, Consolidated Logical Framework and relevant reports.
2. Focus group discussions with key stakeholders, pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and key actors in Isiolo County.
3. Key Informant Interviews with relevant experts in targeted development interventions; County Government authorities and heads of departments from the collaborating actors
4. Use of participatory skills and approaches and field data collection with pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in targeted areas.

Location and Timing: The consultancy shall be conducted for 24 days and will take place in the DRIC project areas in Isiolo County. However, the consultant will also meet some of the key stakeholders of the action in Nairobi.

Result Proposed activity Days

• Review of relevant literature, development of methodology, study tools, production of inception report: 4 days
• Field work Focus Group discussions, key informant interviews, validation meetings: 14 days
• Data entry, analysis and reporting: 6 days

Execution

• The consultant (s) should provide a detailed work plan and budget of the assignment.
• The consultancy is expected to be conducted in November/December 2020. The anticipated baseline report release date is 22 December 2020.

Requirements and Experience of the Consultant

The Consultant must demonstrate the following:

• Solid background knowledge and experience in livestock production/marketing/development/livestock risk management.
• Experience in carrying out similar assignments and a proven track record of delivering excellent results.
• Experience in the use of participatory skills and approaches among the pastoral and agro-pastoral communities.
• Excellent communication skills in both written and oral, demonstrated in ability to write comprehensive reports with in-depth analysis.
• Demonstrated experience in capacity building of pastoralists, agro pastoralists and linking them to livestock markets
• Working experience in Isiolo County and other ASALs of Kenya is desirable

How to apply

Application Process

Interested consultant(s) should prepare and submit to VSF-Suisse a Technical Proposal (including a Detailed Description of Approaches and Methodology) and a Financial proposal for the assignment. The proposal should indicate qualifications and experience of the consultant (s) with a detailed Execution plan and Budget (in EURO). The methodology should clearly indicate how the work will be executed in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposals, CVs and letter of motivation as well as three (3) referees should be sent electronically to Office.Nairobi@vsf-suisse.org by 22nd November 2020; 5:00 PM EAT.