Somalia: OUTCOME ASSESSMENT SURVEY CONSULTANCY

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Introduction

Promoting Inclusive Markets in Somalia (PIMS) is a 4-year (2015-2019) market development programme funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and DANIDA and implemented by Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI).

PIMS works with stakeholders and market actors in Somalia using the Market Systems approach, targeting sustainable improvements in market outcomes by altering the incentives that the market as a system provides to participants. The approach addresses major government and market failures in order to bring about systemic change underpinning sustainability. Improving incomes, leveraging private sector investments and creating jobs for the poor, especially for women, are explicit targets for PIMS. Complementing market development in target sectors, the programme’s complementary cash-for-work component will provide/upgrade/maintain productive infrastructure while creating 400,000 cash for work days.

Background

PIMS program over the last three years has been working in the dairy sector (Somaliland and Puntland), sesame sector (Shabelle Valley) and fisheries sector (Puntland) to deliver long term solutions through implementing partners (lead firms) to address the bottle necks that hinder the optimal functioning of these value chains.

Alongside the value chain development aspects, PIMS programme has rehabilitated key infrastructure assets including irrigation canals in Jowhar region, grazing land areas in Burao (Somaliland) and milk feeder roads in Somaliland and Puntland regions. The infrastructure assets were strategically selected in order to contribute to the desired market development outcomes e.g. opening up more farm land for irrigation, reduction of post-harvest losses as a result of reduced transit time from farm gates to markets among others.

From sector analysis conducted at the inception phase of the program, some of the bottle necks highlighted across all sectors were low productivity, lack of knowledge on produce handling & storage and disjointed market linkages among many other challenges.

In the last three years, PIMS has conducted longitudinal outcome surveys coupled with routine short research assessments, key informant interviews with market actors, field visits and observations to establish the causal links between the activities implemented to the outputs achieved and whether the outputs actually translated to the targeted outcomes. For this assessment, PIMS would want to engage an independent research house to gather nuanced evidence on the results achieved across the different interventions implemented. The following interventions have been undertaken across the following sectors:

Dairy sector Interventions:

Veterinary drugs intervention: PIMS from 2015 has been working with two commercial veterinary drug importing companies in Somaliland and Puntland to promote the use of quality veterinary drugs among the smallholder milk producers through Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWS) and dedicated Agro Vet Dealers (AVDs) in the rural and peri-urban centers where the milk producers live. In total, 29,000 milk producers have benefited from the quality vet drugs promoted by the two companies.

Fodder intervention: The programme has engaged with six commercial dairy farms to commercially produce fodder and support the smallholder milk producers’ increase their milk productivity. The commercial dairy farms contracted smallholder milk producers as fodder out growers and at the same time, the large farms provided technical assistance to the contracted farmers on matters relating to animal husbandry practices and milk handling and hygiene. Through partnership with PIMS, some of the lead firms were supported to drill solar powered boreholes so as to be able to produce fodder on a sustainable basis.

Milk hygiene intervention: PIMS engaged a private company (Milk Care Co-operation) in Somaliland to create awareness on milk hygiene and at the same time, import and sell hygienic milk cans to milk producers and retailers in order to reduce milk spoilage (sector analysis in the dairy sector revealed that about 15% of the milk produced gets spoilt due to unhygienic handling).

Sesame sector Interventions:

PIMS programme has been working with six commercial sesame growing companies, “Lead firms” to transfer knowledge on sesame production technologies and practices to smallholder farmers through on-farm demonstrations. To date, more than 35,000 sesame growers have benefited from the demonstrations.

Fisheries sector Interventions:

Improvement of fish catch: The programme engaged six fish exporting companies to promote sustainable fishing technologies among the fisher folks through Trainer of Trainers (ToTs). In total over 2,700 fisher folks have benefited from the technologies.

Reduction in fish spoilage: PIMS programme supported the six lead firms to invest in fish handling technologies and equipment (refrigerated trucks, blast freezers, cooling boxes, aggregation units etc.) in order to reduce fish spoilage. The lead firms subsequently cascaded trainings and technical assistance to their suppliers (fisher folks) on fish post-harvest loss reduction.

Cash for work Interventions

PIMS undertook the following Cash for Work (CfW) activities as a direct contribution to the targeted market development outcomes:

Canal rehabilitation: The programme worked through the sesame growing companies/lead firms to rehabilitate over 210km of irrigation canals that are expected to open up more farmland (about 4,125 Ha of new farmland opened up) for agricultural production leading to increased production volumes that ultimately contribute to increased smallholder incomes.

Rehabilitation of milk feeder roads & grazing land areas: PIMS rehabilitated selected milk feeder roads to facilitate milk market access particularly during the rainy season. Also, the grazing land areas in Burao were rehabilitated to control surface water flow and to allow pasture re-generation during the rainy season.

In total, over 400,000 CfW days were generated from the implemented CfW activities.

Investment Promotion

Ten investment promotion events were undertaken by the programme to stimulate private sector investments into the targeted sectors. The lead firms were equally exposed the end market requirements and some connected to new produce buyers.

Objectives of the Assessment

1. To assess the extent to which the production technologies and practices promoted by PIMS programme have been adopted by the end beneficiaries

2. To determine the extent to which the promoted technologies and practices have resulted to increment in productivity and additional producer incomes.

3. To understand whether the rehabilitated infrastructure assets have been put into use and how they have contributed to the desired market development outcomes.

4. To establish tangible outcomes of the investment promotion events undertaken by the programme (e.g. new deals that emerged, new investments, access to new markets etc.).

5. Draw out successes and challenges encountered across the different interventions and provide an array of lessons learnt that could inform future programming.

Research questions

The study should be able to provide succinct answers to the following questions;

1. To what extent have the smallholders across the different sectors adopted the new practices and technologies promoted by the PIMS programme?

2. Has the adoption of the new practices resulted to increased productivity?

3. Has the adoption of the various animal related interventions improved animal health, milk productivity and if any, have they contributed to increased livestock exports?

4. Have the adoption of improved fish handling technologies in the fisheries sector resulted to a reduction in fish spoilage? If yes, by how much?

5. What major investments have the different target actors made in their business enterprises and have these resulted to creation of additional jobs?-gather evidence from the lead firms

6. What have been the tangible outcomes of the investment promotion activities undertaken by PIMS programme?

7. Are the practices and technologies promoted by PIMS programme sustainable? I.e. are the smallholders willing to continue applying the new production practices and technologies without the support of the programme? If yes, what are the incentives to continue doing so?

8. Have the engaging lead firms been able to make changes in their business operations? If yes, what changes have been made and have they translated to increased sales turn over?

9. How well are the rehabilitated infrastructure assets servicing the target end users? Are the assets maintained and who in particular does the maintenance?

10. How well have women and minority groups been integrated across the different interventions in the target sectors?

11. Which interventions have worked well and which ones have not?

12. What lessons can the programme draw from the different interventions implemented to inform future programming?

Methodology

The research will encompass a mix of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. The qualitative approaches will include but not limited to: Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, Stories of Change including human stories and Field observations.

Specific Tasks

The research service provider shall:

• Review programme documents (report, value chain studies, progress reports etc.) in order to have a better understanding of the different interventions implemented

• Review and agree on the survey data collection tools with PIMS M&E Manager

• Script the questionnaires and pilot their efficacy before roll out

• Draw a representative sample of the targeted producers, service providers and lead firms from a pool that will be provided by PIMS M&E manager

• Train recruit and train field enumerators

• Manage data collection in the field with data quality assurance protocols put in place

• Collect qualitative data through Focus Group Discussions and Key Informant Interviews with different stakeholders (all lead firms to be interviewed) and beneficiaries so as to draw more insights on the most significant changes recorded

• Document human success stories per intervention

• Visit all the cash for work sites and document the status of the rehabilitated infrastructure assets, gather pictorial evidence on their status and recommendations on how best they have been put into use

• Clean the data and standardize all the measurement units into respective SI.

• Present cleaned dataset (In SPSS/ Excel formats) to PIMS M&E team.

• Provide a formatted survey report to PIMS’ management for review.

Deliverables

• Final Outcome Assessment report. The report format should include:

• Executive Summary

• Introduction/Background Information

• Objectives of the Assessment

• Methodology

• Specific Findings (findings per intervention, human stories, case studies and field photos)

• Conclusions and Recommendations (including possible lessons to be drawn by the programme per intervention).

• List of Annexes (List of key informants/stakeholders interviewed, field photos etc.)

• Cleaned dataset in SPSS format with standardized units of measurement

Key Qualifications

• The research firm must have presence in Somalia (With operations in Jowhar, Afgoye, Somaliland, Puntland regions). PIMS will conduct back ground checks on the successful firm before award of the contract.

• Technical experts must have at least 5 years work experience in Somalia. (Experts with qualifications in Economics, Statistics, M&E or Social Sciences will be preferred)

• The team must comprise of a qualitative researcher and gender analyst with proven work experience

• Experience in conducting Contribution Analysis (CA) is desirable

• Experience in conducting Economic Growth Evaluations/research in Somalia

• Technical experts with research experience in agriculture, fisheries, livestock sectors and cash for work evaluations will be preferred.

Application Guidelines

Detailed technical and financial proposals to be submitted to pimsinfo@dai.com and cc silas_ochieng@dai.com; Mohamed_mohamud@dai.com not later than 23^rd November 2018.

Note: The maximum budget for this assignment shall not exceed $ 45,000

The proposal should include: Understanding of the Terms of Reference, Methodology to be used, tentative work plan and budget. All applicants to enclose similar assignments undertaken and references.

Final deliverables to be completed not later than Friday 4^th January 2018.