Strengthening Humanitarian Delivery-Multi Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) At Save the Children

Background on Save the Children

Save the Children is the leading global independent organisation for children. Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children’s unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

Our vision: A world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.

Our mission: To inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

Our values: Accountability, ambition, collaboration, creativity and integrity.

We are committed to ensuring our resources are used as efficiently as possible, in order to focus them on achieving maximum impact for children.

Child Safeguarding:

Level 3: the role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; ore because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

Background information/context

Save the Children (SC) has been working in Nigeria since 2001. Today, SC is working in 20 states focusing on child survival, education and protecting children in both development and humanitarian contexts. The conflict in Northeast Nigeria has left 8.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance (HRP 2021), in particular more than 1.7 million IDPs. Over half of the displaced persons are children (58%), half of whom are under five years of age. Borno state has been the most affected and is host to nearly 1.4 M IDPs (IOM- DTM REPORT ROUND 27 – MAY 2019). This is partly due to insecurity and the limited presence of civilian authority in the LGAs. The state is struggling to provide education, health and protection services.

Guided by Save the Children’s three breakthroughs (Survive, Learn, Be Protected), Save the Children’s Northeast Nigeria Humanitarian Response Strategy for 2020 and 2021 plans to reach 1.5 million individuals by 2021 with cross-sectoral support.

SCI aims to respond safely and effectively to emerging needs, through contingency stocks of WASH kits, learning materials, strengthening referral mechanisms, continued awareness raising, ensuring that operations continue to deliver safely through gender sensitive adaptive programming for children with strong processes and guidelines and strengthening capacity for the current humanitarian crisis in Borno state.

In order to respond to persisting information/data gaps on humanitarian needs and to inform further the 2020 SCI’s response planning, SCI will be conducting a Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) in Borno state. The aim of the assessment is to create a clearer picture of the situation in location(s) SCI is currently implementing, to strengthen the quality of SC’s implementation and investigate the possibility of adaptive programming to ensure the appropriateness and relevance of interventions to the Covid-19 context. This assessment will cover all accessible LGAs.

Objective

The Consultant should assess, identify, and report on the following aspects:

· Literature review of pre-existing needs of population, along with available information on current context and needs of the affected population– this will identify information gaps and the necessary focus on the multi-sectoral assessment

· Primary data collection to:

Identify affected populations’ socio-economic situation, needs and capacities in our thematic areas like education, protection, FSL, WASH, Health and Nutrition.

Identify compounding gender inequality issues especially around SGBV and consequences on the lives of potential beneficiaries.

Identify strategies adopted by households in response to the current humanitarian crisis and current COVID19 pandemic.

Capture voices of children across the various locations on their needs and existing/possible interventions of SCI

· Secondary and primary data to outline existing response and plans by partners

· Produce a report identifying primary needs and challenges of the affected population as well as potential recommendations for how SC or other actors can respond. This should be done alongside SC sectoral TAs (who will provide interpretation and analysis of how best SC can respond to the needs/gaps highlighted in the assessment).

Location and official travel involved

The Supplier will work full time in the SCI Borno field office location. Regular office hours are 9:00am to 5:00pm, Monday to Sunday. Office space will be provided but the consultant is responsible for bringing his/her own IT equipment. The Supplier may be required to travel to other locations. Any required travel will need pre-approval by SCI in accordance with SCI’s Travel Policy and applicable RO/CO Expense Policy.

Services the Supplier will provide

· Secondary review and data gaps

· Methodology and tools for data collection (tailored to target participants)

· Report on activities carried out

· Inception report

· Inter-sectoral workshop to discuss findings with technical advisers and PDQ. Aim is to get their interpretation of the relevance for SC and what the recommendations should be

· Draft report

· Final report of the findings of the assessment including recommendations

Ethical Considerations

It is expected that this assessment will be:

§ Child participatory. Where appropriate and safe, children should be supported to participate in the evaluation process beyond simply being respondents. Opportunities for collaborative participation could include supporting children to collect some of the data required for the evaluation themselves, or involving children in the validation of findings. Any child participation, whether consultative, collaborative or child-led, must abide by the 9 basic requirements for meaningful and ethical child participation. Refer to the Practice Standards in Children’s Participation (International Save the Children Alliance 2005).**

§ Inclusive. Ensure that children from different ethnic, social and religious backgrounds have the chance to participate, as well as children with disabilities and children who may be excluded or discriminated against in their community.**

§ Ethical: The evaluation/research must be guided by the following ethical considerations:**

o Safeguarding – demonstrating the highest standards of behaviour towards children and adults.**

o Sensitive – to child rights, gender, inclusion and cultural contexts.**

o Openness – of information given, to the highest possible degree to all involved parties.**

o Confidentiality and data protection – measures will be put in place to protect the identity of all participants and any other information that may put them or others at risk. **

o Public access – to the results when there are not special considerations against this**

o Broad participation – the relevant parties should be involved where possible.**

o Reliability and independence – the evaluation/research should be conducted so that findings and conclusions are correct and trustworthy.**

It is expected that:

§ Data collection methods will be age and gender appropriate.

§ Assessment activities will provide a safe, creative space where children feel that their thoughts and ideas are important.

§ A risk assessment will be conducted that includes any risks related to children, young people’s, or adult’s participation.

§ A referral mechanism will be in place in case any child safeguarding, or protection issues arise.

§ Informed consent will be used where possible.

§ The consultant will not be required to obtain approval from a Human Research Ethics Committee. Save the Children will work with the relevant agency and provide assistance with this process.

Experience and skill set required

The consultant must have experience and significant knowledge of humanitarian response mechanisms, specifically regarding the Northeast humanitarian response, and have previous experience in conducting external Assessments for conflict responses. In addition, the following requirements are highly essential desirable-

· Significant experience (5-7 years) in coordination, implementation, monitoring and assessment of emergency response programs

· Relevant expertise in at least 3 relevant sectors (Food Security & Livelihoods, Education, Nutrition, WASH, GBV, Health and Protection).

· Demonstrated experience of needs assessments in humanitarian response projects is essential

· Knowledge and experience in child participatory approaches and child safeguarding

· Skills is both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies

· Fluency in English and ability to write clear and concise reports (examples of previous work will be requested)

· Understanding of humanitarian donor requirements and specific requirements for this assessment.

· Ability to manage the available time and resources and work to tight deadlines.

Desirable requirements include-

· Speaking and understanding local language

· Prior work experience in conflict affected regions

Application Requirement:

Interested parties/candidates should submit the following documents:

· Technical proposal describing how the requirements of the Terms of Reference will be met within the given timeframe.

· Budget

· CV(s) of lead evaluator/team (CVs are not very useful as each person have different information on their CV)

· 1-3 samples of relevant work

All consultant is expected to submit the expression of interest online.

Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

· How well the requirements laid out in the ToR are met

· Skills and experience of the consultant

· Share relevant reports

· Cost effectiveness

*Technical Competencies:

Evaluation criteria

Only consultants that score ALL Yes under the essential criteria evaluation will progress to the capability evaluation stage.

The pass mark for the capability criteria is 75 points out of 100 points.

Experience and skill set required

Individual consultants who respond to the tender must meet the following criteria:

Essential Criteria

Yes/No

Agrees to comply with Save the Children standard policies and procedures as stated in the RFQ or Invitation to Tender (ITT) document

A ‘no’ in either of these boxes will result in immediate disqualification.

Successfully completed a bachelor’s degree in a relevant area, such as social sciences, development studies, or in specific technical areas such as education, public health, nutrition, food security, etc.

Provides a CV and cover letter, explaining relevant experience and relevant reports of previous work

Provides brief description and evidence (attached copies) of up to 4 relevant services provided to other actors (either INGOs, International Organisations or donors), including the year of service and an official email address to contact as a reference

Capability Criteria (technical)

Max. 100

Evidence of minimum of three years’ experience designing and carrying out high-quality assessments, baseline, mid-terms and endline studies, and mid-term and final evaluations, for one or more of the following thematic areas:

· Child protection,

· Education,

· Health and Nutrition,

15 points

Evidence of experience working in development and/or humanitarian settings

5 points

Evidence shows strong training and experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection methods and analysis

10 points

Evidence of knowledge and experience with a range of statistical and qualitative data managing software and approaches (such as SPSS, EPI Info, Stata, NVivo, Atlasti, KOBO Toolbox, ODK or other similar software)

10 points

Evidence proves strong command of the English language, both written and verbal with strong report writing and documentation skills

10 points

Evidence of working experience in Nigeria or similar contexts

5 points

Provided brief description (200 words or less) of steps the consultant will take to ensure the quality of the services you would provide is of consistently high standards

[10 marks for providing a highly satisfactory response, 5 marks for a satisfactory response, and zero marks for not providing one or providing an unsatisfactory response]

10 points

Provided brief description (200 words or less) on experience in inclusive and ethical child participatory methods of data collection

[10 marks for providing a highly satisfactory response, 5 marks for a satisfactory response, and zero marks for not providing one or providing an unsatisfactory response]

10 points

During the interview, the consultant demonstrates in-depth knowledge of assessments, studies and evaluations, in terms of their design and implementation, which will be assessed and scored by a panel of experts

15 points

Expected Deliverables

SCI expects the following deliverables to be provided;

1 – Inception report

The report is to define the project’s exact work plan and scope for the rest of the duration. The report should be supported by quantitative/qualitative evidence from internal and external analysis

Presentation/Report delivered to Project Board

2 – Draft business case

Comprehensive draft business case for recommended operating model

Completed SCI business case template

3 – Final survey Methodology (agreed following consultant selection).

Detailed methodology document describing selection criteria, sampling, data collection, data analysis and report writing.

Presentation/Report delivered to Project Board

4 – Power point presentation of preliminary findings.

Comprehensive report Communicating findings of the survey.

Presentation/Report delivered to Project Board

5 – A preliminary and final survey report.

Comprehensive report Communicating findings of the survey. The report should also include recommendations based on findings from the report.

Report delivered to Project Board

Timeline

· The duration of the survey will be 30 days.

· Desk review: 2 days

· Submission of inception report: 3 days

· Development and deployment of data collection tools – Household surveys questionnaires, FGD and KII guide.: 3 days

· Training of enumerators (this includes 3 days for training of field enumerators and pretesting of tools): 4 days

· Data collection: 10 days

· Data analysis and submission of first draft report.: 5 days

· Presentation and submission of the final report: 3 days

· Total: 30 days Maximum

Estimated Commencement Date: 1^st June, 2021

Estimated End Date: 30^th June, 2021.

1 – Desk review