Job Description

Background          

The Nordic International Support Foundation (NIS) is a Norwegian-registered non-profit organization engaged in stabilization and reconciliation initiatives in conflict and post-conflict locations. NIS’ primary areas of intervention are infrastructural development, public service delivery, and conflict resolution. Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, NIS has country programmes in Somalia, Myanmar, and the Sahel.

With funding from the Royal Norwegian Embassy (RNE) and Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), NIS is currently implementing the Programme for Social, Political, and Environmental Resilience in Somalia (PROSPERIS) designed to address the vulnerabilities related to socioeconomic, political (government visibility/ presence), and environmental factors that undermine Somalia’s longer-term stability. The programme also aims to build on the achievements and experiences from the previously implemented stabilization programme (2016-2022) funded by RNE and seeks to strengthen government legitimacy through the renewal of the social contract between the authorities and the communities by implementing and overseeing projects together.

PROSPERIS is a three-year stabilization programme that aims to build on the achievements and experiences from the previously implemented stabilization programs (2016-2022). It envisages to support the implementation of identified priority interventions and activities across a wide range of themes that are intended to contribute towards the realization of national stabilization strategy (2023 – 2026) and the related government policies and plans. The programme interventions and activities have been designed to work in different ways to achieve greater stability, increased government trust by citizens, and better prospects for the country’s longer-term development goals as well as a more inclusive post-conflict society creating opportunities for economic and social development, while reducing vulnerabilities and building up resilience

PROSPERIS’ contribution to stabilization is meant to be through a twofold strategy: expansion of government presence and the interventions’ own mitigation qualities, increasing local resilience for the advancement and safeguarding of stabilization gains. This approach is based on the assumption that political systems and communities that cannot endure shocks of various kinds, are, and shall remain, vulnerable and unstable. In this manner, PROSPERIS encompasses a variety of interventions, some complementary and closely interlinked, addressing identified needs and vulnerabilities across the project locations.

The programme’s overarching goal is to increase the stability and trust in the authorities in Somalia. Resilience is a concept that has been long used in both the psychological and peace-building fields. Originally coined in the field of psychology to refer to the process by which an individual develops the ability to withstand and recover from trauma, threats and challenges, the peace-building field highlights resilience as the ability not only of an individual but also of a community or a country to cope with, adapt to, and recover quickly from

the impact of a disaster, including the effects of climate change, violence or conflict. “Resilience covers all stages of disaster, from prevention (when possible) to adaptation (when necessary) and includes positive transformation that strengthens the ability of current and future generations to meet their needs and withstand crises”.1

Although more popularly used under the climate-adaptation field, resilience has become a more relevant concept for stabilization, as emerging literature identifies climate change affectations as destabilizing factors in already fragile contexts. This is because the effects of climate change can exacerbate human suffering and existing vulnerabilities and further strain very limited capabilities of nascent governments or communities with a weakened social fabric after years of war. Thus, helping vulnerable communities address their most urgent needs is a way to prepare them to withstand external shocks, increasing their resilience and helping them become more stable.

PROSPERIS interventions are organized into four different thematic areas, and each theme has specific types of interventions and activities:

1.       The socioeconomic component covers activities focused on youth empowerment, including New Engagement Through Sports (NETS), employment creation, and livelihood opportunities.

2.       The political component (government visibility/ presence) includes activities focused on rehabilitation/ construction of government/ public infrastructure/ facilities and technical support to relevant political and public institutions.

3.       The environmental component cover activities directed to promote water resource rehabilitation and management and the development of renewable energy infrastructure.

4.       The Cross Cutting component focus on issues including Monitoring and Evaluation, facilitation of strategic communication for government authorities and community engagement.

NIS is planning to contract an external consulting firm with relevant experience and sufficient resources to undertake a mid-term programme evaluation as outlined in this call for proposals.

2.  The mid-term review

2.1. Objectives

The purpose of the mid-term review is to assess the intended and unintended outcomes of the project and determine the level of the project’s contribution to these outcomes so far into the programme.

The specific objectives of the mid-term review are to:

•       Review the performance of the set objectives, against the project’s outcome and impact statements and indicators.

•       Review to what extent the project is

 o   addressing beneficiaries’ priorities,

o   designed and implemented in a conflict- and gender-sensitive manner, and

o   how learning feeds into changes in the project related context and adaptation of the implementation strategies.

•       Review how the project interventions and strategy (i.e. capacity building, multi- stakeholders’ partnership, and others) have transformed available resources to expected outcomes in terms of quantity and quality.

•       Identify good practices and lessons learned related to the project operational contexts, actors engaged, strategies applied in the implementation and changes observed.

•       Review how and to what effect partners were involved in project and budget design and management.

•       Establish what constitutes sustainability in the context of Somalia and analyse the sustained effect of the project activities.

•       Review the project baseline assessment report and its findings, and revise the baseline report where necessary, to ensure the report can provide necessary information for the final evaluation.

•       Provide recommendations to improve the project performance for the remaining duration of the programme.

2.2. Scope

The mid-term review will cover the PROSPERIS implementation period from the beginning of the project on 1st May 2023 to 31st November 2024.

The programme performance is measured against the respective outcome and impact indicators of the PROSPERIS result framework and any cross-cutting core indicators based on the following key components of the project: Community recovery, Rule of Law, Employment and Economic Opportunities and Basic Services.

In terms of the study location, the mid-term review shall cover all PROSPERIS intervention areas in Hirshabelle, Galmudug, Jubaland, Puntland, Sool and Sanag region and Banadir Region.

Experiences and Qualifications

This assignment requires previous experience in conducting mid-term review of multi-faceted government co-led stabilization programmes preferably in the region and/or in Somalia. In addition, the consultant must have experience of working in fragile, conflict-affected contexts. The consultant will be required to devise appropriate strategies to generate as much information as possible within the allocated time frame, considering the ongoing crises and potential challenges to reach certain locations. At minimum, the lead consultant should have the following qualifications:

•       Experience in conducting project mid-term review, evaluation, assessments, research, and baseline reviews on governance and reconciliation related projects in Somalia or the region.

•       In-depth knowledge of the Somalia context, and knowledge of conflict, political, economic and security processes and approaches.

•       Minimum of 10 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation, with particular focus on quality tools development, qualitative and quantitative data analysis and exceptional report writing skills

•       Bachelor’s degree in economic statistics, developmental studies, peace and conflict management, or other relevant field                      

•       Master in economic statistics, M&E, developmental studies, peace and conflict management, or another relevant field.

Skills Required

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