TERMS OF REFERENCE
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| OVERVIEW
| | --- | | Title and brief description of the requirement | Survey and data collection on humanitarian funding cuts in Somalia. Collect, verify and analyse evidence on funding changes, service delivery and consequences for affected communities. | | Delivery location | Selected accessible programme locations in Somalia, chosen through the three case studies. Somaliland is included only if directly relevant, feasible and agreed with country and regional colleagues; no separate coverage requirement. Locally supported or remote methods are preferred. | | Contract start date | 20 November 2026. Duration: two weeks / 10 lead consultant working days (Tentative). | | How to apply | Technical proposal and day-by-day workplan; separate itemised financial proposal; relevant CVs; one comparable research sample; two referees. See section 6 Application Process. | | Deadline for submission of offers | November 18, 2026 – 11:59 PM EAST AFRICA TIME | | Specific considerations | Planning targets: 10–15 organisational returns, three programme cases and 9–12 adult service-user interviews. Final handover on day 10. Consent, safety, verification and confidentiality are mandatory. |
Oxfam is hiring a consultant to conduct a focused survey and data collection assignment on the effects of US and wider donor funding cuts in Somalia. The consultant will collect and verify information from humanitarian organisations, service providers and affected adults to document changes in funding, programme operations, access to services and household experiences. The analysis must examine unequal impacts and distinguish funding-related effects from drought, flooding, conflict, displacement and changing prices.
The evidence will inform Oxfam’s humanitarian analysis, advocacy and engagement with donors, humanitarian agencies and Somali civil society. Findings must be independent, reflect contrary evidence and clearly explain uncertainty. Oxfam retains responsibility for advocacy strategy, institutional positions and final policy recommendations.
The research covers changes since the beginning of 2025, using comparable pre-cut records where available and an agreed data cut-off date. Applicants must cost the focused two-week scope. Oxfam will confirm budget, staffing and achievable coverage before contracting. Any adjustment must preserve consent, safety, verification and transparent reporting of limitations.
Oxfam seeks a consultant to collect, verify and analyse targeted evidence on US and wider donor funding cuts in Somalia within two weeks. The consultant will conduct an organisational survey, document three programme case studies and interview adult service users. The consultant will deliver to Oxfam a validated evidence package and a concise methods and findings note documenting funding changes, operational consequences and affected people’s experiences.
The consultant will conduct descriptive analysis of funding changes, service delivery and community experiences. Compilation of the public record of US funding decisions, donor fair-share modelling, final policy recommendations, publication and media production are outside this assignment. A large household survey, new mortality or clinical assessments, direct engagement with armed groups and extensive travel are excluded. The accepted evidence package is due on working day 10.
Specific tasks related to this scope of work are outlined as:
Measure and document changes in funding, services and organisational reach using consistent definitions and comparable time periods.
Document consequences of verified funding and service changes for affected people, including unequal effects and access barriers. Distinguish reported experiences from verified events and researcher inference.
Review available mortality, morbidity and surveillance evidence to assess whether it supports an association between service reductions and adverse health outcomes. Explain alternative causes and data limitations. Do not generate new mortality estimates, estimate deaths attributable to funding cuts or claim causation unless an appropriate study supports that conclusion.
Capture the experiences and priorities of affected people, Somali organisations and service providers, including women-led and women’s rights organisations.
Validate important findings against original records and independent sources, explaining uncertainty and gaps so Oxfam can use the evidence responsibly.
During days 1–2, the consultant and Oxfam will agree a short question-to-evidence matrix linking each collection activity to the assignment’s research questions. Record the indicator, source, reference period, verification test and proposed use. Identify the information available, the evidence requiring verification, the targeted data to collect and any questions that cannot be resolved within this assignment. Prioritise verification and three linked programme cases over breadth of survey coverage.
Funding and operational changes. Amounts and dates of suspensions, reductions, terminations and partial restorations; donor and funding channel; sector and location; programme budgets, staffing, partners and operational presence before and after the change. Separate US changes from UK, German and other donor changes. Check whether announced restorations reached programmes in Somalia. The public record of US government decisions (decision-maker, official notice, effective date, stated reasons and waivers) is compiled by the commissioning team and is outside the scope of this consultancy; the consultant should link each country-level change to the decision reference that Oxfam supplies.
Services and humanitarian reach. Prioritise food or cash assistance, nutrition or health, and WASH through three programme cases. Use available records for other sectors only where needed to answer a priority research question. Record closures, reductions, interruptions or reopening, dates, capacity and comparable reach. For transfers, record value or food quantity, frequency, eligibility and duration. Use available FSNAU or WFP market data to assess purchasing power and distinguish price pressures from funding effects.
Effects on communities. Changes in access, travel time, costs, unmet needs, assistance received, livelihoods, coping and displacement. Record participants’ explanations of change, separating direct experience from hearsay and perceived causes from verified events.
Gender and unequal impacts. Effects on maternal and reproductive healthcare, unpaid care, women’s livelihoods and leadership, men and household dynamics. Include experiences of displaced people, persons with disabilities, older people and marginalised groups. Examine safe access to protection services without eliciting accounts of violence.
Local leadership and financing. Funding reaching Somali organisations, including women-led and women’s rights organisations; direct versus intermediary funding; flexibility, predictability, overheads, decision-making and transferred compliance or security risks. Document shifts in decision-making power and community agency over how funds are used and priorities set.
Priorities and financing options. Record immediate service priorities, restoration constraints and financing needs through the programme interviews conducted under this assignment. Alternative financing, diaspora support, debt relief and wider public financing are desk-based context only where relevant to the agreed research questions. No separate financing-actor interviews, modelling or new primary research on these topics are required.
Early warning and preparedness. Use dated IPC/FSNAU, FAO SWALIM and ICPAC evidence to distinguish observed conditions from forecasts. In the selected cases, check whether cuts affected preparedness, using available warning dates, requests, triggers and disbursement records. Any 2011 or 2017 comparison is limited to available literature and must reflect differences in context. No separate historical study is required. State access limitations.
Verify reported health and nutrition facility closures against dated source lists. Distinguish actual closures from facilities at risk. Seek the original list and reporting date, reconcile duplicate names and facility identifiers, define “closure”, distinguish partial service loss from full closure, and check subsequent reopening. Report what can be verified and the limits of coverage; do not extrapolate a selected-site check to all facilities. Do not reuse headline figures from earlier reports until the original source has been checked.
Use authoritative assessments for malnutrition, food insecurity, famine risk and wider trends, with dates, geographic coverage and definitions. Distinguish IPC food insecurity, acute malnutrition and intersectoral severity scales, and the full response plan from its prioritised package. Do not infer nutritional status from appearance or generate clinical prevalence estimates or famine classifications. Review available financing, debt-relief and historical-response material only where directly relevant; no separate primary research on these topics is required.
Quotations and applications must reach Oxfam no later than November 18, 2026 – 11:59 PM EAST AFRICA TIME.
Responses must be submitted in English by email to SOM-Consultancies@oxfam.org
The subject of the mail should be: Survey and Data Collection Somalia – Proposal Submission – followed by the name of the bidder.
Any questions, remarks or requests for clarification can be sent up to 5 days before the submission deadline in writing. The (anonymised) questions will be answered to all applicants.
To be shortlisted for evaluation against award criteria, the following documents must be submitted with this application:
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