ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE
The Catholic Diocese of Lodwar (DoL) is a faith based organization in Turkana that has an established network of parishes all over Turkana County and first began its humanitarian work in this region over 50 years ago. The DoL has played a critical role in filling gaps in state service provision by bringing humanitarian interventions to vulnerable groups. The DoL is a strong partner of the government and in addition to livelihoods; its interventions span the sectors of water, health and education as well as justice and peace, the empowerment of women and human rights.
Trócaire, an Irish NGO with an office in Nairobi since 1994, has worked in partnership with the DoL for over 15 years and have together implemented a number of humanitarian, emergency and recovery programmes, as well as justice and peace initiatives, in Turkana. In Kenya, Trócaire has supported a wide range of partners implementing programmes in livelihood security, disaster risk reduction, humanitarian response, human rights, policy research and advocacy, gender equality and HIV and AIDS. Work has focused on different levels from grassroots service delivery to policy engagement and advocacy.
The DoL has vast experience in working with communities, holds a position of considerable authority at the grass roots level and is well respected by the local administration while Trócaire promotes a development agenda, provides technical assistance to supplement local capacity and draws on its global engagement issues such as climate change and humanitarian good practice to strengthen programming.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Resilience Project (ARP) is a DFID funded project managed by Trócaire Kenya and implemented through the Catholic Diocese of Lodwar in Loima district, Turkana County.
The ARP project is implemented by the Diocese of Lodwar in five locations of the Loima District, namely: Kalemunyang, Lokiriama, Lorengippi, Namoruputh and Turkwell. The project is working towards strengthening the resilience of pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities in Kenya to cope with, and respond to, climate change and to recover from crisis while protecting their livelihoods and assets. This project is part of the larger Trócaire’s ASALs Resilience Programme (ARP) that has a 5 year development plan aimed at improving livelihood security and resilience to droughts in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands of Kenya. This project is therefore, a three year partnership with DFID in Turkana County starting from April 2013 to March 2016.
The project has four main objectives:
Objective 1: Increase income and improve food security for 2,109 vulnerable households in Turkwel riverine agro-pastoral zone and also Border pastoral livelihood zone
Objective 2: Increase livelihoods diversification among 5 kraals (75 households) and 500 vulnerable agro-pastoral households in Turkwell riverine agro-pastoral zone & Border pastoral livelihood zone
Objective 3:Greater capacity in Turkwell, Kalemunyang, Namoruputh, Lorengippi and Lokiriama communities in disaster mitigation, preparedness and response.
Objective 4:Improve collective use of contested land areas and greater government accountability in the use of public funds and linkage with the county government in Turkwell, Kalemunyang, Namoruputh, Lorengippi and Lokiriama communities.
INTRODUCTION TO THE ASSIGNMENT
Turkana as a county has been highly dependent on pastoralism, which is the dominant livelihood strategy and socio-economic backbone of the county. The county is characterized by recurrent droughts, low fertility soils, historical marginalization, low population density but high population growth, poor quality and limited/or no access to basic services, poor infrastructure and food shortages resulting in high food prices. One key consequence of the interaction of these factors is dependency on relief and weakened capacity of households and communities to sustain themselves.
The agro- pastoralist communities of Turkana depend on natural assets for their livelihoods, sustainable crop production is, therefore, key to enabling them to sustainably intensify food production to ensure food security for growing population and reduce poverty. The current challenges in Turkana call for crops/fruit trees that:
· Provide more productivity;
· Have higher resilience to pests and diseases; and
· Tolerant to drought, and high temperatures.
In recognition of this, the Diocese of Lodwar has in the past, facilitated the purchase and distribution of seeds for crop production and fruit trees.
In 2011- 2012, the Irish Aid Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Fund funded a recovery programme in Turkana. This intervention was managed by Trócaire and implemented by the Diocese of Lodwar Livelihoods Programme. As part of the recovery programme, the Diocese of Lodwar purchased an assortment of drought resistant seeds which were distributed to targeted beneficiaries in North Kusi and Turkwel. Under the same funding, approximately 3,000 fruit trees were procured and distributed to targeted households in Turkana central- Kangatosa, Kerio, Kodopa, Kangalita, Kono and along the Turkwell river, in Turkana west- Lokipoto and in Turkwell with each targeted household receiving about two fruit trees each.
This evaluation assignment will attempt to engage the recovery programme beneficiaries and households in order to investigate and assess their experiences/challenges as well as the levels of effectiveness and productivity derived from planting of these distributed seeds and fruit trees.
PURPOSE OF THE EVALUATION ASSIGNMENT
The overall objective of the evaluation assignment is to evaluate the resilience and productivity of previously purchased and distributed drought resistant seeds and fruit trees. This assessment will in turn inform project planned activities under the DFID ARP project as well as ensure maximisation of output results.
The specific objectives of the evaluation assignments include;
- To determine specific adaptive abilities/resilience levels of the distributed drought resistant seeds
- To compare the performances/productivity of different types of distributed drought resistant seeds
- To assess the adaptability and performance of distributed fruit trees
The evaluation should include the identification of any relevant and current findings and recommendations derived from studies carried out by other organisations working in the ASALs, all of which should be accurately referenced.
DELIVERABLES
The required outputs of this consultancy will be as follows:
- An inception report (maximum three pages) outlining the approach/ methodology and execution programme/ timetable. This report shall be submitted for review and approval by Diocese of Lodwar three (3) days after signing of the contract, but before commencement of the work.
- Data collection tools which shall be submitted within two days after acceptance of the methodology for review and approval by Diocese of Lodwar.
- A draft summary of findings and recommendations shall be compiled and presented to the Diocese of Lodwar within five days after completion of the field work.
- The final report, which comprehensively addresses the six objectives shall be submitted within five days after completion of the study and shall incorporate feedback from Diocese of Lodwar and stakeholders.
REQUIREMENTS
The Consultancy team must be multidisciplinary as the analysis is an opportunity to improve the direction of our current intervention. At the minimum, the consultant(s) must possess the following:
i. At least a Masters Degree in Crop husbandry or Agriculture and/or other closely related disciplines
ii. Demonstrate a good understanding of the Arid and Semi Arid Areas (ASALs) with 5 years practical working experience or research/surveys in such environments.
iii. Be Conversant with the Agricultural sector in the region.
iv. Practical application of cross cutting themes like gender mainstreaming, and gender competence, M&E, Advocacy.
v. Good spoken and written communication skills in English and Swahili. Turkana (Ng’aturkana) language is an added advantage.
vi. Proven experience of using participatory tools and methodology.
vii. Excellent analytical and report writing skills.
TIMEFRAME
Time Frame for the consultancy is 28 days.
The whole evaluation process will take approximately 28 days to be completed, this will include:
Interaction with Diocese of Lodwar Project Management team, field teams, beneficiaries, key stakeholders and report writing. The expected start date of the work is 14th April 2014and the final research report will be produced by 14th May 2014.
How to apply:
Interested candidates are invited to submit an application letter, including a brief outline of a proposed research methodology, and an updated CV including names and contact details of 3 referees toflorencewanjohi@dioceseoflodwar.com and asalresilienceproject@dioceseoflodwar.comby 7th April 2014.
