TERMS OF REFERENCE
Assessment of Implementation of the SNC “Guidelines for Risk Management & Accountability for NGOs operating in Somalia/Somaliland” (October 2014)
BACKGROUND:
NGO Consortium members have provided humanitarian and development assistance to communities in all regions of Somalia and Somaliland for decades. The operating environment in Somalia is highly challenging and complex, due to continuing conflict, lack of, weak or contested governance, high levels of criminality, and restricted humanitarian access to populations in need. For a long time, NGOs have encountered both security and operational challenges to their engagement in Somalia and yet have maintained their role of addressing the persistent needs of the communities they work with. In many areas, International NGOs have and continue to deliver assistance through their national partners or have resorted to remote management or third party monitoring of interventions.
NGO interventions have however been met with evidence of fraud, aid diversion and insufficient levels of accountability. This has put in question the levels of accountability that NGOs have to the vulnerable communities that they target in interventions and to their donors in terms of application of effective and efficient risk mitigation mechanisms. With the incremental improvements in access in parts of South Central Somalia over the last year as well as relative improvements in structures and systems for NGO engagement, focus on effective and accountable aid delivery in Somalia is increasing further. Many NGOs have invested significant resources including capacity into strengthening their internal risk management and accountability practices. This has not always been effectively communicated externally. Nor have many NGOs shared information with one another in an effort to approach the issue collectively.
In June 2014 the SNC commissioned a study on NGO approaches to risk management and accountability best practice in Somalia. As a result, members of the Consortium developed and endorsed the “Guidelines (Code of Conduct) for RMA practises for NGOs operating in Somalia / Somaliland”. They also committed to undertaking an assessment of the implementation of the risk management guidelines, with an objective to build momentum towards strengthening risk management approaches and fully implementing and striving towards best practice.
Definition of ‘risk’:
Programme implementation / project activities by necessity take place in ‘high-risk’ contexts; Somalia is a particularly acute example as it is affected by protracted armed conflict, recurring natural disasters and poor local governance. Risk can be understood as the possibility of ‘future harm’.Risk is broader than the possibility of aid being diverted before it reaches the designated beneficiaries, though this is evidently a central concern in South and Central Somalia. Risk is commonly categorised into three inter-connected types:
- Contextual:factors which are external and often outside of humanitarians’ control;
- Programmatic:the risk of not meeting programme objectives, not meeting needs and potentially doing harm;
- Organisational:consequences for the security and safety of staff and for organisations’ reputations.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
Objective:
The objective of this assessment is to map out and conduct an evidence based analysis of current NGO implementation of the aforementioned “Guidelines” at all levels of program implementation in Somalia. The goal of this initiative is to identify the effectiveness of the risk systems put in place by agencies and to build momentum to strengthen risk management approaches. This will allow Consortium members to not only promote accountability and transparency but also report on steps taken towards mitigating risk. Ultimately the aim is to improve the quality and effectiveness of risk management practice by agencies through increased accountability.
The commissioned assessment will assess evidence for:
1) implementation of the guidelines,
It will provide recommendations on:
2) good practices identified and / or instituted following lessons learnt through positive and negative implementation of practical risk mitigation;
3) a review and possible revision of the risk management guidelines.
The scope of the assessment will extend to agencies’ risk assessment steps / procedures, tools used and structures put in place to guide risk mitigation before programme interventions, as well as checks during programming and actions taken (if any) to manage incidents.
The overall assignment will be consultative and will make use of a mixture of qualitative methods of data collection, including semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and workshops.
Activities to be carried out:
1) Preparatory work and desk review - 2 days
- Initial desk review of process and documents leading up to the formulation and endorsement of the “Guidelines on risk mitigation for NGOs working in Somalia/Somaliland” and “Code of conduct and risk management”.
- Outline of planned report format, based on challenges and best practices as experienced by the agencies.
- Review of assessment methodology.
- Review of external approaches to risk mitigation monitoring.
2) Interviews and study of internal agency documents - 10 days
- Interviews with signed up NGOs to identify specific examples where the “implementation of the risk guidelines” are being met (a core target group of the 27 NGOs that have endorsed the guidelines) and tools used
- Interview with CHF to see how this aligns with the CHF specific RMA approaches
3) Report / Tool consolidation and write up - 3 days.
4) Develop/design and implement training on RMA structures and revision of Consortium risk management guidelines – 5 days.
Deliverables / Output:
- A report on risk mitigation good practices as experienced by agencies operating in Somalia (what is viable -v- what is not). This report will detail progress against each of the 6 Code of Conduct areas without detailing individual agencies’ responses. Gaps will be identified and recommendations of where agencies should focus their efforts
- Revised draft risk management guidelines.
- Capacity Assessment Guide / Tool that can be used as a point of reference and check list by agencies operating in Somalia.
- Proposed benchmarks on implementation of the guidelines (where agencies are now and where they would ideally like to be in the future)
- Training plan on implementation and use of the capacity assessment guide / tool and at least one training executed with key stakeholders (SNC will support organisation of the event).
REQUIREMENTS
- Good understanding of Somalia (including power dynamics) and the operating conditions for NGOs providing assistance in Somalia
- Familiarity with Somalia NGO Consortium
- Proven experience undertaking strategic evaluations
- Good written and spoken English. Knowledge of Somali would be of added benefit.
How to apply:
Please send to the Consortium director: director@somaliangoconsortium.org and in copyinfo@somaliangoconsortum.org by COB 4th November 2014
- Cover letter on personal interest in evaluation and understanding of the Consortium
- Methodology and timetable for undertaking consultancy
- Resume
- Strategy paper/evaluation completed
- 1 reference
