Organization: Oxfam Somalia/land
Project: Australian National Cooperating Partners (ANCP)
Donor Funded: SOMREP
Position type: Contract
Location: Remote & in Somalia/Land
Estimated working days: 35 days
Reporting to: Resilience Technical Team Leader-Oxfam
Starting date (TBC): September 2023
Background
Oxfam is a global movement of people working together to end the injustice of poverty. It has been working in Somalia/Somaliland since the 1970s and plays a key foundational role in supporting Somali people and communities to provide development and lifesaving programs.
It supported civil society organizations and has been called by many current and past partners “the mother of Somali civil society.”
Oxfam’s support of women’s rights, advocacy, and gender equality has been a steady component of the program, and many leading advocates for women’s rights, gender equality, and women’s issues were once partners or trainees of Oxfam. We are an international confederation of 19 organizations (affiliates) working together with partners and local communities in humanitarian, development, and campaigning, in more than 90 countries. All our work lead by three core values: Empowerment, Accountability, and Inclusiveness.
In 2021, Oxfam developed a 10-year strategy with new program directions focusing on just economy and economic development, Inclusive governance, gender justice, Conflict-sensitive humanitarian response, and resilience to climate and fragility.
The Somalia Resilience Programme (SomReP) is a consortium of seven international non-governmental organizations (INGO) and one Local NGO. SomReP works to enhance the resilience of chronically vulnerable households, communities, and systems across Somalia.
The Somalia Resilience Program (SomReP) is an ambitious approach to tackle the challenge of recurrent droughts and chronic vulnerability among pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, and peri-urban households in one of the poorest countries in the world. SomReP is being implemented through a consortium of 7 INGOs (ACF, ADRA, CARE, COOPI, DRC, Oxfam and WVI) and 1 Local NGO(Shaqodoon)
Oxfam would like to engage a qualified and dynamic consultant to conduct a participatory grazing management plan workshop to produce detailed location-specific grazing plans to mitigate the effects of overgrazing and land degradation. This will entail preliminary participatory grasping of land management and landscape mapping using the latest remote sensing technologies. The resource mapping will inform the development of adaptive strategies including but not limited to holistic grassing land management to mitigate conflict and revive rangeland management systems.
Context Analysis
The Somali rangeland management system has been in a declining stage for the past decades due to the compounding effects of climate change and poor land use. Since the collapse of the Somalia central government, the sector hasn’t been functioning due to the impact of both natural disasters and human-induced hazards. Overgrazing, commercialization of charcoal, and encroachment of private land enclosures worsened the situation, leading to severe and progressive land degradation. Recurring droughts linked to climate change amplify the effects of anthropogenic land degradation. In general, Somalia/Somaliland and specifically Somaliland are characterized by arid and semi-arid agro-ecological areas whereby most of the landmass is occupied by pastoralist communities that have adopted a traditional herding system that lacks the basic amenities to sustain a livelihood and combat the increasing effects of drought and other environmental hazards. Other major issues contributing to land degradation include climatic conditions, causing drought and arid conditions, and human factors, leading to the overuse of natural resources. Livestock density and grazing patterns leading to overgrazing are believed to be the major causes of land degradation. The uncontrolled browsing of trees and shrubs is another aspect of overgrazing and a patent cause of deforestation, leading to flooding and siltation in adjacent areas because rains are no longer held back by the sponge effect of the trees and carry with them large loads of eroded soil. Common invasive trees really affecting grasslands and rangelands are Prosopis Juliflora and Parthenium grass, which has a serious effect on community livelihoods and the ecosystem. These invasive plant species cause subsequent land degradation and worsen the livelihood conditions of the Somali pastoralist communities. Leading to the loss of vegetation cover and indigenous grass, which is important for livestock productivity and survival.
Overall goal
The consultant will be assigned to organize participatory grassing land management workshops and resource mapping to assess current grassing and water use patterns in the pastoralist communities in El-Afweyne district, and the key findings of the mapping will inform the development of livestock movement plans and conflict mitigation mechanisms. The mapping will uncover the prevailing impact of natural climate disasters and the actions taken to contribute to land degradation. Hence, the study findings will inform the development of appropriate context-based interventions to mitigate the increasing effects of climate shocks.
The Objectives of the Participatory Grazing land Management Mapping include:
- Conduct resource mapping workshop
- Conduct participatory grazing land management planning in close collaboration with pastoralist communities.
- Map out key actors in the community influencing land use and rangeland management and ensure grazing management plans are in place.
- Assess the compounding effect of man-made actions and natural climate risks leading to environmental degradation.
- Identify the constraints ahead of grazing land management systems in the country.
1. Activity Schedule
- Establishment of the mapping team-2 days
- Agree on a team with the community-2 days
- Produce a range of land resource mapping-9 days
- Present the map to the community for validation-2 days
- Produce a rangeland mapping report-10 days.
- Establish a monitoring system in grazing areas-6 days
2. Deliverables and Milestones
Consultant to implement the activity specifically mentioned below. Oxfam aims to have all deliverables completed by September 20th, 2023. Oxfam will engage the consultant for 35 days to complete the following:
- Prepare an inception report outlining how participatory grazing land management is undertaken. Share tools with Oxfam for input and/or approval
- Design/adapt/refine (as appropriate) the mapping guidelines for participatory rangeland management in pastoral and Argo-pastoral participatory.
- Arrange for the questionnaires to be translated into relevant languages.
- Train and support the data collection team.
- A final consolidated assessment report is to be shared with Oxfam for approval.
Eligibility Requirements
- Advanced University degree (Master Level minimum) in environment and climate change, Natural resource management, Development Studies, Development economics, Socio-economic studies, or another related field. Additional areas of experience could include Gender and poverty reduction; economics, and rangeland management, Degree will be considered with more than 5 years of experience.
- Minimum of 5 years of relevant practical field experience within one or more of the following areas: natural resource management/ rangeland management.
- Demonstrated experience in conducting assessments for planning.
- Should be an expert in using landscape mapping using drones and remote sensing tools.
- Should have cutting-edge technologies to digitalis the resource maps.
- Familiarity with established assessment and analytical tools is desirable (e.g. participatory rangeland management system, Sustainable livelihoods framework, Minimum economic and recovery standards, etc.
- Demonstrated excellent analytical, writing, and reporting skills.
- Familiarity with geographical areas covered by the project/ understanding of issues related to communities in the El-Alwayne Districts.
- Fluency in written and spoken English.
Evaluation Criteria
The Selection of the consultant will be made based on cumulative analysis i.e. mandatory requirements and technical qualifications as follows:
Mandatory requirements
- References including names and contact information from previous clients who can be contacted regarding relevant experience in the translation of documents (At least three)
Technical Evaluation
Applicants need to clearly articulate the following, but not limited to: –
- Technical proposal explaining how the participatory grazing land management mapping will be carried out
- Sample of previous similar work (to be attached separately)
- Detailed CVs of key personnel (including any formal qualifications) should be provided
Financial Evaluation
- A financial proposal with a detailed breakdown of costs quoted in USD. The applicable tax amount must be clearly stipulated and separated from the base costs
- Payment Terms and credit Period
A financial proposal should not be part of the technical proposal; it should be a separate document.
How to apply
Submission of Proposals:
Proposals should be submitted in three distinct/separate attachments, namely Mandatory Requirements, Technical Proposal, and Financial Proposal (Bidders who will combine both technical and financial proposals shall be disqualified)
All applicants should submit C.V., work sample, and availability via email clearly marked as ‘Consultant for participatory grazing land management plans to to [email protected] by 23th September 2023. applications received after the deadline shall not be considered.
