Terms of Reference Household Economy Analysis (HEA) and Baseline Assessment for Building Resilience through Innovative Models of Livelihoods and Market Interventions in Iraq Organization Oxfam GB Country KRI, Iraq Project Innovative Models of Livelihood Interventions in Diyala and KRI Position type Consultancy Study/assessment topic Household Economic Assessment (HEA) Study Sites Diyala and Kirkuk Governorate Duration 50 days, including Staff Training, Data Collection and Report Delivery Reporting to EFSVL & Cash Coordinator Working with EFSVL & Cash Coordinator Application deadline 20 Jan 2018 Start Date 10 February 2018 1. INTRODUCTION: Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organizations working together with partners and local communities in more than 90 countries. Oxfam GB has presence in Iraq since 2014 in response to ISIS conflict. had a presence in Iraq. Oxfam has been working in Iraq for the last three years in Northern Iraq with a political participation project for gender equality and a legal empowerment/protection project. Oxfam works with partner organizations and alongside vulnerable women and men to end the injustices that cause poverty. We save lives and help rebuild livelihoods when crisis strikes. And we campaign so that the voices of the poor influence the local and global decisions that affect them. In humanitarian work, Oxfam specializes in water, sanitation and hygiene, emergency food security, livelihoods and protection. 1- BACKGROUND: Oxfam s programme was established in 2014 in response to the ISIS conflict in Iraq. Oxfam has been implementing activities during the past few years around the delivery of 3 main areas: A) Lifesaving humanitarian assistance b) Recovery assistance, and C) Promotion of Women Rights. A. Lifesaving humanitarian assistance: to newly displaced populations residing in camps or host communities. The bulk of this work was done around the various governorates of Iraq including Kalar, Kirkuk, Ninewa, and Erbil. Activities included: Multi-purpose cash assistance, food vouchers, Establishment/rehabilitation of safe water (boreholes, repair of infrastructure); Emergency water supply (distribution of water through trucking and bottled water); Setting up water tanks and networks in camps; Distribution of hygiene items; construction of latrines; Cash for Work opportunities inside the camps to allow construction work and solid waste management; and Distribution of emergency winterisation kits. B. Recovery assistance: to returnees, local host communities and IDPs to recover from the post-
conflict and to cope with protracted displacement. The main activities implemented under this area of work included: Rehabilitation of water infrastructure; Supporting local authorities to rehabilitate essential public services (schools and hospitals); Grants to returnees to recover damaged businesses; Provision of livestock to support farmers; Cash for Work opportunities contributing to income for vulnerable families and supporting rehabilitation of infrastructure of public interest (irrigation canals, main roads). C. Promotion of Women Rights: through contributing to the implementation of the National Plan for 1325 UN Resolution, and economic empowerment of women through provision of training and grants to establish/rehabilitate businesses. 2. PROGRAM OVERVIEW: Through financial support from UNDP and BMZ and other donors, Oxfam has thus far implemented four successful livelihoods projects which included Cash for Work (CfW), support to small business and income generation activities in newly reclaimed areas in Northern Diyala. Through these projects, Oxfam has been able to support vulnerable communities including IDPs, remainees/host communities and returnees through the distribution of unconditional cash, small business grants, mobile income generation projects and cash for work. These interventions have helped build the resilience of target communities as they rebuild their homes, recover livelihoods, restore public infrastructure and restart local economies. A fourth currently on-going project is piloting the setting up of savings groups and studying social cohesion dynamics as a result in three districts of KRI. The programs on livelihoods and economic recovery are built upon interventions, like, 1) Expanding financial and technical support for recovery and scale-up of micro-small businesses. 2) Providing businesses development services and growing market linkages. 3) Creating employment opportunities for displaced, returnees and host population through CfW, community contracting schemes. 4) Mapping and establishing links of current suppliers, wholesalers, service providers, government stakeholders, local chamber of commerce, financial institutions etc. 5) Identifying the barriers to marketing, which could, for instance, be related to limited access to information, limited knowledge of laws, lack of finances, presence of cartels etc. 6) Bridging the gap by bringing together these various groups. This will also include providing individual advisory services, assisting financial institutions in marketing the financial services they have available, addressing the barriers to entry to create a more conducive business environment. 7) Providing support to agriculture sector by providing farmers with agriculture inputs, trainings, establishing green-houses etc. 8) Diversifying the livelihood options for the poor households through investing in small scale businesses related to livestock, entrepreneurship, and other innovative approaches. 3. PROGRAM STRATEGY: In the next three years, Oxfam will implement programs and advocate so that all Iraqis along the displacement journey have equitable access to social protection schemes such as the Public
Distribution System. We will work at strengthening resilience of women and men by enabling their access to skills and assets in times of crisis, displacement and return journey to meet critical household needs and grow in their resilience capacities. We will collaborate with market actors and use new information and communication technologies to deliver our responses and programmes for more efficient, integrated and pro-active humanitarian interventions. i. Immediate and improved access to emergency food for new IDPs and new returnees. ii. Support people in protracted displacement and returnees toward economic recovery and resilience. iii. Build social cohesion through activities that offers greater opportunity for building diverse groups together. iv. Work with private sector to accelerate the process of livelihood and economic recovery. v. Provide immediate access to jobs through cash for work. vi. Promote a culture of entrepreneurship for livelihoods reestablishments, business development and resilience building. vii. Livelihoods related advocacy activities to support communities to access social safety nets. viii. Women s economic empowerment. 4. PROJECT LOCATIONS HEA 5. STUDY GOAL
The overall goal of the study is to allow Oxfam to get an deeper understanding of the socio-economic position of the conflict affected population and explore the economic opportunities that can build resilient and economically empowered communities in medium to long term. 6. OBJECTIVE & SCOPE OF THE ASSESSMENT Oxfam aims to work with a team of professional and reputable consultancy institute with strong expertise on conducting household level economy analysis. The ultimate objective of the assessment is to inform existing programs refinement and future designing of most relevant economic options available to the conflict affected population. The study will cover the different population segment including IDPs with protracted displacement, returnees, and host communities. The specific objectives of the study include, i- Conduct livelihood zoning and produce livelihood zone maps of the people in different geographical locations with focus on the conflict affected population. ii- Clear segregation of the population into different livelihood zones and wealth groups with robust evidence of their economic status. iii- Analysis of the five assets bases (i.e. financial, social, physical, natural and human) livelihood strategies and opportunities that are available to the population and a comparison of now with pre-crisis time. iv- To undertake an outcome analysis which explores the impact of the future crisis on the livelihood strategies of the people in target communities. v- To conduct a detailed analysis of principle market systems, value chain in each selected assessment site which can be seen as most prominent contributor to household economic growth. vi- Undertake a comprehensive baseline assessment in the project areas which will serve as a benchmark against which impacts results will be measured. vii- To provide recommendations to strengthen and diversify livelihood strategies based on evidences and robust analysis. viii- Identify and recommend realistic, safe and sustainable livelihood opportunities. ix- Identify and recommend key value chains markets for further exploration and strengthening. x- Identify key markets which are secure and profitable for the conflicted people to engage in. 6.1. HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY ANALYSIS: HEA will enable Oxfam to assess how the households and community s livelihoods are impacted or will be impacted by multiple cycle of displacement or other economic change. The results of the study will not only contribute to Oxfam program but also be helpful for the border humanitarian community and government development institutes. The results will help Oxfam to refine, re-design and plan interventions that will improve household economic situation. This will be done through the analysis of, - How household in different social and economic settings gets the food and cash they need. - Community and households assets, available opportunities hidden or open to them and blockages to exploit those opportunities.
- Other options or opportunities born after crisis through analysing through studying linkages of different livelihood groups and zones. This will provide a description of how community assets are shared or allocated within the community and who gets what from whom. The results will also be used in designing new interventions with potential viable options, poverty analysis and reduction and set a base for long term development. In this study, two major components of the HEA framework will be used. I. BASELINE Livelihood Zoning Wealth breakdown Analysis of livelihood strategies II. OUTCOME ANALYSIS Problem Specification Analysis of Coping capacity Projected Outcomes 7. INTENDED APPLICATIONS OF HEA RESULTS: It is expected that the results of the HEA study will be applied in the following ways. i. Measurement of household livelihoods resilience score that allow to measure resilience across different socio-economic groups and geographical areas and to set indicators to evaluate the impact of different completed projects on household resilience. ii. Analysing of the effects of the conflict on livelihoods and economic status of the households. iii. Integrate information about markets into household economic analysis, including estimating effective demands in rural and urban areas of key marketable products and services, and importance of these key markets for poor households. iv. Differences between urban and rural economics and types of livelihoods most viable to population in each setting. v. Relevance of existing livelihood and economic recovery interventions in the targeted geographical areas. vi. Set a base for the upcoming programs to measure the impact of the intervention. vii. Refinement or re-designing of the interventions to align with the ground truths. viii. Recommendations on designing of programs most relevant to the local population with optimal gain in economic recovery and livelihood promotion process. 8. METHODOLOGY: To provide a comprehensive analysis, the consultant is expected to adopt the balance of quantitative and qualitative methods which includes but not limited to the below.
- Desk Review - Qualitative data collection - Quantitative data collection - Observations The details of the survey design, sampling plan, data collection and analysis and presentation of the survey findings will be described in detail in proposal submitted by the consultant. 9. DELIVERABLES I. Key Oxfam staff are trained on modules of HEA methodology. The training modules include, 1) Baseline field work training, 2) Baseline analysis training, 3) Seasonal assessment training, 4) Outcome analysis training, 5) Livelihood integrated analysis spreadsheet training. II. Inception report includes: training plan, assessment work plan, detailed methodology, analysis plan, report outlines of the final products, survey tools, process of data collection, analysis and final set of data collection tools. III. Inception workshop with key Oxfam management staff and presentation of the whole workplan. IV. Complete set of data in raw and analysed form with clear recommendations and livelihood options for the affected population. V. Final report as final product of the study. 10. CONSULTANCY PERIOD The consultancy period will be for a period of total 40 days. Applicants need to clearly breakdown this time-period of 40 days into specific activities in technical proposal. The specific activities under this study includes, but not limited to, desk review, planning, in country training, data collection, analysis and report writing. 11. CONSULTANT PROFILE A reputed organization with proven experience in conducting HEA studies. Some of the key requirements are, 1- At least 10 years of experience in undertaking HEA with specific reference to utilization of Household Economy Analytical Framework in undertaking community profiling in conflict affected context. 2- At-least 3 HEA studies carried out in a range of different locations. 3- Desirable to have experience of working in Middle-East, including Iraq. 4- Demonstrated experience of working both in urban and rural settings with strong work exposure on IDPs, refugees, returnees, and host communities. 5- Proven experience of working in conflict settings.
6- Experience of coordinating with diverse set of stakeholders, including government institutes, donor s representatives, local and international NGOs. 12. INTELLECTUAL PROPERY RIGHTS All documentation related to the assignment shall remain the sole property of the Oxfam. 13. APPLICATION PROCESS: The application process should include the following document, - Application letter, covering previous experience and how it is relevant to the proposed assignment. - Technical proposal - Detailed comprehensive budget covering specific cost related to assessment, i.e. consultancy fee and other associated cost. Oxfam will cover the rest of the costs for the consultants i.e. international and domestic transportation, per-diem, in-country accommodation, communication and visa fees.