Research Consultant, Yemen Communities Stronger Together (YCST)

Overview

1. Background
Global Communities is an international non-profit organization that works closely with communities worldwide to bring about sustainable changes that improve the lives and livelihoods of the vulnerable. The mission of Global Communities is to create long-lasting, positive and community-led change that improves the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable people across the globe. Global Communities has operations in countries in Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe.

Global Communities has been working in Yemen since 2004 helping to empower young people and improve the educational system, as well as build the capacity of media and civil society to address and engage the public around social issues related to the rights of women and children. Global Communities has two active humanitarian assistance and early recovery programs in North and South of Yemen. Global Communities is launching the second-year implementation of Yemen Communities Stronger Together (YCST).

2. Program Overview
Yemen Communities Stronger Together (YCST) is a three-year program funded by USAID and implemented by Global Communities in four governorates in Yemen, together with Yemeni partners Field Medical Foundation (FMF) and specialized international partners, Build Up and Partners for Good (PfG). The purpose of YCST is to support local-level initiatives that mitigate conflict, strengthen social cohesion, promote the peaceful resolution of differences, and, where feasible, capitalize on stabilization opportunities in Yemen. To this end, YCST pursues four objectives:

Objective 1: Engage communities in an inclusive approach to identify and implement service delivery and conflict mitigation projects. YCST will use Global Communities’ Participatory Action for Community Enhancement (PACE) to build the capacity of community members and local leaders to develop a vision for their community and to collaboratively identify and address issues through conflict mitigation and service delivery projects in targeted communities across at targeted governorates across Yemen to be selected in coordination with USAID. Projects selected by communities will address drivers and impact of the conflict, while participation in the process will build social capital and skills within the community.

Expected Outcome 1.1: Community cohesion and resilience strengthened

Expected Outcome 1.2: The drivers of an impact of violent conflict is reduced

Objective 2: Build the capacity of formal and informal local leaders, organizations, and networks to serve as neutral arbitrators and peace builders that can meet community and constituent needs. Within the 36 communities, YCST will strengthen local mechanisms, and the skills of those who participate in them, to identify and address unresolved grievances that can spark violent conflict within their communities and at the district level. YCST will manage a Peacebuilding Grants Fund, that will include a Women, Peace and Security and Innovation Sub-Funds to support CSOs’ abilities to implement technical projects that address priorities such as increasing women’s participation in peacebuilding, and forming youth networks to support positive engagement in civic life.

Expected Outcome 2.1: Mechanisms that allow citizens to identify and address grievances strengthened

Expected Outcome 2.2: CSOs strengthened to promote social cohesion, participation of women and youth, and reconciliation

Objective 3: Pilot stabilization approaches to support local legitimate authorities to rapidly and effectively respond to citizen priorities that, if addressed, will contribute to a reduction in or the risk of localized violent conflict. Stabilization activities will only be implemented in ROYG controlled areas Yemen, with YCST piloting projects in four districts in Abyan and Taiz governorates in Year 1, and expanding to at least another six districts based on needs on the ground. Activities will include assisting local authorities to understand the priorities of their constituents, facilitate authorities’ plans for a response to those priorities to demonstrate tangible results and responsible governance, and provide capacity building of local authorities to sustain investments, build communications with constituents and demonstrate the transparency and accountability necessary to build credibility. Additionally, community-level activities will also reduce conflict and improve social cohesion.

Expected Outcome 3.1: Stabilization initiatives of local legitimate authorities are strengthened

Objective 4: Carry out regular and action-oriented learning and contextual analysis across YCST interventions to support adaptive management and enhanced outcomes. Action learning will be integrated across YCST and examine pilot approaches under objectives 1 through 3. YCST will incorporate mapping, piloting, scenario planning and ongoing feedback loops to test, adapt and scale up evidence-based programming that ensures do-no-harm, responds to a rapidly changing environment, and will result in achieving targeted outcomes. YCST will also provide knowledge and data to USAID on local-level political economy dynamics.

Expected Outcome 4.1: Regular and actionable gender, conflict and stabilization analysis and mapping effectively conducted and utilized

Expected Outcome 4.2: Interventions adapted to respond to learning and contextual changes

3. Baseline Rationale and Purpose
This Baseline Assessment comes as part of the initial activities of the second-year implementation plan for the YCST. The assessment will be carried out to provide critical reference points–based on the indicators of the program–for assessing performance in relation to the change, effectiveness, and impact of the interventions of the YCST. It will also provide a snapshot of the problem-driven political economic assessment (PEA) and conditions of the targeted communities to establish a reference point for tracking context shifts as well as measuring the contribution of YCST interventions to the improvement of the wider context. Specifically, the baseline assessment aims at achieving the following objectives:

• To obtain reliable data on the Global Communities’ Social Capital Index[1] (SCI) in YCST targeted communities;
• To obtain reliable data on perceptions related to current levels of community security in targeted communities;
• To obtain reliable data on community stressors, drivers of conflict, and internal and external actors that influence conflict and peace dynamics in targeted communities;
• To obtain reliable data on local governance and existing informal and formal resources to deal with conflict/insecurity and the drivers of this conflict in targeted communities;
• To obtain reliable data on the formal and informal resources including local implementing partners, CSOs, associations and social movements: e.g. CBOs, Trade Unions; Parent-Teachers Associations; and Religious Organizations, and multiplier potentials existing in targeted communities to deal with conflict and insecurity;
• To obtain reliable data on the priorities of targeted communities in relation to development and service improvements;
• To obtain reliable data on the channels preferred by targeted communities to engage with and share feedback with Global communities;
• To obtain stakeholder information on the project related objectives on the following items:The main actors influencing sectoral policies
  • The main incentives that seem to motivate competing actors
  • Ways for the project to help change the dominant incentives

Moreover, the findings of the baseline will be shared with all stakeholders, including the donor and line ministries, for purposes of planning, tracking progress and outcomes of the YCST. The findings will also be used to tailor the interventions to the needs of targeted communities as well as for target setting and revisions.

4. Baseline Scope and Methods
The baseline will be conducted in 14 communities in the targeted governorates, namely Abyan, Aden, and Lahj. The baseline will use mixed-method and includes both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative method of data collection will include household survey in targeted communities. The qualitative method will comprise of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with key informants to give data contextualized and nuanced understanding of community dynamics, community-level experiences and variations in perceptions and needs across community segments.

The baseline will be carried out in two phases. The first phase will involve an extensive inception period, in which the Research Consultant (the Consultant) collects secondary information, reviews the technical narrative of the YCST, conducts remote interviews with key YCST staff and reviews baseline documents of Year 1. Consequently, the consultancy firm will prepare detailed inception report, which will include revised baseline methodology, revised baseline tools and the baseline work plan. On the other hand, the second phase will also involve implementation of the baseline work plan, mainly the data collection, data analysis and reporting. In preparation for the report, the Consultant should conduct remote debriefing and presentation meeting to share the preliminary findings and validate with YCST key staff in Yemen.

Responsibilities

5. Baseline Tasks and Deliverables
All tasks of the baseline are expected to be accomplished over four months (35 working days), starting from March to June 2020. Under the overall supervision of the MEL Director and day-to-day supervision of the Knowledge and Learning Specialist, the baseline is expected to entail performing the following tasks and presenting satisfactory deliverables:

• Desk Review: This includes review of key documents, mainly the narrative proposal, the logical framework, the MEAL plan, the SCI guide and tools, Year 1 baseline documents (methodology, tools, and report) and all other project documentation deemed relevant by key YCST staff (to be provided upon contract award).
• Inception Report: Based on the information collected in the desk review, the Consultant will prepare an inception report, which will be finalized based on comments from key YCST staff and should specifically include below information:
  • Revised Baseline Methodology, which includes both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods and tools. This includes detailed sampling methodology for the collection of quantitative data as well as protocols for selection of focus groups and key informant interviews.
  • Fieldwork plan, which includes the data collection plan to be agreed upon and finalized with YCST staff, mainly the Senior MEL Specialist.
  • Data Quality, the Consultant will be supported by MIS Specialist in digitizing the tools and uploading them to YCST’s Realtime Information Management System (RIMAS). The Consultant will be responsible for reviewing and cleaning the data.
  • Data analysis plan, detailing the approach and coding methodology for qualitative data analysis, and the plan for triangulating qualitative and quantitative results, where relevant.
  • Baseline report outline, detailing how the results will be organized and presented, including graphic depiction of results.
• Recruitment and Training: YCST will assemble a qualified team of enumerators that are able to undertake the exercise in targeted communities. YCST will also assemble a qualified team of interviewers to be focus group facilitator, focus group note taker, interviewer/note taker for in-depth interviews. The Consultant will be responsible for conducting the training remotely, where feasible, and provide training materials to Senior MEL Specialist, where remote training is not possible, to conduct the training.
• Debriefing and Validation: The Consultant will prepare and deliver a remote presentation of key findings for key YCST staff within 3 days of completion of the fieldwork. This validation presentation will be in preparation for the first draft of the baseline report.
• Baseline Report: The Consultant will be responsible for writing and analyzing the report working closely with the Knowledge and Learning Specialist. The Consultant will submit concise draft report along with the analytical data tables to the MEL Director. The YCST team will provide input/comments on the report. The Consultant will submit the final report incorporating the feedback from the YCST team within the agreed time period. The layout for the report will be agreed upon with the MEL Director.

6. Research Consultant Responsibilities
The Consultant is expected to lead on achieving the tasks and deliverables detailed in Section 5. Specifically, the Consultant will work remotely to provide technical support to the studies by undertaking the below non-exhaustive list of duties:

• Advise on analytical questions and develop a detailed methodology based on review of Year 1 baseline: Review the methodology and data collection instruments.
• Advise on additional data to be included in the assessment tool whenever needed.
• Run analysis and generate reports following agreed upon analysis plan, providing ongoing feedback to Global Communities on emerging findings and challenges.
• Prepare draft and final report for each analysis including charts for review. Run additional analysis as needed once initial results have been reviewed.
• Advise on triangulating results with qualitative and programmatic information.

Qualifications

7. Minimum Requirements
Applications will be accepted from Consultants meeting the following minimum requirements:

• Advanced university degree in social science, humanities, political science and related fields preferably in a topic related to international development.
• Demonstrated skills in survey design, tools development, fieldwork planning and data collection and data analysis.
• Able to provide evidence of studies and surveys in a similar context, preferably in Yemen or the Middle East region. Knowledge of Arabic is highly desirable.
• Able to provide evidence of producing high quality data and present high-quality information within tight timeframes.
• Demonstration of ability to provide adequate oversight and management in difficult and tense operating environments.
• Excellent report writing skills in English in a practical, direct and precise answer to points of the terms of reference. Examples of previous similar work is required.
• Expertise in any of statistics software packages, including but not limited to SPSS and STATA as well as qualitative data analysis packages.
• Proficiency in electronic data collection and data cleaning methods.

8. Property Rights
All documents related to the assignment shall remain the sole and exclusive property of Global Communities.