Consultant to support the development of short and long-term strategies for scaling up successful DIPECHO and ECHO food security/DRR Interventions

Terms of Reference for a Consultant (s) to Support the Development of Short and Long-term Strategies for Scaling up Successful DIPECHO and ECHO food security/DRR Interventions in South East Africa and the South West Indian Ocean, Based on an Analysis of the DRR and Climate Change Adaptation Funding Environment

Background

The European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) created the Disaster Preparedness/ECHO (DIPECHO) programme in 1996 in the context of the United Nations International Decade for the prevention of natural disasters. Preparedness and small-scale mitigation interventions using a community-based approach are central to DIPECHO’s strategy, but DIPECHO funds also contribute to the promotion of disaster risk reduction (DRR) at a regional and international level.

Currently, DIPECHO covers seven regions considered the most vulnerable to natural disasters: the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Central Asia, South Asia Southeast Asia, South East Africa and South West Indian Ocean. The first round of grants for the South East Africa and South West Indian Ocean were issued in 2008, targeting the Comoros, Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique.

The second, ongoing round of funding in the region (July 2010–November 2011) is a continuation of the first, focused on consolidating the gains and scaling up the activities of the first round. Currently, 14 country-level projects are being implemented in Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique by many of the same partners that participated in the first round. These 14 projects are all aligned with the five action priorities of the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005-2015) and also share the following characteristics:

• A focus on the remote and most vulnerable groups in high-risk areas not necessarily considered a priority for other stakeholders;
• A focus on DRR awareness-raising and building local capacities;
• Promotion of strong local ownership of disaster risk reduction;
• Interventions in post crisis contexts where the population is more receptive to risk reduction measures;
• Support to national and regional coordination; and
• Ability to demonstrate results in the short-term (15 months), through very concrete and practical interventions.

Because food insecurity was one of the biggest risks identified by partners under the first DIPECHO Action Plan, the second DIPECHO Action Plan in the region is being implemented concurrently with a food security/DRR programme, funded through the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection. ECHO has awarded seven grants to six of the current DIPECHO partners, funding food security actions that directly complement the DIPECHO programme.

Both the DIPECHO projects and ECHO-funded food security/DRR projects are designed as pilot interventions, and are expected to generate learning around DRR best practices for their respective operating contexts and to provide evidence of the impact of DRR actions. The DIPECHO partners are testing and documenting DRR strategies with the aim of systematically integrating proven, successful strategies into long term development planning and projects. Similarly, the food security/DRR partners are testing different food security/DRR models and generating evidence on their ability to reduce the risk of food insecurity and reduce the impacts of disasters caused by floods and cyclones.

In addition to the 14 DRR projects and 7 food security/DRR projects, there are also two regional-level projects designed to directly support the aim of scaling up and increasing the impact of the country-level initiatives. DIPECHO funded a regional-level Coordination, Learning and Sharing Platform for DIPECHO partners, which is being managed by CARE Madagascar and CARE Mozambique through a separate project (CLaSP). The CLaSP project aims to add value to the country-level DIPECHO projects by strengthening coordination among DIPECHO partners and other DRR stakeholders at the country and regional levels; establishing systems and tools for generating and sharing DRR information and knowledge; and supporting the development of DRR advocacy at the national and regional levels. ECHO also funded the FAO Regional Emergency Office for Southern Africa (REOSA) to provide technical support to the food security/DRR implementing partners and to help document and channel the learning coming out of the projects into strategic advocacy. The FAO has planned to use the evidence of coming out of the country-level operations research to develop proposals for longer term funding.

Country

Implementing partner: Number of DIPECHO projects; Number of FS/DRR projects

Madagascar
CARE Madagascar 3;2
ICCO/SAFFJKM 2;1
Medair 1;0
Médecins du Monde 1;0

Malawi
Christian Aid/Evangelical Association of Malawi 1;1
COOPI 1;1
GOAL 1;1

Mozambique
CARE Mozambique 1;0
OIKOS 1;1
UN HABITAT 1;0
Welthungerhilfe/Concern 1;0

Regional
CARE Madagascar/Mozambique 1;0
FAO 0;1

In summary, the DIPECHO and ECHO food security/DRR implementing partners are focusing their efforts on generating DRR learning and evidence of impact during the current round of funding. DIPECHO partners are implementing country-level advocacy strategies which aim to mobilize resources for DRR and to increase the mainstreaming of DRR in sectoral programmes and policies over the long term, by lobbying for increased consideration of DRR in development plans and budgets at all levels, and by promoting the added value of DRR for Climate Change Adaptation programmes for example.

The CLaSP project is also implementing actions to complement the country-level advocacy, creating tools and opportunities to promote the work being done by DIPECHO partners. And as mentioned, the FAO has started developing proposals. However in order to scale up proven DRR and food security/DRR interventions, it will also be important both for DRR and food security/DRR partners to know which funding mechanisms potentially represent opportunities for scaling up DRR and which financial partners may be most open to funding DRR projects or mainstreaming DRR into development or humanitarian assistance envelopes. The partners have already identified funds earmarked for Climate Change Adaptation as a potential opportunity for advancing DRR and this is also something that should be explored further. All this information will help DIPECHO and ECHO partners develop solid exit strategies and leverage the programme funding for greater impact.

As mentioned, DIPECHO partners are currently implementing projects in the second DIPECHO Action Plan for the region. The ongoing Action Plan will end in December 2011. A third but final Action Plan is anticipated for the same target countries and targeted hazards (mainly cyclones and floods), starting some time in 2012. This Action Plan would focus largely on ensuring that the local capacity exists in partners’ intervention zones to continue reducing levels of vulnerability and building resilience beyond the end of DIPECHO or ECHO-funded DRR and food security/DRR interventions. It would also focus on supporting partners to implement programme development and fund raising strategies, with the goal of replicating and scaling up successful interventions tested in the first three rounds of funding through non-DIPECHO/ECHO sources of funding. In view of this transition, DIPECHO and ECHO food security /DRR partners need to be supported already during this second DIPECHO Action Plan to develop these strategies.

Objectives of the Consultancy

The CLaSP project is looking for a consultant(s) to support each current DIPECHO partner to develop short and long-term strategies for scaling up the DIPECHO and ECHO food security/DRR approaches based on an analysis of the DRR and Climate Change Adaptation funding environment. This will entail developing specific recommendations for partners for developing DRR and food security/DRR-targeted programme development and fund raising strategies. It will also entail the provision of direct, country-level support for the development of these strategies to the partners in Madagascar, Malawi, and Mozambique.

To achieve this objective, the consultant (s) will:

• Understand DIPECHO and ECHO food security/DRR partners’ interventions and models (being) tested, as well as their previous and current DRR, food security and climate change funding experiences.
• Identify and describe the different funding instruments (both EU and non-EU) that are potential sources of funding for scaling up partners’ pilot DRR initiatives.
• Identify and describe the different donors that currently or would potentially fund DRR and food security/DRR initiatives.
• Evaluate/rank the different funding instruments and donors based on those which hold the most opportunity for the DIPECHO and ECHO food security/DRR partners (mapping).
• Identify scholarships and other opportunities for DRR and food security/DRR capacity-building from which DIPECHO and ECHO implementing partner organizations, their government counterparts and/or national civil society organizations could benefit, for creating a solid foundation for DRR programme development.
• Develop actionable recommendations based on the analysis of the DRR funding environment that will be the most useful to partners for developing both short and longer term strategies for programme development and fund raising. These recommendations should provide clear directions and give examples of specific actions to take.
• Present the preliminary findings of the consultancy to DIPECHO and ECHO food security/DRR implementing partner representatives during a regional workshop, to be held the week of the 19th of September.
• Organize and facilitate country-level workshops for partner representatives, for presenting the consultant’s(s’) final recommendations and for providing technical assistance tailored to the partners’ needs to help them start composing programme development and fund raising strategies incorporating the recommendations.
• Write up and share a final report of the consultancy.

Important Considerations

• Funding instruments and donors at both a country and regional/international level should be considered.
• Opportunities for funding DRR and food security/DRR within climate change adaptation and environment instruments should be considered.
• Besides bilateral donors, the consultant(s) should investigate potential opportunities for funding DRR and food security/DRR through private foundations and the private sector, as well as embassies …
• The mapping/evaluation of funding instruments and donors should take into consideration: previous funding history/trends/priorities; forecasts for future funding; the specific kinds of interventions tested and main learning/results coming out of the programmes; the partners’ areas of expertise/comparative advantage…
• DIPECHO and ECHO food security/DRR partners are mainly international NGOs and it would be important to identify the funding instruments and donors that would provide support directly to NGOs. However it may also be useful to look at instruments and donors which traditionally do not support NGOs directly (e.g. some multi-lateral instruments) and evaluate the degree to which that may change in the short/long term, and what NGOs could do to influence change, or indirectly access such funds.
• As mentioned, it will be very important to understand the previous/current experience of DIPECHO and ECHO food security/DRR partners with funding DRR initiatives and which donors they have already worked with. In some cases, partners may have “exhausted” their dependence on traditional donors of DRR or food security/DRR actions and want to explore private foundation or private sector funding.
• Recommendations and technical assistance should take into account the specific context in each country, different partner expertise, specifically for food security/DRR pilot partners, etc, in addition to general recommendations.

Outputs of the Consultancy

Consultant (s) should provide the following deliverables:
• A document providing a brief, readable description of the different funding instruments.
• A document providing a brief, readable description of the different donors.
• Proposed criteria for evaluating the funding instruments and donors (which should take into account partners’ expressed needs).
• An evaluation of the funding instruments and donors based on set criteria (can be integrated into the prior documents to constitute a “mapping”).
• A short presentation of the consultant (s) work at the regional partners’ workshop in September 2011.
• A user-friendly document providing specific recommendations (short term/longer term) and strategic orientations for partners for obtaining long term funding for their pilot initiatives.
• One workshop each in Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique for presenting and debating the final recommendations with partners’ and for providing technical assistance directly to partners for beginning to develop their DRR programme development and fund raising strategies.

The outputs should preferably be produced in English to facilitate translation and sharing.

Methodology and timeframes

The consultant(s) will need to propose a methodology appropriate for meeting the objectives within a reasonable timeframe; however it is expected that this methodology will refer to the elements and timeframe below:

Methodology (Estimated days)

1) Orientation to DIPECHO and ECHO food security/DRR partner projects and the implementing organisations
• Desk-based document review
• Exchanges with key CLaSP and FAO regional project staff
(5 pers/days)

2) Preliminary consultations with country-level DIPECHO and ECHO food security/DRR implementing partners--a total of 14
(5 pers/days)

3) Identification of criteria for evaluating funding instruments and donors and sharing with key CLaSP and FAO regional project staff for feedback/validation
(5 pers/days)

4) Initial inventory of funding instruments and donors
• Web research
• Consultation of key documents already produced by project partners, namely a study of the main issues affecting DRR funding in Southern Africa/South West Indian Ocean region which focuses on the opportunities for funding DRR through National Action Plans for Adaptation (NAPAs); and an analysis of the opportunities for DIPECHO partners’ to highlight the added value of DRR to Climate Change Adaptation through their ongoing DRR projects
(10 pers/days)

5) Consultation with current/potential donors in each country and at the international/regional level
• Email
• Phone interviews
• Country visits
(20 pers/days)

6) Draft description of funding instruments and donors; mapping and recommendations/strategic orientations and sharing with key CLaSP and FAO regional project staff for feedback/validation
(10 pers/days)

7) Presentation of preliminary “findings” at regional workshop
(5 pers/days)

8) Finalize user-friendly document (The CLaSP project may provide translation of the document)
(5 pers/days)

9) Organization and facilitation of workshops (one in each country) for presenting and discussing the outputs of the consultancy with the partners/direct beneficiaries, and for providing technical assistance for them to take the next steps.
(3*10 person/days = 30)

Total 95 pers/days

Location

The consultancy does not need to be based in any of the three countries but availability to travel and accessibility by phone/email will be expected.

Consultant (s) Profile

The consultancy may be led by one or two experts with one of the experts identified as the Lead Consultant.
• Strong knowledge of donors (EU, but not only), funding mechanisms, but also of private foundations and private sector donors;
• Extensive background in proposal writing and proven knowledge of main donors' (EU, DFID, USAID, etc) logical frameworks;
• Solid background in fundraising in the region;
• Very good knowledge of DRR and food security;
• Knowledge of Climate Change Adaptation/Environment strongly desired
• Excellent writing and communication skills (preferably in English), analytical capacity, ability to synthesize information;
• Fluent in one of the two languages, French or English, with good knowledge of the other language. Knowledge of Portuguese would be an asset.

Calendar

The consultancy should start by ASAP and be completed by 30 November 2011.