Search for Common Ground (Search) is an international non-profit organization that promotes the peaceful resolution of conflict. With headquarters in Washington, DC and Brussels, Belgium, Search’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict – away from destructive approaches towards cooperative solutions. With more than 600 staff worldwide, Search implements projects in more than 30 countries across the globe.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Consultant – Research on Communal Tensions and Conflict in Adamawa state with a Focus on Demsa
Location: Adamawa, Nigeria
About the Research
Since 2013, Northeast Nigeria has been managing a large-scale humanitarian crisis triggered by the Boko Haram insurgency. The conflict has led to tremendous loss of lives, destruction of property and livelihoods and the displacement of millions of people. The states most affected by the Boko Haram crisis are Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe, and in the last year, the humanitarian challenges in Adamawa were further exasperated by communal clashes, including deadly clashes between herders and farmers. Adamawa currently has 194,000 Internally Displaced Persons, 23% of whom are displaced due to these communal clashes.
In 2016, the Nigerian government launched an ambitious nation-wide Home grown School Feeding programme through which over 9 million children are being fed in schools across 30 of the nation’s 36 states, including in Adamawa state. In line with its Country Strategic Plan (2019-2022), World Food Program (WFP) Nigeria is incorporating its entire humanitarian and development portfolio, bringing all interventions and activities under clearly defined Strategic Outcomes. The Country Strategic Plan (CSP) will address both humanitarian and development issues in line with the consensus on the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. While WFP Nigeria will continue to focus on food security and nutrition interventions for crisis-affected people across the northeastern states, it will starting in Adamawa begin a gradual transition from unconditional emergency support to the promotion of self-reliance and resilience-building through community-identified income generating, livelihood and asset creation activities that will equally benefit women and men and address the gender inequalities that undermine women’s food security and nutrition.
With support from the Italian government, WFP Nigeria is seeking to support the government’s Home grown school feeding (HGSF) efforts, including the State of Adamawa by linking cooks to local small farm holders to ensure both the quality of the food as well as opening business opportunities to the local community. Furthermore, WFP intends to work with peacebuilding partners such as Search for Common Ground to strengthen economic interests between smallholders and herders, finding ways to connect them to the HGSF programme.
Purpose of Research
- WFP’s mandate is to strengthen food security with a goal of Zero Hunger, and a key component will be to constructively engage farmers and herders in the process, strengthening economic interests and social cohesion between smallholders and herders.
- The overall objective of this research is to guide WFP program design in such a way that it does not only prevent the creation of further friction between farmers and herders but that it supports efforts towards social cohesion and peacebuilding through interdependence and identification of common needs that might be achieved together.
- This research will therefore support Search for Common Ground inform WFP on how to carry out a comprehensive and holistic intervention that meets the competing humanitarian, and peacebuilding needs of target communities, to promote longer-term sustainability and maximize impact.
- WFP is contemplating an intervention that connects herders and smallholder farmers to the Nigerian Homegrown School Feeding Programme, the thinking being that shared livelihood supports peacebuilding while at the same time contributes to the success of school feeding programme.
- The overall research question is therefore: what opportunities exist or can be created to effectively engage farming and herding communities, in a conflict-sensitive way, within the Homegrown School Feeding Programme in a way that also builds social cohesion between farmers and herders? As part of this research, WFP is interested in learning whether there are clear opportunities for this planned intervention.
The objectives of the Research are to:
- Determine current context and conflict dynamics in Lamurde, Numan, Demsa, Song, Yola North and South, Girei, Fofore and Gombi LGAs including types of conflict, conflict dynamics and key driving factors for conflict and peace between farmers and herders in Adamawa particularly Demsa, also highlighting any food security related factors
- Determine key stakeholders involved in this conflict, and their motivations; and determine, for both farmers and herders, how women, men, boys, and girls within these groups are affected by this conflict.
- Determine what actions can be put in place to prevent further escalation of intercommunal tensions and violence and/or support social cohesion strengthening (particularly between farmers and herders).
- Identify what actions have been taken so far by government at federal and state levels (policy, legislation, and implementation), what their impact and efficiency has been, and what other actions/plans are in the pipeline
- Identify how food security programming can incorporate social cohesion and peacebuilding, including what “common ground” entry points can support social cohesion and peacebuilding in terms of food security (production, access to markets, access to food, etc.)
- Findings from this research will be used to inform WFP program planning and implementation. The reports – with sensitive details redacted – will eventually be shared with other learning networks in order to enhance the broader field of peace-building in Nigeria and the world.
Methodology:
- The study will adopt a qualitative method, using a phenomenological approach. The study will also adopt the score card process for information gathering, using a sequential and participatory approach to data collection and sense making, utilizing key informant interviews and focus group discussions.
- In line with this sequential approach, and with the focus on Demsa as the LGA of implementation, key informant interviews will be conducted with stakeholders at state level, and in Lamurde, Numan, Demsa, Song, Yola North and South, Girei, Fofore and Gombi LGAs. Focus group discussions will be conducted in Demsa only using the developed score card indicators in line with the study objective and questions.
- Through this approach, purposively selected respondents from a range of stakeholders will be worked with to understand their own experiences of the HGCF programme and the farmer herder conflict, and if and how the HGCF programme affects relationships between farming and herding communities in the study locations. These stakeholders include farming and herding communities, school children, out of school children, parents, teachers, service providers, traditional chiefs, state and local government (in particular Adamawa’s state agency for Peace, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, ASAPRR, Agriculture and Livestock Secretariats, relevant security forces), farmers and herders associations, I/NGOs working in the affected area and academics, as identified.
- This sequential approach will include interviews with key informants, aimed at responding to the core study questions above, as well as identifying themes that will serve as indicators for the score card process. Following the key informant interviews and identification of these indicators, focus group discussions will be used to validate these indicators with community members, score these based on community experiences, as well as develop joint recommendations for improving the HGCF program such that it provides improved value for school children, while contributing to strengthened relationships across all stakeholders.
- Operationalization of this proposed methodology is to be clearly stated in the technical offer, detailing how this research and methodology is actionable in the state and to the purpose of the evaluation. In addition, the technical offer should include details on logistics and roll-out of the study: who the target respondents will be and why, how will they be identified or recruited, how data collection and data quality assurance will be carried out, as well as how data analysis will be done.
- The research will target community residents in the locations where the project is being implemented, as listed above and as logistically feasible. Tools for the research will be developed by the consultant and/ or team in collaboration with Search’s DMEL staff and research team. The inception and final reports will be developed by the consultant and/or team, and reviewed and approved by Search.
- The tools will be administered by the consultant and/ or team, working with a team of data collectors provided by Search for common ground and the consultant, in the identified communities, while the data will be analyzed by the consultant and/or team chosen to perform this research. In addition, the consultant and/or team chosen will develop the report with guidance and reviews by Search’s DMEL staff.
Deliverables
The evaluation deliverables are:
- An inception report detailing the proposed method, study matrix, and work plan. It is to be approved by Search’s DMEL staff before starting data collection.
- Impact on food security (including production, access and utilization)
- Analysis on the gender aspects of the conflict
- Government and traditional authorities’ response: including policies, legislation, security forces intervention, vigilante’s movement, community-based strategies etc.
- Recommendations, focusing on WFP priorities
- Research tools (developed by the candidate and/or team with the input of Search’s DMEL staff)
- Draft report for review by Search staff and other stakeholders
- Final Report (maximum 30 pages, excluding appendices), consisting of but not excluded to: Executive Summary, Methodology, Findings and Analysis, Conclusions, Lessons Learned and Recommendations. The report should be structured according to the evaluation questions and should include information on:
- Background of the conflict including actors involved, root causes, present narratives, political aspects, and recent developments, particularly in Demsa
A template for baseline research within Search will be provided:
- All data collected for this research including audios and transcripts for all interviews, and quantitative data entered in a template, based on the methodology used
- Appendices, including data collection tools and list of interviewees
- A power-point presentation summarizing the report’s findings
Required Profile
Education:
- Advanced degree in Conflict Studies, Social Work or other relevant degree is an added advantage;
Experience:
- Prior experience facilitating community score card processes is essential
- 5 years or more of experience in evaluations and large-scale qualitative studies with international organizations;
- Experience working in the North East of Nigeria and familiarity with the context with focus on Adamawa.
- Experience in evaluating programs relating to community development, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution;
- Experience in evaluating programs relating to farmer herder conflict, social cohesion, child education and development, or livelihoods will be an added advantage;
Other Relevant Requirements:
- Strong analytical skills;
- Excellent written communication and report writing skills in English;
- Demonstrated experience in leading large scale research in the specific context of the Adamawa state, including ability to train and work with a locally recruited research team;
- Knowledge of languages indigenous to Adamawa state such as Hausa will be an added advantage;
- Ability to be flexible with time and work schedule.
Timeframe:
- The study will take place between August to September, 2019; with the final deliverables due 30th September, 2019.
The research team will respect the following ethical principles:
- Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review. Consultant should conduct systematic, data-based inquiries. He or she should communicate his or her methods and approaches accurately and in sufficient detail to allow others to understand, interpret and critique his or her work. He or she should make clear the limitations of the review and its results.
- Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities and skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practice within the limits of his or her professional training and competence.
- Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information.
- Respect for people: Consultant respect the security, dignity and self-worth of respondents, program participants. Consultant has the responsibility to be sensitive to and respect differences amongst participants in culture, religion, gender, disability, age and ethnicity.
- In addition, the team will respect SFCG’s evaluations standards, to be found in SFCG’s evaluation guidelines: https://www.sfcg.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/SFCG-External-Evaluation…
Deadline: Friday, 9th August, 2019.
Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online
Application Procedure
The title of the application should be: “Research on Communal Tensions and Conflict in Adamawa state” and the application should hold four attachments:
- 1 technical offer detailing the methodology, timeframe and size of the evaluation team proposed (max 4 pages);
- 1 biography or resume of the evaluator/ evaluation team demonstrating relevant experience/ knowledge (max 5 pages);
- 1-2 examples of past large-scale research where candidate was the lead evaluator;
- 1 financial offer (Excel) detailing the costs of the budget detailing honorarium, accommodation and traveling costs, field data collector’s recruitments;
- 2 references of organizations who can verify the quality of the consultant’s work.
Note
- Please compile your “Writing Sample and Resume” into one document as the system only has the functionality to upload two documents per application. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.
- Submitted offers will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and selection made according to the following criteria:
- Quality of the financial offer: realism of the proposed costs, adequacy between the budget and the technical offer;
- Consultant’s ability to conduct qualitative and quantitative studies, knowledge of methodology and field of research;
- Consultant’s ability to conduct the study on time;
- Consultant’s ability to recruit local data collection teams on site;
- Quality of reports proposed by the consultant as a sample;
- Other: the quality of the drafting of the offer will also be evaluated.
- Only applicants invited for an interview will be contacted. No phone calls please.
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