NGO Opportunities – Oxfam

Consultant: Project Effectiveness Review Somalia 

Ref: INT0828

Somalia experienced a major drought in 2011, prior to that population in South Central had experienced decades of conflict compounded with unpredictable poorly distributed rains leading to displacements and influx of IDPs in search of resources.

In 2010, Oxfam initiated an EC funded project to address humanitarian needs, which FSNAU had indicated that 31,000 of the host community of the almost 400,000 people in Lower Juba were in acute food and livelihood crisis (AFLC) with a risk of deteriorating again if support was not provided. 

The nutrition levels were also very critical with GAM rates were above the emergency threshold of 15%. Generally two thirds of the population do not have access to safe water and among agro-pastoralists more than 80 % do not have access to safe water. 

Access to health facilities is very limited, with the rural areas of Juba almost lacking health facilities altogether. 

In general the transport infrastructure is poorly developed with poor road networks. The project primarily was aimed at providing support within the livelihood (food insecurity, low economic activity, and farm inputs), health and water, sanitation and hygiene sectors. 

Due to conflict and intensified insecurity, access to the anticipated project site was limited and therefore we Oxfam  adopted an innovative approach dubbed “Alternative ways of working in hard to reach areas” .

This is entirely a community driven approach that empowers community to identify their priority needs and projects through participatory community focussed  action planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This project targeted beneficiaries in 30 rural villages (46,667 households) in Lower and Middle Juba

Overview: As part of Oxfam GB’s Global Performance Framework, the Project Effectiveness Review will rigorously assess the impact of this project on the people it supported.  Impact will be evaluated particularly against Oxfam GB’s global indicator for livelihoods.  

Data will be captured through the administration of questionnaires, both to project beneficiaries and to comparable non-beneficiaries (about 600-1000 in total).  

The consultant will manage the field work and data entry for the Project Effectiveness Review by training and supervising teams of enumerators and data-entry personnel to ensure that data collected and entered is of high quality.

Essential skills and qualifications
  • Relevant university degree (postgraduate degree preferred).
  • Knowledge and experience of working in rural areas of Somalia, particularly in Lower and Middle Juba regions, with strong understanding of agricultural activities in the area.
  • Experience in administering household surveys, preferably as a field supervisor or coordinator responsible for checking the quality of work of enumerators.
  • Exceptionally high level of attention to detail in carrying out surveys and data entry.
  • Strong management skills – able to organize the work of teams of enumerators so as to complete the work on schedule and to the required standard.
  • Basic information technology skills.
  • Command of relevant local languages
  • (Desirable) Good working level in spoken English.
Key Tasks
  • Design a feasible sampling strategy in collaboration with Oxfam and project partners (determine sampling frame)
  • Identify valid comparison population
  • Prepare a list of sampled intervention and comparison households + list of replacement households in collaboration with Oxfam and project partners
  • Design the household questionnaire in English, in collaboration with Oxfam and project partners
  • Have the household questionnaire translated into the local language by a professional translator
  • Recruit field supervisors and enumerators (number to be determined after consultation with the Oxfam team)
  • Lead and organise a thorough in-house training workshop for enumerator candidates and supervisors (including arranging all logistics, such as finding venue, printing, stationary, etc.)
  • Lead and organise at least one-day piloting exercise with enumerators and supervisors (including arranging all logistics, such as car rentals)
  • Finalize the field work planning together with the field supervisors
  • Prepare a detailed budget + time schedule for the actual data collection and data entry process, to be approved by Oxfam
  • In collaboration with the supervisors, carefully prepare the field work by visiting all beneficiary and comparison cells prior to the field work, to 1) introduce the survey to region/district/village officials as appropriate, 2) to make all required appointments for interviews.
  • Prepare all required field work logistics as appropriate (printing out sufficient number of questionnaires, rent cars, arrange accommodation if necessary, etc.). Each respective survey team must stay together in the same accommodation for security reasons + to enable evening discussions + review of the questionnaires.
  • Manage the survey work in the field, ensuring that the enumerators interview the correct respondents, surveys are carried out to a high standard, and that targets for numbers of respondents to be interviewed are met. The consultant is expected to be present in the field throughout the data collection process, to supervise the field work and to assure data quality.
  • Supervisors should review the completed questionnaires in detail at the end of each day of work, provide details feedback to the enumerators, and send them back to the respondents to make corrections if necessary.
  • Consult the Oxfam head office advisor about any problems which affect the selection of respondents for the survey or the number of respondents to be interviewed.
  • Manage the data-entry process. In order to minimize data-entry errors, each questionnaire is to be entered twice by different personnel, and both copies submitted to Oxfam. Oxfam staff will compare the two entries for each questionnaire and will produce a list of discrepancies, which must be checked against the original surveys. (A data-entry interface can be provided by Oxfam if required.)
  • Ensure that the data files are submitted online (e.g. through DropBox) and burnt onto a CD and submitted to the Nairobi Oxfam office on completion of the data-entry work.
  • Write a brief report on the conduct of the field work, including details any problems which were encountered and how they were resolved, and any feedback which may be useful for future surveys.
Please note that the consultant is not expected to conduct data analysis.

Detailed Terms of Reference


How to Apply

To apply,use this link: http://bit.ly/1CwqAnM
 
Closing Date: 19 September 2014

Consultancy:Topographical Survey of Lodwar Water and Sewerage Company Water Supply Scheme 

Ref: INT0825

Oxfam together with other 5 partners have been contracted by DFID to fast track the attainment of MDG goal on sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation under the WASH Results Program. 

This project focuses across the three largest arid and semi arid Counties of Northern Kenya (Turkana, Marsabit and Wajir) and at least three informal settlements (slums) of Nairobi (Dandora, Kawangare and Mukuru).
Under this project, Oxfam together with the SWIFT consortium partners, we intend to work closely with County Governments and also water service providers in the design and implementation of infrastructural works.

It is with these regards that Oxfam is partnering with Turkana County Government towards supporting Lodwar Water and Sewerage Company (LOWASCO) to improve access to water to the residents of Lodwar town. Our target is to contribute to improving access and reliability of water supply in Lodwar town. 

In order to make informed infrastructure development/improvement decisions, water utility companies do require diverse information on an ongoing basis. A lot of this information need to be geographically referenced not only to stay up to date but also make use of modern design and management software for instance ArcGIS, AutoCAD, WaterCAD, Surfer, EPANET etc.

With geo-referenced water distribution network, the system can be simulated and analysed using these software.

In turn it can help trouble shoot areas with low or pressure problems, areas that are least covered, service levels in different supply zones, proximity to storage facilities and subsequent effect, help in informing where to place zonal meters and thus reducing the unaccounted for water etc.

This information also will help form the baseline database from which improvement decisions will be pegged upon. This will be helpful especially in phased improvement/development.

With the mapping of Individual connections (ICs) and other consumers (commercial and institutions), this can be integrated with the billing software at a later stage and hence improve the current billing system.

Overall this undertaking will enable all stakeholders better understand what infrastructure exists and its condition, demand  needs, supply constraints and opportunities for improvement.
 
LOWASCO Summary: Lodwar Water and Sanitation Company Ltd (LOWASCO) is a corporate entity that was established in 2007 under the Companies Act, Cap 286 Laws of Kenya. 

The core business of LOWASCO is the provision of efficient and affordable water and sanitation services to the residents of its area of jurisdiction as defined in the Service Provision Agreement (SPA). 

Currently:
  • LOWASCO serves approximately 28,000 persons though the population within the area of supply is 116,580 persons.
  • The Company has 8 operational boreholes that are located along River Turkwel, 7 No. Boreholes are electrically driven while 1 No. Borehole is Solar powered.
  • Production is on average 100,000m3/month.
  • LOWASCO has 1,600m3 of storage capacity.
  • The reticulation system has approximately 170km of pipeline ranging from 32mm to 200mm both GI and uPVC.
  • The reticulation system is divided into two zones and 8 sub-zones.
  • It has 32 water kiosks and 4,700 Individual Connections (ICs). Only 28 kiosks are functioning at the moment.
  • LOWASCO serves both the commercial customers and institutions besides the ICs.
Assignment
  • To survey and produce a topographical map of the LOWASCO water distribution network including the location of all infrastructure i.e. BH, pipeline routes (size, class and lengths, road crossings etc), storage facilities, water kiosks, air valves, gate valves, washouts, boundary of supply zones, proposed pipe extensions and any other assignment that will be agreed upon.
  • Deliver the survey data in formats that Oxfam/LOWASCO can be able to utilise (data should be opened preferably with Microsoft office suite and other reliable open source applications).The map should be multi layered.
  • Oxfam/LOWASCO intend to map all individual connections, this information should be also be mapped alongside the information listed in No. 1 above.
  • Deliver all data in both hardcopy and softcopy (survey data, pipeline profiles and maps). This information has to be validated in a workshop and approved by government.
Location: The project area is Lodwar town in Turkana County.
 
Detailed Terms of Reference

Use the following link to apply:
 http://bit.ly/1o12Fmw


Closing Date: 12 September 2014