Needed Resilience Assessment Consultant

Terms of Reference

1) Introduction

The Syria Resilience Consortium (SRC) was established in 2016 by its six constituent INGO partners – CARE, DRC, Humanity and Inclusion, IRC, Mercy Corps and NRC – in recognition of a joint responsibility to address the levels of needs in conflict-ridden Syria.

SRC has a unique long term vision to the Syrian humanitarian crisis, focusing on:

· Resilient livelihoods in a fluid and complex humanitarian context;

· Coordination, collaboration and WoS approach through working in a consortium with six INGOs;

· Do-No-Harm and Gender, Age and Disability inclusiveness

The SRC is conducting a resilience assessment to better understand how shocks and stresses impact its program participants and to idenity key resilience capacities across Syria. The first step of the assignment is to carry out a meeting in Amman, Jordan that will gather key stakeholders to set a development vision, analyze shocks and stresses, and set out an overall learning agenda for the assessment. This meeting will provide key inputs for follow-on research on which approaches work to build resilience in Syria, how to collaborate effectively with public and private sector partners, how to effectively address gender, age and disability in resilience programming, strategies for working across the development and humanitarian spheres, as well inform SRC resilience-building approaches. The consultant will incorporate the outputs from the resilience assessment into a comprehensive report broken down by the three hubs in Syria: Northwest Syria, Northeast Syria and South/Central Syria. The Resilience Assessment consultant will have extensive coordination and facilitation experience that s/he will draw on to design and deliver a high-quality report.

2. Assessment Objectives:

The objective of the Resilience Assessment consultancy is to work with the SRC Program Coordination Unit and SRC INGO partners to conduct a thorough resilience assessment which culminates with a comprehensive resilience report. The assessment will provide analysis on the resilience situation in Syria, how the integration of resilience capacities can be utilized SRC participants and how the SRC can leverage its strategy into more effective integrated programing. The assessment will:

· Identify and analyze important shocks and stresses that impact SRC participants in Syria.

· Explain the underlying factors that affect the populations exposure to shocks and stresses.

· Identify and explain the resilience capacities people need to mitigate and respond to shocks and stresses.

· Identify potential changes to the enabling environment which may affect the ability to use particular resilience capacities.

· Provide an explanation of the key resilience pathways in Syria to allow development and humanitarian teams to design more integrated program plans aimed at building resilience.

3. Scope of Work

In order to complete the assessment report, the consultant will lead the assessment process:

• Incorporate SRC partner resilience assessment guides in the assessment design (e.g., Mercy Corps STRESS).
• In partnership with key stakeholders, determine the scope and learning questions for the assessment; ensure assessment considers the effectiveness and complementarity of humanitarian and development efforts,
• Gather necessary information and analyze existing data and, when necessary, guide consortium members in data collection and data analysis through periodic review meetings;
• Facilitate consortium data analysis and strategy processes,
• Develop a synthesis report based on field learning from across the consortium.

During this process, the consultant is expected to:

• Conduct a desk review all relevant project documents and background information including secondary data and evaluation reports among all SRC INGO partners. This assessment will primarily utilize existing partner data and reports as well as in-person and remote interviews of staff, partners and stakeholders. Additional data will only be collected as needed and agreed upon by the SRC partners.
• Attend and support, as needed, the inception meeting in Amman, Jordan (early-mid January 2020)
• Design data collection tools, methodology, planning and collection process, if needed.
• Draft and submit inception report.
• Lead and coordinate the assessment process: Create an assessment calendar, conduct and inception meeting with the SRC INGOs partners, assign responsibilities and drive the process. Finalize all assessment plans, including core research questions, data collection methodology, handouts for data collection. Remotely support SRC INGOs partners on field assessment methods to ensure quality control.

Consultant Deliverables

1. The consultant will provide a brief inception report at the beginning of week 4 following the initial meetings and development of any data collection tools.
2. The final deliverable will be a comprehensive resilience assessment report (approximately 60 pages) structured based on the outline below. Changes to the outline or structure of the report can be made in agreement with the SRC depending on the findings and information uncovered in the assessment.

SRC Resilience Assessment Outline

1) List of Acronyms

2) List of Tables

3) List of Figures

4) Executive Summary (4 pages)

5) Introduction (4 pages)

a. Methodology Summary

b. Brief SRC overview

6) Background on Syria (12 pages)

a. Brief history of Syrian Conflict

b. Humanitarian and Development Trends in Syria

c. Overview of key stakeholders

i. General Population

ii. Gender, Age and Disability Analysis

d. Overview of geographic context

e. Overview of key livelihood systems

7) Northwest-Syria (12 pages)

a. Overview of Regional Issues

b. Shocks and Stresses (3-5 key shocks/stresses)

c. Resilience Capacities (4-6 key resilience capacities)

d. Northwest-Syria Resilience Pathways

8) Northeast Syria (12 pages)

a. Overview of Regional Issues

b. Shocks and Stresses (3-5 key shocks/stresses)

c. Resilience Capacities (4-6 key resilience capacities)

d. Northeast Syria Resilience Pathways

9) South and Central Syria (12 pages)

a. Overview of Regional Issues

b. Shocks and Stresses (3-5 key shocks/stresses)

c. Resilience Capacities (4-6 key resilience capacities)

d. South and Central Syria Resilience Pathways

10) Mapping of economic and social coping strategies and key shocks and stresses (1 page)

11) Risk Analysis (1 page)

12) Conclusion (2 pages)

The consultant is responsible for sending all field notes, interview questionnaires, list of interviewees, list of resources, etc. along with the final report which will remain confidential.

Timeline

The consultant is expected to work as scheduled:

• Week 1: Develop a planning calendar and roles and responsibilities for the assessment, including data collection and data analysis; Participate in the scoping meeting. Review key background documents identified by the SRC. Week 1, will require travel to Amman, Jordan.
• Week 2: Design assessment process – define scope and learning questions for the assessment in collaboration with consortium leads.
• Week 3: Begin extensive review of secondary data and perform key stakeholder interviews remotely.
• Week 4- 10: Conduct extensive review of secondary data and perform key stakeholder interviews remotely. Begin the process of working with SRC partners to collect additional primary data, if required.
• Week 11 -12: Develop a synthesis report based on field learning from across the consortium.
• Week 13-14: With consortium assessment leads, conduct final analysis meeting (possibly in Amman) and incorporate SRC feedback into final Resilience Assessment.
• Week 15: Update the final assessment report based on feedback received from the PCU. This may require several feedback meetings between consultant and SRC.

4. Anticipated LOE

The consultancy will be up to 60 days LOE for a maximum period of 4 months. The start date is expected around January 1st, 2020 to April 30th, 2020.

The Resilience Assessment Consultant will be home based with one or two trips to Amman, Jordan and will report to the Deputy Chief of Party. The consultant will work in collaboration with the SRC Resilience Technical Group with representatives from the SRC INGO partners and the Program Coordination Unit. The consultant will work with the Deputy Chief of Party and the SRC Communications Coordinator to develop high quality visuals to be incorporated into the final product.

1. Profile

Required Experience & Skills

• At least 7 years’ experience working in international relations/development with NGOs, governments, multilateral organizations, think-tanks or private companies required;
• Experience leading market and/or organizational assessments, required;
• Experience conducting research, including data collection, coding and synthesizing qualitative data, required; applicants will be asked to provide previous reports;
• Previous experience working in Syria preferred;
• Proficiency in English required; Arabic preferred;
• Effective verbal and written communication, organizational and prioritization skills.
• Ability to work effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment;
• MA/MSc in international relations, development, economics, anthropology or related degrees preferred.
• Strong experience and knowledge in quantitate and qualitative data analysis.

· Results and output focus with strong documentation skills.