Urban Resilience primary data collection in Somalia
Job Description
Scope of Work (SoW)
Activity Title: Urban Resilience[1] primary data collection in Somalia
Program Title: USAID-funded Somalia Resilience Population-Level Measurement (RPM), Somalia
Location(s): USAID Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) Focal Zone, which includes Banadir, Southwest State, Hirshabelle State and Jubaland State
1. About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels that they are part of the team. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact. Mercy Corps vision is to bring transformational changes at scale and depth in the world’s most fragile states through globally scalable solutions, deep resilience opportunities, breakthrough capacities and innovative partnerships.
1.1. The Somalia Resilience Population Measurement (RPM) Background
The goal of RPM is to inform and improve stakeholder activities that contribute to resilience capacities that matter most for populations in the target zone. This will be achieved through two objectives:
● Participating stakeholders have the ability to estimate individual contributions to collective resilience capacities, and
● Population level change in resilience is assessed through an innovative mixed methods measurement system. The mixed method measurement systems consist of a). Population-level Panel Surveys, b). Recurrent Monitoring Surveys (RMS), and c). Humanitarian Assistance Averted (HAA) Analysis.
More specifically, the primary goal of RPM Activity is to generate actionable evidence and learning that informs USAID’s investments in resilience capacities that matter most for populations in the CDCS focal zone i.e. inform program adaptation and decision-making among implementers, donors, and government representatives.
1.2. Somalia Context
Somalia remains a fragile country grappling with prolonged conflict, weak governance, and political instability. Somalia also grapples with weak central governments allowing militant groups like Al-Shabaab to exert control over large areas, perpetuating violence and conflict. Environmental and climate change challenges, including severe droughts and famines, worsen humanitarian crises, displacing 2.9 million people with 75% attributed to climate-related shocks (United Nations Somalia 2024, World Bank 2024). The prolonged drought that occurred between late 2020 and early 2023 resulted in extreme dryness causing acute shortages of food and scarcity of water. The mass displacements of people have led to record migration inflows into Somalia’s urban and peri-urban areas, further straining the capacity for urban systems to deliver basic needs and services. Somalia’s rapid urban migration and limited infrastructure continue to hinder its capacity to meet growing demands for basic services, with urban areas housing the largest share of the impoverished and extreme poor populations.
Poverty remains high throughout the country. According to the latest country poverty report published by the Somalia National Bureau of Statistics, 54.4 percent of the total Somalia population lives below the poverty line[2], the highest concentrations of impoverished people reside in urban areas (SNBS 2023, World Bank 2024). While poverty and extreme poverty are the lowest for the urban population in terms of absolute magnitude, the urban poor constitute the largest share of the totals with 54.6 percent of total impoverished population and 42.8 percent of the extreme poor residing in urban areas.
The recent country context demonstrates that Somalia is currently experiencing urbanization at a rate which is difficult for its political, economic, and social systems to accommodate, hence requirement to consider designing an urban resilience framework strengthening and measurement of urban resilience.
2. Rationale for study
2.1. Literature review
In this context, Mercy Corps (MC) conducted a review the literature on urban resilience to better understand “why urban resilience matters in Somalia” and opportunities for urban resilience measurement. This included understanding how urban resilience capacities may differ from current resilience programming/thinking in Somalia. Specifically, the first literature review explored the definitions of urban resilience, challenges faced by urban populations and systems, and challenges of implementation urban resilience building activities in fragile contexts. The second report explored the existing urban resilience tools and indices, key lessons and insights for urban resilience measurement in Somalia and identify opportunity to develop a robust urban resilience measurement framework for Somalia, which requires a comprehensive approach that includes both systems-level and household-level indicators.
The information obtained, especially from the literature review “second report” informed the development of the urban resilience framework and design of the primary data collection around key indicators. The literature review identified four core components across multiple urban resilience frameworks that are highly pertinent for urban areas: These include institutional resilience[3], economic resilience[4], infrastructural resilience[5], and social resilience[6]. These components represent cross-cutting approaches to strengthening resilience of urban systems. Urban areas depend more on the existing social, economic, and political system, such as access to water, security, and microfinance, in order to foster resiliency
2.2. USAID Somalia Re-frame
USAID Somalia re-framed its CDCS results framework as contained in the USAID/Somalia Performance Management Plan (2021 – 2025). Originally, under the objective “enabling marginalized Somalis to more effectively withstand shocks and stress, it had four intermediate result areas namely 2.1) governing institutions more effectively plan for and respond to shocks and stresses, 2.2) livelihood of marginalized populations are strengthened and diversified, 2.3) social capital of marginalized populations strengthened, and 2.4) human capital of women strengthened. While the development objective was retained, the intermediate results were re-framed to two intermediate results namely 2.1) rural communities are better able to withstand shocks and stresses, and 2.2) poor communities productively integrate into urban societies as contained in the document attached here. This document contains relevant indicators for the IRs and highlights the gap in information or statistics or additional data variables relevant for reporting IR 2.1.1 and IR 2.1.3 indicators. This urban resilience study aims to collect primary data on the proposed indicators for the revised intermediate results, where there are gaps. The information obtained from the first and second literature review on urban resilience was not sufficient and information obtained informed the development of the urban resilience indicator matrix. Here are the indicators revised indicators in summary.
[1] In this proposed urban resilience and primary data collection framework, we have adopted USAID 2023 definition of urban resilience – ability of urban systems to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability while positively transforming towards sustainable, equitable, and inclusive development. Generally, urban resilience refers to the ability for urban systems to positively act both reactively and proactively in response to the disruptions brought about by external stressors. This could be pursued by enhancing the ability of urban systems to either cope, adapt, or transform (see Table 2 for examples) in response to these stresses. However, we do acknowledge that there is no definitive consensus about what urban resilience means in practical application. The modern urban resilience frameworks and urban resilience-building actions outline how an urban system’s absorptive, adaptive, and transformations shape urban resilience. These characteristics remain core to modern urban resilience frameworks. These three sources of resilience – familiar to all resilience practitioners – remain the core factors even among modern urban resilience frameworks (Zeng et al. 2022)
[2] Poverty headcount ratio reported consists of the proportion of the population living below $2.06 USD per day.
[3] Institutional Resilience: refers to the governmental and non-governmental systems that structure the social, economic, and political interactions that occur within it.
[4] Economic Resilience: refers to the diversity of the entire economic system within an urban area, such as the diversity in the sectors of employment, the number of businesses, and the capability of the economic system to continue operating despite the occurrence of adverse events
[5] Infrastructural resilience: Infrastructure is a key part of delivering systems and services for urban needs including the physical structures (i.e. buildings, transportation systems) and core service facilities (i.e. shelter and health).
[6] Social Resilience: The capacity for the social systems within an urban system to respond and recover from external stressors.
Skills and qualifications
● Master’s degree or equivalent experience in social sciences, research, or related field such as social capital, political economy etc.
● At least 8-10 years of experience conducting research for international development projects.
● Strong experience in mixed-method research demonstrated through publications in resilience research or a related field.
● Previous experience designing and implementing studies with vulnerable populations in hard-to-reach areas.
● Advanced qualitative skills, including the analysis or reviews of various types of qualitative information derived from vulnerable populations in fragile contexts.
● Substantial research work in resilience or a related field with a geographical focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, preferably on the dry lands of the Horn of Africa
● Detail oriented to ensure quality and consistency.
● Strong work ethics and the ability to work well independently and as part of a team.
● Written and oral fluency in English required.
1. Additional Requirements (preferred)
● Prior experience conducting research studies in Somalia in the field of resilience, in particular social capital as a resilience capacity.
● Familiarity with Mercy Corps’ and/or USAID’s resilience measurement approaches
● Detailed knowledge of the literature on humanitarian needs estimates and humanitarian assistance averted studies.
Attachments
Supplier Information Form (Standard) (1) (3).docScope+of+Work_Urban+Resilience_Primary+data+collection.docx
How to apply
1.1. Safeguarding & Ethics
Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we encounter through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to always adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values. It is our responsibility to ensure team members, operations and programs do no harm to the people and communities we work with or put anyone, especially vulnerable populations, at risk of abuse or exploitation. Mercy Corps through its procurement Conduct and Ethics remains committed to implementing and maintaining the highest standard of efficiency and integrity in the procurement of Goods, Services, and Works. Mercy Corps has Zero tolerance for violations of Mercy Corps Safeguarding policies
Deadline: 30th January 2025 at 5pm EAT.
mailto:so-tender@mercycorps.org
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