11 November, 2016

6633 Consultancy opportunity with Oxfam

Oxfam

Industry:
Non Government Organization
Location: 
Port Vila, Vanuatu
Job Hours:
30 working days to be completed within January 2017.
Due Date
16-Nov-16 

Terms of Reference
Short term Field Coordinator for Cash Feasibility Study
 November 2016


Job Description:
1. Background
Over the past decade, governments, donors and humanitarian actors have showed a lot of interest in Cash Based Transfers (CBT). Several researches conducted in different countries had shown positive evidence, of using Cash Based Transfers as a humanitarian response option. This is related mainly to the fact that CBT enables the affected people to make their own choices on what to buy, which is empowering in some ways. In addition to this, CBT has also been hailed for strengthening the local markets and hence re-instilling a sense of normalcy in areas that would have suffered a shock – helping in early recovery and resilience building efforts for the affected population.  The World Food Programme (WFP) is conducting the study in partnership with FAO and Oxfam to gather information on Food Security and more inclusive and efficient food and agricultural systems at local, national and international levels.

Research has shown that CBT is not necessarily feasible in all situations or contexts – as it is dependent on the livelihood and resilience of the concerned communities, the impact of natural disasters on communities’ food security and nutrition, capacity of markets, supply chain and financial service provision.  It is therefore vital to gather adequate information to guide the selection of the most appropriate response option in any situation. 

The organizations continues to explore the feasibility of CBT to ensure that the most appropriate modalities are used in the future emergency responses. The process includes putting in place all the necessary sectoral capacity assessments to confirm the most appropriate response modality. 
2. Pacific Context
The Pacific region is highly vulnerable to multiple shocks that cause life threats and loss of assets. The region ranks among the world`s most vulnerable to natural disasters. This exposure to natural shocks is also increasing over time as climate change impacts in remote islands have manifested itself in sea levels rise and more frequent weather extremes including, severe cyclones and drought. This is evident from the recent natural disasters that have hit Vanuatu, Tonga, Marshal Islands, Micronesia and Fiji in 2015 and 2016. These risks are further compounded by a particular vulnerability of the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) to external economic shocks due to the small size, remoteness and fragile economies as a result of high reliance on imported goods and services.

As part of the emergency preparedness efforts by WFP in the Pacific region, cash based feasibility assessments will be conducted in the five priority countries (Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Samoa and Tonga) to gauge the potential of using this response modality as an option in case of emergencies. To date, assessments have been conducted jointly with the Cash learning Partnership (CALP) in two countries namely Fiji and Tonga, and the assessments have shown that cash based transfer is feasible mainly in the urban areas and main Islands; while some challenges are noted with the remote Islands due to inaccessibility of markets and financial service providers. The study has however also shown that there is a need for more information gathering as the countries have different contexts that cannot be generalized. This is due to the different efforts that are being put by the private sector such as banks and mobile companies to reach out to the remote islands- that have also at times improved the use of cash in some of these remote Islands.  

3. Objective
This CBT feasibility assessment mission for Vanuatu will be led by the WFP team supported by Oxfam.

The specific objective is to collect data for the purpose of cash feasibility assessment on the use of Cash Based Transfers (CBT) as distribution for assistance, especially during emergencies.  This would be done by assessing different sectors, namely: food security, nutrition and livelihoods, agriculture, markets and supply chain, social and emergency assistance and the use of financial services, in urban, rural and remote areas.

The assessment will seek to achieve the following:
  • Gauge the level of acceptance and preference of use of CBT in the country taking into consideration traditional beliefs and gender & protection issues
  • Understand livelihoods, nutrition, agricultural and food security characteristics of the different areas
  • Understand current social and emergency assistance
  • Analyze the accessibility to markets and the local market dynamics
  • Analyze the accessibility and use of financial services
  • Assess the commercial supply chain capacity to absorb increased demand.
4. Methodology and study location
The assessment will consist of two major components Tools for field assessments (key stakeholders interview, Household questionnaire and Market / local trader questionnaire) which will provide both qualitative and quantitative information to supplement each other as an integrated analysis on the whole.

The first component is key stakeholder interview at the capital level (Port Vila), which aims to understand the key issues in livelihood, finance, gender and protection,  logistics, policy and social assistance that define the country and its feasibility of implementing cash-based modality. WFP will conduct the interviews and Oxfam will support to identify and confirm main stakeholders and coordinate meetings. In addition, Oxfam will support the organization of a validation workshop to validate the information collected in the field.

The second component is the community and household level assessments in the field to collect first-hand data and information on the areas mentioned above. The local partner will be primarily responsible for conducting the field assessment via (1) household surveys, (2) key informants for community profiles, and (3) market/local trader key informants.

Sampling of the community should consider both statistical significance and logistics feasibility given the community/village dispersion of the country. The selection of the communities will aim to capture as diverse characteristics as possible in terms of peri-urban/rural/remote status, type of livelihood and economic status. The sample will include three strata: 4 peri-urban locations, 8 rural communities, and 2 rural communities in remote island locations. Within each community site, a sample of 5 households will be selected on the basis of criteria that avert systematic biases in opinion[1], taking into consideration economic status and livelihood. The local firm will be in charge of producing community profiles with basic information (including GPS coordinates – if possible).

As a result, questionnaires will be applied to 70 household across the 14 communities (4 peri-urban (2 each Port Vila and Luganville) 8 rural (2 each Efate, Espiritu Santo, Malekula, Tanna) and 2 remote (Aneityum) preliminarily identified in the sample selection design and at least 1 market trader in each of the 14 communities.

The questionnaires will be applied using the kobo box tool to simplify data entry and analysis.

[1] The choice of households will come from either the Census or from household listing with the aid of village chiefs.

5. Specific task to be delivered by field coordinator:
  • Take orientation on basic concept of cash based transfer and survey tools and methodology
  • Prepare draft field plan in consultation with WFP and Oxfam
  • Travel to field as part of the mission and administer stakeholder interview
  • Supervise and coordinate enumerators to ensure they done field work as per work plan and record and quality of the data collected from field   
  • Produce a field research report summarizing sites visited, number of HH, Community profiles, major findings, issues of concern and strategies for addressing these, and other information relevant to the project
  • With support from enumerators ensure proper coding of the questionnaires, analyze patterns and distill findings
  • With the support from WFP/FAO conduct preliminary data analysis and produce a finding summary to be submitted to FAO/WFP for review
  • Produce a findings report, with FAO/WFP/Oxfam feedback and supervision, based on the areas outlined above
  • Acquit field related expenses after coming back from field.
    Criteria:
    6. Experience and skills required for field coordinator:
    • Field Coordinators should be fluent in both written and spoken English and the relevant local language
    • Field coordinators should have extensive, proven experience in qualitative field research tools, research experience in Vanuatu, and management experience
    • Basic understanding of cash based transfer in emergency food security and vulnerable livelihood context
    • Experience in conducting HH’s survey, conducting Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and interview by using different participatory tools
    • Familiar with data management and analysis tools (Kobo toll box) and adept in preparation of research findings
    • Willing to travel to and stay in the field for conducting HH’s survey and interview
    • Good and willing to work in a team and skills in supervision and monitoring
    • Willingness to follow Oxfam organizational compliance in code of conduct, child protection and any other policy relevant to this job. 

      Salary:

      Not Stated

      Language:

      English, Bislama

      How To Apply:
      If you interested and have required skills and experience please drop your CV and interest by stating your availability and daily rate to Kaiser Rejve, Humanitarian Programme Director, kaiserr@oxfam.org.au, Oxfam in Vanuatu by 16 Nov’16.
      Contact Person:

      Kaiser Rejve

      Phone:

      Not Stated
      Address: 
      Not Stated  

      Email:

      kaiserr@oxfam.org.au


      Website:
       Not Stated
      ______________________________________________________________
      Source: 
                   11-November-16 Direct from Employer

      For further information on the above Vanuatu job please see the source or contact the employer