Consultancy - Urban Context Analysis at International Rescue Committee

Terms of Reference

Background

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their lives. The IRC operates in more than 40 countries and has operated in Kenya since 1992, providing health care, women’s protection and empowerment, governance and rights, and nutrition services to hundreds of thousands of refugees and the Kenyan communities in Garissa, Turkana and Nairobi counties.

IRC is the leading in the implementation of the project entitled Refugees in East Africa: Boosting Urban Innovations for Livelihoods Development (RE:BUILD) which is funded by the IKEA Foundation. The project being implemented in Kampala and Nairobi seeks to support refugee and host communities to achieve economic self-reliance through supporting 1) Access to sustainable livelihoods and 2) Ensuring that strong markets and effective and responsive city services are accessible to all. RE:BUILD aims to enable change at varying levels, from better access to livelihoods opportunities and inclusive services within communities, to improved refugee-related policies and more targeted and effective service delivery from national, regional and global actors. RE:BUILD will assemble a wide range of different players including respective city Governments, the private sector, refugee and host communities and other market actors in at least 2 or three high impact value chains in each city through which the support and interventions from RE:BUILD will be anchored.

Purpose of the Consultancy/objectives.

IRC seeks a consultant to complete an Urban Context Analysis in Nairobi drawing on IRC’s Urban Context Analysis and Stakeholder Analysis Toolkits. The Analysis will provide a strong understanding of the context including who, with, and where RE:BUILD may work and support the development of activities that are both contextually appropriate and build upon and support existing local processes. The assessment will include a desk review of essential documents including existing reports, assessments, and government policies/strategies. Other documents to consider include donor country profiles and annual reports, NGOs reports and case studies, and UN agency reports, case studies and strategies. Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions (COVID-dependent) will also be conducted to gather additional insight and intel from actors including city officials, government authorities, NGO, service providers, and community members.

Deliverables

Urban Context Analysis Report, with a gender sensitive lens, that includes

• Stakeholder and Social Network analysis of key stakeholders at the 1) city and 2) selected neighborhood level to identify who are the key stakeholders and what are the connections, power dynamics, and levels of influence between and among them? Who does RE:BUILD need to collaborate with and how should that collaboration happen?
• Spatial analysis, to understand the distribution of urban refugees . This will draw on open source data, that focuses on neighborhoods with high numbers of refugee communities and includes the spatial and demographic characteristics of each
• Service delivery and social cohesion analyses to identify existing city- and community-led service delivery providers and assesses their level of inclusivity, responsiveness and efficiency and identify connectors and dividers between different types of communities and how to best leverage connections while mitigating risks associated with dividers.

Methodology

In developing the assessment, the consultant should consider the following:

1. Desk review of essential documents
2. Primary data collection including: key informant interviews (KIIs), and focus-group discussions (FGDs) with government officials (county and national), non-government stakeholders, private sector, and the community
3. The consultant must ensure informed consent is provided for all interviews, focus group discussions and photographs.
4. The consultant will specifically have briefing and debriefing meetings with the IRC at the commencement, mid-point and conclusion of methodological implementation.

The consultant is expected to take into consideration the new working realities of conducting some of the interviews virtually and adhering to the Ministry of Health and World Health Organization guidelines on COVID 19

Reports

• Inception meeting report that will include training/briefing on methodology by HQ/RE: BUILD Team, study report outline and assessment data collection tools for the study, work plan and budget.
• 1st draft report and a professionally edited final report that includes a stakeholder analysis, social network analysis
• Copies of original and cleaned data sets including field notes.

Duration of the consultancy

The assignment is expected to be undertaken for a maximum of 30 consultancy days which includes tools review, desk reviews, development of the inception report and approval by the IRC, data collection, report-writing and validation meeting (detailed work plan, with clear timeline to be developed).

Qualifications

• A post-graduate degree in social sciences, urban planning, or another relevant field:
• Over 10 years’ experience conducting Context, Political Economy, Conflict or Urban Context Analyses.
• Familiarity with the livelihoods, humanitarian, international development actors/sectors, and city government structure in Kenya with an emphasis on Nairobi
• Knowledge of MS Office
• Strong oral and written communications skills