Regional Bureau - Southern, Eastern & Central Africa: Capacity Building Strategy
Terms of Reference
Background:
Since the drought years of 2000/01 and 2001/02, and during subsequent years of failures in crop
production, a number of regional initiatives coordinated by the Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC) Food Agriculture and Natural Resources (FANR) Vulnerability Assessment
Committee were put in place. Most Countries formed the National Vulnerability Assessment
Committees which spearheaded the planning, designing and implementation of food security
assessments, whose results their governments and/or agencies used to target those who were
adversely affected by the drought. WFP, with donor’s support, has contributed to strengthening the
Regional and National VAC processes especially in planning, designing and execution of food
security assessments. For the past five years, assessments conducted by the National
Vulnerability Assessment Committees (VAC) and other food security consortiums have provided
most of the information to guide not only WFP programming for emergency operations (EMOPs)
and their subsequent Protracted Recovery and Relief Operations (PRROs) but also Government
and other Co-operating Partners who are part of the humanitarian response. Overall Southern
Africa over the past five years has worked towards ensuring that the methodologies are
standardized to the extent possible.
Furthermore, there have been attempts to ensure that information collection addresses other
areas such as health, nutrition and HIV and AIDS indicators. These aspects cannot be separated
from the comprehensive analysis as they impact on chronic vulnerability.
The South Africa Government through a development project provides funding to WFP to
strengthen vulnerability assessment capabilities is SADC. Any future capacity building needs to
recognise this existing platform which foster both sustainability and address WFP’s SO5 .
As part of WFP’s overall strategy to strengthen its capacities in assessing food and non-food needs
in emergencies, ODXF has embarked on a number of initiatives to support the assessment/analysis
efforts in the region.
However, as this is just one of many training initiatives being offered it is important to ensure that
the correct people are being targeted with the correct training to avoid wasteful and costly exercises
that benefit neither the participant nor the releasing countries. The ultimate objective of this
exercise is thus to build a sustainable and sound capacity building strategy for the region.
This will be achieved by undertaking an assessment of existing capacities which will be specific for
each country of the region, as it is recognized that CO staff that receive training may not
necessarily be using these skills for extended periods of time in their own Countries. The benefit of
creating a pool of staff working in similar contexts for similar type of exercise is they could be
deployable within the region if required.
Objectives:
The main objective of this initiative is to build a more focused learning/capacity building programme
at the regional and country office level.
To reach this objective, the Consultant is responsible for managing and directing all tasks related to
the successful development of the ODJ capacity building strategy. In this regard s/he is expected
to:
 Recommend the overall directions for the selection of ODJ staff and key partners staff for
formal trainings, and how this training will be used to enhance other activities beyond
assessments the RB/CO with specific reference on the need to link all assessment activities
and information sources; In order to do this the consultant needs to:

Obtain a clear understanding of the role and contribution of EFSA (including annual VACs,
CHS/Nutrition, JAM and CFSAM) and VAM analysis at all key stages of the programme
decision making;
1


Understand of the duties and tasks related to these functions (EFSA / VAM and non EFSA /
VAM) and identify the skills, knowledge and abilities required for successful performance;
Consider other programme areas, including M&E, Emergency preparedness, Contingency
planning and Food security monitoring/early warning;

Identify the core skills required for Country Office assessment activities (including support to
National VACs) (particularly EFSA techniques, qualitative and quantitative analysis, market
analysis, response options, nutrition, report writing, and training of trainers).

Update assessor database for the region using criteria developed by ODXF

Develop learning profiles based on the background of participants in terms of potential role in
VAM or EFSA technical expertise and experience and job responsibilities.

Recommend a strategy for exposing trained staff to assessments and other related activities,
through practical opportunities for understudying (incl. TDY’s and on-the-job learning).

Recommend ways in which trainings and understudying can benefit staff in their career
development (how this links to RB/CO expectations, staff appraisals, PACE, etc.)

Recommend thematic areas to be considered as part of this learning strategy, and develop a
timeframe on where and when trainings should be run, and how they link to CO’s activities.

Develop specific ToRs for these learning events and where possible, identify ‘coaches’ for the
learning process

Develop the outline of an evaluation approach of this capacity building and training strategy
which can be fed upwards into ODXF’s work at the corporate level.
Specific Tasks and Outputs:
Specifically, in relation to assessment activities, the Consultant is expected to:

Consult through in-country visits [to be identified] and by telephone/email with the CO’s on their
training needs and expectations, and how the CO’s select these staff for trainings; determine
the key work functions of these staff in the CO’s, beyond assessment work; identify skills gap
for each learner profile; and determine the relevant trainings required to fill these skills gaps
and training needs / expectations;

Review ODXFs database of Quality Monitoring Checklists (QMCs) from the region to identify
overall strengths and weaknesses of EFSA (and in some cases, JAM) reports in the region;

Determine how skills learnt through these trainings can be used by staff members in executing
more regular, non-assessment activities in their CO’s, and how they can be used for evaluation
/ staff appraisal processes;

Prepare a calendar of assessment activities by country in the Region for end 2007 - 2008 and
hereafter, and identify when and where training activities should take place; to link with these
activities.

As part of ODXF capacity building initiative, contribute to developing a project evaluation
outline, which can be built upon and implemented during the course of the capacity building
strategy, allowing for the re-orientation of activities if required. This could include use of the
QMC as a tool for monitoring overall trends in report quality.

Prepare and submit a final strategy report, consolidated all of the above expected outputs.
2
Duration
The work plan for the capacity building strategy is expected to cover 6 weeks of working days, with
a final report and strategy presented to WFP on completion of the assignment.
Qualifications
The consultancy is set at a P4 level.
Advanced University Degree and/or equivalent experience with emphasis in one or more of the
following disciplines: economics, agriculture, international affairs, business administration, social
sciences, development studies or a field relevant to international development assistance.
At least 7 years (3 of which international), post-graduate, related to development and emergency
work in the humanitarian sector, including practical experience in the design, planning,
implementation and assessment of relief operations, assessments, training, and capacity building.
Computer skills - knowledge of relevant Word Processing and database software.
3