TERMS OF REFERENCE
Development of a knowledge management system for Somalia Resilience Program (SomReP)
October 2014
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
The Somalia Resilience Program (SomReP) is a consortium of seven non-governmental organizations1 with
deep experience in Somalia that partnered with an ambitious approach to tackle the challenge of recurrent
droughts and other related shocks and the chronic vulnerability that results among pastoralists, agropastoralists, and peri-urban households in one of the poorest countries in the world. The consortium was
formed with the prime aim of building resilient households and communities across Somaliland, Puntland,
and South Central Somalia.
In SomReP’s Phase 1, from 2013-2016, the consortium’s goal is to provide $80 million in donor resources
to increase the resilience of 420,000 vulnerable people across 23 districts in Somalia. Within the
community of donors and implementing agencies in Somalia, SomReP is leading an effort to contribute to
resilience building by enhancing the productive capacities of pastoral, agro-pastoral, and peri-urban
households.
Shared learning and knowledge management are key to achieving quality and effectiveness of these
resilience building activities and for the seven agencies participating across the program.
1.2 Monitoring & Evaluation, Early Warning and Early Action
SomReP's approach to Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is to track impact using high level resilience
indicators across all projects through a framework for collecting and analyzing information which is fed
back into the project design and implementation. In order to effectively assess SomReP’s impact at
program and project levels, baselines, mid-term and end of project evaluations will be conducted with
gender and age disaggregated data, across all indicators as defined in the SomReP logframe. An impact
study will be conducted in which intended, and unintended impact on individual families will be tracked
over time; changes within the family, within the communities and within the external social, political, and
economic context will be analysed. Comparisons will be made between each of the different SomReP
project locations, particularly to assess commonalities between families and districts to determine success
factors for increased resilience.
SomReP is also developing an Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) approach that assesses local level risks
of slow onset disasters through the real time monitoring of food security and livelihoods, health and
conflict indicators. These indicators are assigned thresholds that trigger appropriate early actions by
agencies in their operational areas.
For this reason, SomReP is seeking to develop a web-based inter-organization Result-Based M&E System
with an integrated EWEA component.
2. PURPOSE OF THE CONSULTANCY
SomReP is looking for consultancy services for the development, customization and implementation of a
web-based M&E system with an Early Warning component for program/project management, monitoring
and evaluation and impact assessment using a results based management framework.
3. OBJECTIVES
1
SomReP members are Action against Hunger (ACF), Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), CARE, Cooperazione Internazionale
(COOPI), Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Oxfam, and World Vision (WV).
Customize and deliver a Knowledge Management System to monitor program progress against high level
resilience indicators, and assist agencies and staff to generate, access and monitor program information
efficiently and to the benefit of the program's high level resilience goals. This system will be implemented
for all projects to track performance indicators set out in the SomReP master log frame, and to critically
analyse progress towards agreed milestones throughout the life of each donor funded project. Progress
monitoring against output milestones will either be reported quarterly or bi-annually reflecting gender
analysis, age group and location disaggregated data. This quantitative progress reporting will be supported
by qualitative assessments of wider indirect impacts of project outputs on HHs and communities through
PRAs.
A functioning Knowledge Management System should help the consortium agencies and
staff to:
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Compare experiences of projects and agencies across the country and draw out common issues
and challenges
Avoid repeating past mistakes and highlight good practice
Make lesson‐learning, and thereafter capacity‐building, a conscious and habitual process within a
team
Make program information and progress more accessible and useable to program staff, technical
unit and decision makers
Improve program interventions through information sharing, and revising strategy of programs
as and when required
Support effective and timely decision making in the area of early warning and early action by
drawing together sources of information in a meaningful way
4. KEY TASKS & DELIVERABLES (step by step needs and wants, clearly defined with
timeframe)
4.1 Conduct a Review of Current Information Systems and Information Needs Assessment
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Conduct an EW and M&E information user review including donors and decision-makers: who
needs to know what for which decisions? How can decision-makers be better informed?
Conduct a review of existing software systems being used by SomReP: how is M&E and EW data
currently captured and reported and to whom? This is based on a technical review of the
current software. How can technology be enhanced?
Review of M&E capacities and structures including technical hosting and ICT support capacity.
Where are the key capacity gaps?
Review current M&E processes: how is M&E data collected and reported? How is data quality
assured? What guidance is available and is it being followed?
Produce a documented roadmap for full development of EW and M&E systems for agreement
by the contract manager
4.2 Design, contextualize and provide a web based inter-organization Result-Based M&E
System for SomReP
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Based on review and analysis of SomReP M&E systems and roadmap, design, customize and
deliver a user friendly web based knowledge management system that at a minimum will
provide the following:
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A systematic results-based management approach of defining programme results and
identifying indicators for each result, setting targets, and developing monitoring and
evaluation questionnaires and other forms for capturing data from different partners and
levels (programme or project)
Set targets for each indicator in order to simultaneously evaluate projections and
achievements during project life cycle. Results indicators for each project type should be
consolidated at different levels
Development of expressions that define how each indicator value will be derived from
its variables.
Form builder compatibility with SMAP FIELDTASK- the android based data
collection/form builder application client used by SomReP which will be used as the
primary form builder and data collection application for the M&E System
A real-time update of monitoring and evaluation reports that will provide SomReP with
a quick and robust results based decision making.
Automatic generation of standard programme documents in specified formats in a way
that allows for easy reporting to SomReP’s partners and multiple donors.
Logical Frameworks (viewable in a single, printable page including expected results,
risks/assumptions, indicators and means of verification by result), Work Plans and
Budgets for each programme / project
Dashboards for each project type showing graphs and charts for managers using data
drawn automatically from SomReP's mobile data collection tool (SMAP FIELDTASK)
A brief write up of the proposed systems for each project type explaining the rationale
and how they relate to the corporate indicators.
4.3 Support the implementation of the M&E System for SomReP across partner agencies
and the SomReP Technical Unit
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Provide capacity building and training services to the technical unit and partner agency staff
during roll out of the system across the program
Provide troubleshooting and support services to the system during implementation and use of
the knowledge management system.
4.4 Design and Implement a web based and real time Early Warning Early Action System
for SomReP
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Review documentation and learning on SomReP's EWEA system
Advise on development of thresholds for EWEA indicators in SomReP's phased risk
management approach
Develop an online EWEA interface for program staff at the operational level (by district), that
draws together relevant EW information to assist with analysis and decision making including:
o Regional EW narrative information from FSNAU technical reports and updates
o Spatial data from FEWS NET's NDVI and rainfall systems
o Visualizations and trend information on district level market data, health and conflict
data drawn automatically from SomReP's mobile data collection tool (SMAP
FIELDTASK)
o Community level EW information collected monthly by community early warning
committees
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Link early warning information to recommended early actions through the EWEA interface by
assigning triggers based on agreed thresholds
Agency staff are able to add narrative, compile information and produce a simple EW report
with recommendations at the district/project level
4.5 Design, contextualize and provide a web based system that can provide Financial
Monitoring & Tracking
The Knowledge Management system should to provide the following:
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Measurement between posted budgets in sun system and actual expenditure for any particular
period (i.e expenditure variance). This will be per project and the overall program.
Measurement of posted partner budgets in sun system and actual expenditure per partner. The
system should be able to rank performance between different partners (depending on
percentage of deviation) within a particular grant.
Link budget utilization to the approved work plan
Measure the broad category budget utilization per partner and the overall grant (i.e activity,
Admin and Indirect cost (where applicable))
Include timeliness in financial reporting within different partners and over the various grants.
The system should be able to generate an overall performance within the partners on the
different grants
Visualize a snapshot of real-time results performance, indicator performance, work plan vis-à-vis
budget
4.6 Ensure data security
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SomReP gives key consideration to data security. Therefore, besides providing access control to
any data, the system should provide a full tracking of data changes while at the same time making
sure that any data that has been captured is not lost.
5. TIMEFRAME FOR CONSULTANCY
The following is an expected timeframe for achieving the key tasks in the Terms of
Reference:
1. Conduct a Review of Current Information Systems and Information Needs Assessment (15
days)
2. Design, contextualize and provide a web based inter-organization Result-Based M&E System for
SomReP (5 days)
3. Support the implementation of the M&E System for SomReP across partner agencies and the
SomReP Technical Unit (10 days)
4. Design and Implement a web based and real time Early Warning Early Action System for
SomReP (5 days)
Total days: 30 days
6. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS
Interested Consultants and Firms are expected to submit a detailed expression of interest (technical and
financial proposal) with the following components;
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Their understanding of TOR
Proposed methodology and work schedule
Proposed Budget
A profile of the firm including full name(s), physical addresses, telephone numbers.
Copies of CVs of all the consultants who will undertake the evaluation
Applications from qualified firms/individuals should be submitted by 23rd November 2014 to
somo_supplychain@wvi.org