Consultancy for Multi-sectoral needs assessment Analyses and Report Development

As humanitarian child centred organization; War Child UK is working to protect children living in some of the worst conflict affected places in the world including Yemen. Hence, WCUK have conducted Multi-sectoral need assessment in Yemen country office, aiming to seeks and generate data and thus build a greater understanding of the humanitarian needs focusing on child protection (integrating EiE and FSL) in 9 selected Districts across 3 governorate.

The overall purpose of this assignment is to contract with a bidder, who will conduct in depth desk review including internal and external available secondary data that relevant to the multi-sectoral assessment scope and objective, analysing the primary collected data via conducted households survey and KIIs, identifying gaps of the needs assessment and further data collection required if any, and developing a need assessment final comprehensive report focusing on:

• Providing a rapid child protection focused needs assessment integrated with EiE and FSL at the assessed sites level pertaining to sites in which WCUK is already intervenes andor likely to undertake an intervention.

Suggesting a way forward: Providing evidence-based recommendations to War Child UK on where and how to best focus efforts within the identified locations to support high-risk child protection concerns and avoid support gaps.

1. Background to War Child UK

War Child UK is an international humanitarian agency working to protect children living in some of the worst conflict-affected places in the world. War Child programmes are focused on three thematic areas: Child Protection, Education-in-Emergencies, and Food Security/Livelihoods. The current WCUK programme portfolio includes operations in: Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo. War Child UK started its operation in the Yemen in 2016 working in the three (3) thematic areas of Education, Protection and Livelihood. War Child UK’s main office is located in Sana’a, with a sub-office in Aden and project site in Al Mokha. War Child UK works according to five principles:

• We reach children early in the conflict cycle and we stay to support them through recovery;
• We are a specialist organisation focused on high-impact and sustainable interventions;
• We champion the voices of children and mobilise others to take action to support them;
• Our values define our actions and drive us to continually improve our work and systems;
• We are a part of an effective global family. Read more about www.warchild.org.uk

Background to the Needs Assessment

Yemen remains the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and aid operation. The crisis is the result of a brutal armed conflict that escalated six years ago. It has killed and injured tens of thousands of civilians, causing immense suffering for the Yemeni people. In 2020, the conflict intensified, the number of frontlines increased from 33 to 49, and 172,000 people were displaced, bringing the number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) to at least 4 million.

Protracted armed conflict, widespread economic collapse, and overstretched national systems and services have left 70 per cent of the total population, including 11.3 million children, in need of humanitarian assistance. The protracted situation severely impacted the health and nutrition of children, with nearly 400,000 children severely malnourished and 2.3 million children acutely malnourished. Nearly 400,000 children under 5 years of age suffer from severe acute malnutrition, and over 15.4 million people urgently need WASH services. Immunization coverage has stagnated at national level, with 37 per cent of children under 1 year of age missing routine vaccinations. Global shortages and breaks in the supply chain could cause further loss of household income, rising food prices and general inflation. The number of out-of-school children in Yemen has doubled since the conflict began, reaching over 2 million school-aged girls and boys by 2021. The current humanitarian crisis has increased the vulnerability of children and women to exploitation, violence and abuse, including child labour, forced recruitment, domestic and gender-based violence, child marriage and psychosocial distress.

In response to this changing and severe humanitarian context and WCUK’s opportunities to further scale our programming, WCUK is commissioning a multi-sectoral needs assessment to better map and analyse the needs within targeted communities to inform programming and advocacy

Scope and Objectives of conducted MSNA.

An Initial need assessment TOR was developed internally, which outlining the specific objectives, scope, and key interest and priorities for each sector and methodology. The assessment targeted 9 districts in 3 governorates across both North and South Yemen. The needs of both children and adults were assessed within the targeted locations through primary data collection using HHs survey and KIs interviews using both Kobo and papers . IDP and host settlements purposively sampled from 9 districts in 3 governorates, where selected districts targeted based on where WCUK is, has recently been or has a high chance of becoming operational and thus has a knowledge of the community and key stakeholders or a high chance of using this data in new proposals. Despite consulting children in this assessment remained a significant limitation to the data collected, due to several security and distinct cultural and political sensitivities factors particularly in communities where WC does not currently have existing activities with children, however, WCUK ensured range of participants through this assessment, including men, women, IDPs and host community members.

Approach and methodology

The needs assessment employed a primarily qualitative approach using household surveys and Key Informant interviews, thus the approach and methodology specific to this assignment should respond to the objectives of the assessment mentioned in the summery table. The proposed approach and methodology prepared by the assessment consultant should be inline with the scope mentioned, including planned timeframe of both primary and secondary data analyses, analyses approach, protocols for data analyses, ethical procedures to be followed. The approach and methodology may include, but are not limited to the following:

1. Desk review (internal/extremal available data): particularly relevant to assessment objectives and targeted locations outlined above where 1) Internal data includes pervious projects relevant to CP, EIE, and FSL such as final reports, monitoring reports, evaluation..etc. and 2) extremal available data such as but not limited to, Assessments, Evaluations, Strip, Databases and Datasets ..etc conducted by local andor international humanitarian agencies.
2. Primary Data Analyses: Analyzing the raw data “ primary” of MSNA collected through 1) HH Survey questionnaire, and 2) KII questionnaire
3. Involve triangulation techniques within the analysis approach of both internalexternal secondary data and primary collected data.

Deliverables

The deliverables required from this assignment are as follows:

• Desk Review and Final Inception Report inline with the scope and objectives on the need assessment, including planned timeframe, analyses approach, protocols for data analyses, ethical procedures to be followed, identifying gaps of the needs assessment and further data collection required if any
• Needs Assessment findings summary (brief of the main findings and actionable learning in English, maximum 4 pages)
• PowerPoint Summary Report presentation for dissemination of the findings and recommendations
• Electronic file containing all clean analyzed data.
• Needs Assessment Report in English including Final design.

The needs assessment report should: be jargon free, clear and simply written; not more than 30 pages, include an Executive Summary, brief background, outline of the methodology used (including any limitations), findings and recommendations, ensure findings are always being backed up with relevant data, with reference to the data source, where applicable, use of graphs, visuals, tables and a dashboard with results

Required experience, qualifications, skills and competencies of the consultant.

The consultant should meet the following requirements:

• Extensive experience of designing and implementing evaluations, researches, needs assessments, reviews and/or learning initiatives in the humanitarian sector, specifically in the areas of child Protection, Education, food security and livelihood
• MA in social sciences with 8 years of relevant experience or BA in social sciences and 10 years’ relevant experience
• Experience of building capacity in evaluation, researches and studies
• Demonstrable skills in producing high quality, accessible reports/outputs
• Team coordination experience in field level community-based work with strong analytic skills
• Strong written and spoken English
• Experience in conflict-affected contexts, including Yemen
• Good working knowledge of English, and Arabic (is preferred)
• Adherence to the War Child UK Child Safeguarding Policy.

Child Safeguarding

The consultant must read, sign, and adhere to the War Child UK Child Safeguarding Policy. War Child UK reserve the right to conduct background checks for the consultant, in addition to collecting references from previous clients.