Tenders Are Invited For Nrm Behavioral Study

Tenders are invited for NRM Behavioral Study. Closing Date: 28 Jan 2025 Type: Consultancy Themes: Climate Change and Environment/Protection and Human Rights/Recovery and Reconstruction Goal: Improve wellbeing of vulnerable Somali people. Study Objective: To contribute to the development of more effective and equitable Natural Resource Management interventions by understanding the complex interplay of social, cultural, economic, and institutional factors that influence community behaviors and by identifying effective strategies for scaling up successful NRM practices Study Specific objectives To analyse the psychological, social, and institutional drivers behind individual, community, and institutional behaviours influencing the adoption and implementation of NRM practices. To determine the factors influencing the adoption and sustainability of NRM practices both at community and household level**.** To identify behavioural enablers and barriers (e.g., trust, cooperation, cultural norms) alongside structural factors like governance and resource constraints that affect the scalability of NRM initiatives. To assess how local expertise and community capabilities influence behavioural patterns that drive the adoption and sustainability of NRM practices. To develop evidence-based recommendations that integrate behavioural insights to improve the scalability and sustainability of NRM initiatives across diverse socio-ecological settings Project location (Districts and # of villages/ sub-locations): El-Afweyne, Somaliland Anticipated Date of Final Report Submission: 20 days after data collection completed 1. Introduction: 1.1 Organizational context The Somali Resilience Program (SomReP) is a members-led resilience consortium that aims to build the capacity of pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, fisherfolk, peri-urban hosts, and internally displaced persons (IDP) communities. We focus on women, youth, and people with disabilities to mitigate the impact of natural and artificial shocks and stressors, adapt to climate change, diversify, and adopt sustainable livelihood strategies. Following the Somali famine in 2011, NGOs and donors mobilized best practices and expertise to co-create an area-based, multi-sector design with interventions spanning the humanitarian, recovery, development, and peace nexus. Building on members long-term commitment to vulnerable communities, the SomReP employs graduation pathways to layer and sequence interventions over five-year periods to create absorptive, adaptive, and set the foundation for transformative capacities. The SomReP works directly with communities, in partnership with government and local civil society and the private sector in disaster risk management, climate resilience, natural resource management, assets development, inclusive market systems and economic empowerment, gender mainstreaming and social inclusion. Practicing adaptive management, the consortium undertakes annual resilience measurements to understand the effectiveness of program interventions. The consortium also monitors exposure to shock that informs the use of its crisis modifier mechanism to protect resilience gains and livelihoods and save lives. Since its inception, the consortium has worked in 22 districts with members operational presence, enabling countrywide coverage. SomReP also hosts platforms, including the Somali Response Innovation Lab (SomRIL), Somali Livestock Insurance Consortium (SLIC) and Resilience Nexus Learning Action Network (RNLAN), that champion innovations key to resilience building. 1.2 SomRePs Contributions to Resilience-Building in Somalia/Somaliland Operating in one of the worlds most fragile and climate-affected regions, SomReP has consistently implemented multi-sectoral interventions to address the persistent challenges of food insecurity, poverty, and climatic shocks. The program has strategically focused on empowering communities to withstand and recover from the adverse effects of droughts, floods, and other climate-related disruptions. SomRePs approach is rooted in evidence-based and integrated resilience programming. Initiatives such as climate-smart agriculture have helped smallholder farmers adopt practices that enhance crop productivity while maintaining ecological balance. Through market systems development, SomReP has supported communities in accessing markets, improving incomes, and diversifying livelihoods. Additionally, sustainable livelihoods programming has equipped households with the skills and resources necessary to build adaptive capacities, ensuring that they can thrive even in the face of unpredictable shocks. 1.3 Challenges in Somalia/Somaliland Somalias rural households primarily depend on subsistence farming and livestock rearing for their livelihoods. However, these traditional practices are under increasing strain due to a combination of environmental, economic, and systemic challenges that threaten household food security and economic stability. Understanding and addressing these challenges is crucial to improving resilience and fostering sustainable livelihoods in the country. 1.3.1 Recurring Shocks Somalias climate is characterized by extreme variability, resulting in frequent droughts, floods, and pest infestations. These shocks disrupt agricultural production cycles, destroy crops and livestock, and erode household assets. The cumulative effect is widespread food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly among vulnerable groups such as children and women. Recurring shocks leave households trapped in a cycle of vulnerability, with little capacity to recover or adapt to future risks[1]. 1.3.2 Limited Land Use Efficiency Smallholder farmers face significant challenges in utilizing their limited land resources efficiently. They often struggle to balance land allocation between subsistence crops, which provide food for household consumption, and cash crops, which generate income. Inefficient land use results in suboptimal agricultural yields and limited economic returns, exacerbating both food insecurity and poverty[2]. 1.3.3 Natural Resource Management gaps Somalia/Somaliland faces significant challenges in natural resource management (NRM), primarily due to decades of conflict, climate change, and poor governance. Frequent droughts and floods exacerbate land degradation and water scarcity, while overgrazing, deforestation, and poor agricultural practices contribute to land degradation. Soil erosion reduces soil fertility and productivity, leading to decreased agricultural yields. Further, conflict and instability hinder NRM activities and displace communities, while competition over scarce resources, such as water and grazing land leads to more conflict. In addition, NRM often takes a backseat to other pressing issues, such as security and humanitarian aid. Addressing these challenges requires a multi-faceted approach that involves strengthening governance, investing in human capacity, promoting community-based NRM, adopting climate-smart agricultural practices and investing in research to identify, test and promote scalable community owned and people led NRM solutions. 1.4 Knowledge Gaps Somalia/Somaliland has been the victim of severe impacts of climate change in the form of severe and prolonged droughts. The regions environment has been severely degraded due to decades of civil strife. Degradation is still exacerbated by the lack of a fully recognized Government in Somaliland and weak institutions in Somalia. Both lack adequate law enforcement and global processes of climate and biodiversity degradation. [1] Somali drought (20212023) - Wikipedia [2] https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/03/28/agriculture-remains-key-to-somalias-economic-growth-and-poverty-reduction The uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources has led to severe environmental degradation across Somalia/Somaliland. Areas that were once tree-covered rangelands are now treeless plains, and wildlife has progressively disappeared. There is rampant soil erosion, scarcity of fresh water, massive land degradation from charcoal production, siltation of water bodies, and damage to marine resources and habitats. At least 10 tons per hectare of fertile land is lost yearly from various land degradation activities, with average deforestation of 0.97% per year. The natural resources management problems are further aggravated by extreme weather and climate change impacts for an economy over 70% dependent on climate-sensitive agriculture and pastoralism. Somalias economy is natural-based and is vulnerable to weather and climate change. Somalia has recently experienced severe recurrent droughts that spilt over three years. Somalia is a victim of climate change and has experienced five consecutive rain failures. About 8.6 million are affected, and 3 million livestock are lost (FSNAU 2022). The Somalia/Somaliland rangeland management system has been declining for decades due to the compounding effects of climate change and poor land use. Since the collapse of the Somalia central government, the sector has yet to function due to the impact of both natural disasters and human-induced hazards. Overgrazing, commercialization of charcoal, and encroachment of private land enclosures worsened the situation, leading to severe and progressive land degradation. Recurring droughts linked to climate change amplify the effects of anthropogenic land degradation. In general, Somalia/Somaliland and specifically Somaliland are characterized by arid and semi-arid agro-ecological areas where most of the landmass is occupied by pastoralist communities that have adopted a traditional herding system that lacks the essential amenities to sustain a livelihood and combat the increasing effects of drought and other environmental hazards. Other significant issues contributing to land degradation include clim Tender Link : https://reliefweb.int/job/4126677/terms-reference-tor-nrm-behavioral-study