Among the contexts most vulnerable to climate change, the Sahel is affected by high and persistent levels of poverty. In Niger and Burkina Faso, decades of investment by governments, the private sector, local organizations and international actors to address structural development challenges show that progress can be made, but millions of people are still affected by food crises, conflicts and recurring shocks, often in the same geographic pockets. Insufficient coordination between initiatives and contradictory approaches between development and humanitarian actors have made it impossible to leverage investments in a way that strengthens learning capacities at the local level, expands and sustains results. Growing regional terrorism, intensified by climatic and environmental constraints, adds to the complexity. Achieving sustainable pathways out of poverty and reversing chronic food insecurity will require a coordinated effort to address these interrelated challenges.
USAID’s resilience programs provide a pathway to maximize development outcomes in areas affected by recurring, protracted, and chronic shocks and stresses. As mutually reinforcing multi-sectoral strategies, they highlight the need for diverse development, humanitarian and private sector stakeholders to work more closely together to achieve collective impact. There is a need to focus on aligning these investments under a shared vision and coordinated approach, with clear advocacy and communications strategies and capacities. Strengthened collaboration through joint analysis, planning and implementation – underpinned by iterative learning and frequent course correction through adaptive management – provides a compass for working together by accounting for complexity and giving life to a portfolio of mutually reinforcing impacts.
In response to this context, Mercy Corps, with its partners Equal Access International and Tulane University, designed the Sahel Collaboration and Communication (SCC) activity. SCC aims to operationalize this collaborative, complexity-aware way of working to leverage investments from RISE II, Bridge, GPCS and the complementary efforts of donors, communities, governments and the private sector, by a coherent and efficient portfolio. The objective of the SCC: Ensure collaboration, learning and communication between USAID implementing partners and stakeholders to improve development outcomes in targeted areas of the Sahel.
- Result 1: Strengthened collaboration for collective impact
- Outcome 2: Improved learning and adaptive management
- Outcome 3: Increased awareness of USAID contributions among key audiences
Outcome 3: Increased awareness of USAID contributions among key audiences Innovative Grants Program in English) of SCC aims to catalyze systems-level changes or transformational changes, aiming to establish connections between higher education researchers and USAID implementing partners to support the execution of the CSC's Common Learning Agenda. The objective of the PSI is to catalyze innovative solutions to approaches to resilience, collaboration, learning and adaptation through the engagement of multi-sectoral and interdisciplinary research teams around the learning issues of the health agenda. learning of SCC. The goal of the program is to generate and enrich the knowledge base on catalytic approaches to resilience in communities including the barriers and obstacles that communities face on the ground.
The research teams will be composed of professors and students from universities and/or local research organizations, with an emphasis on the participation of women and young people. Members of the selected research teams will also engage in some CSC activities to become familiar with resilience concepts and approaches. Teams will be encouraged to be composed of individuals from different institutions and disciplines and will include at least two paid students in each team, under the supervision of researchers. The first round of grants will be rapid grants lasting six to twelve months on research questions in Annexe 1.
The call for tenders will be published in April 2022; The technical selection committee will be composed of SCC project staff, Tulane University, and faculty from local universities. Potential applicants can participate in an orientation webinar to be held virtually in April 2022. Finalists for each research question (batch) after this selection will be called to a “co-creation” (refinement) workshop with researchers from Tulane University. Final selection of grants, which will be awarded through service contracts with Mercy Corps, will be made in June or July 2022. Tulane University will hold bimonthly meetings with grant recipients.
Activities of the consultant/principal investigator:
He/she will be responsible for organizing and managing the team to ensure the following:
- Identify the approach and define the methodologies that will be used and prepare the tools, methods and masks/matrices for data collection and analysis;
- Collect, analyze and synthesize relevant secondary data;
- Coordinate, schedule, organize and facilitate data collection (may include quantitative or qualitative methods through surveys, individual interviews and/or group discussions or other appropriate participatory methods);
- Ensure the support and training of students, research materials, tools and software and the logistics of missions (if applicable) as well as the financial management of the service; And
- Provide deliverables in a timely manner and respond to all questions/comments from Tulane on research products and processes.
Deliverables of the consultant/principal investigator:
- Inception report with tools, primary, secondary or mixed methods and collection and analysis masks/matrices clearly defined, as well as roles in the research team and their training;
- Provisional report (with tools/masks/matrices/transcriptions/collection documents in annex);
- Final report (with comments taken into account and annexes finalized), of maximum twenty pages.
Profile of consultant/principal investigator:
- Have at least a higher university degree (BAC+8) in one of the following fields: sociology, anthropology, demography, economics, agriculture or a similar field;
- Have at least 5 years of professional experience in the field of research including social and economic studies/analyses; experience with research carried out by NGOs on learning issues would be an asset;
- Good command of qualitative and quantitative approaches, as well as their analysis and reporting using current software and approaches;
- Experience in managing teams of researchers;
- Very good command of French and national languages; fluency in English would be an asset.
The consultant/principal investigator will report to: Pr. Nancy MOCK.
The consultant/researcher will work in close collaboration with: Issaka OUMAROU.
To apply :
The consultant/principal investigator must submit their application at the link:
mailto:SoumissionOffresMCN@mercycorps.org at the latest May 15, 2022 at noon (Niamey time, GMT+1). The submission must be marked “Offer SCC Question X” and the name and contact details of the bidder and contain the following documents:
- Detailed CVs of key study personnel, not exceeding 3 pages per person, including those of students;
- A technical proposal detailing the study process, including suggestions for methodologies (5 pages maximum);
- The relevance of research to identify catalytic practices for resilience
- The research approach (the methods that will be used)
- Data source
- Team and organization chart
- Implementation plan
- A financial offer (categories: personnel/consultants, field logistics, materials and other costs, taxes/BIC withholdings)
- A list of references to contact (at least three);
- A list of previous consultations conducted.
Technical evaluation criteria for concept notes:
- Relevance (20%)
- Methodological approach (30%)
- Interdisciplinary team, inclusion and relevant research experience of the proposed team (30%)
- Feasibility of the proposed research (20%)
Prospective bidders are invited to participate in an online meeting on the call which will take place on April 25, 2022. Questions and answers will be shared with all prospective bidders thereafter. Please complete the webinar registration form here: Inscription Webinaire: Appel Subventions a l’Innovation – Google Forms.