Country Consultant Analyst: Barometer of Localisation of Humanitarian Aid in Cameroon

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Description of the Consultancy: Analysis of data related to the localization barometer of humanitarian aid in Cameroon
Area of Expertise: Project management, information management, and data analysis.
Location: Yaounde, Cameroon
Contract: Consultancy
Consultation Period: October 2024 – February 2025
Number of Consultation Days: 20 days

About ICVA:
Founded in 1962, ICVA (International Council of Voluntary Agencies) is a global network of over 160 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in 160 countries. Its mission is to make humanitarian action more principled and effective by working collectively and independently to influence policies and practices. ICVA promotes and facilitates the effective engagement of NGOs in the humanitarian sector, focusing on forced migration, humanitarian coordination, humanitarian financing, and system-strengthening issues.

About Cameroonian Humanitarian Organizations Initiative abbreviated CHOI :
CHOI is a platform registered in 2008 under no. 00000317/RDA/J06/SAAJP/BAPP, P.O Box 1322 Yaoundé, Tel: +237 677 66 50 2 7 / 693 40 28 30. With its ten regional offices, CHOI helps to harmonize the programs and activities of national NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and CSOs (Civil Society Organizations) so that they can act more effectively in the interests of vulnerable populations, by increasing the visibility of their actions and those involved; professionalizing organizations; putting in place a coordinated resource mobilization strategy; contributing to a more effective, rational and coordinated humanitarian response; helping to professionalize, structure and improve operational and technical capacities; empowering beneficiaries.

Context of the Consultancy:
Localisation has become a key topic in humanitarian aid over recent years. Since the Grand Bargain commitments, especially in West and Central Africa over the past two years, several initiatives have been undertaken to improve the role of national actors in humanitarian responses, including:

• Permanent seats on the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and key coordination forums.
• More partnerships and capacity-strengthening initiatives.
• Improved direct access to funding.
• Localisation forums and working groups.

However, without clearly established goals and measurable criteria, it remains difficult to assess progress in localization and identify the remaining challenges. ICVA and its partners have developed a regional methodology to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the degree of localization in humanitarian responses, track progress, and identify successes and challenges across countries in West and Central Africa. This aims to:

• Ensure a system of best practices and lessons learned.
• Advocate for evidence-based policies.
• Improve the localization agenda in countries with concrete proposals.

The project is regional to ensure harmonization, comparative analysis, and constructive exchanges of best practices between countries. However, it relies heavily on national leadership (via the national project steering committee) to ensure alignment with national actors’ needs and expectations, full project ownership, and long-term sustainability.

Given recent advances in localization, CHOI will lead the project in Cameroon in collaboration with ICVA.

Scope of work:
The consultant analyst will have to implement the methodology and tools developed at regional level within the country. He will be supported by a national information management (IM) consultant. A regional consultant (Regional Information Management Advisor) will provide support and guidance on the technical aspects of the project (tools, methodology, etc.).

Each country will have to take ownership of the methodology and tools developed to adapt them and ensure the best possible ownership of the project. Under the lead of CHOI, the consultant analyst will therefore have to liaise with the regional consultant and the national IM consultant to ensure (i) that the project fits into the regional framework and (ii) that as many people as possible take ownership of the project at country level.

Methodology and deliverables:
The steps below follow the full methodology, but only some of them will be carried out by the consultant analyst.

Step 1: Indicator library and scoring methodology (0 days):
This step will be carried out by the regional consultant. There is no day planned for the consultant analyst. However, it is important to be aware of it for the overall progress of the project.

Drawing on the indicators developed by NEAR and HAG and included in the IASC’s localisation policies, the regional consultant, with the help of ICVA and CHOI will develop a library of indicators based on the 6 components of localization: 1) Partnerships, 2) Financing, 3) Capacities, 4) Coordination and complementarity, 5) Policy, influence and visibility and 6) Participation.

To this end, it will develop framework tools to facilitate country ownership. This will take the form of an exhaustive matrix of existing and available indicators, together with their collection methods and questionnaires. These elements will serve as essential supports during the methodological definition workshops in the countries.

A scoring methodology will be developed to ensure that spatial and/or temporal comparisons can be made within each component.

Step 2: National-level indicators and methodology definition (4 days):
The consultant analyst will take part in the initial workshop organized by CHOI based on the library of indicators developed in stage 1 to:

• Determine the components to be evaluated and the ambitions (‘what success looks like’).
• Select and contextualize the most relevant indicators.
• Define, for each indicator, the target audience and the evaluation measure.

During this stage, the national consultant-analyst will have to integrate the definition of localisation (dimensions and issues in particular), and the questions of interest that will be retained in order to start structuring his analysis approach.

An analytical summary of the discussions is expected.

Step 3 – Collection of primary and secondary data (0 days)
This stage will be carried out by the national IM consultant. No days have been set aside for the consultant analyst. However, it is important to be aware of the overall progress of the project.

Primary data collection: The model forms will be revised and adapted by the regional consultant, with the help of the national IM consultant, for the online surveys. These online surveys will be aimed at a wide audience, including national and international NGOs, the United Nations, donors, etc. In order to optimise the number of respondents, they will be sent by e-mail to the mailing lists of CHOI, CHINGO (the INGO forum), OCHA and other NGO forums and presented and carried out in real time at a plenary meeting of each forum.

The collection of secondary data (recovery of minutes, attendance lists, financial data, etc.) will be carried out by the national IM consultant.

The national IM consultant will be responsible for monitoring and supervising the primary and secondary data collection process at country level (email dispatches / reminders / response rates, direct data collection, etc.) in direct liaison with CHOI, and with the technical support of the regional consultant.

Step 4: Data processing and analysis (16 days):
The national IM consultant is responsible for supporting the national analyst consultant through :

• Processing the data and making it available.
• Helping to manipulate the data to facilitate analysis.
• Producing graphs of interest at the request of the national consultant analyst.

The consultant analyst’s responsibilities include:

• Processing and analyzing primary and secondary data, with technical support from the regional consultant and the national IM consultant to ensure a harmonised approach.
• Primary and secondary data sets will be analysed exhaustively by issues and dimensions and hypotheses will be formulated, which will constitute preliminary conclusions that will be tested during interviews and focus groups.
• A report presenting the results of this analysis will be drawn up by the consultant analyst (first version) in accordance with the project methodology.
• Interview and focus group outlines/frameworks will be drawn up by the consultant analyst on the basis of the quantitative data collected.
• Additional interviews will be conducted with a sample of contacts by the consultant analyst. These KIIs will enable certain key aspects emerging from the qualitative study to be explored in greater depth and any barriers or feelings identified to be explored.
• Discussion groups (or focus groups) will be organised by the consultant analyst to present the results of the survey and discuss/consider certain aspects.
• The qualitative interviews and focus groups will feed into the narrative part of the final report and will also enable good/bad practices and examples to be identified and quotes to be collected. The recommendations will also be presented to the participants for fine-tuning.
• The consultant analyst will finalise the report by incorporating the results of these interviews and focus groups.

Deliverables:

• Analytical summary of the initial workshop.
• Draft analysis report (Version 1).
• Interview and focus group guides.
• Final analysis report incorporating qualitative data.
• PowerPoint presentation summarizing the key findings.

Required Skills and Qualifications:

Compulsory skills

• Proven experience in information management, data collection, and KII.
• Humanitarian sector experience.
• Strong document analysis and result documentation skills.
• Understanding of localization challenges.
• Excellent writing and communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and meet deadlines.
• Perfect command of English and French

Preferred Skills:

• Expertise in humanitarian coordination.

Note: Throughout the work, the consultant must be registered in accordance with legal requirements and must be able to submit documentation proving that he/she meets all legal obligations for consultancy, including full compliance with ICVA regulations, including the safeguarding policy.