Consultancy Terms of Reference to Conduct a Baseline Assessment

Support to Improving Social Cohesion through Community Development Planning in 3 LGAs in North-East Nigeria

Consultancy Terms of Reference to Conduct a Baseline Assessment for the Guyuk LGA Community Development Plan

Background:

Human migration within and across countries has been a global concern, particularly migration driven by conflicts and other humanitarian crises. The rising number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees in Nigeria, especially in the North-East region of the country, is a consequence of prolonged insurgencies and has significantly altered the sociocultural milieu of the area.

The displacement has negative effects on both the displaced people and their host communities, thereby negatively impacting the social cohesion of the people. The difficulties experienced by the displaced persons to adapt to the unfamiliar environment due to the lack of basic support needed, as well as the host community’s perception of IDPs as a threat due to limited resources to accommodate the new entrants, often snowball into subtle crises.

This increases the incidence of violent crises and the volatility of the already tense environment.

Likewise, the poor adaptation and receptivity of host communities often lead to the breakdown of social cohesion within the communities. These community-based challenges are further worsened by the nonexistence of a government plan or a structure for proper community integration of displaced individuals, particularly at the state and local government levels.

Gender differential effects of displacements and lack of social cohesion have especially been observed as women, children, and people with disabilities become even more disadvantaged, thereby increasing their vulnerability. Hence, there is a need for a local and comprehensive integrative approach to bring all members of the community on a path towards sustainable growth with the active involvement of the communities concerned.

In view of these challenges, CRUDAN, Oxfam, and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) GiZ will be implementing a twenty-four (24) month project to establish a local but comprehensive integrational approach to bring all members of the community on the path of sustainable growth with the active involvement of the communities concerned and relevant government and non-governmental structures in Guyuk LGA.

The general objective of the project is to increase citizens’ participation and strengthen social cohesion by delivering community-driven development interventions in 10 wards of Guyuk LGA, Adamawa State. The specific objective of the project includes:

– To improve participatory engagement and planning between local communities and government stakeholders towards improved service delivery.

– To strengthen social cohesion through capacity building of stakeholders on inclusive planning, implementation, and monitoring of community development plans.

The project seeks to empower local communities to identify and address key development challenges while fostering unity, cooperation, and resilience through the delivery of community-driven development interventions in 10 wards of Guyuk LGA in Adamawa State.

Justification/Rationale:

With funding from BMZ and in partnership with GiZ, CRUDAN, Oxfam has launched a project to improve social cohesion and citizen participation through a Community Development Planning approach in Guyuk LGA leveraging on the CEPP policy of Adamawa State and the policy implementation framework.

The project has successfully developed a Local Government Community Development Plan through inclusive and participatory approaches implemented during the CDP Sessions, as well as strategic capacity building programs both for the LGA officials, strategic stakeholders, and community members (WDSCs).

This program has contributed to the strengthening of social cohesion among community members from different socio-economic backgrounds.

Similarly, the project has developed a strategic Monitoring and Evaluation Framework to support inclusive monitoring, tracking, and evaluation of the implementation of the LGA Community Development Plan for the next 5 years.

With the development of the Monitoring and Evaluation framework, the LGA Community Development Plan, there is a need to conduct a baseline assessment to establish the foundation to measure the implementation of the LGA Community Development Plan across established outcome and output areas.

Objectives and Scope of the Assignment:

The overall objective of the assessment is to establish the foundation to measure progress across sectors during the implementation of the Community Development Plan. The Specific Objectives include:

– To conduct rapid assessments to collect relevant data that would support the establishment of baseline data for each outcome and output areas across the 10 priority sectors.

– To conduct a desk review of relevant documents, including project documents, state and local policies, and frameworks for the establishment

of relevant baseline data that would support the tracking of progress during the implementation of the CDP in the LGA.

Expected Deliverables

The service provider is expected to deploy professional expertise and freely deploy relevant approaches in conducting the assessment within 2 weeks.

Through this process, the service provider will be expected to work with the project team to interact with a wide range of state and non-state actors across all wards in the LGA.

Deliverables from this exercise will include, but are not limited to.

A. A detailed, non-ambiguous, and easy-to-read inception report capturing methods, approaches, and assessment tools to be used for the assessment.

B.

A detailed, non-ambiguous, and easy-to-read assessment report at the end of the assessment, which should include:

– Quantitative and qualitative baseline data as captured on the Guyuk CDP M and E framework.

– Pictures of field activities.

– Tables, graphs, etc., where necessary.

C. A brief PowerPoint presentation summarizing the findings of the assessment.

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Qualification of Service Provider

With the development of the Monitoring and Evaluation framework of the LGA Community Development Plan, there is a need to conduct a baseline assessment to establish the foundation to measure the implementation of the LGA Community Development Plan across established outcome and output areas.

Interested candidates should have the following qualifications, functional skills, and competencies:

• Advanced degree/MSc degree in Social Science, Development Studies, Policy and strategic studies, Local Government administrative systems, public policy management, and other related fields.

Previous proven experience in related research work is of importance.

• Ability and proven experience in handling similar research related to citizen participation in governance intervention, with a technical understanding of the participatory budget technique using the Community development plan/charter or Demand Charter approach.

• Ability to communicate feedback in an easy-to-read and understand narrative format.

• Sound understanding of the northern governance structures and local context; community budget engagement processes at the Local, State, and National levels.

• Technical knowledge of community development plan institutionalization by the government; State Citizens’ interface and community engagement framework.

• Knowledge of good governance, the statutory public budget process, and other related policies at the State and Local government levels, as well as government policies on fiscal transparency

• Sound understanding of the Open Government Partnership system in Nigeria, as well as other related multilateral networks.

• Extensive experience in community development, social cohesion, and participatory planning processes.

• Strong knowledge of the local context and cultural dynamics in Adamawa State, particularly in Guyuk LGA.

• Expertise and experience in conducting political-economic analysis at the National and sub-national level in Nigeria

• Good understanding of the socio-economic and socio-political context in Adamawa State, Nigeria.

• Ability to interact with the host government, partners, and/or others as requested by CRUDAN and Oxfam.

• Ability to comply with the CRUDAN and Oxfam safeguarding policy and other related guidelines during the period of work.

Timeline

The consultancy work is expected to commence on 4th May 2026 and be completed on/or before 21st May 2026.

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Tagged as: Agriculture, Food Security and Livelihoods