Consultants for COMITAS Social Cohesion, Value Chain, and Market Assessment at Mercy Corps

Project Description

• In order to contribute to the mitigation of shared natural resource conflicts, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Search for Common Ground (Search), and Mercy Corps have designed the COMITAS program as a comprehensive and integrated approach to respond to conflicts over natural resources between farmer and herder communities in Adamawa State, Nigeria. The European Union’s (EU) Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) that responds quickly and flexibly to conflicts and crises funds the 18-month program.

This project has four specific objectives:

• Strengthen traditional conflict resolution in the targeted locations in Adamawa state to support conflict prevention and mitigation efforts.
• Improve trust in authorities’ commitment to providing security and adequate resource management to help prevent communities from turning towards violence.
• Address the root causes of conflict between farmer and herder communities over natural resources and;
• Improve intra- and intercommunal perceptions.

Purpose and Goal

• For Mercy Corps’ COMITAS program, this study seeks to explore valuable economic opportunities – market systems and chains and other economic connectors – that exist to strengthen conflict mitigation efforts, improve livelihoods, natural resource management and social interactions between farmer and herder communities and other social groups in Adamawa State.
• The key focus of the study will be on the critical value chains to better understand market weaknesses that could be both a source and a consequence of conflict between farmer and herder communities.
• The assessment will also integrate critical considerations such as gender sensitivity, conflict patterns related to natural resource management, access and use, agro-enterprises, climate change and resiliency, conflict sensitivity and economic recovery challenges.
• Also, as an essential part of the study, this assessment will identify concrete and plausible economic alternatives that will favor crop and livestock production, and other agricultural inputs, financial service sectors and market components that rural community groups can explore to alleviate poverty and complement existing agricultural value chains.
• The assessment will also identify critical supporting functions and rules and norms that help shape the performance of markets while inherently addressing some of the underlying constraints associated with natural resource management and resource-based conflict mitigation in Adamawa State.
• This study will develop the evidence base to stimulate accessible, inclusive, and resilient market systems that recognize the challenges and complexity of the farmer-herder conflicts in Adamawa State, and identify diverse pathways to support individuals, households and communities engaged in agricultural production out of chronic impoverishment.
• Also, the study will focus on reducing barriers for market participation or inclusion for households, individuals, and communities in Adamawa to address agricultural productions and incomes while bolstering alternatives to natural resources usage and having the capacity to diffuse conflicts.
• This assessment will be evidence-based and will draw on any existing market practices and models that have proven to be effective in advancing natural resource outputs in Adamawa State.
• The end-product of this assessment will promote systemic changes in market systems, remove the barriers to market entry for farmer and herder populations, and facilitate widespread adoption of microenterprise group models that are relevant to farming and herding to boost agricultural productivity and quality.

In terms of specific objectives for this assessment, the consultancy will:
Cause and effects- Literature reviews and in-depth interviews:

• Identify socio-economic environment in Adamawa State, taking into consideration some of the local causes and drivers of shared natural resource conflicts (immediate/proximate/cyclical/historical factors) in farmer and herder communities, along with the interconnections between market systems development and social cohesion drivers.
• Assess the challenges faced by farmer and herder communities (and its members, i.e. women/men and youth), that hinder their participation in resource-based and market systems?
• Analyze the impact of internal and external factors (including geo-politics, sociocultural dynamics, climate change, and forced displacement) on shared natural resource conflicts and value chains.Assess market weaknesses that could be both a source and a consequence of conflict between farmer and herder communities

Social Cohesion:

• Assess the structural issues around the sharing and management of natural resource in the community (conflicts and other extra-trade tensions that are related to broader structural issues, including natural resource policies and the attitudes and behaviors).
• Assess the factors for escalation/ reduce resource-based conflicts, especially between farmer and herder communities.
• Assess the local potentials that promote growth and social inclusion of communities in decision making and sharing of Natural resources.

Actors Mapping and opportunities:

• Identify value chain actors/networks that allow users easy and sustained access to key local and state-levelactors including off takers/aggregators, input suppliers, and others, even in the face of conflict and other stresses. Analyze the interplay of actors between these different structures and systems at the different levels (local community, state and beyond), identifying the interests of the identified actors to sustain - market practices that address poverty, prolonged natural resource conflict dynamics, and support economic frameworks that foster market cooperation among diverse parties [in]directly associated with or affected by resource-based conflicts.
• Identify opportunities for the struggles over market power, access and space that occurs along commodity chains and particularly contribute to the escalation of resource-based conflicts.
• Identify the coping and mediation mechanisms used by market actors and communities to manage these struggles in ways that prevent escalation, including recent changes in their availability and efficac

Projects Connectors: Review existing agricultural market models to identify their effectiveness, the gaps in their operations and how their adaptation will address poverty and improve positive interactions and social cohesion across communities:

• Analyze the natural resource institutional capacities that exist to support access to effective value chains and functional markets, especially those that are inclusive and consider the intersectional capabilities of diverse men, women and youth groups involved in farming and herding activities.
  • Identify the diverse social structures that guarantee adequate social inclusion, particularly facilitating women’s economic empowerment opportunities within agricultural production and natural resource market systems.
• Assess stresses, shocks and/or stressors that influence natural resource management, agricultural production, and economic recovery for poor populations (at individual/household/market/macro levels).
  • Identify the impact of environmental depletion and climate change, infrastructural damage, disruption of legitimate market networks, and limited market scope on various value chains.
  • Identify diverse leverage points within value chains, addressing some of the gaps that affect functional markets that different groups, particularly farmer and herder communities, can access and engage with various users [in]directly.
  • Highlight the power imbalances that exist or often result from the structure of these leverage points, such as factors that prevent crop or animal producers from interacting directly with end-buyers.
  • Identify the quality and type of agricultural products that diverse end-market users demand, and the requirements and risks associated with meeting these demands.
  • Identify the opportunities/mechanisms available for farmers and herders and other socioeconomic groups to improve agricultural production and raise personal and household income.

Sustainability - Linkages and synergie:

• Identify areas of connections and sequencing/layeringlivelihoods strategies and interventions with other types of peacebuilding, governance, and NRM interventions that COMITAS (and other programs more broadly). if evidence is available, the recommendations should consider how the strategies focused on supporting the livelihoods and market access, should also layer and sequence with other interventions focused on natural resource management, peace building and good governance, including but not limited to interest-based negotiation, dialogues and joint projects, participatory planning and advocacy trainings and trauma healing.

Research Questions
The following questions will guide this study:

• What are the connections between socio -economic conditions on the resource based conflicts to the market systems and social cohesion in Adamawa state?
• Establish what has already been done and where are the gaps exist for the intervention’s measures?
• What existing value chains facilitate robust agricultural production, market access and improved livelihoods and economic recovery for diverse rural and urban populations
• To what extent and through what mechanisms do existing value chains, and market networks do or do not influence resource-based conflicts in Adamawa?
• Existing market strategies and practices are adopted to ameliorate livelihoods, ensure natural resource access, and strengthen social cohesion in farmer and herder communities through collaborative market engagements in Adamawa State?
• What are the likely linkages of climate change, conflict and livelihoods impacts in Adamawa State?
• Make recommendations after establishing facts on the ground to both state and non-state actors, including both local and of cross border nature.

Geographic Coverage of the Study:

• This assessment will cover at least 10 Local Government Areas of Adamawa State.

Approach and Methodology

• For this assessment, the method of engagement will be consultative and grounded on the principles of participation.
• The consultant will clearly state the proposed research methodology, detailing how this study will be operationalized across all the research sites in Adamawa State.
• The consultant will make recommendations on who will be the target research respondents, offer justifications for their selection, and explain how they will be identified and engaged.
• Also, s/he will elaborate on the process of data collection, highlighting how data quality and research ethics will be guaranteed, including principles of Do No Harm, and how the data collected from research participants will be analyzed.

The proposed methodology for this assessment should incorporate:

• Conflict Analysis presenting a structured mapping of the conflict drivers and root causes in Adamawa State, along with the relationships between these factors. This analysis should present a micro and macro environment analysis of the geo-politics, sociocultural dynamics and climate change factors influencing natural resource conflicts and value chains in Adamawa state, and can either draw on existing conflict analyses and secondary literature on Adamawa State, or on new data collection.
• A structured mapping of the agricultural market system in Adamawa State, including the core transactions and key supporting functions that are relevant to agricultural production and enable effective value chains, the rules or norms governing the system, and other factors that drive social cohesion and resilience within market systems at the local, state and regional levels. Also, the structured map will demonstrate the potentials for agricultural value chains to address or deescalate resource-based conflicts, improve social cohesion, facilitate economic benefits for farmer and herder groups, and increase growth.
• Representative qualitative and quantitative surveys of different actors, networks and institutions that have influence on transactional patterns, market practices, social cohesion, and/or conflict dynamics, taking into account some of the sensitivities associated with socioeconomic interactions across farmer and herder groups.
• Desk review: Conduct extensive review of diverse resources on market systems, social cohesion, , natural resource conflicts and humanitarian context in Adamawa State to identify and understand existing data and triangulate this information to demonstrate the intersection of resource-based conflicts, value chains/market systems, and social cohesion. This desktop review will also examine existing market practices, the COMITAS program framework, local economic laws, policies and strategies and sectoral guidance and toolkits for operationalizing effective economic recovery programs. The review will include existing market systems assessments and other reporting conducted by Feed the Future’s Rural Resilience Activity implemented by Mercy Corps in Adamawa since Fall 2019, and any recent conflict analyses and/or political economy analyses conducted in Mercy Corps or its partners in Adamawa, including the Clash of Contagions report on COVID-19 and conflict .
• Focus Group Discussions: Describes the modalities for organizing and facilitating structured discussions with identified research participants. The consultant will determine the number of FGDs and participants, respectively, to effectively measure various perceptions on the nexus between natural resource conflicts, economic value chains and the broader market system in Adamawa State.
• Key Informant Interviews: Involves semi-structured interviews to be conducted with ordinary community women and men, youths, farmers, herders, market and business sector leaders/networks engaged in agricultural production, government officials and line ministries, humanitarian workers, etc.
• Other relevant data collection approaches and tools that will be administered for the assessment by the consultant. The consultant and Mercy Corps’ COMITAS and technical teams will review these data collection processes and tools collaboratively to ensure quality and the incorporation of vital conflict sensitivity components.
• Procedure for ensuring gender-sensitivity and social inclusion (mainly for youth, persons living with disabilities and other marginalized groups) in tools design, data collection, and the entire research.
• Do-No-Harm principles: Informed consent should be obtained from all research participants including secondary consent for participants below 18years of age. Appropriate local authority permissions should also be obtained prior to commencement of the data collection. The data collection process should be inclusive and participatory, ensuring that from the team composition to how research participants are engaged, there is adequate representation across gender, ethnic, religious and livelihoods groups. Consultative groups should be gender and age specific, as appropriate.
• Compliance with national and state-level COVID-19 protocols: Primary data collection must be well-organized and undertaken in a manner that aligns with the safety and health protocols provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), State and Federal Ministries of Health, and Mercy Corps.

Evaluation Findings Primary Users
The primary intended users and uses of the evaluation’s findings are as summarized below.

• EU as the main funder of the COMITAS Program – We hope that the Social Cohesion, Value Chain, and Market evaluation findings will be used to decide if and how to capitalize on the opportunity to build synergies and market-based solutions that address systemic barriers and natural resource trends linked to conflict and insecurity and further support natural resource interventions in Nigeria.
• Mercy Corps Nigeria and the Consortium Partners (IOM and SFCG) – We hope that the findings will be relevant to guide in development of a livelihood strategy that identifies both short and medium-term interventions to strengthen farmer and herder communities’ access to markets in an inclusive, gender and conflict-sensitive manner.
• The broader international organization – for international organizations implementing such programs in Nigeria, we hope that the findings will be useful to assess their role in designing and implementing similar programs.
• In addition, we hope that the evaluation findings will not only be critical to meet the above highlighted purpose, but also serve as a learning experience, where the process of generating answers to the proposed evaluation questions will provide MC and the consortium members with new understanding on the Social Cohesion, Value Chain, and Market system Development.

Implementation Strategy and Evaluation Work Plan

• Mercy Corps will provide technical support in the refinement of the evaluation methodology and in the case of data collection tools, inputs, and all supporting documents to guide design and finalization of the evaluation methodology and data collection instruments.
• Mercy Corps has a pool of enumerators ready to be engaged should need arise, hence consultants should not budget for enumerators. Below is an overview of the activities, their duration, and the stakeholders responsible during the evaluation process. The duration/level of effort included is tentative to be finalized once the evaluation team have been identified.