Complimentary studies into social and economic hardship along the Tunisia/Libya border and interrelated root causes of violence

• Contract period:  2 months
• Contract months:  July – August 2021
• Contract Type: DRC Professional Services Contract
• Contracting   Authority: Danish Refugee Council – Tunisia (DRC)
• Location:  Tunisia-Libya Border – Communities of Dehiba and Ben Guerdane (Tunisia) Wazin, Nalut and Zuwara (Libya)
• Projects  :
  • Violence Prevention along the Tunisia Libya Border
  • Community based Border Management at the Tunisia Libya Border

Background

Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is an international non‐governmental organization, which promotes and supports durable solutions to the problems faced by refugees and internally displaced people all over the world and works to improve safety, strengthen community resilience, and build local capacities to reduce and prevent violence and conflict.

DRC operated in Tunisia from 2011 to 2013 to provide direct humanitarian assistance to refugees fleeing the Libyan crisis in Shousha camp near Ben Guerdane. Since that time, the organization has been able to generate visibility and credibility among local communities and develop a sound understanding of the local context. DRC remained present in southeast Tunisia, enhancing community security and resilience in the border-towns of Ben Guerdane and Dehiba starting from 2014 and in March 2018, extended its current intervention to the Libyan border-towns of Zuwara, Nalut, and Wazin with a similar approach.

DRC has established  Conflict Management and Analysis Committees (CMACs) in each of the 5 locations where it intervenes and supports the CMACs to conduct regular analysis on conflict dynamics and to design and implement local actions that can tangibly affect change. DRC programming aims at addressing border management holistically, investing in analyzing the full system of dynamics that cause tension within and across communities and fuel insecurity and illicit trade, and more often affect livelihood opportunities.

DRC’s is currently implementing two peacebuilding projects on the borderland areas between Tunisia and Libya which aims both to enhance opportunities for sustainable livelihoods and to improve community-based security efforts for a more effective participation in decision making processes and in defining tangible solutions to address the identified drivers of tensions in the border region. The intervention aims to empower border communities to address the challenges associated with the Tunisian-Libyan border, recognising that local actors are best placed to address drivers of violence in their environments and that as such they contribute to long-term objectives of social inclusion, economic development, and democratic governance that are essential for undermining the root causes of violent extremism.

Communities along the border are highly dependent on cross border trading and related economic activities as sources of income and for their livelihoods. Trade is not however the only factor that affects livelihoods in these communities; security and safety threats also play a central role in the stability of border communities and in their capacity to access livelihood opportunities. This is particularly relevant for vulnerable groups such as women and youth.

Objective

The overall objective of the consultancy is to generate a comprehensive understanding of the socio-economic situation within the five targeted border communities, with a focus on vulnerable groups, and analyse conflict dynamics and how the two interlink and impact lives, livelihoods and resilience, and formulate recommendations for improving development opportunities and safety for the communities in which DRC intervenes.

This will be achieved by carrying out 1) a Socio-Economic Assessment, 2) a Conflict Analysis, both within the 5 border communities of Nalut, Wazin and Zuwara on the Libyan side and Ben Guerdane and Dehiba on the Tunisian side of the border; 3) Analysing findings of both assessments and compile into a summary report which will draw on the way that social and economic deprivation impact on the safety and security of the communities, and provide recommendations for enhancing opportunities for inclusive economic development and livelihood opportunities.

The comprehensive understanding of the socio-economic context of the communities will inform strategy and project development of DRC and its partners in livelihood programmes. The consultancy will therefore assess the socio-economic situation of the border communities, using a gender sensitive approach to analyse existing livelihoods, determine their economic viability with regard to border economic activity and overall border management. The assessment will focus attention on socially and economically marginalized and vulnerable groups/communities. Socio-economic indicators will be gender sensitive and related activities will seek to build on existing information on the actual benefits women and youth and marginalized and vulnerable groups/communities can draw from the border ecosystems.

Conducting a conflict analysis using DRC conflict analysis guidelines as a basis will also inform strategy and future programming, ensuring that conflict sensitivity is integrated in future project design and activity implementation.

The two components of the research will provide accompanying recommendations to enhance safety and strengthen livelihood opportunities, developed through community and stakeholder engagement. Recommendation for community safety and development programming to include women and youth in economic opportunities, life skills and civic engagement will be developed for the 5 communities of intervention. The 5 CMACs, local CSOs, local authorities and local informal community structures will be consulted for the assessment of needs, risk, and vulnerability and emphasize the significance of insecurity as a driver of vulnerability.

Technical oversight of the research will be provided by DRC as well as remotely by Small Arms Survey (SAS), a research center based in Geneva, the latter of which will support in the design of the methodology and questionnaires, training of enumerators from the selected consultancy firm, quality check during data collection and support in the development of programmatic recommendations.

Scope of Work

Task 1:

Inception Report

• Submit an inception report to the DRC Focal Point (FP) no later than two weeks from commencement of the consultancy that includes: (i) methodologies and approaches to conduct the socio- economic assessment and conflict analysis, including methodology and plan to integrate the findings of the two components (socio-economic assessment and conflict analysis), define tools, indicators; (ii) target communities, community groups and stakeholders, and (iii) detailed work plan and schedule.
• Consultation with Small Arms Survey will be conducted during this first phase, with the scope of defining and developing the research methodology and tools.
• Incorporate reviews and comments from DRC and Small Arms Survey ensuring approval by DRC’s FP. Data collection methodology (in preparation to Task 2 and 3) should be developed and presented for approval, after a first review and validation from SAS, ensuring that data needs are identified and that appropriate tools for their collection are A field testing phase of the tools will be conducted with members of the CMACs.

Task 2:

Carry out a gender sensitive socio-economic assessment including an evaluation of existing livelihood strategies and activities and providing recommendations for livelihood opportunities that support community needs.

• Engage local communities to assess the socio-economic context in identified border communities using quantitative and qualitative data collection tools to reach through:
• 8 Key Informant Interviews per location
• 1 Focus Group discussion per location
• At least 105 persons, balanced between locations, should be reached through quantitative surveys

The Consultant Team should suggest the most suitable data collection methodology for the research and the data collection should be a combination of quantitate and qualitative data methods.

Present preliminary findings, including summary of stakeholder engagements, to the Project Team and Small Arms Survey.

• Incorporate, as available, existing relevant studies and reports on the border between Tunisia and Libya that have identified sustainable livelihood opportunities and community needs into the socio-economic assessment.

Investigate and identify, with   community   members   and   stakeholders’ consultations the income-generating opportunities that support development and resilience for the communities in the vicinity of the border.

• Present the results to stakeholders, ensuring communities engaged are presented findings for comment (workshops, community meetings, other), as well as key government and collaborating groups. Incorporate comments and feedback into assessment and

Task 3:

• Conflict Analysis
  • Produce a high‐quality conflict analysis including each of the 5 communities exploring roots and proximate causes, triggers, effects of local dynamics and actors involved in conflict, power dynamics and their relationship to each other in the borderland communities between Tunisia and Libya where DRC intervenes.
  • The Consultant Team should suggest the most suitable data collection methodology for the research and the data collection should be a combination of quantitate and qualitative data methods. Present the suggested methodology and preliminary findings to the Project Team and Small Arms Survey.
  • Provide recommendations to DRC on how to develop and adapt community safety activities to address local conflict issues and at the same time strengthen local capacity to respond to conflict and conduct ongoing conflict analysis.
  • Specific questions to investigate will be:

• • Identify and categorize key drivers of instability (political, economic, administrative, security) and the parts of the population that they affect.
  • Map the stakeholders contributing to and affected by the instability at the border.
  • Identify the connection of the key identified drivers of instability to the ongoing findings from the socio-economic assessment.
  • Assess to what extent economic drivers push people into armed groups, smuggling, or other illicit activities?
  • Assess how tensions and instability manifest themselves, and what are the reactions to instability (violence, taking legal or administrative measures, protest, irregular migration, moving to extremism, etc.)?
  • Assess what roles traditional perceptions of society and masculinity play in economic drivers? Are men or women more likely to be impacted by these drivers and how?

Task 4:

Key findings and summary

• Analysing findings of both assessments and compile into a summary report which will draw on the way that social and economic deprivation impact on the safety and security of the communities and provide recommendations for enhancing opportunities for inclusive economic development and livelihood opportunities.
• Consultation with Small Arms Survey will be conducted during this phase in order to jointly define the methodology used to compile findings and validate the summary report structure.

Deliverables

   Methodology

1. Desk review: the consultant(s) will review existing resources and documents and map the actors and stakeholders relevant for the research.
2. Data collection: the consultant(s) will use a mix of key informant interviews (KIIs), focus group discussions (FGDs) and participatory actor/stakeholder mapping in order to carry out the analyses. DRC staff will support in identifying relevant stakeholders for interviews. The methodology must ensure that resources to conduct the analyses are available on both side of the border covering all the indicated locations and that the research will include a wide range of different local stakeholders. Gender inclusion and participation of marginalized groups will be emphasized. Care will be taken to ensure that the different stakeholders are free to express their views without interference or concerns about reprisals.
3. Kick‐off meeting: the consultant(s) will arrange a kick‐off meeting with key DRC staff to present the proposed methodology and discuss and organize the data collection phase.

• Methodology for Conflict Analysis

The consultant firm will work in line with DRC Conflict Analysis guidelines and will ensure satisfaction of the above listed requirements.

The exact format for the Conflict Analysis Reports will be agreed upon with DRC but should include the following elements:

1. Brief historical overview of the local context and actors taking any significant regional and national events into consideration.
2. Overview over local conflicts: types of conflict in the intervention areas, root causes, triggers, and effects of local conflict, existing conflict management mechanisms (their strength and weaknesses) key stakeholders and their relationships (participatory actor mapping), priorities defined by communities of what conflicts should be addressed and possible processes that could be put in place.
3. An analysis and recommendations on future steps and follow up strategy (established based on needs expressed in the community) with a view to conflict sensitive and conflict management activities that would complement the ongoing programming in the area and work as a baseline for local structures.

In addition, the consultant(s) will organize a restitution meeting at which to present the key findings from the final report. The findings will be presented to the local conflict management structures (CMACs), DRC staff and local actors involved in the analysis.

DRC has material available that has been applied in the area and in other contexts and can be shared with the consultant(s) to be used for reference.

Reporting

The successful consultant/s will report to DRC Focal Point. Deliverables become final once all tasks/requirements are completed and approval is granted by DRC.

Support

DRC Project Team will also contact and arrange stakeholder consultations for the data collection and provide background documentation, as identified and needed.

Language

All stakeholder engagement practices, the data collection activities and related tools will be conducted and made available in Arabic. Liaison with DRC Project Team and reporting will be done in English.

Criteria for Contract Award

Lowest price quote among technically responsive offers

Evaluation Criteria

DRC is not liable for any costs incurred by the responding firms prior to issuance of an executed agreement.

The proposed cost should cover all expenses. National travels and accommodation costs will be covered by the consultant.

Payment will be made in a lump sum at the completion of services.