Terms of Reference for Conducting Dialogue Forums and Producing a Documentary on Community & Local Authority Engagement in Puntland

1.       Background

1.1.   About CARE International

CARE is a humanitarian non-governmental organization committed to working with poor women, men, boys, girls, communities, and institutions to have a significant impact on the underlying causes of poverty. CARE seeks to contribute to economic and social transformation, unleashing the power of the most vulnerable women and girls.  CARE has been providing emergency relief and lifesaving assistance to the Somali people since 1981. CARE is implementing three mutually supportive programs and are designed along the humanitarian-development nexus: Education and Gender Equality: Builds the capacity of government institutions to provide gender responsive education services while building adolescents and young people’s life skills. It strengthens the capacity of feminist organizations and Savings Groups Networks and supports their collective advocacy. Climate Justice and Food, Water, and Nutrition: Contributes to increased food security and an improved nutritional status of vulnerable populations through promoting gender-responsive, climate-smart and sustainable crop and livestock production, diversifying livelihoods, linking pastoralists and smallholder farmers with financial services and markets, promoting WASH and nutrition, and strengthening early warning systems and family and community contingency planning. Humanitarian Assistance: Provide a wide range of humanitarian services covering food security and economic recovery as well as education, health, nutrition, WASH, and protection in emergencies, ensuring investments into recovery. We will continue to contribute to humanitarian coordination and promote gender-responsive emergency assistance with the help of Rapid Gender Assessments and the promotion of women’s leadership in response.

1.2.   About DanWadaag Consortium

The DANWADAAG Project, funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is a collaborative effort led by VNG International, in partnership with Free Press Unlimited, Media Ink, and CARE Nederland. This five-year project (2020–2025) seeks to build inclusive disaster risk management (DRM) capacity at the local level.

Overall Objective: To improve social contracts by increasing resilience to external shocks.

Strategic Objective: To enhance government legitimacy through effective and inclusive DRM policies and services.

The project targets communities in Garowe, Gardo, Armo and Waaciye, focusing on children, youth, adults (including vulnerable groups), civil society organizations, media, and public authorities. The expected outcomes include:

·         Outcome 1: Communities can contribute to inclusive and transparent DRM through equitable access to information, resources, and decision-making processes.

·         Outcome 2: Civil society organizations (CSOs) possess the legitimacy and capacity to contribute to inclusive and transparent DRM.

·         Outcome 3: Public authorities have legitimacy and capacity to coordinate and implement inclusive DRM.

·         Outcome 4: Media can disseminate relevant information and facilitate inclusive dialogue between public authorities, civil society, and communities.

Dialogue is defined as "deliberate, planned conversations across conflict lines with the goal of building bridges between different parties by providing safe spaces for direct communication between people on opposing sides." This process results in greater understanding, the formation of relationships, and the promotion of local ownership. Dialogue brings people and groups together and facilitates communication in order to foster trust and pro-social interactions. It is a type of communication between people who have vastly different perspectives on a topic, with the goal of learning more about the perspectives and 'truth' of the other.

The program promotes disaster risk management planning, dialogue, and public-sector involvement. The goal is to improve information access in a more convenient location, to facilitate coordination between partner local governments, to raise community awareness of inclusive DRM, and to allow community members to discuss their top priorities during consultation meetings. The project's overarching objective is to strengthen the social contract through increased resilience to external shocks, while its specific objective is to increase government legitimacy via efficient and effective Disaster Risk Management based on access to information, inclusive policies, and services.

2.       Objectives of the Assignment

CARE is seeking to procure the services of a consultant/firm to provide two (2) dialogue forums between community members and local authorities in Waaciye and Carmo. The consultant will guide the community members on preparing for the dialogue, facilitating the dialogue meeting between the community and the local authorities as well as documenting change. The purpose of this dialogue forums is to create an environment that facilitates collaboration between Waaciye and Carmo local authorities and local communities in order to discuss how crucial it is to develop a partnership and disaster risk information forum by exchanging information about disasters and engaging communities as much as possible. Through this dialogue forum, all stakeholders can come together to identify the needs of the local population and develop solutions to better manage disasters. This will ultimately lead to a better prepared and informed community that is better able to cope with any disasters that may arise. In addition to synthesizing the roles of each stakeholder, the forum will also create a conducive environment.

3.       Specific Objectives of the Assignment

·         To focus on the significance of disaster risk governance, the ways in which communities and public authorities can work together to reduce the risk of disasters including developing strategies for effective prevention, mitigation, preparedness, and response to disaster

·         To reduce disaster risk by promoting collaboration between communities and local authorities by identifying vulnerable populations and assessing their needs.

·         To increase awareness of the importance of national policies and strategies of the early warning system.

4.       Scope of the Assignment

a)      Preparing for the Dialogue: Meeting with key community members to understand the situation, the community and its networks, to consider changes required and to establish a baseline for use in documenting progress.

b)      Establishing relationships: Meeting individually and in small groups with representatives from institutions, networks and local authorities to build trust, increase people’s clarity about their situation, and determine whom people want to talk with and how they want to have those conversations.

c)       Facilitating meetings: Bringing community participants and the local district authorities together to have a dialogue session on DRM governance.

d)      Documenting change: Undertaking assessment/evaluation to note changes and to determine its impact on the individuals involved and the community and to track progress towards meeting defined outcomes of the dialogue forums.

5.       EXPECTED DELIVERIES

·         Inception Report outlining the methodology, tools, approaches, and detailed work plan for conducting the dialogue forums.

·         Draft Agenda for each dialogue forum, developed in close consultation with the DANWADAAG project team.

·         Organization and Facilitation of Two Dialogue Forums in Waaciye and Carmo, ensuring inclusive participation of community members, CSOs, and local authorities.

·         Event Report summarizing key discussions, commitments, lessons learned, and next steps for collaboration between communities and district authorities.

·         Production of a Small Documentary (3–5 minutes) capturing the preparation process, community-authority engagement, key messages from dialogue sessions, and evidence of change or commitments made. The documentary should include interviews, high-quality footage of the forums, and clear storytelling aligned with CARE and DANWADAAG communication standards. The final video must be delivered in HD format with subtitles

6.       ROLE OF CARE

CARE will have the following functions: CARE will provide overall oversight, supervision, and coordination of the assignment, including coordinating document reviews and approving all deliverables in line with the Terms of Reference. The consultant will report to the Project Manager. CARE will not arrange venues or provide any logistical or administrative support during the events; all associated costs, arrangements, and logistics shall be the full responsibility of the consultancy firm. Dedicated CARE project staff will only support by facilitating coordination and providing relevant documents or information required for planning purposes.

7.       PROFILE OF THE CONSULTANT

The potential consultant/expertise required to meet the following minimum requirements to qualify for the submission of his/her proposal. 

·         The lead consultant should have at least a Master’s Degree  in development, Governance, Disaster risk management and/or any other relevant discipline and not less than five years of previous experience in similar tasks or consultancies

·         In-depth knowledge and understanding of stakeholder mapping, CSOs capacity assessment, DRM policy and governance context analysis, conflict and Gender analysis.

·         A very good understanding of DRM systems in Somaliland. An understanding of how the government of Somaliland operates and implements DRM services will be necessary for this assignment.

·         At least 5 years of progressively responsible professional work experience at national and international levels in conceptualizing, designing and implementing successful, evidence-based advocacy strategies.

 How to apply

8.       SUBMISSION OF PROPOSAL

All applications should be sent to [email protected] by the latest by 11:59 EAT on 03-Dec -2025 in one email, with separate attachments for the technical and financial proposals in pdf and a Subject line " Terms of Reference for Conducting Dialogue Forums and Producing a Documentary on Community & Local Authority Engagement in Puntland