Project Location: Remote

Background:

Humanitarian crises come with a plethora of protection risks, including from the humanitarian interventions themselves. Ensuring that programs consider and actively work to mitigate such risks is critical to ensure that we do not cause more harm than the help we provide. Food security programs, often characterized by substantial transfers in resources and working with vulnerable populations, are certainly not immune from these risks.

Purpose / Project Description:

To avoid and mitigate protection risks, it is critical that we take the time to investigate the ways in which our food security program interventions could inadvertently contribute to them occurring. Ensuring this is incorporated in the underlying design of the program can help set our teams up well to mitigate such risk. However, program teams are often working in rapidly changing contexts under narrow timeframes, and without guidance on how to explore these risks, it can be difficult for teams to analyze data and make decisions on program design and implementation strategies based on that analysis.

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide that guidance for field teams to investigate protection risks and the strategies to avoid them in emergency food security programs during program design and start-up.

Consultant Objectives:

Mercy Corps equipped with basic tools to analyze protection risks associated with emergency food security activities, including, but not limited to, cash/voucher/food transfers, nutrition behavior change activities, livelihood inputs and training delivery, and more.

Consultant Activities:

The Consultant will:

• Review existing protection frameworks and tools related to food security in humanitarian responses and protracted crises
• Review and revise Mercy Corps’ draft qualitative rapid food security and markets assessment tool (for use during program design and start-up), including:
  • Identify areas to explore issues related to safety and different participant profiles (age, sex, abilities, and associations such as ethnicity, religion, displacement status, etc.)
  • Identify areas to explore issues to enhance the inclusion of marginalized groups based on participant profiles (age, sex, abilities, and associations such as ethnicity, religion, displacement status, etc.)
  • Identify areas to explore food security and related power dynamics within the household and among communities.
• Draft guidance to strengthen staff’s analysis skills when analyzing assessment data from protection risks related to emergency food security programs, including specific guidance on:
  • Pre-existing protection concerns in the program context, including household and intercommunity power dynamics related to food security
  • Anticipated and potential risks to local community, program participants, and program staff as a result of their engagement in an emergency food security program, including risks related to participant profiles (age, sex, abilities, and associations such as ethnicity, religion, displacement status, etc.)
  • How to plan and implement risk mitigation and inclusion to minimize protection-related risks, including disability inclusion
  • How to engage communities and target populations in monitoring, mitigating and addressing potential risks

Consultant Deliverables:

• Revised Food Security & Market Rapid Assessment Tool (e.g. FGD guidance, KII questions)
• Simple, step-by-step guidance on analyzing assessment data for protection risks in emergency food security programs (10 pages max)
• Short case studies that illustrate how to analyze the data into a protection risk analysis and action plan, ideally from Mercy Corps experiences or, if necessary, theoretical (1-2 pages)

Timeframe / Schedule:

Completed by December 1, 10 Days Total

Days 1-2: Draft Guidance for Review

Days 3-4: Draft revised Assessment Tool for Review

Days 5-6: Draft case studies

Day 7-8: Finalize Guidance based on input

Days 9: Finalize Assessment Tool based on input

Day 10: Finalize case studies based on input

The Consultant will report to:

• Food Security Technical Advisor

The Consultant will work closely with:

• Community Accountability and Reporting Mechanism (CARM) Advisor
• Protection Technical Advisor
• Nutrition Technical Advisor
• Cash and/or Economic Coping Technical Advisor

Required Experience & Skills:

• Relevant academic qualifications, and / or 5+ years’ experience in protection analysis, especially in conflict-affected and shock-prone contexts, and with a specific focus on food security
• Relevant experience in with participatory approaches to data collection in conflict-affected contexts;
• Familiarity with Food for Peace or other emergency food security programs;
• Experience incorporating a gender and age lens in protection analysis; and
• Fluency in written and spoken English