Third Party Monitoring Services in Somaliland and Galkayo

UN-WFP Somalia requires Third Party Monitoring Services rom a reputable and reliable service provider with offices in the Somaliland Area. 

Third-party monitoring objective: To expand the scope of monitoring activities as well as programme support coverage in areas of operation where accessibility for WFP staff is limited or restricted, through outsourcing monitoring and programme support activities to a third party and accessing quantitative and qualitative data on WFP operations.

SUMMARY:

1.            WFP’s operation in Somalland

UN-WFP Somaliais currently operational in Somaliland, Puntland, Central, Banadir and South regions with Area Offices (AO) established in Hargeisa, Garowe, Mogadishu and Dolow and a Sub-Offices in Galkayo and Bossaso. Despite WFP being active in certain areas, parts of its operational areas are considered inaccessible or having intermittent accessibility to UN staff by the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS). This restricts or limits the ability of WFP staff to monitor WFP activities in these areas. 

WFP outsources monitoring activities in these areas to Monitoring Partners (MPs) who either have operations already set up in these areas or are willing to set their operations up for this purpose. Each MP will mainly be responsible for monitoring food chain management on behalf of WFP as well as providing programme support functions. The MPs shall submit regular reports back to WFP on their monitoring findings/support functions performed as well as the original monitoring checklists with data entry.

2.            WFP’s current monitoring in Somaliland

The relationship between WFP and each of its Cooperating Partners (CPs) is defined by a Field Level Agreement (FLA).  At the beginning of each activity all beneficiaries have to be registered in SCOPE[1]. For in-kind assistance, the transportation of the food is sub-contracted by WFP to commercial transporters in Somaliland who move food to designated storage and distribution points. CPs receive the food and distribute among the intended beneficiaries. For cash-based transfers (CBT) WFP credits the beneficiaries’ e-transfers cards enabling them to purchase food commodities from retailers with whom WFP has an agreement. For Cash WFP credits the beneficiaries’ e-transfers cards enabling them to redeem cash from local bank facilities; and to increase flexibility and accessibility of the beneficiaries, WFP now carry out mobile money cash transfer through local mobile operators .

WFP monitors the distribution, implementation processes as per plan and partnership agreement signed by CPs, the retailer shops, CPs’ warehouse management, and evaluates the performance of transporters and CPs, as well as to conduct surveys or post-distribution monitoring (PDM) as required.

The VAM and Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) unit of WFP has developed monitoring and evaluation tools (checklists), which are used to gather data. M&E collects, collates and analyses collected data and prepares reports which are shared with relevant stakeholders.

3.            Role of the Monitoring Partners (MP)

Monitoring Partners (MP) will perform programme support services for United Nations WFP, mainly for monitoring and survey functions. MPs will monitor WFP activities on behalf of WFP and provide programme M&E support services to the Area Offices/Sub Offices. Field staff of the MPs will be made available on a full-time basis to the Head of Area or Sub Office or his/ her designate who will make use of the MP field staff in monitoring of United Nations WFP programme activities as well as to conduct surveys. The MP field staff will carry out their activities under the overall guidance of the M&E officer at the WFP Liaison Office (LO) and the Head of Area or Sub Office and report back to Area Office on the field findings and other tasks assigned by the M&E Office and Head of Area or Sub Office. Area or Sub Office and the MPs, under the guidance of LO M&E officer, will jointly develop a monthly activity plan which will clearly stipulate the plan for tasking of MPs field staff. The MPs will jointly or alone make available 10 (ten) field staff to the Galkayo Sub Office to cover parts of Mudug and Galgadud; and 5 (five) to the Hargeisa Area Office to cover Somaliland areas. These numbers reflect the monitoring needs at the time of launching the tender and can be adjusted based on WFP needs during the MP contract period.

The MP field staff will be assigned to work on WFP operations on a full-time basis.