Background and Rationale:

The world is witnessing consequential human suffering and acute disruption of social and economic development caused by disasters. Occurrence of Climate-related disasters alone dominated the year 2020 with 389 disasters resulting in 15,080 deaths, affecting 98.4 million people, and incurring economic losses worth at least US$ 171.3 billion. Disasters like Covid-19 in combination with floods, droughts, and landslides, not only cause tremendous loss of people and their assets, but also reverse development gains and hinder progress.

Christian Blind Mission (CBM) is an international Christian development organisation, committed to improving the quality of life of persons with disabilities in the poorest and most marginalized communities of the world. We implement programmes through our expert partners across the globe. Following multi-sectoral comprehensive approach, CBM is working in different geographical locations under three broad areas of work: community based inclusive development (CBID), inclusive eye health (IEH), and humanitarian action. Disability inclusive disaster risk reduction (DIDRR) is one of the technical specialist areas under CBID initiative and ensures resilient programming for communities facing disasters risk.

Synergetic efforts have been made to both respond and mitigate against negative socio-economic impacts of disasters on lives of persons with disabilities. We, at CBM, have learned from experience that not everyone faces the same risk from disasters. Women, men and children with disabilities and other at-risk groups are often forgotten in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and left behind when disaster occurs. They are excluded from early warning systems, are invisible when it comes to community and risk mapping or evacuation planning, find it harder to access shelters and safe spaces due to environmental and attitudinal barriers or protection risks, and receive inadequate or inappropriate relief and support. We strive to reduce the impacts of disasters on affected communities by mitigating and reducing the risks through number of interventions based on multi-year DIDRR framework. Multi-hazard disability inclusive Early warning systems (MDIEWS) are important components of disability inclusive disaster risk reduction interventions at CBM, with the goal of preventing or minimising damage from hazards. We learnt that Early warning systems must actively involve persons with disabilities and communities at risk from a variety of hazards, facilitate public education in accessible mediums and awareness of risks, efficiently disseminate messages and accessible warnings, and ensure that a constant system of preparedness and early action is enabled in communities having persons with disabilities. The importance of an efficient inclusive early warning system is determined by its advantages to persons with disabilities and other vulnerable segments living in communities, Therefore, CBM intends to develop model MDIEWS for flood and drought to take action to preserve lives and livelihoods of communities, lessening the effect of disasters through a comprehensive and people-centred MDIEWS to guarantee that timely, accurate, trustworthy, and reliable information reaches persons with disabilities in the accessible mediums. We are also certain that an inclusive and functional early warning system will also have the advantage of seeing the needs and rights of people with disabilities considered in humanitarian response and post-disaster reconstruction system (building back better).

Scope of consultancy:

The assignment will comprise of conducting needs assessment on multi-hazard (floods and drought) disability inclusive early warning systems in consultation with persons with disabilities, family members/guardians and organizations of persons with disabilities as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations. Based on participatory needs assessment, multi-country programme must be developed on MDIEWS for floods and drought across Niger and Cameroon with specific entry points with regards to forecast based financing. The geographical scope of need assessment will spread across selective areas in Niger (Diffa and Tillaberi), and Cameroon (southwest and Far North). based on the outcomes of this needs assessment, a multi-year program will be developed for both mentioned countries. the key actions will include:

· Detailed, comprehensive needs assessment addressing requirement of children, women, and men with disabilities before, during and after floods and droughts related to MDIEWS. Findings consisting of opportunities for persons with disabilities in line with existing laws and frameworks, existing gaps, potential opportunities, and challenges for future programming around development of MDIEWS, an overview of existing early warning systems in place, extent of their inclusiveness and accessibility to persons with disabilities, recommendations for most suitable and fully accessible MDIEWS to be developed concerning flood and drought, in consultations with government departments to determine the current state of the MDIEWS, including equipment, telecommunications, databases, forecast based financing activities, advisories and accessible communication of MDIEWS messages.

· Based on the tangible outcomes of needs assessment, recommend interventions linked with MDIEWS, also linking it with forecast based financing, keeping in view needs in communities as well as feasibility, effectiveness, and sustainability of MDIEWS to be used during floods and droughts.

· Development of multi-year program consisting of cost plan. Determining the costs associated with the MDIEWS, including equipment, operations and maintenance, and human resources, and a log frame which can adequately guide future direction to come up with sustainable, affective, and accessible community led MDIEWS for flood and drought across Niger and Cameroon.

Deliverables, methodology and timeframe:

Comprehensive methodology and delivery dates will be co-developed and jointly agreed upon between the consultant and the supervisor during contract finalization process. However, this may include:

· Review of secondary literature available on the subject covering mentioned regions of Niger, and Cameroon, including existing secondary data on subject and triangulate findings with primary data gathered from the communities.

· Visiting communities and applying different participatory assessment techniques (including but not limited to interview, FGDs, and personal observations especially with children, men, and women with disabilities) to gather information to determine and draw recommendations. All techniques used for needs assessment must be inclusive and participatory for persons with disabilities to take their opinion on priority as well as sensitive to the situation of Covid-19 prevalence in community. This part of the assessment involves physical meetings in the countries listed above. Should the safety and/or health situation (especially restrictions due to COVID-19) make it impossible to travel to the countries and meet with stakeholders, an alternative approach (remote interviews) can be agreed with CBM

· Key informant interviews with organizations of persons with disabilities, local governmental representatives, and likeminded civil society organizations in both countries.

· Close consultation with other relevant DRR and humanitarian actors working on (disability inclusive) early warning systems and anticipatory action (civil society as well as governmental actors)

· Organize two national level workshops/webinars in both countries with key stakeholders to seek their feedback and recommendations for future programming with respect to multi-hazard disability inclusive early warning system for flood and drought.

This assignment is expected to be carried out in 35 days, divided over 3 months (October, to December 2021).

Key Deliverables include:

· An inception report of not more than 5 pages (in English), include a work plan, assessment tools and methodology, budget plan, in addition to the company profile/ CVs of team members.

• Report (15 pager maximum) on inclusive participatory needs assessment around multi-hazard disability inclusive early warning system/s across Niger and Cameroon with specific recommendations for future intervention concerning flood and drought.

• Program document inclusive of cost plan and a log frame spanning both countries and with multi-yearly implementing approach.

Place /location of service delivered:

Field based and data collection from selective parts of two countries conditional to prevalence situation of Covid-19 pandemic. The entire assignment will be implemented following Covid related SoPs.

Who accesses deliverables of the consultancy and who benefits from the results:

The outcome of this consultancy assignment will be sole ownership and intellectual property of CBM. The outcome of this assignment will be useful for all primary and secondary stakeholders working in communities having persons with disabilities from organizational to the project levels.

Required Expert Profile:

The Assessment is expected to be carried out by external consultant(s) individuals or a consulting firm working in west and central Africa.

Key Requirements:

· Advanced, social sciences or development studies or DRR or related fields.

· Substantial experience in the field of Assessment, planning, program development, management, monitoring and evaluation within the non-profit sector, especially on disability inclusive early warning systems.

· Substantial experience in qualitative and quantitative methods.

· Solid understanding of the Government National and Provincial & local social welfare and emergency response systems across West and Central Africa.

· Solid understanding of the inclusive development approach with knowledge in disability issues.

· Solid knowledge and understanding of Disaster Risk Reduction.

· Effective communication (writing and speaking) and interpersonal skills in French and English.

· Excellent social and inter-cultural skills.

· Gender and disability sensitivity.

Project management:

The Consultant will report directly to a team in CBM, consisting of global DIDRR advisor, humanitarian coordinator and regional CBID advisor-AFWC. CBM will provide relevant background documents necessary for the assignment and will coordinate for setting up consultations with key primary stakeholders in countries. The selected consultant/s will be solely responsible to arrange their own logistics and should reflect relevant costs in financial proposal.