Background

Insert coopi background

The Somalia Resilience Programme (SomReP) is a consortium of seven international non-governmental organizations (INGO) and one Local NGO. SomReP enhances the resilience of chronically vulnerable households, communities, and systems across Somalia.

The Somalia Resilience Program (SomReP) is an ambitious approach to tackle the challenge of recurrent droughts and chronic vulnerability among pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, and peri-urban households in one of the poorest countries in the world. SomReP is being implemented through a consortium of 7 INGOs (ACF, ADRA, CARE, COOPI, DRC, Oxfam and WVI) and 1 Local NGO(Shaqodoon)

COOPI would like to engage a qualified and dynamic consultant to conduct a participatory grazing management plan workshop to produce detailed location-specific grazing plans to mitigate the effects of overgrazing and land degradation. This will entail preliminary participatory grazing land management and landscape mapping using the latest remote sensing technologies. The resource mapping will inform the development of adaptive strategies, including but not limited to holistic grassing land management to mitigate conflict and revive rangeland management systems.

Context Analysis

Somalia’s rangeland management system has been declining for decades due to the compounding effects of climate change and poor land use. Since the collapse of the central government of Somalia, the sector hasn't been functioning due to the impact of natural disasters and human-induced hazards. Overgrazing, commercialization of charcoal, and encroachment of private land enclosures worsened the situation, leading to severe and progressive land degradation. Recurring droughts linked to climate change amplify the effects of anthropogenic land degradation. In general, Somalia/Somaliland and specifically Somaliland are characterized by arid and semi-arid agro-ecological areas whereby most of the landmass is occupied by pastoralist communities that have adopted a traditional herding system that lacks the basic amenities to sustain a livelihood and combat the increasing effects of drought and other environmental hazards. Other major issues contributing to land degradation include climatic conditions, drought and arid conditions, and human factors, leading to the overuse of natural resources. Livestock density and grazing patterns leading to overgrazing are believed to be the major causes of land degradation. The uncontrolled browsing of trees and shrubs is another aspect of overgrazing and a potential cause of deforestation. It leads to flooding and siltation in adjacent areas because rains are no longer held back by the sponge effect of the trees and carry large loads of eroded soil. Common invasive trees affecting grasslands and rangelands are Prosopis Juliflora and Parthenium grass, which has a serious effect on community livelihoods and the ecosystem. These invasive plant species cause subsequent land degradation and worsen the livelihood conditions of the Somali pastoralist communities. Leading to the loss of vegetation cover and indigenous grass, which is important for livestock productivity and survival.

Overall goal

The consultant will be assigned to organize participatory grazing land management workshops and resource mapping to assess current grassing and water use patterns in the pastoralist communities in the Dollow district, and the key findings of the mapping will inform the development of livestock movement plans and conflict mitigation mechanisms. The mapping will uncover the prevailing impact of natural climate disasters and the actions taken to contribute to land degradation. Hence, the findings will inform the development of appropriate context-based interventions to mitigate the increasing effects of climate shocks.

The Objectives of the participatory grazing land management mapping include:

●        Conduct multi-stakeholder engagement.

●        Organize community dialogue on grazing land management and reach a consensus on rangeland uses.

●        Conduct resource mapping workshop

●        Conduct participatory grazing land management planning in close collaboration with pastoralist communities.

●        Map out key actors in the community influencing land use and rangeland management and ensure grazing management plans are in place.

●        Assess the compounding effect of man-made actions and natural climate risks leading to environmental degradation.

●        Identify the constraints ahead of grazing land management systems in the country.

1. Activity and activity Schedule

●        Stakeholder analysis and identification

●        Organizing dialogue with stakeholders

●        Context analysis to establish state and trends of rangeland health, policies and institutions.

●        Resource mapping

●        Establishment of the mapping team-4 days

●        Agree team with the community-4 days

●        Produce a range of land resource mapping 8 days

●        Present the map to the community for validation 2 days

●        Produce a rangeland mapping report. 7 days

●        Establish a monitoring system in grazing areas 5 days

2. Deliverables and Milestones

Consultant to implement the activity specifically mentioned below. COOPI aims to have all deliverables completed by January 2023. COOPI will engage the consultant for 30 days to complete the following:

1. Multi-stakeholder engagement
2. Organised community dialogues culminating in consensus on rangeland management and use.
3. Develop context-specific participatory monitoring tools.
4. Prepare an inception report outlining how participatory grazing land management is undertaken. Share tools with COOPI for input and approval

5.      Design/adapt/refine (as appropriate) the mapping guidelines for participatory rangeland management in pastoral and Argo-pastoral participatory.

6.      Arrange for the questionnaires to be translated into relevant languages.

1. Train and support the data collection team.
2. A final consolidated assessment report will be shared with COOPI for approval.