Hybrid Consultancy for Project Final Evaluation Niger Delta Project (CRIN-VIN) chez Search for common ground

Search is an international conflict transformation Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) that aims to transform the way individuals, groups, governments, and companies deal with conflict, away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative solutions. Headquartered in Washington DC, USA, and Brussels, Belgium, with 52 field offices in over 30 countries including Nigeria, Search designs and implements multifaceted, culturally appropriate, and conflict-sensitive programs using a diverse range of tools, including media and training, to promote dialogue, increase knowledge and determine a positive shift in behaviors. Search is seeking a consultant to conduct a project final  evaluation to determine gender disaggregated information for measuring outcome indicators of our project covering 33 LGAs and 3 states of Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Additionally, the consultant will do a socio-economic cum political, and environmental analysis of factors that drive criminality relating to bunkering in the region and the needs of community members, especially youths in the target states that will inform intervention actions. .  

Oil bunkering and artisanal oil refining have profound implications on security and stability in the Niger Delta, and cannot be divorced from broader questions of socio-economic inequalities and social exclusion in the region. The practices are associated with environmental degradation in nearby communities, including reductions in water, air, and soil quality, which in turn negatively affect livelihoods for farmers and fishers. Consequently, the presence of artisanal refining camps across Bayelsa, Rivers, and Delta States has led to the increasing militarization of the area as cult gangs, pirates, the police, military, and community vigilante groups compete to capture economic benefits at various points along the production and distribution value chain. Activities of non-state actors; individuals and Multi-National corporation’s activities within the region, instead of curbing, have exacerbated the precarious situation. 

In addition, militarized government responses to insecurity and criminality in the Niger Delta, which do not address underlying economic and social drivers of violence, have also caused a cascade of negative consequences in affected communities.

To curtail the growing economic and human costs of criminality, including oil bunkering, artisanal oil refining, and gang and cultist violence, it is pivotal to address the fundamental social and economic drivers of criminality in the region through a bottom-up, inclusive, and community-centered approach that takes into account the needs of all community members, especially youth in Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers States.

Search for Common Ground, in collaboration with co-applicants PIND, and SDN, successfully implemented an 18-month action funded by the European Union. The initiative aimed to foster inclusive community security approaches to address the systemic drivers of violence and criminality in Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers States. 

SO1: To empower diverse community actors to address social exclusion, lack of economic opportunity, and environmental degradation

ER1.1: Local community actors, including youth, are better equipped to jointly address social exclusion, lack of economic opportunity, and environmental degradation

ER1.2: Youth and adult leaders increasingly collaborate to explore and address drivers of division, criminality, and conflict in their communities

SO2: To strengthen collaboration amongst communities, security actors, and the private sector around preventing and responding to the triggers and core drivers of violence and criminality 

ER2.1: There is greater collaboration between communities and security and government actors around early warning and response to key security issues

ER2.2: The private sector better collaborates with and responds to the needs of local   communities

SO3: To foster online and offline social cohesion within and between communities in Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers

ER3.1: Target communities have increased positive interactions across dividing lines

ER3.2: Target online audiences have increased access to positive content that fosters social cohesion

SO4: To foster multi-level dialogue between communities, civil society actors, and government officials in Nigeria and abroad that informs innovative policy development around preventing criminality and violence in Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers

ER4.1: There are enhanced networks and opportunities for actors at all levels to formulate policies that respond to the underlying drivers of violence in the Niger Delta