TERMS OF REFERENCE
CONSULTANCY ASSIGNMENT FOR NEEDS ASSESSMENT IN HOMA BAY COUNTY, LAND SECURITY OF TENURE
1 BACKGROUND
1.1 Habitat for Humanity Kenya
Habitat for Humanity Kenya (HFHK) is among the 70 country affiliates of HFH International. In Kenya, we were registered in 1982 as Non-Governmental Organization, with the goal of enabling low-income families access decent and affordable shelter. In the last 40 years, HFHK has supported more than 56,000 families across nine counties in Kenya through housing micro-finance and direct construction. Habitat for Humanity considers housing as a long-term, incremental process which builds on cross-sectorial interventions such as construction, water, sanitation, energy, land tenure, and policy change at different levels of governance, actors and regions. Our Business Plan (2020-2025) has outlined four Programmatic Areas namely: Financing for owner-led construction; Settlement-Based Practice; Secure Land Tenure; Disaster Risk Reduction & Response (DR3). We are currently operating in Laikipia, Homabay, Kisumu, Tana River and Machakos
1.2 Homa Bay County
Homa Bay County is located in south-western part of Kenya boarding Lake Victoria. The county has two relief regions i.e., the lakeshore lowlands and the upland plateau. According to the 2019 census, a population of 1,131,950. The residents are predominantly from one tribe – the Luo community and speak the same language. The county is divided administratively into eight sub-counties (also representing political constituencies) and overseen by Sub-County Officers, Chiefs (reporting to the office of the President) and politically represented by a member of Parliament each. The prevalent economic activities are crop farming, livestock production and lake fishing. Commercial farming is growing with a few people investing in fishponds and cage farming in the lake. The county is in the lowlands with hot and humid temperature and bordering the lake, the county also has high incidence of malaria.
Regarding land security of tenure, Homabay County has a strong socio-cultural context that underlies the practices around construction/ improvement to and use of housing and WASH facilities. Houses are mainly built on ancestral land. The family may not necessarily have legal documents for the land where the homestead has been constructed but it is generally recognized in the village that the land belongs to a particular clan and family since they have settled there for many years (three to four generations). As a result, many families have had limited need to acquire title deeds from the government. However, more recently (last 5 – 10 years) there have been concerted efforts by the County Government to facilitate access to land title deeds as way of stimulating economic activities especially through leveraging on the land titles as security for microfinance and / or bank loans for investments. Some vulnerable people, especially women had no land at all as a result of marital/family conflicts.
Habitat for Humanity Kenya would also like to support women and other vulnerable groups to secure tenure, by raising awareness on existing land laws and tenure options in Kenya to ensure more families and communities have security of land tenure. This is usually done through advocating for land rights, especially for low-income women, HFH Kenya empowers local communities to confront a key barrier to adequate shelter. HFH Kenya is in the process of implementing an advocacy project in Homa Bay County that will address issues of land tenure and titling. For effective implementation of the project, it will be important for HFH Kenya to identify comprehensively understand all the needs of the county relating to security of land tenure.
2 THE OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The overall objective of this assignment is to carry out a needs assessment for Homa Bay County and identify the existing needs that hinders the achievement of land security of tenure in the county and develop a comprehensive capacity building plan for addressing the identified needs.
Specific Objectives
The specific objectives for this assignment include:
- To identify all gaps/needs hindering the land titling and security of tenure advocacy in Homa Bay County.
- To assess the skills and knowledge of staff, decision makers that could promote or hinder the security of land tenure in Homa Bay County.
- To identify and assess the existence of laws and policies that promote land security of tenure, information management system and digitization of titling.
- Develop a capacity building plan for addressing the identified needs.
3 SCOPE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
This assignment will be limited to the needs assessment of Homa bay county’s capacity to handle land security of tenure in regard to land information management system, titling digitization and the ability to provide title deeds efficiently to the residents for enhanced security of tenure. The consultant will seek to identify the existing gaps and hindrances that could be addressed to achieve security of tenure in the county. The final report should include detailed description of the prevailing situation at the county’s land department and in relation to other departments within the county not forgetting the budget allocation, policies and capacity of staff to implement the digitized systems.
4 DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
4.1 The consultant will:
- Identify the existing relevant requirements for achievement of land security of tenure including digital records, land management information system and assess their efficiency.
- Assess the existence of laws and policies that relates to land security of tenure and land information management system in the county.
- Identify all the gaps in the land department that could hinder the issuance of land title deeds.
- Conduct a SWOT analysis of the county’s land security of tenure management process.
- Assess the county’s engagement with the civil society organizations on land security of tenure.
- Assess the budget allocation trends for the lands department and verify availability of funds for land management information system and digitization of titling processes.
- Produce a comprehensive final report on the needs assessment with key recommendations.
- Assess the understanding of policy makers on issues of land security of tenure and land information management system.
- Assess the capacity of staff to effectively issue title deeds and manage land information management system.
- Assess the compliance levels of the county to the requirements of the national government on land policies, titling and other procedures.
- Identify areas where the county needs support and capacity building for them to achieve security of land tenure.
- Develop a capacity building plan based on the identified needs.
4.2 Habitat for Humanity Kenya will:
- Provide all necessary logistics for the assignment like letters of introduction where necessary.
- Provide all relevant documents that may be required by the consultant.
- Organize validation meeting.
- IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
The consultants should provide a technical proposal and work plan explain how they would wish to about the assignment inclusive of field work, validation meeting, report writing and presentation distributed in number of days.
- QUALIFICATIONS
The suitable Consultant/s must have the following.
- Master degree or its equivalent in Law, Development Studies, Communication, Public Health, Social Sciences, or any other related field with at least 5 years of experience in working in the land titling and advocacy for security of tenure.
- Proven experience in policy analysis and review.
- Ability to produce well-written reports, exhibiting excellent analytical and communication skills.
- Should have good verbal, analytical, writing, and computer literacy skills.
Duration of Assignment: 13 days
How to apply
- APPLICATION PROCESS
The application is open to individual consultants or firms. Applicants must provide:
- A proposal clearly showing the following:
- Approach and methodology for meeting the objectives of this assignment.
- Proposed Number of days it would take to complete this assignment.
- Financial proposition showing all the expenses, inclusive of 5% withholding Tax.
- A detailed CV and professional background relevant to the assignment
- Firms are required to provide their company profile
Applications should be submitted to:
The Procurement Officer.
Habitat for Humanity Kenya,
CVS Plaza, Kasuku lane, Nairobi, Kenya
office: +254 101 454 380 • 020 2572812
Nairobi.
Email: procurement@hfhkenya.org
Deadline: 10th February 2023