EOI: CONSULTANCY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND CONTEXTUALISATION OF A REGREENING AND LAND RESTORATION PRACTICES ATLAS FORFOR ARID AND SEMI-ARID AREAS

**1. BACKGROUND**

**1.1 ORGANISATIONAL BACKGROUND**

World Vision International is a humanitarian and development organization committed to improving the well-being of vulnerable children, families, and communities. In Somaliland and Somalia, World Vision has been at the forefront of implementing integrated resilience programmes that address climate change, environmental degradation, and livelihood vulnerabilities, particularly among pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities.

Through its long-standing presence, World Vision has supported interventions in natural resource management, climate-smart agriculture, water resource management, and livelihood diversification. These interventions have increasingly focused on strengthening community resilience in fragile dryland ecosystems that are highly susceptible to climate variability.

**1.2 REGREENING AFRICA 2 PROJECT**

The Regreening Africa 2 Project builds on previous successes in promoting sustainable land restoration and ecosystem rehabilitation across dryland regions. The project aims to scale up regreening practices that restore degraded landscapes, improve soil fertility, enhance biodiversity, and strengthen livelihoods.

In Somaliland and Somalia, the project targets arid and semi-arid lands where recurrent droughts, erratic rainfall, and unsustainable land use practices have resulted in widespread land degradation. Communities in these areas depend heavily on livestock and small-scale agriculture, making them highly vulnerable to environmental shocks.

The project promotes practical, community-driven restoration approaches such as farmer-managed natural regeneration, soil and water conservation, agroforestry, and rangeland management. However, the uptake of these practices remains constrained by limited access to effective knowledge-dissemination tools, particularly in communities with low literacy levels.

**2. CONTEXT FOR DEVELOPING AND CONTEXTUALISING THE ATLAS**

Dryland communities in Somaliland and Somalia face persistent challenges related to land degradation, declining productivity, and increasing climate risks. While a wide range of regreening and land restoration practices exist, their adoption is often limited due to the disconnect between technical knowledge and community understanding.

A significant proportion of the target population is unable to read or write, which limits the effectiveness of traditional training manuals and extension materials that rely heavily on text. Furthermore, many existing materials are not sufficiently adapted to the local ecological, cultural, and socio-economic contexts.

There is therefore a critical need for a practical, user-friendly, and highly visual tool that translates technical restoration practices into easily understandable formats. The development of a Regreening and Land Restoration Practices Atlas will address this gap by providing a visual learning resource that communicates key practices through illustrations, diagrams, and simple visual narratives.

The atlas will serve as a bridge between scientific knowledge and community-level application, enabling extension workers, community facilitators, and farmers to better understand and implement restoration practices. It will also support farmer field schools, community training sessions, and awareness campaigns.

The atlas must be designed in a way that allows users to interpret and apply the practices independently, without relying on written explanations. This requires a strong emphasis on visual clarity, cultural relevance, and contextual accuracy.

**3. GOAL AND OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT**

**3.1 OVERALL GOAL**

The overall goal of this consultancy is to develop a contextualised, visually-driven Regreening and Land Restoration Practices Atlas tailored to arid and semi-arid environments in Somaliland and Somalia, enabling low-literacy communities to understand and adopt sustainable land restoration practices.

**3.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES**

The specific objectives of the assignment are to:

- Develop a comprehensive atlas that presents regreening and land restoration practices using clear, self-explanatory illustrations and diagrams;
- Contextualize global and regional restoration practices to reflect the environmental, cultural, and livelihood realities of Somaliland and Somalia;
- Ensure that the atlas is accessible to non-literate users by minimizing text and maximizing visual communication;
- Integrate indigenous knowledge and locally relevant practices into the atlas;
- Produce a tool that can be effectively used by extension agents, community facilitators, and farmer field schools;
- Deliver outputs that are suitable for both print and digital dissemination.

**4. SCOPE OF THE ASSIGNMENT**

The consultancy will involve the design, development, validation, and finalization of a Regreening and Land Restoration Practices Atlas. The assignment will cover both Somaliland and Somalia, with a focus on arid and semi-arid regions characterized by pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihoods.

The consultant will be expected to combine technical expertise in land restoration with strong visual communication skills. The atlas must prioritize clarity, simplicity, and usability, ensuring that it can be easily understood by individuals with little or no formal education.

The scope includes reviewing existing materials, identifying appropriate practices, developing visual content, conducting field validation, and producing final outputs. The consultant will also ensure that the atlas reflects local landscapes, tools, livestock systems, and cultural practices.

**5. ACTIVITIES OF THE ASSIGNMENT**

**5.1 INCEPTION PHASE**

The assignment will begin with an inception phase during which the consultant will undertake a comprehensive review of relevant literature, project documents, and existing regreening resources. This phase will also involve consultations with key stakeholders, including World Vision technical teams, government representatives, and community members.

The consultant will develop an inception report outlining the proposed methodology, work plan, atlas structure, and visual design approach. The report will also include a preliminary list of practices to be featured in the atlas.

**5.2 IDENTIFICATION AND PRIORITISATION OF PRACTICES**

The consultant will identify and prioritize regreening and land restoration practices that are suitable for the target context. The selection will be based on criteria such as environmental suitability, ease of adoption, cost-effectiveness, and relevance to local livelihoods.

The consultant will ensure that the selected practices are practical and scalable, and that they address key challenges faced by communities, including soil degradation, water scarcity, and rangeland deterioration.

**5.3 DEVELOPMENT OF VISUAL CONTENT**

The core of the assignment will involve translating selected practices into visual formats. The consultant will develop detailed illustrations, diagrams, and visual sequences that demonstrate how each practice is implemented.

Each practice will be presented through step-by-step visuals, showing preparation, implementation, and expected outcomes. Where appropriate, the consultant will include comparative visuals (e.g., before and after) and simple symbols to highlight key messages.

The visual content must be intuitive and culturally appropriate, allowing users to understand the practices without relying on written explanations. Minimal text may be included in simple language, but the emphasis should remain on visual communication.

**5.4 FIELD VALIDATION**

The consultant will conduct field validation sessions with target communities to test the effectiveness of the atlas. These sessions will involve participatory engagement with pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, women, and youth groups.

Feedback will be collected on the clarity, relevance, and usability of the visuals. The consultant will analyse this feedback and revise the