Provision of Third-party monitoring (TPM) services for OCHA Nigeria Humanitarian Fund

Summary

The United Nations established the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to mobilise and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors in order to alleviate human suffering in natural disasters and emergencies, promote preparedness and prevention efforts to reduce future vulnerability, facilitate sustainable solutions by addressing root causes and advocate for the rights of people. The Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF) was established in 2017 as a Country-Based Pooled Fund (CBPF) managed by OCHA to support life-saving humanitarian assistance in Nigeria. Under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC), the NHF enables the timely and flexible allocation of donor resources to priority humanitarian needs identified in the Nigeria Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP). The NHF operates as a strategic and complementary funding mechanism, pooling donor contributions to strengthen coordinated response efforts and maximize impact. It supports a wide range of eligible partners, including UN agencies, international and national NGOs, and Red Cross/Red Crescent organizations, ensuring inclusive and localized humanitarian action. Accountability is a central pillar of the NHF and is implemented through an integrated framework comprising risk management, partner capacity assessment, monitoring and reporting, and audit functions. Monitoring is a key component of this framework and is designed to ensure that funded projects are implemented in line with approved proposals and deliver intended results. The NHF monitoring framework has been established to strengthen fund management and enhance accountability to affected populations, donors, and other stakeholders by applying a risk-based approach to oversight and verification. The framework is aligned with the Country-Based Pooled Funds (CBPF) Global Guidelines. The NHF adopts a risk-based approach to monitoring, whereby oversight and verification efforts are prioritized based on partner risk levels, project value, duration, and operational context. Monitoring modalities include field visits, remote monitoring, financial spot checks, and partner reporting. The operational context in northeast Nigeria, particularly in conflict-affected and hard-to-reach areas, presents significant access and security constraints that limit the ability of OCHA and partners to conduct direct monitoring. These constraints include insecurity, mobility restrictions, and logistical challenges, which may affect timely and independent verification of project implementation. To address these challenges and strengthen assurance mechanisms, OCHA, on behalf of the NHF, is seeking to contract a service provider able to work in close collaboration with OCHA to conduct the monitoring of NHF funded projects at the field level. The TPM services will enable the Fund to obtain independent, field-level verification of project activities and outputs, particularly in areas where access is limited or not feasible. The duration of the contract is envisaged to be twelve (12) months. Specific Requirements/Information The following mandatory requirements must be noted: a) A minimum of five (5) years of experience in Third-Party monitoring, evaluations, or independent verification in humanitarian or development settings, such as Northeast (Borno, Adamawa, Yobe states), Northwest, and Northcentral regions of Nigeria; b) The whole team of proposed third-party monitors must be fluent in written and spoken English, Hausa or Kanuri. c) Experience working in insecure and hard-to-reach environments, with the ability to manage access, logistics, and security constraints. d) The service provider must demonstrate familiarity with multi-sectoral humanitarian programming, including sectors such as Food Security, Nutrition, Health, WASH, and Protection. e) The service provider must have prior experience working with UN agencies, pooled funds (CBPFs), o