Terms of Reference for Consulting Services For Nutrition Assessment

Job Description

Job description
Terms of Reference for Consulting Services

For

Nutrition assessment

Ref No: WB&W/RLRP/2024/008

Terms of Reference (TOR)

Conduct a rapid study on agri-nutrition status and practices in the project areas.

1. Client

The client for this assignment is Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation of Federal Government of Somalia.

A. Background

According to a 2022 food system assessment (IPC, 2023) the key drivers contributing to the problem of food insecurity and malnutrition in Somalia include environmental degradation, conflict, droughts, and floods. These natural and man- made drivers have created a large number of IDPs and affect agricultural production which is linked to low food availability for self-consumption as well low-income limiting purchasing capacity. The combined effects of these lead to challenges in accessing food, especially in conflict or disaster affected areas.

Malnutrition in Somalia is driven by a combination of factors such as child illnesses, high morbidity, micronutrient deficiencies, low immunization levels, gender inequality and discriminatory sociocultural attitudes leading to poor care practices(UN,2020) Malnutrition varies seasonally and regionally. The 2019 Somalia Micronutrient Survey documented a high percentage of wasting and stunting in the country as a result of inadequate quality and quantity of food. In children, levels of stunting (17 percent), wasting (11 percent) and underweight (13 percent) are very high. More recent data highlighted that 21.3 percent of the children under five were stunted, 6.9 percent wasted, and 5.6 percent overweight.

Micronutrient deficiencies: Nutrition indicators tend to suggest that outcomes are worse for women and children. Iron-deficiency or anemia in women is at 40 percent. Anemia affects an alarming 38.5 percent of school-aged children (6–11 years) and 46.6 percent of non-pregnant women (15‒49 years).[11] Moreover, 34 percent of children and 11 percent of women have vitamin A deficiency. As a consequence of perpetual food insecurity and malnutrition infant mortality is high and life expectancy is low (57 years)(DNS, 2020). Women are also systematically more malnourished than men and also less food secure (DNS, 2020). Households dependent on women for food or income to buy food are overrepresented in the category of households with poor food consumption, few income sources and limited assets. These households eat less than four food crops and are forced to use extreme coping strategies such as skipping meals for an entire day or sending children away to eat elsewhere(FSNAU & FEWS NET. 2022).

B. The Rural Livelihoods Resilience Programme

Rural Livelihoods Resilience Program is an 8 years program (March 2024 – March 2032). (RLRP)’s development objective is to sustainably increase productivity, incomes and nutrition security and enhance resilience of rural smallholder families in Somalia. It aims to address the challenges underlying the fragility of the agricultural sector in Somalia, e.g. vulnerability to climate change, perpetuating severe water scarcity, violent conflicts leading to displacement of farmers and inadequate access to food, poor access to rural and agricultural production infrastructure and services, limited access to skills training.

RLRP has three main components:

Component 1: Support to Community Resilience. Its expected outcomes are: Strengthened and inclusive communities with enhanced social cohesion so that are able to define their livelihood development pathways and manage conflict.

Component 2: Support to Smallholder Livelihoods Enhancement. Its expected outcomes are: increased production and productivity of priority crops and animals for resilience, dietary diversity and food security; and improved incomes.

Component 3: Programme Coordination and Capacity Building. Its expected outcomes is an efficiently and effectively managed programme with the integration of gender, youth, environment, climate change, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), knowledge management and communication (KMC) considerations in all aspects of the programme.

C. Overview of the assessment

The primary objective of the nutrition assessment is to establish the baseline situation of nutrition knowledge/attitude/practices in RLRP targeted communities. The specific objective of the baseline survey is to produce quality data to serve as reference values of all results indicators related to nutrition.

The RLRP seeks to hire a National Consultant to conduct this baseline. Specifically, the Consultant will assess the following indicators as they apply to the RLRP. The assessment will rely on qualitative approaches using focus group discussions and key informant interviews.

1. Assess the availability of diverse and nutritious foods for household consumption

Specifically, the assessment will determine:

The quantity of targeted nutrient-rich commodities that are produced by farming households and set aside for own consumption;
The number and quantity of nutritious food varieties accessed from local markets;
The number and quantity of nutritious food found in the wild and collected from forests and rangelands.

2. Determine the Knowledge, attitudes and practices that negatively affect healthy eating habits and care giving practices

Using IFAD Core Outcomes Indicators (COI) guidelines[1], the assessment will:

Determine Knowledge, attitudes and practices that limit positive nutrition outcomes related to food cultures and choices, culinary and feeding practices and taboos, care practices (both maternal and children, and adolescent girls), and practices that affect climate, as well as environmental health issues which includes Water Sanitation and Hygiene. Annex I presents possible questions on knowledge, attitudes and practices that can be adapted to this assignment;
Determine key barriers to gender equality, including women’s workload as a share of physical energy and time spent by women on farm and domestic chores that may impact their health status and the feeding of their children.

3. Determine the time spent by women daily on farm and in household activities

The aim is to assess women’s workload and the activities in which take most of their time

Distribution of work by gender (farm and household)
Time spent by women on farming activities by season- caring for livestock, planting, weeding, harvesting, processing, etc.
Time spent by women on daily household chores- preparing meals, taking care of children, collecting firewood, and water for domestic use, etc.

4. Determine the activities that would improve nutrition and shift HH consumption towards nutritious diets

Based on the findings of the assessment, the Consultant will validate the activities recommended in the project design and recommend any modification to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the nutrition activities.

D. Specific Tasks of the Consultant

The key tasks of the Consultant will include:

Task 1: Obtaining necessary clearance for the survey

· Adhere to local formalities and obtain any required clearance related to conduct the survey, including acquiring all permissions necessary for conducting the survey and relevant permissions from national and/or local authorities as needed.

Task 2: Develop a methodology and plan for the assessment, which will include:

(a) Focus Group Discussion and Key Informant Interview

· Indicate the number of key informant interviews and the profile of he key informant;

· Indicate the number of focus group discussion and no of persons participating in these and their profile;

· Only beneficiaries targeted for support under the RLRP will be considered.

(b) Development of checklist for the key informant interview and the focus group discussions

· Checklist of questions drafted in accordance with the scope of this assignment;

· Adapt the questions to the local food cultures, local names of foods consumed, social and cultural context;

· The checklist of the key informant interview and the focus group discussions would be translated into local language.

(c) Detailed Field Procedure Plan

The Field Procedure Plan should detail the following:

· Travel and lodging logistics;

· Management information/reporting tools to track interviews;

· Support required at state/ district level.

Task 4: Data collection and Analysis

· Compile all the information collected through key informant interviews and focus group discussion;

· Analyze the data and generate preliminary findings, conclusions and recommendations.

Task 6: Reporting

Following the data collection, the reporting shall follow:

· Draft Nutrition assessment report. The report should include, but not limited to, the Background of the consultancy, Executive summary including recommendations; Table of contents; Project Goals; baseline survey objectives; ; Methodology: scope and coverage; assessment design; organization; quality control; data processing and management; Main findings; Conclusions and recommendations; Appendices to include TOR; Bibliography; etc. The draft report will be presented to the RLRP.

· Final report incorporating comments and suggestions from the RLRP.

[1] https://xdesk.ifad.org/sites/opr/opr-ts/COI/COI%20Measurement%20Guidelines%20-%20English/COI%20Measurement%20Guidelines_ENG.pdf

Skills and qualifications
A. Consultant Experience and Qualifications

Selection of the Consultant to conduct the nutrition assessment will be through Individual Consultant (IC) following IFAD procurement procedure for consulting services. Therefore, the Consultant shall be responsible of overall guidance and supervision, developing data collection tools, sampling, data analysis and reporting of results, lessons learned and recommendations; while the project will provide field staff (enumerators for data collection and data entry team) and incur the cost of logistics. The consultant shall possess the following qualifications:

· Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in Somalia, including previous experience working with development partners.

· Proven familiarity with key nutrition interventions

· At least 5 years’ experience in the design and implementation of nutrition assessments.

· Knowledge of English

B. Administrative and other aspects

Based on this TOR the consultant is required to provide the project with a technical and financial proposal of how s/he is gonging to implement the study using the standard Request for Proposal (RFP) approved by IFAD. This is considered as pre-requisite for selection of the consultant to implement the assignment. The technical proposal which is (3-5 pages) will include a technical approach, methodology, and work plan. The technical proposal will be reviewed and evaluated by the IFAD and if it is accepted, then again will be updated by the end of the first week of the assignment when the Consultant is requested to submit the inception report. The financial proposal will be negotiated with Consultant if his/her technical proposal was accepted and before signing the contract.

C. Duration and Time Schedule

The consultancy will be for a maximum of 30 calendar days, effective from date of contract signing. The contract will effectively expire upon presentation and acceptance of outputs from the final activity from the client.

Attachments

REOI Nutrition assessment

.docx

ToR Nutrition assessment

.docx
How to apply

Requested experience and qualifications would be proven by submitting documents of engagement in the respective area.

Only short-listed candidates will be invited for the interview. Passing Grade to be shortlisted minimum 60/75

To be considered technically qualified, the consultant should score 75/100 or more, following the interview.

Only the top-ranked consultant will be invited to submit a technical and financial proposal.

Any request for clarification on this REOI should be sent via e-mail to the address below no later than 11:00 AM November, 20th, 2024 Somalia local time. The client will provide responses to all clarification requests by 11:00 AM November, 23th, 2024 Somalia local time.

Expressions of interest must be delivered in written form using the forms provided for this purpose. EOIs shall be submitted to the address below no later than 12:00 PM December, 2nd, 2024 Somalia local time. Incomplete, untimely applications, as well as applications from consultants who do not meet the requirements of this advertisement, will not be considered.

For Expressions of Interest that will be delivered in (hard copy), the packages should be clearly marked: REF: WB&W/RLRP/2024/008: Nutrition assessment for Rural Livelihoods Resilience Program (RLRP) addressed to:

Attention: National Program Coordination Unit

Rural Livelihoods Resilience Program (RLRP)

Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation MOAI

Federal Government of Somalia

KM4 Street, Hodan, Mogadishu Somalia.

Email Address: aabyan@rlrp.gov.so

Cc: amuhumad@rlrp.gov.so