Background
Concern Worldwide (Concern) has been working as a key humanitarian actor in South Sudan since 1998 providing lifesaving and life-changing services in Nutrition, Health, Food security, WASH among others across the three states; Unity, Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBeG) and Central Equatorial states. Our Nutrition Programme focuses, mainly, on prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition through Outpatient Therapeutic Programme (OTP), Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programme (TSFP), and Stabilization Centres (SC) and promotion of maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN). Concern also supports the government in running the primary health care services through logistics, provision of pharmaceuticals, incentives and technical backstopping.
In Unity State, Concern is running OTP and TSFP in Rubkona and Guit counties. Currently we are running 3 sites in Rubkona (2 IDP camps and Rotriak) and 11 nutrition sites in Guit (7 static and 4 mobile). Concern has a Stabilization Centre in Kuach.
Rubkona has the largest IDP camp in the country, with a population of 112,329 according to the May 2022 IoM population report. The total population in the Concern operational area of Guit is estimated to be 113,003. Concern provides nutrition services (OTP, TSFP and SC) using nutrition centres in all locations while the nutrition programme has been integrated with the health facilities in Rotriak and Chotiyel.
Concern Worldwide plans to engage a consultant to conduct a Semi Quantitative Evaluation of Access and Coverage (SQUEAC) survey in Guit County. The survey is expected to study the programme coverage challenges/barriers and enablers/boosters through an appropriate methodology that utilizes both secondary and primary data collection methods for qualitative and quantitative data. The result will include an estimate of current project coverage for both severe acute Malnutrition (SAM) and Moderate acute Malnutrition (MAM), barriers and boosters to coverage and develop recommendation/action plan.
Purpose of the Consultancy
This consultancy is intended to assess the coverage of the Concern’s nutrition programme and asses indicators related to coverage and programme quality in Guit County in Unity state. The SQUEAC survey is expected to identify key factors affecting the uptake of CMAM services in targeted geographical areas to make the best possible recommendations to inform our programming. The consultant will also build the capacity of the Concern team in to help them carry out SQUEAC in the future and strengthen subsequent routine analysis of programme data to improve programme performance.
Essential and Desirable Experience/Qualifications
- Academic qualifications: Master’s Degree in Nutrition, Public Health, or Biostatistics, along with relevant technical knowledge in Research methods and the SQUEAC and SLEAC methodologies.
- Necessary experience: Extensive experience (3-5 years) in coordinating and managing SQUEAC surveys, particularly in South Sudan and/or disaster-affected environment.
- Other necessary/desirable skills/qualifications.
- Documented experience in survey protocol development ·
- Proven skills to analyse, identify needs and respond with recommendations,
- Ability to conduct data analyses, including collating and presenting survey data
- Strong verbal and written communication skills.
- Willingness to travel and work in tough field environments
- Documented supervisory, coordination and organization skills
- Excellent English Fluency
Objectives and Specific tasks to be undertaken
Principle Objective
The main objective of this assignment is to evaluate access and coverage of Community based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programme using SQUEAC methodology in Guit County of Unity state and develop recommendations for programme improvement. Furthermore, the consultant will develop the skills of key nutrition staff in conducting coverage surveys using the SQUEAC methodology.
The specific objectives include:
- To provide a comprehensive on-the-job training on coverage survey methodology
- Estimate the coverage of the CMAM programme catchment areas of Guit County in Unity State
- Identify the distribution of adequate and inadequate coverage of the different health facility/nutrition centre catchment areas with acceptable accuracy
- To map out coverage (either point, period or single estimates) in the target areas
- Conduct community surveys to understand dynamics and its impact on the access to services and the coverage of OTP and TSFP services in the targeted county
- Identify factors affecting uptake of the CMAM services (OTP and TSFP).
- Make recommendations and develop action plans, together with the Concern nutrition team, based on the findings to improve access to the OTP and TSFP services
Specific Tasks of the Consultant:
The contract will focus on the planning, implementation, data entry, analysis and report writing.
The following are specific tasks to be completed in the contract:
- Planning
- Adapt and finalise the methodology, tools, and timeline of activities, data collection, based on the local context.
- Review and analyse Concern’s recent quantitative programme data for the OTP and TSFP programmes to identify gaps in data availability
- Present the methodology to South Sudan Nutrition Information Working Group (NIWG) for approval and respond to questions raised by NIWG, in collaboration with Concern.
- Work with Concern Nutrition team to ensure that all survey materials, tools and equipment are ready.
- Training
- Conduct the tool and methodology training for supervisors and data collectors.
- Data collection and supervision
- Ensure adequate supervision of the survey team during the entire data collection period
- Make periodic supervision visits to the survey teams during their work to ensure high data quality
- Review the entered data daily, if possible using DDG with support of Digital Data Gathering focal point and provide prompt feedback to teams.
- Document the constraints, difficulties or potential biases identified during the survey implementation process
- Data analysis and report writing
- Conduct regular plausibility checks during the data collection period.
- Conduct the preliminary analysis of the survey and prepare a short preliminary report that will also be used to present to the NIWG.
- Interpret the results of the survey with Concern Nutrition team
- Complete reports and all other activities timely as per the agreed schedule
- Share and discuss the survey results and action plans with Concern
- Present the survey results to Nutrition Cluster and NIWG.
- Share a soft copy of the report, power point presentation of the findings and data sets (raw and clean).
Outputs
- Final survey methodology and coverage survey work plan, including finalised data collection tools, prior to start of study
- A final SQUEAC study report including results, findings and recommendations on actions to address the issues/gaps.
- The findings, recommendations and action plans presented to Nutrition Cluster and the NIWG—date to be confirmed and communicated to the consultant by Concern Nutrition Technical Coordinator.
- The raw and final cleaned version of the data sets (quantitative/qualitative) to be sent to Concern Programme Director/Nutrition Technical Coordinator to be saved at both HQ and Country level servers for future reference.
Lines of communication / reporting
The consultant will report to the Programme Director of Concern Worldwide South Sudan, but will work closely with the Nutrition Programme Manager and ERNE Programme Manager in Unity State and the Nutrition Technical Coordinator in Juba. For any technical questions on SQUEAC methods, the consultant will liaise closely with Concern Nutrition Technical Coordinator.
Working arrangement:
- The consultant will use Concern offices, for his/her work, in Juba and Unity, with field visits as per the agreed work plan with the Programme Director.
- Concern will provide transport to facilitate the work activities.
- The Consultant must complete all formal administrative requirements of Concern including but not limited to; signing Concern’s Programme Participant Protection Policy and Code of Conduct.
- The Consultant should have their own laptop to complete the work activities.
Timeframe
The proposed consultancy will last for approximately 30 days, expected starting date as from 13th February 2023; this is inclusive of all the processes of the investigations from the day the contract is signed to the report submission day. The Consultant is expected to communicate any unforeseen delays which might affect the completion date.
Travel to country (2 days), planning phase (5 days), training and pretesting of questionnaire (3 days), data collection (8 days), data cleaning and analysis (2 days) and presentation of findings and final report writing (8 days).
Applications must include the following:
- Cover letter,
- Curriculum Vitae of the lead consultant should not exceed 3 pages
- Technical Proposal including a work plan with detail methodologies
- Financial Proposal (budget)
- One SQUEAC survey report previously written (Concern will keep it confidential.)
Applications must be submitted to [email protected] by 5:00 GMT December 15, 2022. Concern Worldwide expects to be in a position to select the successful applicant by January 15, 2023.
Concern has an organisational Code of Conduct (CCoC) with three Associated Policies; the Programme Participant Protection Policy (P4), the Child Safeguarding Policy and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Policy.These have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation, and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organisation, and the standards of behaviour expected of them. In this context, staff have a responsibility to the organisation to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a consultancy opportunity with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Concern Code of Conduct and Associated Policies as an appendix to their consultancy contract. By signing the Concern Code of Conduct, candidates acknowledge that they have understood the content of both the Concern Code of Conduct and the Associated Policies and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these policies. Additionally, Concern is committed to the safeguarding and protection of vulnerable adults and children in our work. We will do everything possible to ensure that only those who are suitable to work or volunteer with vulnerable adults and children are recruited by us for such roles. Subsequently, being engaged as a consultant with Concern is subject to a range of vetting checks, including criminal background checking.
