Accelerating the sale up of early childhood and maternal nutrition interventions, including CMAM, through regional platforms and partnerships in the Middle East and North Afrian

The objective is to provide technical leadership in undertaking a Regional landscape analysis of trends of complementary feeding indicators, their key determinants and status of complementary feeding programmes in select countries. The exercise will also study country-level examples of good practices and others that did not work well,that will contribute to the development of Middle East and North Africa Regional framework for planning, implementing and monitoring complementary feeding interventions.

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Consultancy Title: Accelerating the sale up of early childhood and maternal nutrition interventions, including CMAM, through regional platforms and partnerships in the Middle East and North Afrian

 

 

 

LOCATION/DURATION:

Duration:  37 working days

 

Location: Amman, Joran

On-site working days: 15 days

Off-site working days: 22 days

Field Missions/Travel: Oman, Sudan and Egypt.

 

Estimated Start Date: End July/Early August, 2018

Estimated end Date: End October, 2018

 

 

BACKGROUND:  Globally, the World Health Assembly has set targets for member states to work towards reducing stunting, anemia, low birth weight, and increasing exclusive breastfeeding. Appropriate Maternal and Infant and Young Child nutrition is the foundation for ensuring that each of these global targets are met, but progress towards these targets remains insufficient[i]. To illustrate, the global prevalence of child stunting (chronic malnutrition) among children under 5 has decreased from 32.7% to 22.9% over the last 15 years (i.e. a 30% decline)¹. However, 155 million children under 5 remain stunted and their physical growth and brain development compromised. Further, 29% of children in LMICs are vitamin A deficient[ii] and 43% anemic[iii]. Anemia, often a result of iron deficiency, also affects 29% of non-pregnant women and 38% of pregnant women. Undernutrition of pregnant women is common and leads to poor maternal and fetal outcomes, including one-fifth of stunting cases in children[iv].

 

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is experiencing a triple burden of malnutrition: undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency and over nutrition.  It is still home to 9.5 million stunted children. Most the stunted children are in eight of MENA region’s 20 countries (Sudan, Syria, Yemen, State of Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, and Djibouti). While the number of stunted children globally has reduced from 169 million in 2010 to 159 million in 2014, in most countries in UNICEF’s MENA region, the number of stunted children has shown slow reduction (13 million in 1990 - 9.5 million in 2015). Progress in most countries is slow and below what is required to keep pace with population growth and to achieve a 40% reduction in the number of stunted children by 2030. The prevalence of wasting is 4.8% and overweight is 4.8% in MENAA region.  Although improvements have been made over the past 2 decades, several countries are experiencing food insecurity as a result of the Syria Conflict as well others who are at risk such as Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Palestine, Morocco, Egypt, and Djibouti.  There has been no significant positive development in the nutritional status of chidren under 5 in some MENA countries despite improvements in the health situation of children and the drop in infant and child mortality rates.

 

According the the 2017 State of the Worlds Children, rates of exclusive breastfeeding in children 0-5 months have shown little improvement where the regional average stands at 35% for MENA region, and complementary feeding practices are sub-optimal as only one in three children (38%) are fed a diversified diet Although many countries in the region are able to report high rates of timely introduction of complementary foods, the quality of these complementary foods are usually inadequate to address nutritional needs of infants and young children.  The proportion of children 6-23 months who meet the minimum acceptable diet in MENA stands at 21%.

 

It is with this background that UNICEF MENARO has prioritized support to countries in the region in accelerating interventions aimed at improving the diets of young children that will contibute to the MENARO Regional priority to reduce stunting.  UNICEF MENARO intends to conduct a Regional landscape analysis of trends and predictors of young children’s diets in a select number of Core countries in the region as an intial step towards understanding the early child nutrition situation in the region. The findings of the regional landscape analysis will inform development of Regional guidance as well as inform prioritization of country level support based on the identified gaps.

 

 

OBJECTIVE: is to provide technical leadership in undertaking a Regional landscape analysis of trends of complementary feeding indicators, their key determinants and status of complementary feeding programmes in select countries. The exercise will also study country-level examples of good practices and others that did not work well,that will contribute to the development of Middle East and North Africa Regional framework for planning, implementing and monitoring complementary feeding interventions.

 

 

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT: The landscape analysis will cover five core countries in UNICEF’s Middle East and North Africa Region^[1] that will provide a representative assessment of early child nutrition with a focus on diets of young children 6-23 months. The end product will be a region-wide analysis with recommendations for approaches for improving the diets of young children. This regional landscape analysis will inform the development of a regional framework for complementary feeding that will guide countries in the MENA region on accelerating progress towards stunting reduction.

 

 

KEY DELIVERABLES:

1. Develop Methodology and approach for Landscape analysis (7 working days)

1. Review key relevant background documents to the assignment to understand the expected deliverables (Country level strategies, policies and relevant guidelines)
2. Develop a methodology and approach for conducting the regional landscape analysis in line with the methodology framework and data consolidation tools provided by HQ
3. Meet with UNICEF Middle East and North Africa regional Office Senior Nutrition Specialist to review terms of reference and objectives of the landscape analysis, finalization of methodology and tools and submitting an inception report.

 

1. Conduct a secondary analysis on complementary feeding for 5 countries in MENA with the following components (10 working days):

1. Analysis of National surveys for the 5 core countries (MICS, DHS, National Nutrition Surveys) to study the trends (where available) and predictors (enablers/barriers) as well as determinants of complementary feeding indicators, specifically,minimum for MDD, MMF and consumption of animal source foods.

2. will be undertaken and Country specific analysis for the 5 countries will be done

    

1. Conduct an in-depth desk review of literature, existing policy environment and programme actions for complementary feeding in the 5 core countries (10 working days):

1. Review strategies, implementation and monitoring, for improving young children’s diets from selected countries (based on stunting burden or prevalence and poor IYCF indicators, which are the core countries).
2. Review the extent to which  legal frameworks support appropriate diets/foods for children (legal framework review, regulation of promotion, registration of MNPs, subsidies/taxes on specific foods, trade restrictions import/export of highly nutritious foods).
3. Carry out a review of program effectiveness and lessons learned to improve the access component of complemenatary feeding in a subset of  3countries.

4. Document findings in the region through a synthesis

    

1. In collaboration with UNICEF MENARO and key partners review findings from the landscape analysis from the 5 core countries and prioritize key barriers and gaps in the delivery and uptake of complementary feeding interventions (10 working days).

    

    

Country selection

5 core countries have been selected to reflect varying levels of progress to reduce stunting, poor IYCF indicators with an effort to ensure availability of country level data on infant and young child nutrition. Datasets from the 5 selected countries (based on stunting burden or prevalence) in the region

 

 

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS (IF APPLICABLE):

 

ICT CONSIDERATIONS (PLEASE CHECK IF APPLICABLE):

 Access to electronic Information Resources    UNICEF email ID    ICT Hardware (please specify): ____________________________

Subject to an email approval from the RD.

 

TRAVEL CONSIDERATIONS (PLEASE CHECK IF APPLICABLE): Egypt, Sudan and Oman.

 None     Commencement travel (consultant’s cost)       Mission travel (schedule/itinerary required):

Travel to the following countries is expected: Oman, Sudan and Egypt

 

For individual contractors and consultants, all travel arrangements to commence the assignment, including insurance and visas, will be managed and paid by the individual.  Therefore, expected travel costs must be included as a budget item in the financial proposal.  Should “mission travel” be required, UNICEF will manage and pay for travel via Travel Authorization.  However, this will be subject to the following prerequisites:  Medical Clearance, Security Clearance through the Travel Request Information Process (TRIP) system, the Basic and Advanced Security in the Field Trainings, Travel Visa, and liability waiver. Trip prerequisites will be met at the expense of the consultant.

 

Travel cost shall be calculated based on economy class travel, regardless of the length of travel.  Costs for accommodation, meals and incidentals shall not exceed applicable daily subsistence allowance (DSA) rates, as promulgated by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC at http://icsc.un.org).  The consultant must travel on UNICEF approved airlines.

 

 

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:

1.         Education: Master’s degree in Nutrition, Public Health or other related Social Science for an individual consultant

 

2.         Work experience:

• Minimum of 8 years of experience working in IYCF programs

   

3.         Technical knowledge:

• Experience in conducting landscape analysis and assessments is a must

• Familiarity with IYCF programming context in the Middle East and North Africa region

• Experience in qualitative data collection, analysis and synthesis
• Experience working with governments, NGOS, UN agencies or other relevant development partners.

• Excellent writing skills

   

4.         Language:

• Fluency in spoken and written English, Arabic is an asset.

   

 

PAYMENT SCHEDULE:

 

12.       PROPOSED PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Select proposed methodology: By Deliverable

 

 

Expected Deliverables and Payment Schedule

 

 

Deliverables	Duration (Estimated # of days) please link payment to an expected date	Schedule of payment
1.    Inception report outlining methodology and approach for conducting the landscape analysis	August 15	10%
2.    Draft report with a synthesis of the findings and proposed recommendations	Sept 15	50%
3.    Consolidation of stakeholder inputs	Oct 15	20%
Final publishable report	Oct 30	20%
TOTAL	37 days	100%

 

Payment Schedule

Payment shall be made on satisfactory completion of deliverables as follows:

Deliverable 1:              10%

Deliverable 2:              50%

Deliverables 3:            20%

Deliverable 4:              20%

 

EVALUATION PROCESS:

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

1. Cover letter/application.
2. Financial quote as lump sum for professional fees, and lump sum for travel/administrative/subsistence, if applicable.
3. CV.
4. Examples of previous, relevant work as applicable
5. Proposed methodology/approach to managing the project.
6. At least 2 Referees
7. P 11 form (which can be downloaded from our website at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_53129.html ).

 

 

 

Late submissions, incomplete packets, or submissions with an incorrect email subject heading will not be considered.

 

Successful applicants may be invited for further technical assessment and offers will be evaluated by the following criteria:

 

	Applicant
TECHNICAL QUALIFICATION    (max. 80 points)
Overall Response (10 points)
Understanding of tasks, objectives and completeness and coherence of response
Overall match between the TOR requirements and proposal
Proposed Methodology and Approach (20 points)
Quality of proposed approach/methodology
Quality of proposed work plan
Technical Capacity (50 points)
Relevance of consultant’s experience with similar projects and as per required qualifications
Quality of previous work
References
TECHNICAL QUALIFICATION - Total Points
FINANCIAL PROPOSAL     (max. 20 points)
Professional fees
Administrative costs (travel, per diems, insurance, etc.)
Total estimated cost of contract (proposed contract fee only)
FINANCIAL PROPOSAL - Weight Combined Score
TOTAL SCORE   (max. 100 points)