GBV Cluster Coordination & Health, Nutrition, & Protection Integrated Response Consultancy

The IRC received a grant from USAID’s Office of Disaster Assistance (OFDA) to implement a one-year program (2019/2020) called “GBV Cluster Coordination and Health, Nutrition, and Protection Integrated Response”. The program is designed to promote GBV cluster coordination in South Sudan as well as responding to the most vulnerable communities in Central and Southern Unity state of South Sudan for women empowerment, child protection, health, Nutrition and Market systems strengthening interventions for IDPs and host communities.

Objectives of the Project

The IRC proposed to provide the following multi-sector intervention that strengthened the humanitarian response in South Sudan:

• Strengthen coordination and build capacity within the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) sub-cluster (SC) through the continued deployment of three key GBV positions: 1) One Sub-Cluster Co-Chair at the national level, who is based in Juba. This is a role that is instrumental in facilitating the overall coordination and leadership of the Sub Cluster. 2) One GBV Field Coordinator, who is based in Juba, providing technical support to GBV partners and coordination strengthening in Greater Equatoria. 3) One Roving GBV Specialist, who is based in Juba, covering gaps in nationwide coordination efforts, especially in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Lakes, and Warrap. Details on the activities to be undertaken by each role are included in the Program Strategy section.
• Provide integrated life-saving health and nutrition services to the famine-prone IDP and host-community populations in Panyijar and Koch Counties.
• Provide critical GBV prevention and response services for the IDP communities in the POC sites at the UN House in Juba and integrated life-saving gender-based violence, and child protection services to Protect conflict-affected children from abuse, exploitation and neglect, and response services when they experience harm in Panyijiar.
• Enhance livelihoods protection and restoration through provision of alternative income and market strengthening support for conflict and disaster affected people in Panyijiar County, Unity State.

The GBV SC coordination component of the proposed intervention largely continues the GBV coordination activities of the 2017-2019 OFDA funded programs. The GBV coordination intervention component was designed in collaboration with UNFPA and cluster members and seeks to address gaps in the current coordination structure, while also bolstering technical capacity of local level organizations that are facing increased needs in light of the escalation and spread of conflict throughout South Sudan. OFDA’s support will fully fund this element of the proposal for a 12 month duration.The proposed GBV prevention and response interventions will focus on GBV emergency response, GBV prevention and women and girl’s empowerment strategies to support conflict affected populations on the frontline and in protracted emergencies in the POC sites in Juba and in Koch through integrated services including nutrition and health.

The health response component will allow IRC to deliver life-saving health and nutrition services to IDPs and host communities in Panyijar and Koch counties. This will be achieved through a two-pronged approach that will seek to reach populations in need in remote locations through mobile teams, while supporting critical static health and nutrition facilities. This combined approach will maximize the reach of interventions, strengthen referral networks, allow for follow-up care, and provide inpatient care for complicated severe acute malnutrition (SAM) cases. Under this project, the IRC is also proposing to implement health interventions in Koch County through one integrated health and nutrition mobile team serving the underserved population in two mobile sites. IRC is also proposing to implement a 12 month intervention to address the nutrition needs in greater Nyal and Ganyliel of Panyijiar County as well as in Koch County.

The Child Protection program provided case management service including family tracing and reunification to vulnerable children at-risk of or that experienced family separation, neglect, abuse or exploitation. Screening has been conducted through health/nutrition facilities and mobile teams by trained caseworkers. Caregivers were trained on parenting skills training focused on the reduction of harsh or violent practices, empathetic communication to improve child-caregiver interaction, and support practices to develop the child’s cognitive, social and emotional skills with a focus on caregivers that have children suffering from chronic malnutrition. The project has also built the capacity of the community-based child protection mechanism committee members.

The economic recovery and market systems strengthening was designed to enhance livelihoods protection and restoration through provision of alternative income and market strengthening support for conflict and disaster-affected people in Panyijiar County, Unity State. This was pursued through a) facilitating Cash for works activities linked to Nyal Market, b) conducting businessand life skills trainings to women and youths and supporting them re-start and or expand their business, and c) facilitate establishment of village savings and loans association groups(VSLAs) to engage in weekly resource pooling for emergencies and to enhance meeting basic needs. This interventions were also integrated with other community engagement activities such as community client feedback mechanisms, spousal group discussion series geared towards promoting inclusive financial decision making at household level and weekly engagement of Nyal market actors (buyers and traders) to collect data on market dynamics and prices.

Objectives of Endline Study:

The IRC is looking for a consultant (or team of consultants) to carry out an end of project evaluation for the evaluation and learning component for this program. This endline study is to test and determine whether the interventions and objectives of the project were achieved at its end.

Scope of the study and Locations:

The evaluation locations will be Juba County (Juba POC, and GBV Cluster interventions), Panyijiar County (Health and nutrition, Child protection and Livelihoods interventions) and Koch County (Health, Women Protection and Empowerment (WPE) and Nutrition). The main outcome of interest of the endline study will be to measure the extent of increased access to services through GBV Cluster coordination and their contributions to conflict prevention, women protection and empowerment outcomes and progress outcomes that were derived through the health and nutrition interventions.

The end line study scope methodology will include.

• Document review of project documents including Logical framework for the project design and reports.
• Instrument development in English and orient the supervisors and field workers for the study
• Facilitate and supervise data collection within quantitative and qualitative frameworks for the study
• Consultations with relevant stakeholders at sector, national, and state levels
• Analyze data and report preparation
• Ensure that lessons learned, problems and good practices are documented throughout the process inception report with the final research design
• Drafting report with relevant endline indicator achievement figures with factsheet and ensure that they are of good quality
• A presentation kit of main results highlighting important analysis and trends and updating the results framework.
• Incorporating feedback/comments and finalization of report

Study Duration

The endline study is expected to take 30 working days including field work and report compilation period. The evaluation will be covered from June to July 2020.

Deliverables

The consultant will be responsible to deliver the following:

• Inception report detailing the evaluation design, work plan and instruments to be used
• Draft endline report submitted for review and comments
• Final endline report that incorporates all comments from both Technical Coordinators and Technical Advisors.