SMART Survey Consultancy

Background 

IRC is a global leader in rapid response and durable solutions for populations in conflict, transition, and development and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. IRC has built expertise in supporting societies’ transition to sustainable development, with a focus on assisting local institutions to deliver basic social services. The IRC has an exceptional capacity to build the technical capacity of institutions and deliver quality services in sectors including health care, governance, education, child protection, women’s protection and empowerment and research and learning.

IRC in South Sudan: IRC has been administering emergency relief and post-conflict assistance for IDPs and host communities in South Sudan. IRC has been implementing critical post-crisis deveopment programming since starting operationns in South Sudan which have addressed health, nutrition, resilience, liveilhoods, WASH, Education, Child Protection, ERD, and Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) and General Protection. IRC in Yirol West, Lake state: IRC has been implementing the full components of CMAM services, MIYCF, NACS and IFP in Yirol West in 12 OTP/TSFP sites and 1 SC (Yirol general hospotal) since April 2022, supported by UNICEF, WFP and SIDA. This SMART Survey is funded by SIDA. The national nutrition cluster recommend IRC to conduct SMART nutrition survey in the county in order to assess the current nutritional and health status of the county and the result could be used as a baseline for 2023-2025 UNICEF and WFP nutrition programing.

Purpose of the Consultancy:

To conduct a SMART Survey exercise in Yirol West County, Lake state - South Sudan that will inform IRC about the current nutrition status of under-five children and population in the county.

Consultant required for a period of 20 days, to conduct a SMART survey protocol development, survey team training, data collection, data analysis and reporting and ensure validation of the result by the national TWG. 

 General and Specific objectives and Tasks to be undertaken by the Consultant

The overall objective is to determine the prevalence of acute malnutrition among children 6-59 months of age and assess mortality rate in Yirol West County, Lake state.

 Specific objectives of the survey are indicated below (and % effort for each)

• Proposal development, presentation to line ministry, Nutrition cluster/NITWG and approval (20%)
• To estimate the prevalence of acute malnutrition (wasting and/or oedema) and oedema among children aged 6-59 months from selected sampling frames (40%)
• To estimate acute malnutrition among pregnant and lactating women from three sampling frames (10%)
• To write the full report and Summary for selected sampling frames (20%) 
• Submission of final tools, season calendar, working notes, house-listing sheets, training PPT, etc. (10%)

Scope of Work:

To achieve the survey objectives, IRC is seeking the services of a competent consultant to lead the survey from the planning/protocol development/ phase, through implementation of the survey up to the final reporting.  To have an updated assessment of the nutritional status of children 6-59 months and pregnant and lactating women in IRC programme area in Yirol West, Lake state.

Geographical scope:

The SMART survey will be conducted in Yirol West, Lake state where IRC implementing nutrition services implementation in existing 13 facilities. The smallest geographical unit is village, and these will be used to create the sample frame from which the primary sampling unit, clusters, will be drawn. Household, basic sampling will be selected from selected clusters. During implementation of the survey, when there are areas that are not accessible due to security, they will be replaced using a standard replacement method.

Methodology

A cross-sectional two-stage cluster sampling following SMART methodology will be adopted for the selection of households and children.  All women of childbearing age in the selected households and their children 6-59 months will be measured for anthropometry. The villages are considered as the primary sampling unit (clusters) and Household will be considered as the second sampling unit. Emergency Nutrition Assessment (ENA 2020) for SMART will be used for sample size calculation. A more detailed survey methodology will be designed by the Consultant in consultation with IRC Nutrition team and Nutrition Cluster for approval of the survey protocol. IRC will provide all information needed to develop the detailed plan (e.g. list of targeted villages, population size etc.) The detailed design must include among others; survey design, sample size determination using ENA software, quality control, data collection and management process. Anthropometric, mortality and other contextual data will be collected using tables, installed with ODK app. The consultant expected to teste the feasibility of collecting data using table considering the county’s situations during the data collection.

Expected Deliverables

• Detailed full SMART survey work plan including clear calendar of survey activities
• Survey protocol presented to Nutrition Cluster for approval. This should detail the approach and methodology to be used, sampling, village mapping and survey tools
• Final data collection tools based on existing digital tools (ODK), tested for errors
• Final dataset used for analysis and code book for any additional variables created from the raw dataset for anthropometry and mortality (ena) and WASH, FSL, and others, 
• Draft report with preliminary results for all indicators (and confidence intervals) and plausibility report submitted to IRC within the agreed timeline between IRC and the Consultant
• Presentation of the key findings and recommendations to IRC, MoH and Nutrition Cluster/NITWG.
• Final survey report within two weeks after preliminary presentation/submission, incorporating all feedback, including agreed practical and relevant recommendations in Concern’s standard format which follows closely that of the ENA software output. 

Outputs

Key tasks for the consultant to carry out in accordance with the terms and conditions of the consultancy contract include:

Finalization of the survey protocol, training materials and any survey job aids in line with the SMART survey standards

Set of data collection tools and pre-built indicators and questionnaires in tablets using ODK, IRC will avail tablets installed with ODK.

Conduct a pre-test of the methodology and questionnaires as part of the training before starting the survey

Conduct and analyse pre and post- test training results for accuracy of anthropometric measurements and address any weaknesses with targeted training.

Develop a clear survey plan (movement plans, sequence of data collection/ mapping of selected villages) and ensure it is understood by all who need to participate and support its execution, with the support of IRC CO and Rumbek field office-based nutrition team

Design and carry out training of data collectors and supervisors on the survey methodology, anthropometric measurement techniques, effective interview techniques, essential infection, and prevention control methods in the context of COVID-19

Ensure all necessary equipment is in place and functioning before the survey starts by liaising with IRC logistics team and other key staff members

Coordinate all data collection from the field and supervise the team daily to ensure quality data is collected. This will involve developing quality control measures, supporting the team in sampling of households and taking anthropometric measurements and interviews in accordance with COVID-19 prevention measures.

Provide daily field briefing to the IRC Senior Nutrition Manager on progress and any challenges from the field. 

Clean and analyses the survey results using the standard ENA software and any supplementary software (EPI-Info or SPSS) required for those indicators that fall outside the core ENA analysis function

Provide a draft report in an agreed standard format with preliminary results for all indicators, including confidence intervals for indicators and a full plausibility report for review

Present preliminary results to IRC and any relevant stakeholders for feedback (verbal and written) and facilitate a discussion on relevant and practical recommendations finalization of the survey report

Based on feedback, finalize the report with clear and relevant recommendations and present findings to a wider group (NIWG/nutrition cluster and SMoH).