Consultancy Vacancy at Save the Children, 9th May 2017
Save the Children is the leading independent
organization for children in need, with programs in over
120 countries, including the United States. We aim to
inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats
children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their
lives by improving their health,
education and economic
opportunities. In times of acute crisis, we mobilize rapid
assistance to help children recover from the effects of war,
conflict and natural disasters. Each year, we and our
partners reach millions of children in communities around the
world. Join our dedicated and diverse staff in their work to
improve the well-being of children everywhere.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Study on Strengthening the Community Volunteer Approach in the CDGP- Consultancy
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Background
- The Child Development Grant (CDG) Programme is a five-year DFID
funded programme, with Save the Children, ACF and the Government of
Nigeria being implemented in a total of 5 LGAs in Zamfara and Jigawa
States of Northern Nigeria, where high levels of child stunting is a
serious problem. The CDG Programme (CDGP) aims to remove the food
security and financial barriers to improving nutrition practices and
preventing stunting.
- These northern states are each characterized as conservative,
with a number of cultural dynamics that limit women’s involvement in
household and market level decision making and other markers of
empowerment. The CDGP works to remove the substantial financial barriers
to improving nutrition in the first “1000 days of life” (pregnant and
lactating women and children up to the age of 24 months) and is
delivering a behaviour change strategy to improve nutrition practices
and prevent stunting in children.
- The overall anticipated outcome is: A scalable programme showing
how cash transfers can bring cost-effective immediate and long-term
food security and nutrition benefits in terms of improved nutrition
behaviours and stunting prevention to eligible households with young
children in poor communities in northern Nigeria.
- In CDGP, community volunteers (CVs) have been identified as the
frontline providers to deliver program services around the cash transfer
element of the program, such as mobilization of targeted beneficiaries
and verification of payments.
- Community volunteers engaged by the programme are also
delivering a comprehensive set of nutrition social and behaviour change
(BCC) activities at community level (e.g. leading peer support IYCF
groups, recipe demonstrations, counselling, household visits, health
educations sessions at IYCF corners and payment points and nutrition
sensitization to targeted groups (such as fathers). CVs are supervised
by MOH CHEWS in the nutrition portion of their work.
- In its current implementation structure, the success of CDGP
relies on a feasible and effective CV approach that will develop
capacities of community volunteers, motivate them, ensure adequate
supervision, and have impact. Critical to this is successfully engaging
with and working with formal government employed CHEWS. This TOR is
emphasizing current implementation and quality.
- CDGP aims to demonstrate the impacts of household food security,
improved optimal nutrition practices, in the prevention of childhood
stunting. CDGP works closely with government authorities at the State
and LGAs level to implement and oversee the program.
- SC in Nigeria carried out a CV Study in July 2016, the results
of the study provided a useful summary of CV approaches across a range
of programs in northern Nigeria and a starting point. However, several
important gaps in our understanding remain which should be addressed to
improve current programming approach for CDGP with CVs and CHEWS and
help the programme explore possible successful and sustainable transfer
to government systems.
- Building off of the findings from the CV study (July 2016), CDGP
then initiated a CV Review to learn more about best practices with
community volunteers/frontline providers from global experience, to
answer a set of short term questions to frame multiple CV issues of
interest to CDGP and consider how these findings might be applied to
CDGP CV approach to strengthen impact and sustainability.
- Recommendations from the Jan 2017 CV Review (phase 1) are reflected in this TOR.
The Purpose of the Consultancy
The purpose of this consultancy is to provide an in-depth analysis on
the current CV engagement in the CDGP programme as well as the framework
for strengthening the Community Volunteer Approach in CDGP in the
following areas of interest:
- Defining role and expectations
- Identification/Recruitment
- Capacity building
- Measuring quality and impact of CV and CHEW efforts and
- Retaining and sustainproviders (and how to deal with possible inequalities, such as with targeted CTs)
- Program Design (recommendations for CDGP to put into action plan 2017-2019)
Main Tasks and Deliverables
- The lead consultant will be responsible for the Recruitment,
orientation, guidance and management of a Nigeria - based Field
Coordinator.
- Recommend immediate short-term (by June 2017) and longer- term
(until July 2019) modifications to strengthen quality of the CV approach
in CDGP and prepare action plan.
- Review the draft SOPs for the CVs and provide suggestions to update generic JD from CV study.
- Conduct with team additional analysis and field study composed
of qualitative interviews and a time allocation study. The time
allocation study will assess the level of effort of CVs in carrying out
their cash transfer and the BCC nutrition tasks. Information from the
time allocation study and qualitative interviews (key informants and
focus groups) will clarify urgent outstanding questions necessary for
short term program quality covering the key areas and questions below
- Highlight recommendations that would be suitable for advocacy
Expected Outputs
- Final report with specific short and longer team recommendation that address the key areas if interest stated above
- Power point presentation of findings to CDGP and SCUK team in Abuja
Key Competencies:
- Experience working with CV programmes in Africa. (Experience working with CV programmes in Nigeria would be an added advantage.
- 10 years working experience in international development
- Good qualitative research methods and analytical skills
- Evidence of similar work done
In order to be considered, Proposals must include the following:
- Capability Statement - not to exceed three pages, indicating past experience in leading on similar strategy document development
- Samples of consultancy reports from previous work
- References - names, company or organization, contact information
– of three recent (within the past 2 years) companies that you have
consulted for in this capacity
- Budget - detailed budget for the above scope(s) of work (broken
down into labour cost or personnel costs with an explanation of how the
unit costs was reached, detailed travel costs, and other direct costs).
Budget must be submitted using the template that is provided. Unit
costs, number of units and unit description must be provided. Please
also indicate any overhead fees if applicable. Please provide breakdown
of costs included in the overhead charges.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply
Application Deadline: 12th May, 2017.