Consultancy for Development of a Detailed Costed Plan and Roadmap of National Nutrition Survey in Afghanistan

Contract

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Background and Scope of Work:

Afghanistan remains one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world and a global priority for UNICEF, with two-thirds of the population, approximately 28.3 million people, including 15.3 million children, requiring humanitarian assistance. The country is coping with the impact of the third consecutive year of drought and the second year of crippling economic decline, while still recovering from the effects of 40 years of conflict, recurrent natural disasters and disease outbreaks which has driven almost 97% of the population into poverty. The humanitarian situation is further exacerbated by a complex and restrictive operating environment affecting the UN and civil society organizations alike.

Undernutrition is highly prevalent among children under five years of age in Afghanistan and is an underlying cause of the high under-five mortality rates in the country. The Afghanistan Nutrition Cluster estimates that 4 million vulnerable people in Afghanistan are suffering from acute malnutrition in 2023. This includes 875,224 children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM), and 804,365 pregnant and lactating women. High levels of micronutrient deficiencies persist, including iron, iodine, zinc, and vitamin A, which affect the health and development of children and women. Anemia among women of reproductive age (pregnant and non-pregnant) in Afghanistan is prevalent with 40% of them being anaemic. The high rate of anaemia begins early in life with 45% of children 06-59 months and 3 out of 10 adolescent girls in Afghanistan (31%) being anaemic according to the National Nutrition Survey (NNS, 2013). This results in an intergenerational cycle of malnutrition affecting both girls and their children if they become pregnant. Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices are suboptimal as shown in the recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). Despite the lifesaving power of breastfeeding, half of all newborn infants (52%) are not initiated to breastfeeding within the first hour of birth as recommended; additionally, the number of children eating both a diverse and frequent diet – a minimally acceptable diet – is extremely low with almost all children (93%) aged 6-23 months not receiving the recommended acceptable diet which exposes them to micronutrient deficiencies, wasting and stunting, all of which have detrimental effects on the health and wellbeing of the children both in the short time and in the long term.

The last National Nutrition Survey in Afghanistan was conducted in 2013, the absence of latest data has created information gap on important humanitarian and developmental nutrition indicators. Up to date data is very important for estimation of nutrition and health needs of a country which is key to strategic decision making, evidence driven policies and allocation of resources. Afghanistan requires reliable and updated data in different aspects of nutrition to address multiple challenges posed by various forms of malnutrition to vulnerable populations. The development of comprehensive costed plan and a detailed roadmap will be an important step to understanding the actual resource requirements and time needed to plan, coordinate, and successfully roll out a national nutrition survey in Afghanistan. The costed plan/ roadmap will be useful documents for resource mobilization from stakeholders, resource allocation by the public sector and advocacy document on the importance of national nutrition surveys. This term of reference describes tasks, roles, and responsibilities of the consultant to be recruited to support the development of the Costed plan and roadmap of the national nutrition survey in Afghanistan.

Scope of Work/ Work Assignments:

UNICEF will provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Public Health Public health directorate to develop a costed plan for National Nutrition Survey (NNS) and a detailed roadmap for conducting a national Nutrition Survey. The proposed activities will include review of secondary information, consultations with various stakeholders in Nutrition both at the national provincial and district level and development of detailed costed plan and road map for a National Nutrition Survey.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

The development of the costed plan and roadmap of the national nutrition survey for Afghanistan will include the following key roles and responsibilities.

1. Conduct desk review of relevant literature, national and global guidelines, policies, strategies, and best practices on National Nutrition Surveys.
2. Collect and review available information on national nutrition survey needs, stakeholders and users of national nutrition survey in Afghanistan.
3. Prepare data collection tools and checklist for gathering relevant information required to develop costed plan and roadmap of National Nutrition Survey.
4. Conduct consultation and review meetings with the Ministry of Public Health / Public Health Directorate, AIMS working group, National Nutrition Survey taskforce and with other relevant stakeholders at the national level.
5. Undertake in-country (district and provincial level) field visits in selected locations with various stakeholders to collect information on various cost drivers and the information on how sub-national coordination structures support different a survey.
6. Review the institutional capacity of the hospitals, laboratories, sample testing and storage facilities and technical capacity to deliver the standard national nutritional surveys including human samples and assays.
7. Conduct a validation workshop with stakeholders to review and validate the costed plan and roadmap.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline

1.Preparation Inception report and data collection tools

Inception report is prepared and submitted, providing detailed methodology to be used, details of activities to be undertaken, lists of documents to be examined and institutions to be visited, data collection tool developed and a list of key stakeholders to be consulted.

15th October 2023

2. Preparations of costed plan and road map for National Nutrition Survey

A draft report of Costed plan and road map for National Nutrition Survey

15th November 2023

3. Conducting Validation Work

Conduct a validation workshop to review the draft report of costed plan and roadmap of the national nutrition survey.

31st November 2023

4. Reviewing and finalizing the final costed plan and roadmap

A final report of the costed plan and roadmap is finalized and submitted.

15th December 2023

5. Preparation of power point summary of the report

A summary power point of the costed plan and roadmap finalized and submitted.

15th December 2023

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Doctoral or Post-graduate degree in Nutrition, Public Health, Social Sciences, Global/International Health and Nutrition, Medicine, or Public Health Finance.
• All consultants (if institutional consultancy) are required to have the required advanced degree.
• A minimum of seven of relevant professional experience in
• At least 7 years of recent documented work experience in designing and implementing national nutrition surveys, developing nutrition policies, strategies, and guidelines.
• Solid understanding of nutrition coordination structures, integrated service delivery and community platforms for multi-sectoral nutrition service delivery.
• Documented recent experience developing costed plan and roadmap of National Nutrition surveys in a fragile country.
• Previous working experience in Afghanistan or Southeast Asia with health and nutrition programs will be an asset.
• Proven analytical and report writing skills.
• Familiarity and experience of working with UN agencies is an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Interested consultants are required to apply online, indicating availability and all-inclusive lump sum fee to undertake the terms of reference.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.