Consultant to support for mapping & strengthening of Oman’s nutrition surveillance administrative data system. Muscat- Oman, Remotely and in-country

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfil their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. And we never give up.

For every child, support.

The Government of Oman – UNICEF Country Programme is centered around two priority outcome areas, one of them is Enhancing Children’s Potential: Children of all ages have more equitable access to quality services in protection, education and health, and enhanced opportunities to realize their full potential. Under this goal area, UNICEF together with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth (MoCSY) built an investment case for a national coalition engaging the government, the private sector, the civil society, and young people to promote 4 strategic priorities related to the Vision 2040 of the Government of Oman. These are namely: 1) education and training that build skills for life, civic engagement, and work, 2) employment opportunities; 3) entrepreneurship mindset and 4) equitable access to quality education, training and employment, equipping young people as problem solvers and engaged members of society.

For every child, Health.

The fundamental and primary mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias, or favouritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic, and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in child survival, education, and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfil their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. Therefore, the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

1- JUSTIFICATION/BACKGROUND

Through its Joint Country Programme with the Government of Oman, UNICEF has been working closely with the Government to ensure that data on the situation of women and children, including data on key nutrition indicators, is available and monitored regularly, to allow for evidence-based policies on programmes addressing children’s rights in the Sultanate. This has included various surveys and studies such as the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (2014); the Oman National Nutrition Survey (ONNS)(2017); a Barrier Analysis on Exclusive Breastfeeding, Feeding Frequency Among Children, and Iron Supplementation Among Pregnant Women in the Sultanate of Oman (2019); as well as the Study on the Situation of Women and Children in the Sultanate of Oman (2021).

In parallel, efforts have been invested by the country to strengthen its routine administrative data systems. In December 2020, Oman conducted its first e-Census – relying upon existing administrative registers rather than traditional door-to-door ‘counting’. In taking this approach and investing in the national administrative data infrastructure, the Government of Oman is looking to improve its access to timely and reliable population-based data for decision-making, including reporting on their commitments as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In 2019, as part of preparations for the e-Census and investments in administrative systems, the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI), with the support of UNICEF, conducted an extensive mapping exercise to better understand the ‘readiness’ of administrative systems in Oman to provide the data required for monitoring 29 child-related SDG indicators.

The work found that Oman has a strong administrative data structure in place that can be utilized to generate routine data on key child-related indicators. One prime example is the Ministry of Health’s Al-Shifa System, a comprehensive healthcare management information system (HMIS) developed as a complete solution for healthcare facility management and public health surveillance. The system is installed across healthcare facilities in the country, supporting automatically generated data such as birth history, prenatal care for mother and child, immunization rates, as well as others. Similar systems exist within other sectors and support the generation of administrative data on a regular basis.

Nutrition Surveillance: Data on nutrition-related indicators stemming from surveys for women and children U5 is somewhat outdated, with the last national survey conducted in 2017 as noted above; prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. To supplement data on nutrition Oman’s HMIS has also been utilized to generate key nutrition-related indicators during i) birth as well as during ii) well-childcare visits that are linked to key immunization milestones. These include low birthweight; exclusive breastfeeding at birth or at six months, anaemia in children U5; anaemia in women; and cases of wasting, among others. In parallel data on nutrition indicators has also been generated for children above 5 via the Ministry of Education’s health-school programme where routine health check-ups (including weighing and measuring) are conducted. Linkage to the data from the Ministry of Education is currently carried out manually.

Concerns around how this data is captured, its quality and completeness remain and the Ministry of Health, with support from UNICEF, is thus keen to map existing data systems and efforts to identify solutions for enhanced routine monitoring. Within the high-income context of Oman, primary healthcare centres (PHCs) as well as schools are viewed as main entry points for this work given their universal access

2- OBJECTIVE, PURPOSE AND EXPECTED RESULTS

This consultancy aims to strengthen nutrition surveillance via existing administrative data systems in the country, with the aim of ensuring that the country has routine data available to monitor the trend of nutrition indicators for evidence-based programming. In parallel, building on previous mapping work related to the SDGs, the consultancy would also seek to determine to what extent nutrition-related data generated via administrative data systems would have the potential to respond to the monitoring requirements of the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, the aim is to:

#Identify availability and gaps in key data values for nutrition indicators that relate to women and children with a focus on the quality and completeness of data available to the Ministry of Health as a result of service delivery-related data entry (at PHCs and schools primarily). This is to include a comparison of the results found in the HMIS with the ONNS 2017 results (triangulation).

#Identify interlinkages across relevant administrative data systems (mainly Health and Education) with the aim of enhancing automated data flows and overall completeness of data.

#Benchmark, in broad terms, the maturity of the administrative data systems/ landscape relevant to nutrition data to identify cross-sectoral barriers to improved data and potential investments for improvement (based on UNICEF’s Administrative Data Maturity Model)[1]

#Develop a strategic action plan on how the relevant administrative data systems and related data-entry processes/ criteria can be strengthened across relevant sectors to generate quality routine nutrition data that could be used to inform decision-making and potentially support SDG reporting requirements.

3- DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT & EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

The consultant is expected to work 30 days over a period 4 months to allow for time required for review of interim reports and final documents by the Ministry of Health and UNICEF. The consultant will work closely with a taskforce to be formed by the Ministry of Health to support this project, comprising of the following:

#Nutrition Department

#School Health Department

#Planning & Studies Department

#IT Department

Relevant meetings and engagements will be coordinated by UNICEF with support from the Ministry of Health.

Detailed tasks are outlined in the tables below:

Key Tasks:

Desk-review (remote):

1- Conduct a desk-review of relevant statistical reports as well as other relevant material (technical documentation of relevant databases) to be provided by UNICEF and the Ministry of Health and conduct introductory meetings with relevant stakeholders to determine the pathway of nutrition-related administrative data in Oman.

Expected Deliverables:

1- Inception report including: (1) Key issues with regards to the flow of nutrition-related administrative data; (2) identification of key stakeholders; (3) key priorities/ data needs as outlined by stakeholders and guided by international guidelines (SDGs/ Gender data, etc.); (4) A detailed workplan for the work to be conducted in-country; and (5) data collection tool for mapping/diagnostic exercise.

Proposed Timeframe:

7 working days (remote).

Key Tasks:

Mapping of administrative data systems with a focus on nutrition data in relevant sectors: Including at PHC-level and in schools as well as other stakeholders to be identified (in-country):

2- Mapping of existing data sources related to nutrition-related indicators and identified data needs, and their pathway across Health and Education, as well as other sectors to be deemed relevant through field visits and interviews. This would include mapping the current systemic mechanisms in place for collecting this data as follows:what is the data that is being collected,

#what is the process for calculations,

#which entity collects the data and, what are the data sources,

#how is the data interpreted and to what extent is it disaggregated (e.g gender, geography, age, etc.),

#how frequently is the data available,

#What are the bottlenecks in collection, collation and analysis of data.

#To what extent is available data aligned with data needs.

#What is the quality of data (particularly through triangulation with the ONNS 2017).

#To what extent is the data collection/analysis process aligned with SDG meta data, where relevant.

3- Identifying gaps within existing administrative data systems in relation to how nutrition data is collected, its completeness and quality, including identification of those indicators that are currently not being generated, but could potentially be generated for an enhanced evidence-base. This should focus on both specific indicators, and in more general terms the overall maturity/ performance of the nutrition surveillance systems and how this may be improved.

4-Facilitating a dissemination/validation meeting with government stakeholders responsible for nutrition-related administrative data from all the relevant sectors to share and validate findings and discuss preliminary elements of the strategic action plan (to be co-organized with the task-force).

Expected Deliverables:

#Submission of detailed mapping/diagnostic report on the country's administrative data system with a focus on nutrition-surveillance, clearly identifying existing gaps as well as providing insights on the readiness of current systems and how these could be enhanced. The report is to include a clear flowchart/ process map on the pathway of relevant data. Specific reference to collection of SDG indicators is to be included where relevant.

#A detailed list of indicators generated within existing systems (along with metadata and data quality assessment[2]) as well as a list of those that are not being generated/ or are being incorrectly generated.

#Mission Report describing key tasks undertaken during the in-country visit, including details of the proceedings from the dissemination/validation meeting.

Proposed Timeframe:

15 working days (3 weeks in-country)

Key Tasks:

Development of a Strategic Action Plan (remote):

5- Developing a strategic action plan with recommendations to strengthen administrative data systems for strengthened nutrition data/ nutrition surveillance, on the basis of the gaps identified through the mapping/diagnostic exercise.

The report is to detail how gaps could be addressed to enhance availability of disaggregated data and knowledge management in relation to nutrition-related data as well as SDG monitoring requirements, where feasible.

In particular, the report should provide recommendations for the adjustment of indicators that are not generated in a manner that matches international standards (definition, calculation formula, frequency of availability of data…etc.) and identify alternative indicators or proxy indicators.

The report is to include a time-bound capacity building plan or required guidelines based on the gaps identified in institutional capacity.

6- Conducting an online presentation of the strategic action plan for validation and refinement (mini workshop).

Expected Deliverables:

# Submission of detailed strategic action plan to include: (1) recommendations for the Ministry of Health to strengthen administrative data system for enhanced nutrition-surveillance as well as government capacity. Clear reference to alignment with the SDGs as well is to be included. (2) Benchmarking: Good practices and examples (models/tools) that are of relevance to the context of Oman to strengthen nutrition-related administrative data systems / nutrition surveillance.

Proposed Timeframe:

8 working days (remote).

4- REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

#Inception Report

#Diagnostic report: Detailed mapping/diagnostic report on the country's administrative data system – with a focus on nutrition surveillance

#Mission Report

#Strategic Action Plan

5- LOCATION AND DURATION

The work will be conducted both remotely and in-country in line with section 3.

6- OFFICIAL TRAVEL INVOLVED

The bidder is required to include the estimated cost of travel in the financial proposal (for 1 return trip to Muscat, Oman). Travel cost shall be calculated based on i) economy class travel, regardless of the length of travel and ii) 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).

7- CONTRACT MANAGEMENT

The Consultant will be reporting directly to the PM&E Officer for all technical aspects of the work. As for administrative-related concerns, the key focal point will be the Operations Officer.

8- FREQUENCY OF PERFORMANCE REVIEWS AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR EVALUATION OF RESULTS

Weekly meetings will be in place to allow for regular progress updates, alignment of objectives and necessary troubleshooting. A final evaluation of the work will be concluded at the end of the assignment.

9- DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE OR EXPERIENCE

The required consultant profile and qualifications are as follows:

# At least 10 years of experience in policy and planning work related to international development is required, with proven work record on various national and subnational administrative data systems, vital registration systems and statistical offices.

# In addition, at least 10 years of experience working on nutrition-related surveys as well as nutrition surveillance systems is essential.

# A post graduate degree in social statistics, demography, social studies or other field relevant to the work of the consultancy.

# In-depth knowledge of SDG indicators and related metadata is an asset.

# A solid understanding of UNICEF's core areas of work is required. Experience with UNICEF country and/or regional office work is highly valued and will be considered an asset.

# Experience in applying international norms, standards and conventions to social planning and situation monitoring.

# Extensive knowledge of Oman’s social sectors and data issues would be considered an asset.

# Excellent written and spoken language skills in English is required.

# Command of the Arabic language would be considered an asset.

To ensure relevant expertise, a team of two consultants can be considered.

10- PROPOSED PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Select proposed methodology Upon deliverables

Payment is to be issued upon completion of deliverables as follows:

Payment

Deliverable

Percentage of Total

Payment 1

Inception Report

20%

Payment 2

Diagnostic Report and Mission Report

50%

Payment 3

Strategic Action Plan

30%

11- CONDITIONS AND ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES

# The contractor will work on its own computer(s) and use its/his/her own office resources and materials in the execution of this assignment. The contractor’s fee shall therefore be inclusive of all office administrative costs

# Granting access to UNICEF ICT resources for consultants/non-staff is considered as ‘exception,’ and therefore shall only be granted upon authorization by the head of the office on justification/need basis. This includes creation of a UNICEF email address, as well as access to ICT equipment such as laptops and mobile devices.

# All persons engaged under a UNICEF service contract, either directly through an individual contract, or indirectly through an institutional contract, shall be subject to the UN Supplier Code of Conduct: https://www.ungm.org/Public/CodeOfConduct

# Please also see UNICEF’s Standard Terms and Conditions attached.

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Statement on UNICEF's Zero-Tolerance policy on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse:

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

12- Remarks:

12-1- Technical and Financial proposals must be submitted along with the application.

12-2- Shortlisted candidate remark: Only shortlisted candidates will be notified and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

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[1] Please refer to this link for more details on the model: https://data.unicef.org/resources/the-administrative-data-maturity-model-adamm/

[2] Please refer to the UNICEF Data Quality Framework which should be used as a key resource to undertake this task: https://data.unicef.org/resources/data-quality-framework/#:~:text=The%20Data%20Quality%20Framework%20is,confidence%20in%20our%20data%20products.

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Added 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org