National Consultant to conduct an evaluation on the innovation of the child wasting programme, Indonesia - for Indonesian Only

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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 fulfill 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, innovation

How can you make a difference?

BACKGROUND:

In Indonesia, one in ten (over 6 million) children under five are wasted (too thin for their height/length). Wasting represents a critical threat to a child’s survival, growth, and development. This condition has the highest mortality rate amongst all forms of malnutrition, especially in its most severe form. Children with severe wasting are almost 12 times more likely to die than their healthy peers. Child wasting and stunting share common risk factors and can reinforce one another, with wasted children more than three times more likely to become stunted than their well-nourished peers.

Accordingly, the Government of Indonesia (GoI) has made substantial efforts to tackle wasting and stunting simultaneously. Specifically, child wasting has been included as one of the main development indicators in the National Medium-term Development Plan 2020–2024. Subsequently, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has developed national targets to reach at least 60 per cent of primary health centres (Puskesmas) with child wasting treatment services by 2024 and a Presidential decree (no. 72) on stunting reduction acceleration, launched in 2021, has included a target to provide treatment to 90% of severely wasted children by 2024.

To accelerate Indonesia’s efforts to reach the national and global targets on child wasting, UNICEF has been supporting the GoI introducing several innovative interventions aiming to strengthen prevention, early detection, referral, and treatment of child wasting through Family-led MUAC (Mid-upper-arm-circumference) – an approach to empower caregivers to be able to monitor child wasting at home with low literacy tool (MUAC tapes); and Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centres-led screening – a model to leverage ECD Centres’ role as one of community based health platform to boost up early detection and referral of child wasting in selected districts across UNICEF focus provinces. Furthermore, in 2022, UNICEF supported the MoH to develop and rollout a combined curriculum and module training of Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) and Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) for primary healthcare workers.

Against this background, UNICEF is hiring a national consultant to conduct evaluations on the implementation of the interventions to strengthen prevention, early detection, referral, and treatment of child wasting implemented by the ICO-Nutrition section and the Ministry of Health (MoH) through the Family-led MUAC approach, ECD Centres-led screening child wasting, and integrated training course of IMCI and IMAM.

Scope of Work:

The Consultant will be requested to conduct a qualitative evaluation of the following three interventions:

1. Empowerment of caregivers for monitoring child wasting at home with MUAC tapes through a Family-led MUAC approach in UNICEF focus provinces (Aceh, Central Java, East Java, East Nusa Tenggara, Papua, South Sulawesi, and West Nusa Tenggara)

2. Early detection and referral of child wasting in ECD Centres in East Nusa Tenggara, Papua, and South Sulawesi Provinces

3. Integrated blended training course of IMCI and IMAM in UNICEF focus provinces (Aceh, Central Java, East Java, East Nusa Tenggara, Papua, South Sulawesi, and West Nusa Tenggara)

The objectives of the assignment are to:

1. Assess the interventions’ relevance, coherence, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability of results, including key results of cascade training from all key stakeholders involved.

2. Capture perceptions and perspectives from relevant government focal points and key actors on the interventions.

3. Provide evidence-based recommendations and best practices/lessons learned to inform policy and programmatic decisions, including the scaling-up of the interventions; and

4. As an integral part of the assignment, undertake case studies to help develop a comprehensive understanding of the impact of Family-led MUAC and ECD-led child-wasting screening.

Under the guidance of the UNICEF Nutrition Team and the GoI’s Nutrition and Maternal Child Health Directorate (GiKIA), Ministry of Health, the Consultant, will be requested to:

a) Conduct desk review on existing documents (guidelines, curriculum and training modules and job aids, IEC materials, policy documents and reports) related to early detection and referral of child wasting at ECD Centres, Family MUAC and integration of IMCI and IMAM training.

b) Develop evaluation protocols and tools related to each evaluation topic.

- Due to the nature of the interventions, the targeted respondents will be identified jointly with the MoH and UNICEF. The sample size should be sufficient to reach robust findings of the target population. Detailed total sample size will be discussed and agreed upon with UNICEF and the MoH.

- Ethical considerations - as part of the research protocol, the successful consultant will identify and outline an approach to addressing potential ethical issues in this assessment. In addition, the successful consultant in consultation with UNICEF shall submit Ethical Review Approval from a reputable national Institutional Review Board (IRB) entity.

c) Data collection, including consultations/interviews with key stakeholders at the national, province-districts, sub-districts/Puskesmas and village level, ECD’s teachers, Posyandu Kader, and caregivers of children under five. Data collection will be done in person and online. The in-person data collection will target at least three provinces implementing all three interventions. Data collection in other provinces, and with key national stakeholders will be instead held online.

d) Gauge the impact of the interventions using a qualitative case study methodology for this work by drawing upon various data collection methods, consultations, and data triangulation.

e) Develop and share the preliminary results with the key stakeholders.

f) Revise and finalise the reports.

Please refer to the Term of Reference attached for the detailed breakdowns of tasks and deliverables/outputs.

TOR National Consultant to conduct an evaluation on the innovation of the child wasting programme.pdf

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

• Master’s degree in Nutrition, Global/Public Health, or other relevant discipline.
• Solid knowledge on Child nutrition and health, particularly on child wasting programme and management of childhood illness with proven experience undertaking similar assignments
• Expertise in the evaluation of health and nutrition programmes
• Strong research skills and solid knowledge of mixed methods, including but not limited to systematic reviews, survey design, and qualitative methods (including administering surveys and facilitating participatory data collection through interviews and FGDs)
• At least 5-7 years of relevant professional experience in undertaking systematic primary and secondary nutritional or health data analysis.
• Have experience working with UN agency
• Communication and report writing skills
• Written and spoken fluency in Bahasa Indonesia and English is essential

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:

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. This vacancy is open for Indonesians only.