Background
Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia have some of the highest child mortality rates in the world, with 58 per 1000 child deaths for Malawi, 90 per 1000 for Mozambique, and 70 per 1000 for Zambia, much of which can be attributed to malnutrition. Stunting, the result of long-term under nutrition, is very high with 49% of Under Five (U5) children stunted in Malawi, 43% for Mozambique, and 40% for Zambia.
Funded by Global Affairs Canada, CARE will be implementing the Southern Africa Nutrition Initiative (SANI) from 2016-2020 in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. The goal of the SANI project is to improve the nutritional status of women of reproductive age and boys and girls under 5 years.
The project has three intermediate outcomes:
- Improved nutrition of mothers, pregnant women, newborns and children under five.
- Improved maternal, infant, and young child nutrition gender-sensitive practices of men, women and caregivers.
- Strengthened governance and accountability of gender-equitable nutrition policies and programs for mothers, pregnant women, newborns and children under five.PurposeThe purpose of the baseline is to:
- Establish baseline values for outcome level indicators for the project.
- Examine knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and practices related to nutrition, hygiene and sanitation, gender and women’s empowerment.
- Provide rationale for the current targets on all indicators and review targets where necessary
- Identify programmatic priorities and approaches through key informant interviews with stakeholders such as government staff, community leaders, agricultural and health extension workers, and staff from other nutrition projects.
Methodology & Timeline
The baseline assessment will commence at the end of June with all outputs required by early September 2016.
The baseline assessment is expected to use the following data collection methods:
- Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)
- Key Information Interviews (KIIs) with selected stakeholders
- Household survey both quantitative and qualitative (face to face interview) and observations
- Anthropometric data (height, weight, MUAC)
Baseline Team
The baseline study will be conducted in all three countries managed by a Principal Investigator (PI). The PI will manage and oversee National Coordinators working in each country. Both the PI and National Coordinators will be contracted individually by CARE but the National Coordinators will be managed and supervised by the PI.
The specific roles and responsibilities of the PI are outlined below:
- Responsible for overall coordination of the baseline study across the three countries
- Prepares the inception report and training manual
- Manages national coordinators
- Co-leads on training of enumerators
- Conducts supervisory visits during data collection to ensure quality and consistency across countries
- Reviews database/data entry system for both qualitative and quantitative data and finalizes collaboratively with CARE
- Supports National Coordinators to produce top-line analysis for country office validation
- Responsible for analysis and report writing
- Ultimately accountable for timely and quality of study
Qualifications
The interested consultant should have a long history of experience in public health and nutrition with preferred background and experience in gender and ability to train and supervise quality anthropometric data collection. He/She must have the following skills and qualifications:
- Experience of leading on similar cross-country nutrition baseline studies, preferably in Southern Africa
- Expertise on quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis
- Sound knowledge and practical experience in fields of social sciences and nutrition
- Proven ability to simultaneously manage multi-country teams
- Track record of training on interview and facilitation skills
- Experience with using digital data collection for similar surveys
- Experience designing databases, performing data entry and data analysis
- Ability to supervise and manage data entry for quality control
- Practical experience of using statistical method like EPI info, CSPro, and/or SPSS
- Desired experience with qualitative software such as Nvivo or the like
- Proven analysis and report writing skills, experience producing high quality baseline reports
HOW TO APPLY:
Applications
Interested consulting firm (s)/individual(s) are expected to get full terms of reference for the assignment from CARE Malawi office by emailing the Chair Person of CARE Malawi Internal Procurement Committee at: geoffrey.kumwenda@care.org
The deadline for applications is 17:00 on 17 June 2016.
