Nutrition SMART Survey Consultancy – American Refugee Committee Somalia

Title:  Nutrition Integrated SMART Survey Consultancy

Location: Somalia/Somaliland (Hudun district in Sool region)

Timeline: 3^rd – 18^th August 2020

Key Working Contacts: Nutrition Manager, Health and Nutrition Coordinator, Health and Nutrition Officer, Area manager, M&E Manager, Health M&E Manager and Procurement/Operations Manager/Officer.

1. Background

American Refugee Committee is among the key actors in Somalia/Somaliland running humanitarian projects in Somalia/Somaliland, currently ARC implements emergency nutrition project supported by Somali Humanitarian Fund in the district of Hudun. The nutrition program aims to address the high malnutrition rates through treatment of moderate and severe Acutely Malnourished cases, referral of complicated malnourished cases to appropriate treatment regime run by other stakeholders.

Hudun district is in Sool region of Somaliland in the North Inland pastoral livelihood zone. Economy in the district is centered primarily on sheep and goat production supported by small herds of camels and very few, if any, cattle. Last surveys conducted by FSNAU (Post Deyr 2019) estimated GAM rates at 13.9% and SAM of 1.6%. The proposed SMART surveys will complement the above surveys adopting integrated approach to cover nutrition sensitive indicators at district level.

ARC has been implementing health and nutrition program in Sool region since 2018 and the approach to survey and surveillance will be of complementary nature to ensure that nutrition information gaps are covered while quality of the survey is of acceptable standard. The Nutrition program runs a range of preventive and curative oriented activities which include Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition, Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition, Nutrition Surveillance & Assessments and Blanket Supplementary Feeding Programme targeting pregnant women, lactating women, children aged 6 to 23 months

2. Overall Survey Objective:

• To estimate Nutrition status of children <5, retrospective Mortality rate (CMR and U5MR) and factors influencing nutrition status of children.

2.1 Specific objectives of the survey

• Estimate prevalence of acute malnutrition among children 6-59 months.
• Determine proxy level of IYCF standard indicators among children 0-23
• Asses maternal Nutrition status of WCBA (15-49 years) and PLWs
• Estimate Retrospective CMR and U5MR
• Establish coverage of vitamin A and deworming among children under-fives?
• Estimate rates of handwashing during critical moments
• Estimate Key FSL indicators and HH level (HDD, Meal frequency and FCS)
• Draft actionable and localized recommendations based on the findings. Using assessment for action approach clearly indicating the finding, recommendations actions, timelines and responsibility and monitoring.

3. Scope of Work

To achieve the survey objectives, ARC is seeking the services of a competent consultant to; lead the survey from the planning phase up to the reporting in order to have an updated information on the nutritional and health status of children and women in the project areas of Huddun District of Sool region.

The consultant will carry out the following tasks:

• Developing of survey protocol, presentation to the cluster, nutrition and research department for review and validation.
• Review of existing data collection tool available in the department
• Develop tools for data collection and testing in ODK.
• Design and undertake full SMART survey in Huddun district
• Recruitment and training of the survey teams both on technical aspect of the survey and use of mobile for data collection.
• Organization of the teams, supervision and daily data quality checks to ensure quality is acceptable and timely feedback is given.
• Ensure strict adherence of the survey team members to survey protocols and standards during data collection and data processing
• Support technical validation of the survey results and finalization of the survey report
• Lead on the survey logistics (movement plans, sequence of data collection/mapping of selected villages), with the support of ARC
• Data management: Data analysis
• Producing of final report and presentation to key stakeholders.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

The survey methodology will be designed in alignment with full SMART survey standards. The data collection process will adopt a mix of quantitative and qualitative approaches involving review of records, interviews with project participants and focus group discussions, among others. A more detailed survey methodology will be designed by the Consultant in consultation with ARC Health & Nutrition, and M&E team and Nutrition Cluster for approval of the survey protocol. The detailed design must include among others; survey design, sample size determination using Emergency Nutrition Assessment (ENA) software, quality control, data collection and management process.

The SMART methodology shall be used for the Nutrition survey targeting all the children aged from 6 to 59 months of the same family (defined as a woman and her children), will be sampled and included in the survey. A retrospective morbidity and mortality survey (over the past three months) shall also be assessed. A modified standard questionnaire with closed-ended observational questions and Focused group discussion shall be used in the survey to collect data.

Geographical scope

The SMART survey will cover only Huddun District of Sool region where the project is implemented. This includes 3MCHs that includes; Lafweyne, Huddun and Awrbogeys MCH and 2 outreach teams serving 13 villages but the survey covers entire Hudun district.

4. Expected deliverables and outputs

• Inception report and survey protocol presented to ARC to get approval from Nutrition Cluster. This should detail the approach and methodology to be used, sampling, detailed execution plan and survey tools.
• Detailed full SMART survey work plan including clear calendar of survey activities
• Validated Survey protocol
• Tools for data collection revised as per feedback.
• Raw data sets for all data collected during the survey, including qualitative transcripts
• ENA files for each district
• PowerPoint presentation of summary of survey findings.
• Final survey report validated by the Aim Working group Somalia.
• Survey tools, both quantitative and qualitative.

Time frame

The SMART survey process is expected to take in a maximum of 45 days including preparation, data collection, and analysis and reporting. The Consultant should be able to undertake some of the tasks concurrently to fit within the planned timeframe, without compromising the survey quality and standards. The assignment is expected to commence on in the last week of July 2020.

5. General conditions of the consultancy

Mode of the payment to the consultant shall be 30% payment once all the documentations are shared and approved, and just before the main assessment task begins, 70% after submission and approval of final survey report. The Language of the report must be in English and the survey will take a maximum of 45 days including preparation, data collection, analysis, and reporting.

6. Key qualifications and competencies required

• Education: The consultant should hold an Advanced University Degree in Nutrition, Public Health, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Social Sciences, Monitoring & Evaluation, or related discipline with the relevant technical knowledge in Survey Methodology, Research Methods etc.
• Experience: Extensive experience (7-10 years) in coordinating and managing SMART nutrition surveys is mandatory. Minimum experience of having led SMART survey; proven team leading

and managerial experience, knowledge of working with conflict-affected populations and experience in managing SMART surveys in fragile contexts will be considered a plus.

Technical competence:

• The consultant must have a strong background in statistics and data analysis. Must know EPI info and Emergency Nutrition Assessment (ENA) for SMART and all relevant computer applications in general.
• Excellent reporting and presentation skills.
• Excellent knowledge of Somaliland and another fragile context
• Excellent knowledge of and experience with humanitarian guidelines and principles.
• Fluency in English and local languages spoken in the working area is an advantage.
• Computer literacy
• Prior experience in conducting Nutrition, health, and WASH assessments specifically SMART surveys to acceptable standards. Having conducted similar assignment in Somalia will be an advantage.
• Understanding of Somali context, emerging issues globally and strong technical nutrition background.
• Proficiency in nutrition data analysis packages specifically ENA, EPI/INFO, and STATA, SPSS or other relevant for analysis of additional indicators.
• Experience in data collection using mobile (ODK) or any other similar platform.
• Strong analytical, communication, reporting and presentation skills.
• Fluency in English, Somali speaking is desirable.

Reporting

The first Drafts of the survey Reports shall be prepared before or on the stipulated time and shared with ARC concerned staff (Health and Nutrition team, M$E personnel and Hargeisa Office team). Thereafter, final surveys Reports shall be prepared and submitted to ARC who shall in turn share it with interested partners and stakeholders. The final Reports shall be presented to the RMO and District Health Management team for discussion and verification. Then, certified copies of the same shall be shared to relevant decision-making offices, including the sponsors, partners and local health committees so the findings may be incorporated into the area Nutrition Plan.

Collaborations

The surveys shall be conducted in close collaboration with all other actors working in concerned sectors. The concerned government specialists and heads of departments such as RMO, DMO as well as partner NGOs shall be consulted and involved in the planning and implementation of the assessment. The objectives and the tools of the survey shall be shared with them for any additional data that they may wish to be gathered in the interest of the District or Region. If any similar / other assessments by partners fall within close range and vicinity to ARC’s, then dialogue on possibility of linking them shall be sought. Such efforts will help reduce community fatigue that may adversely affect results of assessments, hence reducing quality. This is also important for possible synchronization of complementary activities.

7. Confidentiality

Data and reports collected and developed during the task will exclusively be the property of American Refugee Committee and cannot be used or reproduced for any other purposes without permission from American Refugee Committee.

SMART Survey Report

The assessment report will follow the following format.

1. Executive summary. This preliminary report will contain analysis of nutrition anthropometric

indicators assessed among children 6-59 months. The report will also include analysis of key variables of interest. The final report will be disseminated after it is validated by MoH and nutrition cluster group.

1. Introduction– Geographic description of the survey area including the country, region, districts

and villages among others. Type of setting (e.g rural, urban, camp), season when the survey was conducted. Description of the population. This includes the total number of people living in the survey area. Type of population (resident, IDPs etc). Objectives of SMART survey.

• Methodology– Full SMART survey design, Sampling, Survey teams among others and Data quality control and plausibility checks.

1. Results– This will correspond to the sampling method that has been applied in the field. At minimum, the following chapters should be include; Point GAM and SAM estimates according to WHZ and/or oedema and low MUAC with 95% confidence interval in case of random sampling or as one unique value (considered as the true value), Additional quantitative and qualitative data. Validation of accuracy, representativeness, and precision of data. These have to be supported with the plausibility check to be added in annex. The limitations of the results.
2. Discussions including the interpretation of the results

VI.

VII.

Conclusions and recommendations

Annexes: Maps, tools used, plausibility check, row data etc.

Requirements

Qualified and interested parties are asked to submit the following.

1. Letter of interest in submission of a proposal
2. Detailed technical proposal clearly demonstrating a thorough understanding of this ToR and including but not limited to the following.

• Consultant/Company Profile
• Description of the Methodology
• Demonstrated previous and excellent experience in SMART nutrition surveys is required and qualifications outlined in this ToR (with submission of at least TWO most recent SMART survey reports as evidence).
• Proposed data management plan (collection, processing, and analysis).
• Proposed timeframe detailing activities and a work plan.
• Team composition and level of effort of each proposed team member (include CVs of each team member).

3. Financial proposal with a detailed breakdown of costs for the study quoted in United States dollars.
4. Proposal submission and Validation