Afghanistan: Consultant

SHORT TITLE OF ASSIGNMENT:Support the WIFS project for out of school adolescent girls including conducting a formative research to explore strategies on how to reach out of school adolescent girls

Total consultancy: 105 days (approx. 15 days a month), November 2015 to end of May 2016

Remote support: 65 days

Support in Kabul: 40 days (spread over 2-3 trips)

BACKGROUND

The highest rates of malnutrition including micronutrient deficiencies are very prominent in the current context of Afghanistan. Undernutrition is a major challenge for women of age 15-49[i]. According to the National Nutrition Survey 2013, 8% of the adolescent girls 10-19 years were thin (BMIZ <-2SD), Prevalence of anemia among them was 31%. Iron deficiency anemia among women was reported as 24%.

Adolescent girls in Afghanistan are a largely neglected, difficult-to-measure, and hard-to-reach population, in which the nutritional needs of out-of school adolescent girls, in particular gets ignored. Out of school adolescent girls in the country live in impoverished conditions and hard to reach areas; and come from orthodox backgrounds. There is no platform within the country to reach such girls – a cohort most vulnerable to undernutrition, child marriage and the debilitating effects of inter-generational cycle of undernutrition.

What makes the situation worse is that the health services within the country still have a long way to go. According to the World Health Organization, 35% of Afghans have no access to healthcare. Security and the geographical terrain are both major factors. The lack of female health workers also stops rural women, particularly out of school adolescent girls to reach out to local health facilities to address their health and nutrition issues[ii].

Adolescent Anaemia is a public health problem in Afghanistan which has not received adequate attention in the past years. Anaemia is caused by Iron deficiency and adolescents are at high risk of Iron deficiency and thereby anaemia due to accelerated growth and body mass building, poor dietary intake of iron and high rate of worm infestation. In girls deficiency of iron is further aggravated with higher demands with onset of menstruation and also due to the problem of adolescent pregnancy and conception. Therefore, it is important to address the problem of anaemia especially in adolescent girls, since they are in the period of growth and are the future mothers.

Guided by the empirical evidence that weekly supplementation of 60mg elemental Iron and 400ug Folic Acid (IFA) is effective in decreasing incidence and prevalence of anaemia in adolescents, Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and UNICEF have started the Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) Programme for school going and out of school adolescent girls. The Programme envisages administration of supervised weekly IFA Supplementation and biannual deworming tablets to approximately 2.3 million adolescent girls across the country through formal and non-formal schools and community platforms to combat the intergenerational cycle of anaemia.

The school going girls will be taken care through the formal and non formal school system in collaboration with MoE. The project has a out of school component and the strategies for Afghanistan has to be developed. To develop the strategy there is a need for formative research to be understand for which the consultancy is desired. This falls under the USAID funded program and is included in the RWP of 2014-2015.

OBJECTIVE

The main purpose of the assignment is to establish the out of school adolescent programme. Therefore the objective of the assignment is to:

(1) Undertake a formative research in order to design strategies to reach out of school adolescent girls with a package of services i.e., weekly iron and folic acid tablets + deworming tablets + nutrition counselling;

(2) Support C4D section to develop the communication strategy for adolescent girls linked to WIFS

(3) Design the programme monitoring and evaluation framework, develop of sampling strategy, protocol

Development for data collection tools for monitoring and final evaluation etc.

ACTIVITIES, TASKS, DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINES, PLUS BUDGET PER DELIVERABLE

Activities

1. Conduct Formative research to identify approaches and different opportunities to reach out of school adolescent girls living in difficult geographical terrain, remote communities, and hard-to reach-groups. (design the formative research methodology, data collection and guidelines. Analyze data collected and prepare the final report of formative research) –


2. The consultant will guide a team who will gather information from the mothers, grandmas, religious leaders, youth groups, Community Health Workers, community mobilisers etc


3. With the research findings facilitate consultative workshops with stakeholders and develop strategy for reaching out-of-school adolescent girls with a package of nutrition services which includes WIFS + deworming + IPC / nutrition counselling.


4. Provide support to C4D section in UNICEF and Health Promotion Department in MoPH on developing WIFS Communication Strategy for adolescent girls on the basis of the formative research findings. Review the draft document and provide relevant inputs


5. Work with a team to design the programme monitoring and evaluation framework, develop sampling strategy, develop protocol for data collection tools for monitoring and final evaluation etc.


6. Document all processes, develop presentations and a paper

Deliverables

1. Inception Report within two week’s time from signing of the contract


2. The first draft of formative research design and tools, one month after the inception report


3. A video/audio conference call about the design of the research design with Afghanistan team


4. The final design of formative research after incorporating comments from Afghanistan team


5. The first draft of data analysis and recommendations from formative research, finalization of the report


6. Consultation workshop and finalization of the strategy for reaching the out of school adolescent girls


7. Support team to finalise monitoring and evaluation framework for WIFS and first draft of monitoring/evaluation tools


8. Support C4D section in finalization of the communication strategy and launch of the program


9. Completing all documentation, draft publication paper and final reportNovember December January February March April May Inception Report x Finalization of the formative research design x Data collection, analysis and finalization of the report x x Draft strategy, consultation workshop with draft strategy and finalization of the strategy x Support M&E framework and tools x x Support C4D for Comms. strategy x x Final report and paper x

Payment

§ The consultant prepare an inception report/annual plan of all activities and their budgets, within the first month after employment that will be approved by Unicef and the payment will be done based on achieving each deliverable, verified and approved by the Unicef program officer.

§ Payment schedule is as per below:

1^st installment after submission of inception report and first draft of formative research design and tools – 10%

2^nd installment after submission of the final draft of data analysis and recommendations from formative research, including a ppt. and consultative workshop – 40%

3^rd installment after submission of the Monitoring and Evaluation framework and monitoring/evaluation tools, protocols and the support for the communication strategy – 30%

4^th installment after review and submission of the final report which includes the documentation of the process and a publication paper – 20%

QUALIFICATIONS, SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE AND ADDITIONAL COMPETENCIES

· Experiences of similar activities in the past for other countries

· Experience in designing research protocols, managing data, analyzing data and writing reports

· At least 10 years of work experience in the similar field or in public nutrition

· The consultant should have:

• PHD or equivalent degree in nutrition


• Excellent communication skills


• Have experience and knowledge on project management and leadership

Ability and willingness to travel to Afghanistan when required

CONDITIONS OF WORK

The consultant will be provided with space and computer during work in Kabul as well as transportation during office hours for official meetings/discussions related to the consultancy.