Country: South Sudan
Closing date: 15 Apr 2016
Background and Context
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to individuals forced to flee from war or disaster. IRC has been working in Sudan and South Sudan for over 20 years. Currently the IRC is implementing various projects including provision of health and nutrition care services, WASH, economic recovery and development projects, protection and women protection and empowerment. The nutrition projects aim at treating and preventing malnutrition. A child with severe acute malnutrition is nearly 10 times likely to die than a well-nourished child. Hence there is need to address malnutrition by providing basic life-saving health care services to the community thereby reducing morbidity and mortality rates within South Sudan.
Panyijar County is located in the southern part of Unity State and has an estimated population of 126,099[1]. It has ten (10) official recognized payams, with Panyijar town being the county capital situated in Chuk payam. The county is divided into two greater payams Greater Nyal (4 payams) and Greater Ganyliel (6 payams). There has been a significant influx of IDPs from neighboring counties into Panyijar following the May 2015 Greater Upper Nile crisis. WFP estimates over 40,000 IDPs have settled in Panyijar particularly in the islands of Greater Nyal and some have been incorporated in the host communities with their relatives.
The food security situation has deteriorated from the crisis as the farming season was affected by threats of insecurity. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) December 2015 updated classified Panyijar County in emergency phase requiring immediate humanitarian assistance to prevent a further deterioration of food security and nutritional status. Acute malnutrition levels are chronically very high in the county and country as a whole with the average GAM and SAM above the WHO emergency threshold. A SMART survey conducted in December 2015 by ACF in Panyijar County showed a GAM of 21.6% which is above the WHO emergency threshold. The survey also identified a number of malnutrition aggravating factors which called for immediate humanitarian assistance particularly in increasing the household’s access to food to prevent the situation from worsening.
The IRC has been operating in Panyijar County from 1995 providing life saving health care services. To date the IRC provides health and nutrition services in health facilities around the county, FSL projects, protection and women empowerment. Other partners also have interventions in the county include Mercy Corps, GAA, Oxfam, UNIDO and Sign of Hope. The IRC and UNIDO are the nutrition partners in the county providing life saving nutritional care targeting children under the age of five and pregnant and lactating mothers. The IRC in Ganyliel is also implementing an Integrated Community Case Management project for the treatment of diarrhea, malaria and pneumonia at village level by training community health volunteers. These are also responsible for screening children who come to them for malnutrition which is a good opportunity for early detection of acute malnutrition. Accessing the county is one of the biggest challenges hindering access to beneficiaries and providing humanitarian assistance. The county is seasonally affected by flooding and surrounded by swamps restricting moving into and within the county.
Rationale of conducting survey
The IRC conducted a pre-harvest nutrition surveys in April 2015 in Panyijar County and another survey was conducted in collaboration with ACF in December 2015. Both surveys showed a GAM rate above the 15% emergency threshold with a number of aggravating factors. The December 2015 IPC update estimated that 23% of the population in South Sudan will face acute food and nutrition insecurity between January and March 2016. The bulk of this acutely food insecure population (57 per cent) is located in the Greater Upper Nile states of Unity, Jonglei and Upper Nile. Unity State remains the most affected because of continued fighting that has displaced large populations and disrupted their livelihoods. It is therefore paramount that the IRC conducts a follow up SMART survey to assess the nutritional status of the vulnerable groups. The survey is specifically to assess and monitor nutritional status in Panyijar County and the findings of the standard nutrition survey will be used to understand the overall nutrition, food security and health status across the county and give recommendations for planning and decision making from county to national level.
Objectives of the Nutrition SMART Survey
To assess the prevalence of acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months as a proxy of the wider population.
To estimate the retrospective mortality rates in the county.
To determine the morbidity and health seeking behaviors in the county.
To estimate Vitamin A supplementation rates and measles vaccination in the county
Analyze and identify some of the other potential factors contributing to malnutrition such as water and sanitation and the broader food security and livelihoods situation.
Key Responsibilities
The consultants will, in coordination with the IRC team, undertakes the following activities:
Develop the survey plan, be responsible for preparation for the survey, including review of population statistics, calculating the sample size, selecting clusters, developing an efficient survey schedule.
Share the Survey full plan with the Nutrition Coordinator, Nutrition Managers in the specific locations.
Brief the SMOH/CHD on the survey Methodology, Survey objective and plan and result sharing plan.
Share the training plan and conduct training for the enumerators and data entry clerks (including pre-testing questionnaire).
Assume overall responsibility for implementation of the exercise including daily supervision of survey teams, daily data quality assurance.
Supervise data entry and assure data entry quality. Ensure anthropometric data is entered each day and analyzed for errors. Feedback given to team on daily basis in order to ensure validity and reliability of results.
Overseeing data cleaning and analysis using anthropometric software (ENA) for the core anthropometric and mortality data and others e.g EPINFO, SPSS on the other indicators.
Presentation of the results in 2006 WHO growth standard and annex analysis with NCHS Growth Standards.
Conduct a one day Preliminary result sharing with the SMOH and IRC teams in the field.
Prepare and submit a data set and preliminary results within a week of completion of the survey data collection. Present preliminary results to the Nutrition Information Working Group for survey validation.
Write and submit full report within one week after validation of the preliminary report by the NIWG. Report should be as guided by the NIWG Reporting templates.
Expected Output
Comprehensive survey report with practical recommendations (immediate and long term) in addressing the situation in the counties.
The cleaned version of the raw data used to calculate the survey results.
Time Frame and Accountability
The consultancy period will last approximately 30 days, starting early April 2016 (this includes desk review, enumerators training, data collection, support to data entry/analysis and report writing). The consultant shall report directly to the Nutrition Coordinator and Nutrition Managers in the field. S/he will also liaise closely with Field Coordinators in the field.
The IRC’s responsibilities
Prepare the pre-survey proposal and present it for validation to the NIWG.
Provide guidance throughout the survey period.
Data entry/analysis shall be joint venture between consultant and IRC staff.
Logistic arrangements for all field travel
Approval of all deliverables including final sign offs for the purpose of making payments.
Accommodation will be provided by IRC in the program sites.
The consultant will be covered for transport, accommodation and food in the field site. In Juba the consultant will provide for his/her own meals.
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
The successful candidate shall:
Have a university degree, with advanced education in nutrition, with a specific competency in therapeutic and supplementary feeding in humanitarian emergencies.
Have significant experience in undertaking nutrition surveys (design and methodologies, SMART training, field supervision and data analysis/write up) and particular experience of using the SMART methodology and associated software.
Have experience on SMART Survey or working in South Sudan is an added advantage.
Have experience training and working with non-English speakers and people of low education levels
Have patience and experience in adult learning skills.
Be fluent in English with excellent writing and presentation skills.
Submission of Applications on or before the 25th of March 2016 toirene.makura@rescue.organdMichael.kamau@rescue.org
• Proposed project plan (no more than 3 pages)
• Submission of costs (budget) in the following format:
Item
Unit
Unit rate (USD)
Total amount
Consultancy Rate
Other costs (specify….)
Other costs (specify….)
Other costs (specify….)
Total survey cost
Note: IRC will provide accommodation in the field site, travel costs to and from home of record and in country. These costs should not be included in the cost estimate above.
The evaluation criteria are based on technical and financial criteria:
• Known reliability in delivery of timely and quality services
• Relevant field/country experience
• Relevant sector specific technical experience & qualifications
• Relevant monitoring and evaluation experience
• Cost/budget (the IRC will pay a maximum of $300.00 per day)
Application documents will be reviewed as they are received due to the urgency of filling the position.
Terms of payment
The consultants will receive 100% remuneration after submission of the final report to IRC South Sudan. The survey is planned for 30 days (including travel days) but might take longer due to inaccessibility of some areas to this effect payment will be a fixed rate based on a maximum of 30 days on the output of the work and not on the duration that it might take.
[1] Projected population from 2008 census results and an estimation of IDPs into the county
How to apply:
Submission of Applications on or before the 25th of March 2016 to irene.makura@rescue.org and Michael.kamau@rescue.org