Nutrition Consultant

Medair implementing a project entitled “Lifesaving integrated health and nutrition services to pregnant and lactating women and children under five years in Kandahar & Uruzgan Provinces of Afghanistan”. A SMART Survey will be conducted for this project in Uruzgan province, and the project aims are to:

• Reduce excess morbidity and mortality by responding to humanitarian needs in conflict, drought, and COVID-19 affected, hard to reach and underserved areas of Kandahar and Uruzgan Provinces.
• Enhanced access to quality integrated life-saving health nutrition services for vulnerable populations in conflict affected, hard to reach, and underserved areas of Kandahar and Uruzgan Provinces.

PURPOSE:

The overall purpose/objective of this survey is to estimate the prevalence of acute malnutrition in children under 5 years of age and in pregnant and lactating women; and estimate retrospective mortality rates and in Uruzgan province.

STARTING DATE:

1st November for 60 days.

OBJECTIVES:

• To determine the prevalence of malnutrition (Stunting, Wasting, and Underweight & Overweight) among children aged 0-59 months.
• To assess general morbidity (Diarrhoea, ARI & Fever) among children under 5 based on a retrospective two week recall period.
• To estimate the first and second doses of measles vaccination coverage among children 9-59 months (for 1st dose) and 18 – 59 months (for 2nd dose)
• To assess deworming among children 12-59 months in the last 6 months.
• To assess Vitamin A supplementation in children 6-59 months in the last 6 months.
• To determine the nutritional status of pregnant and lactating women (PLW) based on MUAC assessment.
• To assess the crude and U5 death rate in Uruzgan disaggregated by various age groups and sex.
• To assess the Maternal, Infant and Young Child Feeding (MIYCF) practices for children aged 0-23 months
• To determine the food security and livelihood situation in the survey districts.
• To assess household food consumption (quantity and quality).
• To formulate recommendations to guide nutrition programming in Uruzgan.

ACTIVITIES:

Key tasks for the consultant to carry out in accordance with the terms and conditions of the consultancy contract include:

• Lead the finalization of the survey protocol, training materials and any survey job aids in line with the SMART survey standards.
• To present and defend the survey methodology and preliminary findings to the AIM WG (Information Management working group), MoPH/PND and Nutrition cluster and partners at national and provincial level.
• Finalize the set of data collection tools (in coordination with Medair)
• Conduct a pre-test of the methodology and questionnaires as part of the training before starting the survey.
• Conduct and analyse pre-post-test- test training results for accuracy of anthropometric measurements and address any weaknesses with targeted training.
• Develop a clear survey plan (movement plans, sequence of data collection/mapping/list of selected villages) and ensure it is understood by all who need to participate and support its execution, with coordination of Medair
• Medair will prepare an introduction letter to introduce the consultancy and then the consultancy is responsible for coordinating with related departments in terms of the permission letter to start the data collection in the field.
• Hiring Data collectors/ Enumerators: This includes hiring of data collectors both (male and female) and cover all the expense for the data collection process. Considering the social norms, the female enumerators must be included.
• Design and carry out training of data collectors and supervisors on the survey methodology, anthropometric measurement techniques, effective interview techniques, and essential infection and prevention control methods in the context of COVID-19.
• Ensure all necessary equipment is in place and functioning before the survey starts
• Coordinate data collection from the field and supervise the team daily to ensure quality data is collected. This will involve developing quality control measures, supporting the team in sampling of households and taking anthropometric measurements and interviews in accordance with COVID-19 prevention measures.
• Provide daily field briefing to the Medair H&N adviser and MEAL manager on progress and any challenges from the field.
• Closely supervise the data collection process and ensure quality control.
• Clean and analyse the survey results using the standard ENA software and for those indicators that fall outside the core ENA analysis function (software must be agreed ahead of time with Medair and consultant must provide it themselves)
• Provide a draft report in an agreed standard format with preliminary results for all indicators, including confidence intervals for indicators and a full plausibility report for review.
• Present preliminary results to Medair, MoPH, PND, AIM-WG, and Nutrition cluster for feedback (verbal and written) and facilitate a discussion on relevant and practical recommendations for finalization of the survey reporting
• Based on feedback, finalize the report with clear and relevant recommendations and present findings to a wider group as requested.