UNICEF recruits 01 Lead Consultancy to develop the inception report

Consultancy: Lead Consultancy to develop the inception report, costed workplan, and operational manual of the Nutrition Improvements through Cash and Health Education (NICHE) programme scale up in five counties , Kenya (6 months)

Job Number: 520268 | Vacancy Link

Locations: Africa: Kenya

Work Type : Consultancy

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Purpose of Assignment	Lead Consultancy to develop the inception report, costed workplan, and operational manual of the Nutrition Improvements through Cash and Health Education (NICHE) programme scale up in five counties , Kenya
Estimated level of the assignment	Level 4
Location of Assignment	Nairobi and counties of Kitui, West Pokot, Turkana, Marsabit, and Kilifi
Duration of contract	75 days over 6 Months
Start date	From: March 15th, 2019	To: September 15th, 2019
Reporting to:	Chief of Social Policy

 Background

The Kenya National Social Protection Policy is the guiding framework for development of an integrated social protection system for Kenya, comprising of policies and programmes in three areas: social assistance, social insurance, and social health insurance[1]. Social protection, therefore, comprises public actions which address not only income poverty and economic shocks, but also social vulnerability, considering the inter-relationship between exclusion and poverty.

In 2013, the Government of Kenya (GoK) launched a National Safety Net Programme (NSNP). The main objective of the NSNP is to improve the well-being of and increase resilience among specific vulnerable groups in order to reduce poverty and vulnerability in Kenya.

As part of the system’s approach, UNICEF is promoting a stronger involvement of social sector ministries to enhance coherence and integration of policies and programmes, as well as strengthen linkages between social protection coverage and improved access to quality services. It is now widely recognised and evidenced that cash transfers can have highly positive socio-economic impacts, ranging from poverty reduction and improved living conditions to enhanced psycho-social well-being. At the same time, the expanding evidence base also highlights that the provision of cash alone falls short in achieving long-term second-order impacts such as those related to nutrition, learning outcomes, and morbidity.

While the foundational elements of a social saftey net are in place in Kenya, the GoK is now committed to move beyond cash transfers to an integrated Social Protection (SP) system to enhance social and economic inclusion of the poor and vulnerable. Several interventions are being implemented in the area of social and economic inclusion, with the involvement of the GoK. To further the goal of integrated SP systems, the GoK is keen to invest to enhance delivery systems, institutional capacity, coordination and partnership arrangements, and test approaches that have delivered results in Kenya and elsewhere.

One of these joint approaches relates to nutrition-sensitive social protection programming. Whilst Kenya is on track to meet the World Health Assembly targets for nutrition, with national stunting rates of 26% and national wasting rates of 4% (KDHS 2014), these national figures mask the inequities at the county level. For instance, stunting ranges from 15% to 45% across counties, while wasting ranges from less than 1% to persistently high levels greater than 20% in many of the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) counties, exceeding 30% in times of severe drought. Addressing stunting at the county level, therefore, requires household level approaches, focusing both on the need for food access and availability and the need for behavior change to achieve optimal infant and young child feeding. Access and availability of food, especially milk, as well as adequate young child feeding practices, remain critical to address child wasting. Further, there is a strong evidence that cash transfers alone do not impact nutrition rates.

In view of the above, the GoK has requested development partners to support advancements in the three areas highlighted below. Subsequently, the GoK together with the World Bank and DFID prepared the Kenya Social and Ecomimic Inclusion Programme (KSEIP). It will be co-financed through World Bank and DFID, with UNICEF and WFP confirming commitment to support its implementation.

– Component 1: Enhancing institutional capacity and social protection delivery systems, particularly the coverage and functionality of the Social Registry, as well as continuing to improve the efficiency of other delivery mechanisms;

– Component 2: Investing in the scale-up of the existing nutrition-sensitive safety net, and testing customized economic inclusion models as a complement to the regular cash transfers to improve human capital and the self-sufficiency of poor and vulnerable households;

– Component 3: Improving the shock responsiveness of the safety net system by expanding its coverage and strengthening financing arrangements for enhancing households’ resilience and providing timely support to cope with recurrent climate-induced droughts.

Under Component 2 of KSEIP and in order to address some of the issues mentioned above at nutrition outcomes and determinant level, UNICEF piloted the Nutrition Improvements through Cash and Health Education (NICHE) programme in Kitui over the last two years. NICHE focused on pregnant mothers and mothers with children under two years that were benefiting from Cash Transfers for Orphan and Vulnerable Children (CT-OVC). Targeted mothers received a cash top of KES 500 per child and were linked to intensive weekly nutrion counselling, with the aim of improving nutrition outcomes and determinants for children and women. Households receiving NICHE support were far more likely to practice enhanced hygienic, dietary, and infant care practices than comparison households. Among pregnant women, dietary diversity, routine Antenatal Care (ANC), and delivery in a health facility increased dramatically among NICHE enrolees compared with the control group.

Based on severe deprivations related to overall poverty, chronic malnutrition, low food security, inadequate health, nutrition, and WASH related behaviors and practices, it is suggested that the following counties be prioritized for the expansion of NICHE: Turkana, Marsabit, West Pokot, and Kilifi. GoK has requested UNICEF to support the scale up of NICHE thorough provision of comprehensive technical assistance, capacity development, systems strengthening support, and quality assurance. UNICEF Kenya, therefore, seeks a consultant to support with the NICHE II inception phase to develop the inception report, implementation plan, operational manual, and workplan for scale up in four additional counties.

CPD Outcomes and Outputs covered

The consultancy contributes to Outcome 4 (Social inclusion): An increased number of children from the poorest & most vulnerable households benefit from shock-responsive & integrated social protection interventions, as well as from child-specific policies and more specifcally Output 4.1: Social service demand is strengthened through modelling of evidence-based linkages between social protection and social/economic sectors (including health, nutrition, protection, energy, and HIV) in select counties.

In addition, the consultancy also contributes to Outcome 1 (Reduced Mortality & Stunting): Increased proportions of vulnerable children, pregnant and lactating women, including adolescent girls, have equitable access to and use quality WASH, Nutrition, Health, and HIV/AIDS services to reduce their risk of mortality, preventable diseases, stunting and other forms of malnutrition, and improve their birth outcomes. Specifically, this consultancy will contribute to Activity 1.1.2: Development of strategic partnerships and linkages to increase nutrition sensitivity of existing social protection programmes for household resilience.

Goal and Objectives

The goal of the consultancy is to develop a detailed implementation plan for NICHE II program in the five target counties, as well as a detailed inception report, costed workplan, and operational manual. The implementation plan should detail identification of benificiaries, targeting, payments, nutrition counselling, including related coordination, monitoring, and social accountability activities.

This assignment will be carried out by a team of two consultants – one lead consultant and one associate consultant. Both consultants will have to work as a team and complement each other’s work.

Specifically, the team of consultants will perform the following activities/tasks:

Programme Re-design: To lead the re-design of the programme through consultative and reflection sessions after undertaking:

A thorough desk review, including but not limited to: the current draft operational manual, the design document, and the impact evaluation

Field visit to each of the counties to understand existing structures, while leveraging upon existing health and social protection structures, for the purposes of identifying county-specific strategies for targeting, registration, payments, counseling, and monitoring

Update the draft Operation Manual and design documents

To update/develop the program design document and operations manual that entails program management and implementation structures, including specific considerations for the different counties. Ideally, this would include a real time learning mechanism built in from the initiation of NICHE II. The Operational Manual will be updated as needed, based on learnings from the implementation of NICHE II. This implies a clear identification of who will lead and co-lead this mechanism at county level.

Development of an updated costed workplan and inception report

The costed workplan will be tailored for both national and county levels and will be informed by the above deliverables. The inception report will detail the design, development, and findings of the same.

Working relationship

The Lead Consultant will be responsible for the overall oversight, management, quality assurance and finalization of the expected deliverables. The deliverables are detailed in the next section. The Lead Consultant will work in close collaboration with the Associate Consultant and will work under UNICEF administrative supervision and in joint technical supervision between UNICEF and the Department of Children Services at the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. The consultants will engage with the main Social Protection and health stakeholders at national and county level and key development partners including World Bank, DFID, and World Food Programme among others.

For this purpose, the Ministry will constitute a Technical Working Group of stakeholders that will provide oversight and guidance and will endorse outputs and final deliverables.

Deliverables

Deliverables	Duration	Timeline/Deadline	Schedule of Payment
An approved inception report for the entire process, including: –        Finalized consultative minutes with the relevant ministries at the national and county levels inclusive of field visits; –        Finalized findings from the desk review; –        Costed Work plan with detailed timeframe;	25 days over 3 months	June 2019	30%
Operational Manual, including: final and validated methodology for targeting, registration, payments, complains and grievnaces, nutrition counseling, monitoring, coordination, and feedback mechanism developed, detailing county specificities.	25 days over 4 Months (in parallel with 1st deliverable)	July 2019	30%
Updated and validated documents: i) Inception report ii) operational manual and iii) costed workplan (these documents will be drafted in a consulative manner, benefiting inputs from all relevant stakeholders both at national and county level)	20 days over 2 Months	September 2019	30%
Update and finalaize Policy Brief / Conpect Note (4 pages) on NICHE	5 days (in parallel)	September 2019	10%
Total days	75 days

 

       Payment is on satisfactory completion of deliverables duly authorized by the Supervisor of contract.

Specific deliverables of acceptable quality must be submitted at the planned times.

Performance will be evaluated considering quality of deliverables, consultation with stakeholders, timeliness of deliverables of and comprehensiveness of work as defined in the terms of reference.

The consultant is expected to carry out the design process in accordance with professional communication development standards

Required Qualifications

The Lead Consultant should have:

Holds a Master’s degree or equivalent in Economics, Social Sciences (Sociology, population studies, demography, anthropology, economics, etc) or public health

Minimum 8 years of relevant experience in social protection both in Kenya and other countries, especially in cash programing and nutrition programmes, including community engagement and coordination

Demonstrated ability for coordination of stakeholders and government representatives,

Demonstrated data collection and analytical writing skills, high quality report writing and manual design skills

Proven ability to: (i) handle multiple tasks under pressure with short deadlines; (ii) ability to work independently, seeking guidance on complex issues; and (iii) excellent interpersonal skills, proven team orientation and the ability to work across unit boundaries

Closing Date Thu Mar 14 2019 21:55:00 GMT+0100 (Afr. centrale Ouest)