CONSULTANCY POSITION
SMART Nutrition Survey Specialist
VACANCY#: UNICEF/MLW/2015/028
1.BACKGROUND
In January 2015, the Government of Malawi declared an emergency as a result of the floods devastation that affected over 100,000 people in several districts, especially in the southern parts of the country. A multi-sectoral response has been implemented in the flood-affected areas, to mitigate the negative impact of the floods; however as the areas affected have now moved to the recovery phase, the impact of the floods on nutrition status needs to be fully understood. Given the gravity of the destruction, it is not clear how various sector responses have mitigated the risk to malnutrition as well as common childhood illnesses. It is therefore crucial for the nutrition sector to undertake a nutrition survey to inform the nutrition cluster and other relevant sectors’ plans that contribute to optimal nutrition outcomes and to guide implementation of relevant nutrition programmes. In addition to understanding the nutritional status of the population after the flood. MVAC assessments conducted in April and November and usually include the collection of nutrition indicators, will provide a baseline for pre-crisis malnutrition levels. The MVAC surveys collect both nutrition and food security information as part of food security and nutrition regular surveillance. This information will be useful not only for the floods recovery response but will also provide a baseline for the imminent food insecurity emergency. Considering the above overall objectives, the Government of Malawi, through the Directorate of Nutrition and the nutrition cluster will conduct SMART five nutrition surveys in the flood affected areas and livelihood zones. The surveys will be carried out in May/June 2015, and will collect representative data on anthropometry, child morbidity, infant and young child feeding practices, household dietary diversity and WASH.
The rationale of conducting SMART surveys, is to investigate the nutritional situation of the population in the flood affected parts of the country, to further understand the impact of the floods on the nutrition status of the population and thereafter plan appropriate interventions. To capture these differences, nutrition surveys will be conducted in 5 livelihood zones as follows; Lake Chirwa Phalombe Plains Livelihood Zone, Lower Shire Livelihood Zone, Thyolo Mulanje Tea Estates Livelihood Zone, Rift Valley Escarpment Livelihood Zone and Shire Highlands Livelihood zones. These zones represent the 15 flood affected districts, the surveys will provide representative results by livelihood zone, as has been presented in the previous MVAC surveys. These results will be used to inform on the relevant programmes and interventions in the affected areas. The preliminary results will be released in July 2015.
UNICEF is therefore seeking to hire an individual consultant to assist in the SMART Nutrition Survey and to determine the following objectives of the survey:-
• Prevalence of chronic and acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months
• Minimal acceptable diet in children 6-23 months
• Current breastfeeding practices for children 0-23 months
• Morbidity patterns in children 6-59 months in the two weeks preceding the survey
• Proportion of children 6-59 months that have received vitamin A supplementation and measles vaccination
• Household main source of food
• Household dietary diversity
• Households main source of drinking water
• Households access to sanitation facilities and hygiene practices
2.SCOPE OF WORK
- The Consultant will work closely and provide technical support with the Directorate of Nutrition and the national technical lead in surveys LUANAR, to oversee the entire SMART nutrition survey process from training, planning, data collection and preliminary analysis.
- Ensure the SMART survey methodology agreed upon by the technical team at national level is implemented, and provide technical support in this process, e.g. through supporting sample size calculation, cluster selection, developing an efficient survey schedule etc.
- Support in the training of the survey teams and give technical support to the data collection teams as required.
- Support LUANAR in quality assurance procedures, such as daily review of data during data collection, ensuring field procedures and protocols are observed, overall plausibility checks for data etc.
- Provide technical support in the supervision of data entry and assure data entry quality.
- 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.
- Support the national team in the preparation of a preliminary report, with all nutrition key indicators
- Prepare and submit a data set and preliminary results within 10 days of the completion of the survey data collection.
3.EDUCATION AND WORK EXPERIENCE
- Advanced university degree in nutrition, public health or related sciences with proven competency in humanitarian emergencies.
- 5 experience in undertaking nutrition surveys (design and methodologies, training, field supervision and data analysis/write up).
- Be familiar with the SMART survey methodology and ENA for SMART, Epi/ENA or Epi Info software, preferably a SMART Master Trainer
- Be fluent in English with excellent writing and presentation skills
4.DURATION
6 weeks
HOW TO APPLY:
5.METHOD OF APPLICATION
Qualified candidates are requested to submit a cover letter, CV and Personal History Form (P-11 form) (which can be downloaded from our website at
http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_53129.html) Please indicate your daily/monthly rate to undertake the terms of reference above.
Applications should be sent on or before 31 May 2015to the following address:hrmalawi@unicef.org
NOTE:
· UNICEF is committed to gender equality in its mandate and its staff. Well
qualified candidates, particularly females are strongly encouraged to apply.
- Only shortlisted applicants will be acknowledged.
- Applications sent through the post office or hand delivered is not accepted.
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