Consultant - Rapid Social Cultural Assessment at Action Against Hunger-USA

Action Against Hunger | ACF-International works to save lives by combating hunger and diseases that threaten the lives of vulnerable communities, through nutrition, food security, water and sanitation, health and advocacy.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - Rapid Social Cultural Assessment, Including Gender Analysis

Location: Borno
Project Name: EU Support to Response, Recovery and Resilience in Borno State, North East Nigeria

Project Description
The proposed action responds to the need of building resilience and sustainability in Borno and enhancing the capacity of public institutions and affected communities to anticipate and react to the challenges of poverty, social cohesion, climate change, and crisis/security.

Responding to the needs of the conflict affected populations in Borno requires a comprehensive and integrated intervention across multiple platforms of service delivery and system strengthening. The project will therefore cover multiple sectors at once in the targeted area, with support to the health and nutrition sector, to the WASH and renewable energy systems, and finally to the social protection, livelihood and income generating sector..

The project will build on the humanitarian assistance provided to gradually contribute to efforts by the Nigerian authorities and other major actors to initiate sustainable reconstruction and recovery work. Focus will be on ensuring a transition between emergency and development in a sustained manner. Since this transition is rarely a linear chronological process, the project will follow a flexible and phased approach where immediate needs will be supported at the same time as recovery and longer term interventions are implemented. The need for applying such an approach is accentuated by the fluidity in the security situation in the locations selected. The flexibility and adaptability of the project will be ensured by a multi-scenario planning considering possible evolution's of the security, return or displacement situations.

In order to build resilience, the proposed action will seek to ensure sustainability is built in all of its components. The project will be linked to existing systems and protocols at both state and local level, and work alongside authorities to ensure they are strengthened to be able to deliver the basic services to their population. The participation of LGA officials and public institutions (such as LGA, RUWASA, BOSEPA, RRR or SMOH - see details below) will be ensured in the planning, design, implementation and assessment of the services or infrastructure to be strengthened through this intervention as well as their management upon the intervention’s conclusion. While the ultimate expected level of sustainability will be dependent on factors such as resources and security, the project plans to work closely with national and community structures to ensure that they have the technical capacity to deliver an effective response without external support.

This will not resolve the shortfall of resources or security; however, the intervention will ensure key stakeholders do consolidate their service capacity delivery alongside the intervention. Beyond authorities, the project will seek to empower conflict affected populations, in particular women, to make them more resilient. This will be done through empowerment of affected populations on their health, nutrition and sanitation practices, the support to sustainable livelihood and income generation, and the support to community cohesion and gender equity.

Sectors:

• Nutrition
• Food security and Livelihoods
• Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
• FSL
• WASH

Rationale

• The proposed social cultural assessment and gender analysis is intended to assess social cultural gender issues in the areas of operation through examining the socio-cultural issues using gender lens looking at roles, access to and control of resources and the constraints they face relative to each other.
• This will allow us to understand the socio-cultural and gender dynamics in Borno state and who in the population is affected by the crisis; what they need; and what they can do for themselves.
• The results will inform the change in design and modification of the project to adapt to the changing political context and conflict dynamics.

Scope of the Assessment

• The assessment will be conducted in Borno and will cover Kukawa, Nganzai and Monguno ) LGAs.
• The assessment will broadly look at socio-cultural and gender factors which contribute directly or indirectly to participation of intended beneficiaries to WASH, FSL and Nutrition program and link this to the political environment and the changing security context.

Objectives
General Objective:

• To collect and compile information on the social and cultural behavior and practices of beneficiaries and ascertain how this will influence implementation of the project.

Specific Objectives:

• To determine key social and cultural barriers affecting FSL, WASH and Nutrition interventions.
• To understand the changing socio cultural dynamics that have occurred due to conflict i.e. displacement, loss of trust towards some community members
• Identify key socio cultural features of the community that directly or indirectly could affect the planning and implementation of AAH program.
• To identify how gender roles and responsibilities influence participation of men, women, boys and girls in community activities.
• The study will assist Action Against Hunger in designing culturally appropriate and gender sensitive interventions which will adhere to local values, norms, behavior and practices

Methodology
Desk Review:

• The consultant will undertake a desk review of project materials, including the proposals, progress reports, outputs of the project (such as publications, communication materials, videos, recording etc.), results of any internal planning process and relevant materials from secondary sources.

Field Mission:

• Staff Interviews:
  • As part of the assessment, the consultant will interview Action Against Hunger staff, to agree on expectations and define a road map on how the study will be conducted .The interviews will look at project design, data collection, management reporting procedures, analyzing how the mission implements its project management cycle and how the socio-cultural and gender concerns are addressed during each step of implementation.
• Field visits:
  • The consultant will develop data collection tools with the guidance of the project and M&E team. The discussions will include:
    • Interviews with community leaders
    • Interviews with traditional leaders
    • Focus group discussions with men, women and youth
• Debriefing and stakeholders workshop:
  • The consultant shall facilitate a learning workshop in country to present the draft report and the findings of the study to key stakeholders; to gather feedback on the findings and build consensus on recommendations; to develop action-oriented workshop statements on lessons learned and proposed improvements to the implementation plan

Key Deliverables
The following are study outputs:

• Inception Report
• Field Work
• Validation Workshop (Borno)
• Validation Workshop (Abuja)
• Draft Evaluation Report

Profile of the Consultant
The study will be carried out by a consultant/expert with the following profile:

• Experience in programming in public health, Agriculture, anthropology, Sociology social science, or related discipline.
• Extensive Experience in conducting qualitative studies, Socio-cultural and gender studies or other quantitative and qualitative studies.
• Extensive experience in communication for development (techniques, tools, etc.) , social and behavior change project or health promotion and participative methods
• At least 10 years of international and field experience in developing countries
• Proven ability to organize and manage surveys in a cross-cultural setting.
• Ability to train team and ensure quality delivery of outputs within a limited period
• Excellent report writing, communication and presentation skills
• Understanding of Nigerian context is desirable.

Application Closing Date
13th April, 2018.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should submit their Applications (which should include the following below) to: [email protected] Subject of the email should read - "EU Consultancy for Cultural Assessment and Gender Analysis, Nigeria".

The Applications (submission package) which should include:

• CV detailing qualifications
• Demonstrated experience in similar assignments undertaken
• Work-plan based on the ToRs and deliverables
• Proposed budget and fees.