Consultant - Nutrition Business Case at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child. UNICEF has spent 70 years working to improve the lives of children and their families. Defending children's rights throughout their lives requires a global presence, aiming to produce results and understand their effects. UNICEF believes all children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfill their potential - to the benefit of a better world.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - Development of a Nutrition Business Case

Job Number: 516468
Location: Four States in Northern Nigeria, Abuja, With Frequent Travels to the States
Work Type: Consultancy
Duration: 4months

Description

• Consultant for the Development of a Nutrition Business Case With a Focus on Severe Acute Malnutrition for Four States in Northern Nigeria, Abuja With Frequent Travels to the States

Background
Nigeria is home to the third largest population of chronically undernourished (Stunted) children in the world with highest rates of chronic malnutrition in found in the north in Nigeria. The 2015 NNHS recorded that 33% of children under-five years old are stunted. This means that over 10 million children under the age of five years in Nigeria are not meeting their development potential owing to nutritional deficiencies. Poor nutrition and the resultant stunting it causes, traps the child, the community and the nation in a cycle of poverty. About 19.4% are under-weight while 7.2% suffers from global acute malnutrition, putting over 2.5million severe acute malnutrition patients at risk of dying if nothing is done (NNHS, 2015).

Similarly, many women of reproductive age group in Nigeria have poor nutritional status and suffers micronutrient deficiency especially iron deficiency aneamia. The 2015 NNHS estimated that 7% of the women of reproductive age surveyed were malnourished and further disaggregation of the data showed that North East and North West had the highest rates in the country. Micronutrient deficiency is high among women, especially during pregnancy. This unfortunate situation is harmful to the health of both mother and child if such women become pregnant. The World Bank estimates that countries blighted by undernutrition lose at least two to three per cent of their gross domestic product, as well as billions of dollars in salaried employment and avoidable health care spending. Encouragingly, fighting malnutrition is one of the most cost-effective investments a country can make.

Poised to tackle the issue of malnutrition in Nigeria, the federal government reviewed and adopted the National Policy on Food and Nutrition (NPFN) in 2016, a major landmark in the effort of the government in addressing the problem of malnutrition. Development of costed National Multi-Sectoral Strategic Plan of Action on Nutrition (NMSPAN), that will operationalize NPFN, is currently ongoing with technical and financial support from various partners. However, the progress made in addressing undernutrition is still insufficient to ensure the country meets the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG).

Ending malnutrition is critical for economic and human development. Childhood stunting, an overarching measure of long-term malnutrition, has life-long consequences not just for health, but also for human capital and economic development, prosperity and equity. Although the investment case for nutrition is becoming strong, efforts to reduce under nutrition and reach the nutrition SDG targets are constrained by a range of factors including insufficient financing, complexity in terms of implementation and and determining the methods and costs (both financial and human resources) involved in Nutrition programming.

This TOR therefore seeks to hire a consultant to facilitate the development of a nutrition business case to increase government awareness on the magnitude of malnutrition as well as enable Nigeria government to commit to mobilization of more domestic resources for Nutrition especially the treatment of severe acute malnutrition.

Justification

• Nutrition is a basic need and a key input as well as a desired outcome of economic development. The most important reason for investing in nutrition is to allow individuals to survive and thrive and reach their full potential
• Developing investment case and quantifying the economic benefits of nutrition interventions can be a powerful way to advocate for increased resources for nutrition
• Economic analysis can also help to decide how best to allocate investments to improve nutrition among competing programs, and how to use public funding most effectively. In addition, no previous study has systematically developed a Nutrition Business Case with a focus on severe acute malnutrition in Nigeria
• The study will link the costs of investment with the potential for impact and the interventions returns on investment. This consultancy aims to close knowledge gaps by providing a more comprehensive estimate of costs of investment in nutrition as well as financing needs, linking them both to expected impacts, and laying out a potential financing framework.

Purpose of Assignment

• The purpose of this consultancy is to facilitate the process of developing an investment case to better understand the prevailing political and economic situation that impacts on Nutrition programme in Nigeria.
• The consultancy will estimate the human and economic cost of undernutrition in Kastina, Kano, Kaduna and Gombe State.
• Assess the political environment and enablers to investment in nutrition and propose appropriate investment strategy that will work given the political environment.
• Propose a package of nutrition specific interventions to address undernutrition with three scenarios of coverage and cost as well as estimate the human and economic return on investment for each of the proposed scenarios.
• The study outcomes will provide evidence for effective engagement with government on mobilization of domestic resources for Nutrition programme in Nigeria.

Major Tasks to be Accomplished: (estimated time required to complete tasks. Attach additional sheets, if necessary, to describe assignments)

• Desk review of relevant documents (reports, surveys, programme documentations etc)
• Hold and facilitate workshop with relevant technical stakeholders to reach an agreement on the documents and database to be used, as well as build local ownership of the process and the final product.
• Undertake analysis of the political environment to inform recommendation on the best investment strategy across the four states.
• Undertake the costing of the economic loss for the four northern states if the undernutrition situation remains high as it is now and unaddressed for the coming 10 years. The costing is to be based on specific indicators including anthropometric indicators, micronutrient deficiencies and key behaviours such as exclusive breastfeeding. This analysis should use a “consequence modelâ€Â and should result in Damage Assessment Report (DAR) for Nigeria
• Facilitate a consultation with relevant government stakeholders from health and nutrition as well as finance, economics and labor to validate and build ownership of the methodologies, data, assumptions and conclusions of the cost of malnutrition exercise.
• Discussion with a local technical group on most urgent and feasible interventions to address the human and economic losses. This includes review of ongoing programs, assessment of capacity, feasible coverage and associated budgets.
• Facilitate a validation workshop and present proposed budgeted package of nutrition specific interventions, objectives for coverage and effectiveness, projected benefits and 10-year benefit-cost.
• Write up of a complete narrative and illustrative (where necessary) investment case that will be attractive enough for the Nigeria government and trigger an increased attention and strong commitment to invest more (domestic and external) financial resources in the sector.
• Applicants will submit technical offer describing in details the methodology to be used for each of the steps presented above.

Qualifications or Specialized Knowledge/Experience Required
The specific qualifications for the consultant in the specified categories are as indicated as below:

• Advanced University Degree in Health Economics, Public Health, Advocacy and Communication, Human Nutrition or Development Policy or related technical areas, and at least minimum of 7 years of documented work experience in developing nutrition policies and strategies at National and international level, experience in programs planning and evaluation including quantitative and qualitative research.
• Experience working in the UN or other international development organization an asset
• Knowledge and experience in Nutrition, Food security and broader health programming.
• Excellent communication, coordination, facilitation skills.
• Good skills and experience in cost benefit analysis
• Mastering of the available costing tools and consequence modeling techniques
• Demonstrable evidence of production of similar investment cases
• Demonstrate ability to assess and analyse complex situations to succinctly and clearly distil critical issues and draw out forward looking conclusions.
• Ability to plan, organize and coordinate
• Ability to work under pressure and commitment to work to tight time frame
• Exposure to nutrition program implementation and education
• Proficiency in written and oral English language, good communication and networking skills, as well as familiarity with working in a multi-cultural environment.
• Proficiency in Hausa language would be an advantage.
• Excellent conceptualization & experience in publication of technical reviews/reports & journals

Application Closing Date
Friday, 5th October, 2018 by 23:55:00 GMT+0100 (W. Central Africa Standard Time)

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Note

• Applicants should quote an all inclusive fee
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.