State Security Consultant at Malaria Consortium - 9 Openings

Established in 2003, Malaria Consortium is one of the world’s leading non-profit organisations specialising in the prevention, control and treatment of malaria and other communicable diseases among vulnerable populations. Our mission is to save lives and improve health in Africa and Asia, through evidence-based programmes that combat targeted diseases and promote universal health coverage.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: State Security Consultant

Locations: Abuja (FCT), Bauchi, Borno, Kebbi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Oyo, Plateau & Sokoto
Employment Type: Temporary

Country and programme background

• In 2013, WHO introduced the SMC strategy to prevent malaria among children aged 3 – 59 months in areas where malaria transmission is highly seasonal. The National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) led stratification exercise in 2020 increased the number of states eligible for seasonal malaria transmission (SMC) implementation from the nine (9) in the Sahel zone with marked seasonal malaria transmission and most of the disease burden occurring during a distinct rainy season, to 21, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Currently, Malaria Consortium has been supporting SMC implementation in 14 of these 21 states/territories with funding support from the Global Fund (for Jigawa, Kaduna, Yobe, Kano and Niger) and MC/Philanthropic Funding (for Bauchi, Borno, Kebbi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, and the FCT).
• SMC involves the administration of monthly treatment courses of a combination of antimalarial drugs (sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine/SPAQ) with the objective of maintaining therapeutic antimalarial drug concentrations in the blood throughout the period of transmission (rainy season) to prevent malaria. This preventive treatment requires a large number and variety of personnel involved at the state, LGA, health facility and community levels for four/five cycles, usually between June and October to coincide with the peak period of malaria transmission.
• For the 2025 SMC round, more than one hundred thousand and fifty (150,000) personnel would be involved in the states Malaria Consortium SMC supporting SMC, where more than 18m eligible children would be reached with antimalaria medicines. While about one hundred and forty (140,000) are the frontline service providers - community drug distributors, town announcers and lead mothers who are resident within the communities, about twenty thousand (10,000) supervisors (national, state and LGA) are non-residents/indigenes of the communities and will be involved in travels to these communities for SMC activities, including training, last mile distribution, daily supervision and reverse logistics.

Rationale

• Insecurity due to insurgency, armed banditry, militancy, separatist agitations, abductions, kidnappings, and armed robbery continue to increase in Nigeria and the communities, where SMC is being implemented are not spared. No part of the country is exempt from these challenges, even though the security challenges are more pronounced in some states more than others. Some of the Malaria Consortium supported states (e.g. Kaduna, Sokoto and Yobe) are clear complex operational environments (COE), while Kebbi and Niger states which share boundaries with Zamfara State also face security challenges including a peculiar form of armed banditry.

Goal of the Assignment

• Even though Malaria Consortium has Security Officers and a security focal person as part of the staff, external short term technical assistants (TAs) would be engaged because the SITAN/SRA needs to be completed quickly to fit into the overall SMC process and timelines. There is also the need for independent security person that have connection with the security agencies and therefore can bring their knowledge of the landscape to produce better document to inform programming. The analysis/assessment would happen at the community, political ward and LGA levels. Furthermore, the engaged TAs would review previous trends and trajectory of events projected at the minimum to the next one year. The aim of the assignment is to provide adequate guidance to ensure the safety and security of lives and properties for the implementation of SMC intervention in the 14 malaria consortium supported states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja with support from the Global Fund (GF - 5 states) and the Philanthropic Funding (PF - 9 states and the FCT).

Specific Objectives
The following are specific objectives for the assignment:

• Guided by the previous security reports from Malaria Consortium, government security agencies and international/local security organization/agencies, conduct desk review of SRA in all 14 MC/SMC implementing states and the FCT.
• Train state security focal persons (SSFPs) to be able to review the state security plans (SSPs) for the states and the FCT.
• Utilize the information obtained from the assessment to -review the risk profiles of each state, LGA, ward and community where applicable.
• Identify any new risk to implementations at different categories of state, LGA, wards, and community levels.
• Update security risk mitigation plan for states and LGAs in response to information obtained in objectives above where applicable; and
• Update SRAs, SSPs and SOPs for identified implementing states

Methodology for (SITAN/SRA/SP) Review

• This assignment will include the desk review of previous SRAs, security profiles and SSPs and the use of a combination of key informant interviews (KIIs), administration of questionnaires and consensus meeting with Malaria Consortium staff at country, state and LGA offices; and stakeholders from the states and LGAs, especially the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Officers to obtain the required data and information. These would be followed by a consensus meeting involving the consultants, relevant Malaria Consortium, state and LGA personnel would be held to agree on the relevance, currency and validity of the obtained data/information.
• Guided by the grading system developed in 2022 (and reviewed in 2025) from the Malaria Consortium Security Adaptation Guideline, Safety and Security Policy and Framework, and findings from the SRA, grade the wards, LGAs and states into red (high), amber (medium) and green (low) areas; to enable Malaria Consortium top management categorize the LGAs and states into:
  • High security risk/hard-to-reach (HTR) areas.
  • Medium risk area; and
  • Low risk area.
• The assignment would require a desk review of existing security documents such as SSPs, SRAs, weekly security updates and any report related to the supported states and the FCT present security situation. Visits to be undertaken to selected communities, wards and LGA/Area Councils of interest to enable a comprehensive review of the security situation within the supported states/FCT which will enrich the reviews. Furthermore, the consultants will support the designate SSFPs to carry out rapid assessments based on designed questionnaires, the outcome of which, will also inform on the reviews. Remote support will also be provided in close collaboration with the Malaria Consortium Security Manager/Officers based in the country and zonal offices. The data will be collected using SurveyCTO; while the GIS coordinates will also be obtained and data analyzed to produce the SSPs and SOPs to support SMC implementation in all security profiling categories for all the supported states and FCT.
• In addition, the engaged TAs would support the Country Operations Manager (in the country office) and SSFPs (for the states) to assess the different office locations and advise accordingly.
• A debriefing meeting will be held at state level to validate all collated information with the respective SSFPs and Malaria Consortium’s Security Managers before submission to the Country Operation Manager, Programme Director and Regional Risk Programme Manager’s review and input before finalization and sign-off by the West and Central Africa Programmes Director.

List of Tasks
The following are specific, but not exhaustive lists of tasks to be conducted to meet the goal and objectives of the assignment:

• Conduct a desk-top analysis of the current security profiles of the respective SMC states using existing documents within MC and proffer recommendations for update on same.
• Identify and assess the functionality of all existing security coordination platforms in the states (especially those used by existing donor agencies), identify new ones and their membership and requirements for Malaria Consortium being accepted as a member.
• Orientate, debrief and work closely with the Malaria Consortium Security Managers, SSFPs and other stakeholders to understand the SMC implementation and the security context in the LGAs to enable the development of an accurate security strategy;
• Develop an updated security risk mitigation plan for SMC deployment and update the SSPs for Malaria Consortium’s operations in the SMC supported states (as per the Malaria Consortium template); and
• Review the SRAs, SSPs and SOPs for identified implementing states.

Expected Outputs/Deliverables:

• Comprehensive report produced using standard Malaria Consortium report template, to include feedback from conducted desk review related to the following:
  • Security profile review of each state and the FCT.
  • Risk assessment review for the respective states and the FCT;
  • Updated catalogue of security structures in the states and the FCT; and
  • Recommendation on security infrastructures/equipment/ tools needed by MC, their costs and process of procurement or hiring.
• Maps of high, medium, and low risk LGAs where applicable.
• Updated List of hard-to-reach (HTR) communities due mainly to insecurity, geographical and other constraints where applicable; and
• Orientation of key implementers and SSFPs on required security measures that would be required for the 2025 SMC implementation.
• Support SSFPs to updated Standard operating procedures (SOPs) for security management of all implementation staff; and
• Updated 2025 SRA/SSPs for all 13 Malaria Consortium SMC supported states and the FCT; and

Expected Outputs/Deliverables
Type of Consultancy:

• A security firm is preferred for this assignment. However, individual TAs can be identified and engaged to work as a team, with a lead. If a security firm is engaged, the security firm would submit details of one National Consultant to coordinate/lead the SITAN and, provide oversight on the assessment of the states. S/he would work with 13 state consultants for the 13 MC/SMC states and the FCT. All the LGA RBM Officers (at one per LGA/Area Council) of the MC/SMC focal states and the FCT Abuja would serve as data collectors. Such a firm must also commit and demonstrate the ability to work with these LGA RBM Officers within the period of the assignment, by providing evidence of such previous activity completed. If individual TAs are engaged, the lead TA would coordinate the activity accordingly.
• Malaria Consortium Security Adaptation Guideline, 2025 (Revised version), Malaria Consortium UK
• Malaria Consortium Safety and Security Policy, 2023 (Revised version), Malaria Consortium UK
• Malaria Consortium Security Framework, 2022, Malaria Consortium Nigeria

Requirements
The State Consultant will be a security management expert with experience in security assessments and risk mitigation planning. Other requirements include:

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience working in the context of a complex and challenging operating environments.
• Demonstrable experience in security assessment / evaluation.
• Good report writing skills and communication with stakeholders; and experience working in highly resource-constrained environments
• For this position, previous working experience with MC and in SMC are added advantages.

Application Closing Date
Thursday, 30th January, 2025. (5:00pm)

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online for Bauch, Borno and Nasarawa States

Click here to apply online for Oyo, Plateau and Kebbi Statess

Click here to apply online for Kogi & Sokoto States and the FCT
 

Note

• Kindly note that applicants who do not follow this specification will be disqualified.
• Only Shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
• Kindly note that applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and as a result, the process may conclude before the advertised deadline. Therefore, early applications are highly encouraged.
• Malaria Consortium does not accept or ask for payment during recruitment. We also would not accept hardcopy CVs; all applications should be sent through the above link.