Closing date: 12 Nov 2011
Background and Context Save the Children in South Sudan Save the Children alliance members have been working in South Sudan for over 25 years. It has a presence in every state in South Sudan, with over 500 staff working in heath, nutrition, education, livelihoods, child protection, child rights governance and emergency preparedness/response, at both field and policy level. Through its years of operations in South Sudan, SC’s nutrition programmes have significantly improved the nutrition status of women, children and their families and have recorded significant gains in expanding nutrition programme coverage and responsiveness. Currently, through multiple funding sources, SC supports 17 sites providing community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) and plans to extend CMAM throughout the SC-support network of primary health care facilities.
Kapoeta North County, located in Eastern Equatoria State, is a historically remote and underserved area of southern Sudan. Child health and nutrition indicators in Kapoeta North are lower than elsewhere in Eastern Equatoria. The state has been one of the states in South Sudan with the highest percentage of food insecure households. According to FAO/WFP mission report, 49% of households in the state were found to be food insecure in 2010 . Furthermore, food scarcity has been affected by frequent drought. In March 2011, Save the Children carried out a follow up nutrition survey in Kapoeta North identifying a Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) of 18.3 percent and a Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) of 3.7%; both above the WHO emergency threshold. The GAM has shown 2.5 percent increase from last year’s survey (GAM 15.8 percent). In addition, the March 2011 survey revealed deteriorating trends in food security of communities in Kapoeta North. Save the Children cooperates with Government to run a Primary Health Care Centre and 7 Primary Health Care Units to provide treatment for common illnesses; antenatal care, deliveries, post natal care; family planning/child spacing and EPI-static and outreach. Health education is carried out in facility through daily education sessions and in the community through child health days and other social gatherings. In addition a Community Case Management (CCM) program is implemented in seven Payams in the County. The program trains local volunteers, called Community Based Distributors (CBDs) to assess, classify and treat uncomplicated malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia in children under five at the community level. The CBDs work closely with the formal primary health care system to refer complicated cases, children with other illnesses and children with malnutrition to the health facility. Objectives of the Nutrition Survey;
The proposed nutrition survey has the following objectives:
1. To determine the prevalence of global and severe acute malnutrition among children aged 6 to 59 months
2. To Estimate both under-five and crude retrospective death rates in the three months prior to the survey
3. To establish immunization coverage for Measles and BCG among children age between 6-59 months
4. To establish coverage of key health services, including vitamin A supplementation, de-worming, therapeutic treatment for SAM and supplementary feeding for moderate acute malnutrition
5. To determine infant and young child feeding practices amongst the community in relation to malnutrition and morbidity and to specifically determine practices related to: a. Timely Initiation of breastfeeding- within the first hour after birth. b. Exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months of age c. Timely Complementary Feeding d. Continued breastfeeding e. Early breastfeeding practices f. Dietary Diversity g. Frequency of Feeding
6. To establish the source of drinking water and water management at household level and presence and use of latrines
7. To provide additional qualitative information on the likely causes of under nutrition and barriers to optimal child health and nutrition practices in the area (e.g. through focus group discussions)
8. To assess trends in nutrition status based on previous surveys conducted in the area
9. To formulate and provide practical recommendations based on the survey findings to improve the nutrition status of the population
10. Transfer knowledge and skills on the SMART methodology to SCiSS nutrition teams
Key responsibilities:
The consultant will, in coordination with the Save the children team undertakes the following activities: 1. Train 15 key technical staff from SC, partners and LGAs to design, lead, analyze and report findings. 2. Review the already developed survey tools for use in the SMART methodology Nutrition assessment survey. This includes data collection forms developed by the nutrition cluster and that incorporate all relevant indicators. 3. Be responsible for preparation for the surveys, including review of population statistics, calculating the sample size, selecting, clusters, developing an efficient survey schedule 4. Train the survey teams (including pre-testing questionnaire) and by extension save the children staff 5. Assume overall responsibility for implementation of the exercise including daily supervision of survey teams, daily data quality assurance 6. Supervise data entry and assure data entry quality. Ensure anthropometric data is entered each night and analyzed for errors. Feedback given to team on daily basis in order to ensure validity and reliability of results. 7. Be responsible for data cleaning and analysis using anthropometric software (SMART, EPI INFO, ENAEPI and others as needed) for the core anthropometric and additional KPC indicators, including analysis using both NCHS and WHO 2006 Growth Standards 8. Write and submit a comprehensive report outlining the findings and recommendations for the survey.
Expected Outputs: 1. Comprehensive survey report with practical recommendations in addressing the situation, to SCiSS Nutrition Advisor, M&E Advisor and Program Manager 2. The cleaned version of the raw data used to calculate the survey results to be sent to the SCiSS Nutrition Advisor and M&E Advisor and Program Manager 3. Feedback the Nutrition survey findings to a. The partners at the field level (Nutrition and Health stakeholders) b. SCiSS Director of Programme Advocacy and Development Nutrition, M&E and Nutrition Advisorin Juba and Health and Nutrition Managers, Field Manager and Area Program Manager for Kapoeta North c. Nutrition Cluster – Survey Technical Working group
Time Frame and Accountability:
The consultancy period will last approximately 30 days, starting mid November 2011 (this includes desk review, enumerators training, SCiSS staff training, data collection, data entry / analysis and reporting as well as presentation of the survey findings). The consultant shall report directly to SCiSS Nutrition Advisor. S/he will also liaise closely with area Manager ,Field Manager and Nutrition Programme Manager
Save the Children will provide:
• Guidance throughout the evaluation period.
• Logistic arrangements for all field travel
• Approval of all deliverables including final sign offs for the purpose of making payments.
• Accommodation will be provided by save the children in the program sites.
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
The successful candidate shall: • Have a university degree or the equivalent, with advanced education in nutrition, with a specific competency in therapeutic and supplementary feeding in humanitarian emergencies. • Have significant experience in undertaking nutrition surveys (design and methodologies, SMART training, field supervision and data analysis/write up) and particular experience of using the SMART methodology and associated software. • Have experience working in remote and difficult locations • Have experience training and working with non-English speakers and people of low education levels • Have patience and experience training through practical examples and practical (over theory) • Be fluent in English with excellent writing and presentation skills. • Having worked in South Sudan is an added advantage
How to apply:
To apply for this position, visit our website: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/jobs.htm
