Consultancy to Conduct Mid-Term Project Review and Recommend New Strategies for Achieving Project's Investment Outcomes at Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN)

REFERENCE: CS-SUNN/2023 – 08/01

Background

Malnutrition can take many forms and it affects the global population irrespective of location, age, religion, gender etc. Two key drivers of malnutrition are the lack of funds and lack of an enabling environment for implementation of high impact nutrition interventions proven to mitigate and eliminate the menace ultimately. Other factors that contribute to malnutrition include lack of food, suboptimal diets, weak economic and political structures, socio-cultural and behavioral nuances, social and gender conditions, lack of education among women and other causes.

The nutritional status of an individual is a measure of the health condition, as affected primarily by the intake of food and utilization of nutrients. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is not merely the absence of disease but a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing of an individual.

Nutrition plays a critical role in Human Capital Development (HCD) since deficiencies in essential nutrients lead to malnutrition, which affects an individual’s mental and physical state, resulting in poor health and work outcomes. Also, a hungry, malnourished child may not respond well to treatment, may have mild to serious learning disabilities, resulting in poor school performance, drain household income, thereby leading to under performance at workplace and impacting negatively on the country’s Economic Growth and Development. Thus, malnutrition will undermine investments in education, health, and other development sectors if not given the attention it requires. According to the WHO, malnutrition is the underlying factor for over 50% of under-five children’s death caused by childhood killer diseases like pneumonia, malaria, diarrhea etc. This means that malnutrition is at the root of over 5 out of 10 children’s deaths and can be stopped by investing to attain optimal nutrition for all children and women in the country.

According to UNICEF, Malnutrition fundamentally contributes to more than 50% of deaths among children under 5 in Nigeria. The 2008, 2013 and 2018 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) gave the overall nation-wide under-nutrition indicators among children under 5 years as 41%, 37% and 37% stunting, 14%, 18% and 7% wasting, and 23%, 29% and 23% underweight respectively. This shows no reduction in stunting rate and little reduction in the percentage of underweighted children over the period of 10 years. The 2018 National Nutrition and Health Survey (NNHS) reported a slight reduction in stunting to 32.0 percent, and a reduction in underweight to 19% while wasting still remains at 7%. The slight positive changes recorded on any of the indices requires that the efforts that birthed the results be sustained in order to ensure continuous reduction.

Partnership for Improving Nigeria Nutrition System (PINNS–1) strategies focused on strengthening existing multi structures and systems to be more Result-oriented, Effective, Serviceable, Efficient, and Transparent (RESET), which has proven to have contributed to attaining nutrition targets and goals in project locations. One of the strategies adopted by PINNS-I is pushing for improved funding for nutrition and supporting the states to develop and own Multi-Sector Strategic Plans of Action for food and nutrition through strengthening existing nutrition structure. The Plans show government’s intentions and funding commitment to combating malnutrition. 

PINNS 2.0 will continue RESET but with focus on linking the importance of optimal nutrition to attaining the Nigerian HCD goals by 2030. The PINNS – II strategy believes that if nutrition related MDAs and stakeholders saddled with the responsibility of implementing the NMSPFAN is strengthened to RESET, it will contribute to attaining the Nigeria HCD goals by 2030, Thus, the PINNS-2 strategy is RESET for Improved HCD, (R4iHCD)

PINNS-2 theory of change is premised on the fact that if system and structures responsible for reducing malnutrition in Nigeria is strengthened to RESET, they will implement high-impact, low-cost nutrition interventions, leading to optimal Maternal, Infant and Young Child nutrition which is the bedrock of attaining HCD targets in Nigeria.   

The three-year project is implemented at the National and in five states: Kano, Lagos, Niger, Nasarawa and Kaduna.

Purpose of Assignment

CS-SUNN kicked off implementation of a three-year PINNS 2 Project in October 2021 and within this period the project has worked to improve nutrition systems at national and state levels by promoting accountability, strengthening capacity and conducting advocacies for increased funding, programme implementation specifically, domestication of the National Multisectoral Plan of Action for Nutrition.

Mid Term Review is primarily a monitoring tool to identify challenges and outline corrective actions to ensure that a project is on track to achieve maximum results by its completion. The primary output/deliverable is the Mid Term Review report.

Specific Tasks

The specific tasks for the consultant are to:

• Develop and present an inception report.
• Facilitate a pre-activity planning meeting with CS-SUNN Project Implementation/ Management team.
• Develop stakeholders’ specific questionnaires.
• Collect data at the National and subnational levels.
• Analyze data and produce draft report with recommendations.
• Develop an aide-memoire of not more than 4 pages after data analysis.
• Facilitate a meeting with CS-SUNN Project Implementation/ Management team to review findings and recommendations.
• Finalize mid-term review report and submit to CS-SUNN

Expected Deliverables

By the end of the assignment the following output will be expected:

• An aide-memoire of not more than 4 pages
• Detailed PINNS project Mid-Term Review report with recommendations of not more than 10 pages.

Scope of Mid-Term Review

The Consultant will review all relevant sources of information including documents prepared during the preparation phase (i.e. Policies, the Project Document, project reports including Annual Project Report, project budget revisions, lesson learned reports, national/ subnational strategic policies and plans and any other materials that is considered useful for this evidence-based review).

The Consultant is expected to follow a collaborative and participatory approach ensuring close engagement with the Project Team, government counterparts (Nutrition line MDAs) and other key stakeholders as engagement of stakeholders is vital to a successful review. Stakeholder involvement should include interviews with stakeholders who have project responsibilities, including but not limited to CS-SUNN project implementation team, Management team, CSOs and Government personnel. The Consultant is expected to conduct field visits to two project locations as well as Federal level and conduct telephone interviews with others

The five project locations are Kaduna, Niger, Kano, Nasarawa, Lagos and Federal.

The midterm review is expected to answer these questions but not limited to the following:

Project strategy

• Review the problem addressed by the project and the underlying assumptions. Review the effect of any incorrect assumptions or changes to the context to achieving the project results as outlined in the Project Document.
• Review the relevance of the project strategy and assess whether it provides the most effective route towards expected/intended results. Were lessons from other relevant projects properly incorporated into the project design?
• Review how the project addresses country priorities. Was the project concept in line with the national sector development priorities and plans of the country?
• Review decision-making processes: were perspectives of those who would be affected by project decisions, those who could affect the outcomes, and those who could contribute information or other resources to the process, taken into account during project design processes?
• Are the project’s objectives and outcomes or components clear, practical, and feasible within its time frame?

Project Implementation and Adaptive Management

• Review overall effectiveness of project management as outlined in the Project Document. Have changes been made and are they effective? Are responsibilities and reporting lines clear? Is decision-making transparent and undertaken in a timely manner? Recommend areas for improvement.
• Review any delays in project start-up and implementation, identify the causes and examine if they have been resolved.
• Are work-planning processes results-based? If not, suggest ways to re-orientate work planning to focus on results.
• Examine the use of the project’s results framework/ log frame as a management tool and review any changes made to it since project started.
• Review the monitoring tools currently being used: Do they provide the necessary information? Do they involve key partners? Are they aligned or mainstreamed with national systems? Do they use existing information? Are they efficient? Are they cost-effective? Are additional tools required? How could they be made more participatory and inclusive?
• Project management: Has the project developed and leveraged the necessary and appropriate partnerships with stakeholders?
• Participation and public awareness: To what extent has stakeholder involvement and public awareness contributed to the progress towards achievement of project objectives?
• Assess how adaptive management changes have been reported by the project management and shared with Management/ Steering Committee/ Board of Trustees.
• Review internal project communication with stakeholders: Is communication regular and effective? Are there key stakeholders left out of communication? Are there feedback mechanisms when communication is received? Does this communication with stakeholders contribute to their awareness of project outcomes and activities and investment in the sustainability of project results?
• Review external project communication: Are proper means of communication established or being established to express the project progress and intended impact to the public (is there a web presence, for example?)
• What are the likelihoods of financial and economic resources not being available once the BMGF funding ends?
• Are there any social or political risks that may jeopardize sustainability of project outcomes?
• Are lessons learned being documented by the Project Team on a continual basis and shared/ transferred to appropriate parties who could learn from the project and potentially replicate and/or scale it in the future?

Type of Consultants Required

The consultant should have extensive knowledge of the Nigerian Health/Nutrition systems and policy landscape with experience in implementing public health programmes, especially MNCH and nutrition-related services. The consultant will be expected to have an advanced degree in Public Health/ Health Planning, Policy and Management/ Public Policy/ Nutrition,

Sociology or other related disciplines. S/He should have an in-depth understanding of how the Nigeria Nutrition Systems work, the challenges and how to address gaps and way forwards. S/He must also have proven quantitative and qualitative research and drafting skills with extensive experience in the development of training curricula and materials. S/he must, in addition, have a proven ability and experience in leading and facilitating training workshops on multidisciplinary and multicultural terms, multidisciplinary skills and ability to communicate effectively as well as ability to work both independently and as a part of a team. Sensitivity to regional, political, gender and cultural balance, readiness to travel across the states by road/air and a high standard of professionalism will be added advantage.

Timing of Consultancy

The assignment will be carried out in Abuja and in the project states; Kaduna, Niger, Kano, Nasarawa, Lagos will last for 20 working days within the months of August and September 2023.

Activities

Duration

Pre-planning meeting

• 1 day

Data Collection

• 12 days

Report writing

• 6 days

Meeting to review draft report

• 1 day

TOTAL days for consultant

• 20 days