Consultant - Development of Advocacy Materials on Infant and Young Child Feeding for Islamic Clerics in Northern Nigeria at Save The Children

Background

• Working to Improve Nutrition in Northern Nigeria (WINNN) is a 6-year project funded by DFID, which started in September 2011 and is currently in its fourth year of implementation.
• The aim of the project is to reduce under-5 mortality through decreasing the incidence and prevalence of under nutrition in Nigeria with focus on Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Yobe and Zamfara States.
• The programme is implemented as a partnership that includes UNICEF, Save the Children and Action against Hunger (ACF). Save the Children contributes technical assistance in identification and mobilization of community stakeholders and leaders at the local level to affect socio-behavioural change to popularize CMAM, IYCF and nutrition at the local level.
• Technical assistance from Save the Children and ACF is also be rendered to facilitate the local and state management of nutrition programmes to ensure sustainability and effectiveness, train local health care workers and facilities on best international practice in malnutrition prevention and treatment and establish local level monitoring and surveillance systems for community capacity to assess, address and prevent future malnutrition crisis.

Rationale:

• Since over 4 years of the implementation of the WINNN programme, advocacy activities have been targeting institutional policy makers.
• However, one group of individuals who are uniquely positioned to promote behaviour change and influence IYCF practices but have been virtually ignored is the Islamic Clerics.
• These individuals possess extraordinary credibility and influence in nutrition in Northern Nigeria by virtue of their association with time-honoured religious traditions and the status which this affords them-as well as their communication skills, powers of persuasion, a target audience, mastery over religious texts that espouse the virtues of nutrition, and the ability to anchor healthy feeding and rituals in their audiences’ values and spirituality.
• This was also a gap identified by ORIE and recommendations made for targeted advocacy to religious leaders. Indeed, the research reviewed that, “many mothers highlighted that cleanliness (i.e. hand-washing) is encouraged in the Qur’an, as is the promotion of breastfeeding until 2 years (Qur’an 2:223). 
• They explained that consumption of a diversified and balanced diet, for physical and spiritual health, is only implicitly recommended for infants.
• Therefore, reinforcing the link between early infant feeding and later adult diet would help strengthen the relationship with religion to help promote improved complementary feeding practices.”

Consultants Duties and Responsibilities

• nder the overall supervision of WINNN Deputy Country Manager, the consultant will be responsible for formulating and facilitating the development of advocacy messages for Islamic Clerics in Northern Nigeria. The consultant will work in close collaboration with the WINNN project team, Government counterparts i.e State Nutrition Officer, the State Committee for Food/Nutrition and Federal/State Government agencies as well.

Tasks

• Conduct desk review and Key Informal Interviews (KII) to identify the key texts relating to IYCF from the Quran
• Develop messages that will inspire religious leaders to promote IYCF in the community
• Facilitate a 2 day meeting with selected Islamic clerics for validation of the messages.
• Pre-test developed messages with a representation of the target audience
• Finalize advocacy messages on IYCF

Expected Deliverables:

• Detailed report on the process, documented findings of relevant Islamic texts and injunctions that could be used to promote nutrition in Northern Nigeria
• Finalised validated and pre-tested messages suitable for the promotion of nutrition in Northern Nigeria

Scope of Work

• The consultant will identify available Islamic texts/injunctions supporting IYCF and develop messages that promote IYCF. He will also engage key Islamic clerics from the 5 WINNN implementing states for the validation of the messages. The messages would then be pre-tested and finalized.

Methodology

• The methodology for accomplishing this task includes desk review of relevant text and injunctions from the Holy Quran and key informant interview.
• Advocacy messages would be developed referencing the Quranic texts and injunctions. Selected Islamic Clerics would validate and finalize the draft messages in a training workshop.

Key Competencies

• At least 6 years working experience in International development
• Degree in Health, Nutrition or Social Sciences.
• Familiarity with Islamic injunctions that support nutrition
• Good understanding of Hausa Language.