Consultant, Food Security Assessment at International Medical Corps

Program Background

• International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training, relief and development programs.
• Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, the Organization is private, voluntary, nonpolitical and nonsectarian. Its mission is to improve quality of life through interventions that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide.
• The armed conflict in north-ea s t Nigeria has affected the population since its inception. The conflict has resulted in many deaths of civilians, abduction and sex slavery of women and girls, internal displacement, loss of livelihoods and massive destruction of private properties and civilian infra structure.
• The conflict has also spilled to neighboring countries. With the Nigerian army regaining control, more civilians are being rescued but their situation remains dire. 2016 witnessed significant expansion in the humanitarian response to this crisis as the number and operational capacity of international and national humanitarian actors increased, additional humanitarian funding was available, and access to affected populations improved.
• With improved security, IMC is planning to undertake a food security assessment in the Borno State.
• The general objective of the food security assessment is to get full understanding of the severity of food insecurity in Borno.

Job Summary

• Provide a solid picture of the current situation (situation analysis) related to markets, needs as well as geographical targets.
• The assessment will seek to gather reliable information/data on food insecurity- specifically, household food insecurity.
• Information will be gathered relating to food availability at the level of households, access to food and food consumption.
• The assessment will include detailed insight and analysis of household and small-holder agriculture and livestock management strategies - what types of crops, where, for what purpose (cash/consumption/both) - and resilience / disaster risk reduction methods - prior to the conflict, how communities organized themselves to make it through lean periods etc.
• In addition, the assessment will include a robust market assessment using one of the tools recommended by FFP (ref: APS Solicitation).
• This should help to provide answers to: How are the markets organized? Are there some markets that are functioning better than others? Are there areas where markets have totally collapsed? For areas with functioning markets, where are the food supplies coming from? What types of ad hoc or formal cooperatives / organized farming-livestock industries are present and how do those engage the market? The assessment should be constructed to engage men and women, and to identify the protection and gender issues related to food security, agriculture, and livestock in Borno.
• The consultant should be familiar with USAID gender analysis for Nigeria (2014) and its gender policy and framework.
• Further, the assessment should provide answers to questions such as what is/are the impacts of food assistance on market function, are there barriers to market access, which groups are most impacted by the food insecurity, what are the coping mechanisms adopted, when are the lean periods, are market integrated or not etc?.
• Also, information will be gathered on household food production and any food assistance currently being provided and by whom.

Essential Duties, Responsibilities and Expected Deliverables
Questionnaire design:

• Lead questionnaires design based on guidelines from WFP, FAO and NGOs. The questionnaire will be adapted to the local context.

Data management:

• Work closely with IMC to design the data management system, and provide approval on the final output

Enumerator recruitment:

• Recruit enumerators in consultation with IMC.
• IMC to provide financial and administrative support to enumerators

Training:

• Lead enumerator training in close collaboration with IMC, including a pre-test training of data collection tools
• Develop training manuals for use during training of enumerators, and supervisors
• Develop and coordinate data quality assurance measures during data collection

Data analysis:

• Clean all data (as necessary) and provide the finalized clean dataset to IMC
• Analyze the data by regions and districts using the appropriate analysis tool, produce exit tables, cross tabulations with clearly defined numerators, denominators and confidence intervals

Report writing:

• Draft final report and share a draft with IMC for comments.

Incorporate comments from IMC and finalize report:

• Compliance & Ethics: Promotes and encourages a culture of compliance and ethics throughout International Medical Corps. As applicable to the position, maintains a clear understanding of International Medical Corps’ and donor compliance and ethics standards and adheres to those standards. Conducts work with the highest level of integrity.

Requirements

• A PhD/Masters in International Development, Agriculture, Economics, Nutrition or a closely related field.
• 3-5 years of undertaking research, food security assessments and/or evaluating them for international organizations.
• Familiarity with northeastern Nigeria will be a plus.
• Demonstrable leadership in undertaking assessments or implementing development projects.