Consultant - CDGP Minimum Package Costing & Modelling at Save The Children

Project Summary

• The Child Development Grant Programme (CDGP) is a DFID-funded ‘Cash Plus’ programme that provides a package of interventions to pregnant women and women with children under the age of two years in Zamfara and Jigawa in order to reduce child malnutrition. The core components of the programme fall under two pillars: an unconditional cash transfer of 4,000 Naira per month to increase access to food plus a series of interventions to address other drivers of malnutrition, such as care and feeding practices and access to health care. Specifically, the ‘plus’ components include Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) relating to Infant and Young Child Feeding, food demonstrations, health talks, support groups (and for some households, one-on-one counselling).
• The CDGP is delivered in partnership with Action Against Hunger (AAH) and in close collaboration with state governments. The overall anticipated outcome is: A scalable programme showing how cash transfers can bring cost-effective immediate and long-term food security and nutrition benefits to eligible households with young children in poor communities in northern Nigeria. CDGP is based around achieving the following four outputs:
  • Output 1: Secure payments mechanism providing regular, timely cash transfers to pregnant women and women with children under two years old
  • Output 2: Effective system for mobilisation, targeting and delivering complementary interventions established.
  • Output 3: Enhanced government capacities for and engagement in managing social protection and cash transfers in focus states.
  • Output 4: Evidence of cash transfer modalities and impacts provided to policymakers and practitioners at State and Federal levels.
• DFID, SCI and AAH, through the CDGP, aim to secure increased political and institutional commitment by the Zamfara and Jigawa state governments to implement effective state-wide social protection to deliver improved nutrition, food security and poverty reduction for women and children at scale. The CDGP is accompanied by an independent evaluation that will provide rigorous evidence on impact that will be used at a variety of stages through the life of the programme to influence Zamfara and Jigawa state governments to adopt and scale up state-wide the approaches used in CDGP.  The programme also aims to inform the design and roll out of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) and specifically their flagship programme, National Social Safety Net programme (NSSNP).
• The impacts of the CDGP are being rigorously evaluated using a randomised control trial, looking at differences in between two treatment arms: beneficiaries in treatment group 1 (T1) receive low intensity nutrition BCC and those in treatment group 2 (T2) receive high intensity nutrition BCC, all aiming to address malnutrition and stunting. Meanwhile the cash transfers are delivered using a registration and payment and programme Management Information System (MIS) that requires biometric data from beneficiaries. Across both treatment arms the cash transfer is supported by a robust Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) with multiple ways to complain, nutrition BCC, mass media and action oriented groups. The programme also relies on community volunteers and seconded staff to deliver the programme. 
• Rationale and Overview of the consultancy The CDGP was designed to garner evidence and lessons from its design and implementation to inform state and national government’s adoption and roll out of the programme.  A cost benefit analysis (CBA) of a scaled up version of the programme was undertaken in March 2017 to understand more about the different costs and benefits expected from the programme at national scale. It showed that the costs of CDGP compare favourably with other programmes in the region considering its expected impacts, including the National Social Safety Net Programme (NASSP).
• With the programme now entering its final two years, the CDGP team wish to review the original design of the programme’s interventions, taking into account mid-line evaluation findings, in order to explore whether certain combinations of the programme elements could be turned into a ‘Minimum Package’ that would still deliver the intended impacts of reducing infant malnutrition in a cost-effective manner, but at even higher levels of operational and cost efficiency. Overall, the consultancy is aimed at presenting a series of such options for a ‘Minimum Package’ that would be sensitive to what is needed to deliver the intended impacts, as well as to the economic and political realities at state and national level, while being technically feasible given institutional capacity. The consultancy will focus on defining, costing and modelling impacts of the various options.

The Purpose & Objectives of this Consultancy
The purpose of this consultancy:

• To cost the full delivery package and separate the costs for each programme element, including cash transfers, nutrition activities, staffing and administrative costs.
• To identify a series of options that would deliver the intended impacts of the programme at a lower cost
• To determine potential impacts of these options based on the CBA and midline impact evaluation
• To determine capacity of states to pay for these options based on latest population figures, given current funding, recent budget trends and opportunities and appetite to increase funding

Specifically, the consultant will:

• Review programme documents and studies including Cost Benefit Analysis, the Access and Communication Channel Study, Programme Review document, Process Evaluation Report, Midline Qualitative and Quantitative Reports and Cost of Current Programme Package.
• Review all programme activities (in-situ) and cost them as delivered in the programme design.
• Conduct key informant interviews with Abuja and State based programme advisors to follow up on any issues that do not emerge from the literature review or fieldwork.
• Define a series of options that represent a ‘Minimum Package’ of support in line with the overarching goals of CDGP, which would achieve the same impacts as the current programme design.

In defining the Minimum Package the consultancy will, among others:

• Provide the rationale for defining a minimum package for the CDGP;
• Identify criteria and key elements for inclusion in a minimum package;
• Outline the continuum of services within the minimum package emphasizing interrelatedness of the services;
• Recommend structures, processes and responsibilities for integrated service delivery;
• Outline a monitoring and evaluation process for the minimum package options;
• Identify capacities and systems required for providing the Minimum Package such as (but not limited to), human and financial resources, management coordination and referral mechanisms.

Duration of the assignment & Milestone
The maximum number of days allowable for this consultancy shall not exceed 30 consultancy days. The assignment must be finalized on or before 28th February, 2018. Payment of consultancy fee will be split into four payments, each paid on successful completion of the following milestones:

• Milestone 1- Submission of Inception report
• Milestone 2- Submission of draft Minimum Package Report
• Milestone 3- Submission of a costed Package and model
• Milestone 4- Submission of Final Report.
• Competencies of Consultant –National or Regional consultant

The consultant should have:

• Proven consultancy experience of not less than six years;
• Masters degree in a relevant field (e.g. Economics, or Social Science/ Public Policy/ Nutrition/ Health Policy with some demonstrated quantitative training);
• A proven understanding of nutrition;
• Proven experience in conducting similar assignments in developing costed public policy or programme options;
• Excellent research, analytical and writing skills;
• Demonstrated sound understanding of development challenges and priorities (a focus on nutrition would be an advantage); and
• Previous experience working with donors, INGOs and government stakeholders will be an added advantage.

Response to call for Proposal
Interested national or regional consultants should submit both a technical and financial proposal not exceeding eight pages outlining the following:

• An understanding and interpretation of the Terms of Reference
• Methodology to be used in undertaking the assignment
• Time and activity schedule
• Budget including consultant’s daily rate and indicating travel costs
• Application and detailed Curriculum Vitae (CVs)

Reporting:

• The consultant will work with the CDGP team including the nutrition adviser, Senior Social Protection Adviser and report to the National Programme Manager.