1. Background 

Concern Worldwide (Concern) is a non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the elimination of extreme poverty in the world's poorest countries. Concern has been working Sudan since 1985 in response to refugees entering the country from Ethiopia. Concern works in three main areas in the Republic of Sudan; West Darfur State, and South and West Kordofan States. Our programmes focus on   Nutrition, Health, Food Security and Livelihood and WASH targeting the host communities, internally displace communities and refugees.

Recently, Concern initiated a nutrition program entitled “Enhanced Responses to Nutrition Emergencies (ERNE)” in South and West Kordofan, Sudan.  The program aims to contribute to reducing malnutrition, morbidity and mortality among children under five through increased scale, efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian preparedness and response for food and nutrition security in South and West Kordofan states.

The Program is now at the inception phase, Concern is establishing baseline and which includes carrying out a SMART Survey in order to assess the current nutritional and health status in the West and South Kordofan State where the programme focuses. The SMART survey will inform us of the current nutrition status of under-five in the two states for the purpose of planning and intervention. 

2. Purpose of the Consultancy

To rollout a SMART Survey exercise in 7 localities in South and West Kordofan State will inform Concern WW about the current nutrition status of under-five in the two states that would feed the indicator performance of the project.

Consultant required for a period of 45 days, to conduct a SMART survey data collection analysis and reporting for the ECHO funded ERNE grant

3. Essential and Desirable Experience/Qualifications

Qualifications of the Consultant

Education: The consultant should hold an Advanced University Degree in Nutrition, Public Health, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Social Sciences or related discipline with the relevant technical knowledge in Survey Methodology, Research Methods etc.

Require experience/ technical competence: 

• Extensive experience (3-5 years) in coordinating and managing SMART nutrition surveys.
• Proven team leading and managerial experience, knowledge of working with conflict-affected populations
• A strong background in statistics and data analysis. Must know EPI info and ENA for SMART and all relevant computer applications (MS Word).
• Excellent reporting and presentation skills
• Fluency in English, Arabic and local languages (Nuba) spoken in the working area is an advantage
• Computer literacy in ENA Software, Epi Info or alternate statistical package, MS Word, MS Excel and PowerPoint

Desirable: knowledge of digital data gathering systems, experience working in Sudan

4. Objectives and Specific Tasks to be undertaken by the Consultant

The overall objective is to determine the prevalence of acute malnutrition (wasting and/or oedema) and stunting among children aged 6 to 59 months, estimate retrospective mortality rate of the population in the eight localities Concern targets for nutrition programming in South Kordofan State (3 localities) and West Kordofan State (5 localities).

Specific objectives of the survey are indicated below (and % effort for each)

• Proposal development, presentation to line ministry, cluster and approval (20%)
• To estimate the prevalence of acute malnutrition (wasting and/or oedema) and oedema among children aged 6-59 months from three sampling frames (40%)

• To estimate acute malnutrition among pregnant and lactating women from three sampling frames ( 10%)

• To write the full report and Summary for three sampling frames (20%) 
• Submission of final tools, season calendar, working notes, house-listing sheets, training PPT, etc. (10%)

Scope of work

To achieve the survey objectives, Concern is seeking the services of a competent consultant to lead the survey from the planning phase, through implementation of the survey up to the final reporting.  In order to have an updated assessment of the nutritional status of children 6-59 months and pregnant and lactating women in Concern programme area in South Kordofan and West Kordofan States.

Geographical scope

The SMART survey will be conducted in South Kordofan and West Kordofan states in 7 localities, where the ERNE programme is implemented. The smallest geographical unit is villages of catchment area of ERNE facilities (‘qariya’ in Arabic), and these will be used to create the sample frame from which the sample will be drawn for the eight target localities in the two states. When on the ground if there are areas that are not accessible due to security and population movement/displacements they will be replaced using a standard replacement method.

Methodology

A cross-sectional three-stage cluster sampling following SMART methodology will be adopted for the selection of households and children.  All women of childbearing age in the selected households and their children 6-59 months will be measured for anthropometry. The villages are considered as the primary sampling unit (clusters) villages hamlets secondary and Household will be considered as the third sampling unit. Emergency Nutrition Assessment (ENA 2020[1]) for SMART will be used for sample size calculation. A more detailed survey methodology will be designed by the Consultant in consultation with Concern Health and Nutrition team and Nutrition Cluster for approval of the survey protocol. Concern will provide all information needed to develop the detailed plan (e.g. list of targeted villages, population size etc.) The detailed design must include among others; survey design, sample size determination using ENA software, quality control, data collection and management process.  Data collection tools that are already created in Concern’s Digital Data Gathering (DDG) system will be finalised and tested before the survey commences and data collection will take place via android tablets. 

Expected Deliverables

• Detailed full SMART survey work plan including clear calendar of survey activities
• Survey protocol presented to Nutrition Cluster for approval. This should detail the approach and methodology to be used, sampling, village mapping and survey tools

• Final data collection tools based on Concern’s existing digital tools, tested for errors
• Final dataset used for analysis and code book for any additional variables created from the raw DDG dataset
• Draft report with preliminary results for all indicators (and confidence intervals) and plausibility report submitted to Concern within the agreed timeline between Concern and the Consultant
• Presentation of the key findings and recommendations to Concern, MoH and Nutrition Cluster (possibly remote)

• Final survey report within two weeks after preliminary presentation/ submission, incorporating all feedback, including agreed practical and relevant recommendations in Concern’s standard format which follows closely that of the ENA software output. 

5. Outputs

Key tasks for the consultant to carry out in accordance with the terms and conditions of the consultancy contract include:

• Finalization of the survey protocol, training materials and any survey job aids in line with the SMART survey standards
• Set of data collection tools using Concern’s digital data gathering (DDG) system and pre-built indicators and questionnaires (in coordination with the Concern Sudan team and HQ Advisers who will provide training resources on DDG)
• Conduct a pre-test of the methodology and questionnaires as part of the training before starting the survey
• Conduct and analyse pre and post- test training results for accuracy of anthropometric measurements and address any weaknesses with targeted training. Ideally,
• Develop a clear survey plan (movement plans, sequence of data collection/ mapping of selected villages) and ensure it is understood by all who need to participate and support its execution, with the support of Concern
• Design and carry out training of data collectors and supervisors on the survey methodology, anthropometric measurement techniques, effective interview techniques, essential infection and prevention control methods in the context of COVID-19 (see Concern guide) and DDG (Concern staff will support training on DDG)
• Ensure all necessary equipment is in place and functioning before the survey starts by liaising with Concern logistics team and other key staff members
• Coordinate all data collection from the field and supervise the team on a daily basis to ensure quality data is collected. This will involve developing quality control measures, supporting the team in sampling of households and taking anthropometric measurements and interviews in accordance with COVID-19 prevention measures.
• Provide daily field briefing to the Concern Worldwide project coordinator/ Health and Nutrition Advisor on progress and any challenges from the field. 
• Clean and analyse the survey results using the standard ENA software and any supplementary software (EPI-Info is recommended) required for those indicators that fall outside the core ENA analysis function (software must be agreed ahead of time with Concern and consultant must provide it themselves)
• Provide a draft report in an agreed standard format with preliminary results for all indicators, including confidence intervals for indicators and a full plausibility report for review
• Present preliminary results to Concern and any relevant stakeholders for feedback (verbal and written) and facilitate a discussion on relevant and practical recommendations finalisation of the survey report
• Based on feedback, finalise the report with clear and relevant recommendations and present findings to a wider group as requested (potentially remotely)

Reporting format and context: It should be submitted in the Concern Standard format including the followings

I. Introduction and Background

II. Objectives of SMART survey.

III. Methodology

• Full SMART survey design 
• Sampling
• Training Survey teams and others
• Data quality control and plausibility checks

IV. Results this will correspond to the sampling method that has been applied in the field. At minimum, the following chapters should be include; 

• Point GAM and SAM estimates according to WHZ and/or oedema and low MUAC with 95% confidence interval
• Report should be supported with the plausibility check to be added in annex
• The limitations of the results.

V.     Discussions including the interpretation of the results

VI. Conclusions and recommendations

VII. Annexes: Maps, tools used, plausibility check, raw data etc.

The final deadline for the reporting: 31 March 2020

 6. Lines of Communication

Consultant will report to the Programme Manager of ERNE and will closely work with the Health and Nutrition Advisor during the delivery of the service.

7. Timeframe

The consultancy will last 45 days excluding the 7 days of quarantine (for foreigner), starting from the reporting to Concern Sudan. The Consultant should be able to undertake some of the tasks concurrently to fit within the planned timeframe, without compromising the survey standards. The assignment is expected to commence before the end of March 2021.

8. Financial Terms

The Consultant and his/her team is responsible for the entire survey data collection and reporting related costs including but not limited to the following:

• Travel cost for the Consultant and the data collection team to carry out the Survey exercise (e.g. visa cost for foreigner, travel approval, airfare, car rental etc.)
• All cost related to day-to-day data collection expenses (e.g. food, accommodation, per-diems, car rental for data collection etc.)
• All cost related to data analysis and reporting (software using cost, copy rights costs etc.)

Final payment will be provided after the submission of the final report and it has been accepted by the ERNE Programme Manager and the Programme Director. A digital copy of all reports will be required by Concern at the end of the piece of work.

Application Process and Requirements

Qualified and interested parties are asked to submit the following; 

• Letter of interest in submission of a proposal 
• Consultant/ company Profile 
• A detailed technical proposal clearly demonstrating a thorough understanding of this ToR and including but not limited to the following;
• At least two recent SMART survey reports completed by the consultant
• Description of the Methodology 
• Proposed data management and analysis plan
• Proposed timeframe detailing activities and a work plan. 
• Proposed team composition
• A financial proposal with a detailed breakdown of costs for the study quoted in United States dollars/Euro (including costs stated under section 8)

All applications should be sent electronically to tender.sudan@concern.net  with Subject line of Consultant SMART Survey Kordofan_CWW_Your Name_Location on or before 24th February 2021 23.55 Hours Cairo time zone, with all the attachments in pdf and a subject line: Technical and Financial Proposal for Integrated SMART Survey Consultant, Concern Sudan