Ethiopia: Consultant Cost of Diet Assessment

• Location: Nine Woreda’s of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia (Name of Woreda’s: Zeway Dugda, Doddota, Sire, Arsi Negelle, Heben Arsi, Shala, Siraro , Adami Tulu Jido Kombolcha, and Boset)

Request for Expression of Interest - EOI

Subject:

Cost of Diet Assessment

Date of this EOI:

December 21, 2018

Closing Date for Receipt of EOI’s

January 04, 2018

Reference No.:

1.Purpose: Catholic Relief Services/Ethiopia (CRS) seeks EOIs to shortlist potential consultants before requesting detailed bids for Cost of Diet assessment

2.Program background:

CRS Ethiopia’s Feed the Future Livelihoods for Resilience - Oromia (FtF-LRO) is a five-year USAID funded activity started February 01, 2017. The Activity aims to contribute for improvement of PSNP households’ economic and livelihoods well-being, through on-farm, off-farm and employment strategies.

The Activity is implemented by CRS and its implementing partner, Meki Catholic Secretariat (MCS), in nine woredas found in oromia region - Zeway Dugda, Doddota, Sire, Arsi Negelle, Heben Arsi, Shala, Siraro , Adami Tulu Jido Kombolcha, and Boset woredas.

Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture (NSA) is cross-cutting component of the FtF-LRO, aimed at improving the nutrition status of households with primary focus on women and children in the project intervention areas. Among the nutrition sensitive activities that are being implemented is training households on how to plan and budget for nutritious foods to meet the required nutrients and energy; where households cannot meet their nutrient and energy requirement from the food they produce. The Activity targets households with chronic food insecurity due to unavailability or unaffordability of nutritious foods.

The Activity has planned to conduct the Cost of Diet assessment in its nine operational woredas, to document evidence to inform the development of training curriculum and behavior change strategies and tools to train Activity participants on planning and budgeting for nutritious meals for households.

3.Objectives of Cost of Diet assessment:

The overall purpose of the proposed assignment is to understand the causes and behaviors with regard to sub optimal feeding and to explore the acceptability and economic feasibility of possible options to improve the consumption of nutritiously diverse food of households in the communities studied.

Specific objectives:

1. To estimate the cost of nutritionally adequate diet for typical Ethiopian household in the Activity areas
2. To explore the acceptability of options and compare and contrast them according to potential impact, likelihood of success and risk.
3. To provide an economic appraisal of the options including value for money.
4. To understand the correlation between the market price and seasonal availability of variety of food with consumption pattern.
5. To develop a training curriculum for communities based on the Cost of Diet findings.

4.Eligibility:**

CRS is seeking EOI from a consultant that has the following competencies:

• An advanced university degree in Public Health, International/Global Health, nutrition disciplines or other relevant disciplines, with specialized training experience in nutrition and food security related surveys/ specifically on Cost of Diet assessment

• Demonstrable capacity and research experience of at least 8 years in surveys/assessment in the field of nutrition and food security;

• Experience in conducting The Cost of Diet assessment and analysis in Ethiopia or similar setting is required;

• Proficiency in the using Cost of Diet software to run data analysis;

• Experience in conducting training to the survey team;

• Significant experience in statistical analysis of health and nutrition data reporting;

• Experience in developing comprehensive report on nutrition research and study especially dietary analysis reports.

• Written and spoken fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of Oromifa would be an asset.

• Understanding of the causes of malnutrition in Ethiopia desirable.

5.Expected deliverables

The consultant will be expected to deliver the following:

• Inception report with detailed methodology, assessment tools (quantitative and qualitative tools and field manual) and operational plan with timeline;

• Staff training material;

• Data collectors training material;

• Draft assessment report including data set;

• Power point presentation of key findings to CRS and MCS, and local government staff;

• Final assessment report incorporating comments for the use of the project/country program including but not exclusively:

o Overview of the nutritional status and feeding practices (and any other relevant information) in the study region;

o A clear description of the method to arrive at the Cost of the Diet

o A clear and concise description of the diets calculated, their costs and the affordability; highlighting the possible impact of current food prices on the cost and affordability of the diet;

o Database with the data/information collected.

o To pay particular attention to the contribution and significance of animal source food, fruits and vegetables to the diet, considering that these are the most important foods missing in the diets;

o Thoroughly discuss the findings with particular focus on seasonality changes to access and availability of foods, highlight if there are any differential costs in the diets according to seasons;

o Recommend options to achieve nutritiously diverse foods that considers preference for households at a minimum cost.

o Relevant recommendations on the implementation of ongoing Nutrition projects or future projects in the study area;

• A 2-3 policy brief discussing the cost of a nutritious diet for individuals and households living in the project area and gives recommendations for decision makers and programs to improve the diets and nutrition of children and households and one that can be used to engage relevant stakeholders (policy makers, program managers, researchers and other professionals) interested in improving the food security and nutritional status of communities in the study area;

• Produce a training curriculum to be used by community workers to train communities, based on the Cost of Diet assessment recommendations; and translate the training curriculum in to Amharic and Afaan Oromo;

• Submit all the data and analysis outputs (both raw and final) electronic data to CRS Ethiopia - FtF-LRO.

3a. CRS Delivery Schedule (if applicable): If selected, the consultant will be expected to complete the above-mentioned deliverables by March 15, 2019.

3b. Timeline for Contract: CRS wishes to enter into agreement with the consultant on January 14, 2019. Start date will be dependent on consultancy proposal on how to submit the deliverables as per the above-mentioned delivery date.

6.Submission of Expression of Interest (EOI)

• CRS invites consultant capable of providing (from section 5 above) their EOIs. Interested consultants/firms are requested to complete and submit below EOI form.

In order to be considered as a potential consultant should submit their Expression of Interest including the following information:

Please note that responses received without the information below will not be considered.

• Contact information (full name and address, country, telephone numbers, e-mail address, of contact person)

• Brief presentation of experience and years in the field

• Reference of examples of projects that your organization has implemented within the last five years which are relevant to this application in terms of field of expertise.

EOIs can be sent by e-mail or delivered in person, (max. six pages including annexes), to the address and contact person below. Please indicate “CRS/Ethiopia LRO-Cost of Diet assessment” on all submissions*.*

This call for Expression of Interest does not constitute a solicitation. We do not require proposals and prices at this stage; we merely seek your expression of interest in participating in the tender.

A response to this Request for Expression of Interest does not automatically ensure that you will be selected to participate in the tender.

CRS reserves the right to change or cancel the requirement at any time during the EOI and/or solicitation process. CRS also reserves the right to require compliance with additional conditions as and when issuing the final solicitation documents. A response to this Request for Expression of Interest does not automatically ensure that you will be selected to participate in the tender.

7.CRS Contact Information:

Address:

Gulele Sub-City, Swaziland Street, Enqulal Fabrica

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Subject Line:

Expression of Interest for LRO-Cost of Diet assessment

Telephone #

+251 0112788800

Email address:

ET_Job_Applications@global.crs.org

ET_Job_Applications@global.crs.org