Ethiopia: ETH-05 Technical Assistance and Capacity Building to Incorporate the Food and Nutrition Investment Case into the EFY 2013 – 2017 Growth and Transform

Nutrition International is committed to the fundamental principles of equal employment opportunity. Women are encouraged to apply.

Background

Technical Assistance for Nutrition (TAN) is a project supported by UK government aid, which seeks to improve the capacity of countries who have joined the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement to design, deliver, and track the progress of nutrition programs and to generate, learn from and adopt knowledge of what works. Nutrition International is contributing to TAN by coordinating the provision of technical assistance (TA) to help national SUN focal points in selected countries to overcome gaps in capacity for the design and delivery of multi-sectoral national nutrition plans, tapping into its global technical hub to source and deploy the expertise needed.

With nearly 100 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world, as well as the second-most populous nation on the African continent after Nigeria. Household food insecurity, hunger and undernutrition remain critical issues. The previous four national level Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in Ethiopia show a decreasing trend in the proportion of children who are stunted and underweight. Between 2000 and 2014 the prevalence of stunting decreased from 58% to 40%; and the proportion of underweight children declined substantially from 41% to 25%. Conversely, the prevalence of wasting has remained fairly static over the last 15 years. Anemia prevalence among under-five children remains high at 44%, despite a decline from 52% over the last 6 years. Despite this general decline in malnutrition rates over the past decade, Ethiopia remains a country with high burden of malnutrition.

Ethiopia joined the SUN movement in April 2012 through commitment from the Federal Minister of health. At the time, Ethiopia had set up a high-level multi-stakeholder platform for nutrition comprising seven ministries; it also established a National Nutrition Coordinating Body (NNCB) chaired by the Minister of Health with representation of each ministry with a nutrition portfolio. Ethiopia recently reviewed and extended the 2013-2015 National Nutrition Plan II (NNP II) to 2016-2020 which aims to scale up and streamline nutrition actions in the country.

In July 2015, the Government of Ethiopia made a high level commitment, through the Seqota Declaration (SD), to end childhood undernutrition by 2030. A roadmap outlining key milestones to ensuring that the SD targets are met was developed - the declaration will be implemented in 3 phases as shown below:

i. Innovation Phase – Learning by doing (2017-2020)

ii. Expansion Phase – to reach more vulnerable communities (2021-2025)

iii. National Scale Up Phase (2025-2030)

The Federal Program Delivery Unit which was established to oversee the implementation of the Seqota Declaration has developed an innovation phase investment plan that serves as a guiding document for all sectoral interventions and investment needs for the innovation phase. While the innovation phase is in progress the government of Ethiopia also endorsed the food and nutrition policy in November 2018. To operationalize the food and nutrition policy the national nutrition program implementing stakeholders (sectors, academia and research institutes, civil society organization, UN, donor and others relevant stakeholders) are drafting the food and nutrition strategy. This strategy together with the Seqota Declaration expansion phase and scale up plan needs to be part and parcel of the next Growth and Transformation Plan which the country will launch in the coming year to ensure adequate resource allocation from the government and development partners and ensure accountability of all the stakeholders during its implementation.

The Ethiopian Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) is a comprehensive strategy to improve economic conditions in Ethiopia. GTP II 2016-2020 was adopted in May 2016 and had targets in different sectors such as agriculture, health, education, climate change and water supply amongst others.

With the process for development of next five years plan (Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2013 – 2017) under way, there is an opportunity to incorporate strategic targets on food and nutrition and the Seqota Declaration expansion and scale up phase plan and secure budgetary allocation for food and nutrition. This process is timely as it coincides with the approval of the reviewed National Nutrition Policy which outlines key recommendations for strengthening food and nutrition through multi-sectoral coordination of nutrition specific, nutrition sensitive interventions. Ongoing work to strengthen budget and resource tracking for multi-sectoral food and nutrition interventions at Federal and sub-national level will provide a basis for advocating for budgetary allocation for nutrition. The lessons and momentum established with the roll out of the Seqota Declaration provide an important launching ground to advocate for inclusion of nutrition in the next five year plan (Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2013 – 2017) for Ethiopia.

This TA is therefore proposed to support the development of an updated Seqota Declaration roadmap and investment plan for food and nutrition which would feed into the next five years plan.

Objectives

Overall objective

The overall objective of this TA is to contribute to the development of the Ethiopian Growth and Transformation Plan III ensuring that food and nutrition indicators are mainstreamed and sufficient resources allocated to implement key performance indicators (KPI).

Specific objectives

1. Conduct strategic and programmatic review of nutrition interventions and targets in GTP III

2. Build capacity of the Planning and Development Commission staff to competently support Government Ministries implement food and nutrition interventions and the achieve the Seqota Declaration targets

3. Facilitate development of updated SD roadmap and development of an investment plan on nutrition that will be an integral part of the Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2013 – 2017 plan for Ethiopia;

Expected results

This technical assistance and capacity building is expected to provide a significant contribution to the country government’s capability to expand and scale up Seqota Declaration innovation phase learning and food and nutrition policy implementation in the country through a clearly articulated theory of change or added value of the TA results. It is expected that consultancy will lead to the following results, which the consultants should be able to demonstrate by the end of the assignment:

• Inclusion of measurable targets on food and nutrition into the GTP III for the country with clear lines of accountability for success

• Clarity on geographic location for Seqota Declaration expansion and scale up

• Allocation of resources for food and nutrition for government sectors with a mandate for food and nutrition implementation.

This is expected to translate into improved quality and scale of delivery of nutrition specific, nutrition sensitive and infrastructure interventions for food and nutrition.

Gender

Nutrition International is committed to gender equality. Consultants are required to indicate how they will ensure that gender equality considerations are included in the provision of TA, including how they are incorporated into deliverables. Examples of integration of consideration for gender equality could include, but are not limited to: ensuring government departments responsible for women are included wherever possible, gender sensitive indicators are included, emerging data is sex disaggregated, and relevant documentation related to gender is reviewed. To this end, NI has developed the following tools which can be accessed using the links below:

· NI guidelines on Integrating Gender Equality into Technical Assistance

· NI background document on gender and nutrition

· NI PowerPoint presentation (Gender 101)

Scope of Work

The consultant(s) will be expected to undertake the following activities and produce the listed deliverables. Further elaboration on the objective-based activities will be expected in technical proposal along with timeline, level of effort required for each activity, in terms of number of days, and roles and responsibilities of each team member.

Under Objective 1: Conduct strategic and programmatic review of nutrition interventions and targets in GTP II

Activities

Taking a facilitative, consultative and participatory approach, the consultant will undertake relevant tasks to produce the following specific deliverables:

1. Conduct a literature review the global, regional and national nutrition priorities, strategies and plans to identify gaps in the GTP II, strategic actions/recommendations for incorporation in the next five years plan.

· Examples of the available literature to be reviewed includes; the World Bank Multisectoral Framework for Nutrition, UN Decade for Action, Global Nutrition Report, FAO guidance on food systems and diets, Africa Regional Nutrition Strategy (AU-NEPAD), Committee for World Food Security Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition (2017), African Development Bank Multisectoral Nutrition Strategy (2018), All Hands on Deck: Reducing Stunting through Multisectoral Efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa World Bank (2019), FAO The State of Food Security And Nutrition In The World (2019).

· At national level, Seqota Declaration Road Map (2015 – 2030), National Food and Nutrition Policy (2019), National Nutrition Program II, Seqota Declaration Innovation Phase Investment Plan (2017 – 2020), PSNP IV, Nutrition sensitive agriculture strategy, other stakeholder projects and review reports on what has been achieved;

· Review current investment for nutrition (Results 4 Development resource tracking[1], MoH multi-sectoral resource tracking, sub-national level SD woredas resource tracking)[2]

· Review existing accountability mechanisms

1. Develop detailed consultation guide and consult stakeholders in-country to review sector plans, institutional plans and assess level of support (technical, financial) provided for nutrition identifying gaps

2. Solicit input from stakeholders on priorities for nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive interventions, SMART targets and indicators and accountability mechanisms that should be reflected in the next five years plan.

Deliverables

• Inception report outlining methodology

• Desk review report

• Inception report including stakeholder consultation report (nutrition interventions, targets, indicators and accountability plans)

Under objective 2: Build capacity of the Planning and Development Commission staff to competently support Government Ministries implement food and nutrition interventions and achieve the Seqota Declaration targets

Activities:

Using a participatory approach, the following activities will be undertaken with support from the Seqota Declaration program delivery unit:

1. Orient coordinators and experts of planning and development commission (PDC) on nutrition, food security and related issues.

2. Train coordinators and experts of PDC on the nutrition and food security indicators and targets outlining the responsibility of each sector as relates to nutrition (agriculture, water, irrigation and electricity, education, social protection as well as cross cutting issues such as gender).

3. Capacitate coordinators and experts of PDC in mainstreaming food and nutrition into national plans.

4. Support coordinators and experts of PDC to interact with Seqota Declaration program delivery.

Deliverables

• Capacity Development plan

• Training material and tools for capacity building of PDC staff adapted to needs

• Report on capacity building interventions undertaken including objective assessment of skills and knowledge acquired through capacity building activities

Under Objective 3: Facilitate development of updated SD roadmap and development of an investment plan on nutrition that will be an integral part of the 2013 – 2017 plan for Ethiopia

Activities

· Develop a draft Seqota Declaration update roadmap

· Using the sectors plan as a source document develop an investment case that determines and validates cost estimates for expansion and scale up phases

· Solicit input from various stakeholders on the draft roadmap and investment case incorporating tools and processes in-place or under development in the country.

· Review and consolidate written feedback provided by stakeholders on the draft roadmap and update drafts.

· In collaboration with the lead officials in the Planning and Development Commission, develop draft input that will be reflected in the next five years plan

Deliverables:

• First Draft of Seqota Declaration roadmap and investment case

• Final roadmap and investment case adapted to the 2013 - 2017 planning process developed

• Draft input to 2013 – 2017 plan for Ethiopia

• Final input to 2013 to 2017 plan for Ethiopia

• Knowledge report summarizing key learning about this process

Use of deliverables

Deliverables produced under this TA are intended for use by Planning and Development Commission, Food and Nutrition implementing sector ministries, Food and Nutrition Coordinating body, the Seqota Declaration Federal Program Delivery Unit, SUN Focal Point and different development partners and donors in the following way:

• The 2013 – 2017 plan will be used to guide program implementation food and nutrition strategy among all sectors at national and state level.

• The Seqota Declaration expansion and scale up will be used by the federal and regional government and sectors and development partners to prioritize high stunting burden woredas in the country and allocate resources to accelerate stunting reduction in Ethiopia.

• The funding allocated for nutrition through the 2013 – 2017 plan will support implementation of the Seqota Declaration and the Food and Nutrition strategy.

Duty Station/Location

The Consultant will be based at the Plan and Development Commission with matrix reporting technically and administratively to the Social Sector/Human Resource Development and Employment Plan Directorate Director and the Seqota Declaration Federal Program Delivery Unit at Maternal and Child Health Department of the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), Addis Ababa until the Food and Nutrition Council is established for the activities that require physical presence. The Consultant is expected to undertake travel domestically to sub-national level for stakeholder consultation.

All travels required under this consultancy will be provided for by Nutrition International. Travel allowances maximums are based on standard rates of the organization.

Timeline

This TA and capacity building support would be for a period of up to 9 months between January 2020 and September 2020.

Management and Reporting/Coordination mechanism

· The Consultant will work under the direct supervision of the head of the Maternal and Child Health Director at the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) with oversight from the head of the National Planning Commission.

· The Consultant will facilitate the operational linkages with all relevant in-country sectors and stakeholders under this TA, with support from the SUN FP.

· The consultant will engage closely with the Federal Program Delivery Unit of the Seqota Declaration and the chair of the National Nutrition Coordinating Body and National Nutrition Technical Committee to facilitate alignment of nutrition priorities and targets

· NI will provide the funding for the assignment, and payment will be subject to performance and reaching deliverables as agreed upon at the moment of contract signing.

· NI will be responsible for the coordination of technical guidance and quality assurance of the work being delivered by the consultant.

Profile/qualifications of consultant

It is expected a consultancy firm or team of consultants with assorted areas of expertise in policy and planning, laws and regulations development, economics/finance, monitoring and evaluation and nutrition will be required to complete all aspects of this consultancy, with the Lead Consultant responsible for work completed by all team members.

Lead consultant

· Post-graduate or doctoral-level qualifications the following fields; nutrition, public health, health economics and applied sciences or related areas.

· A minimum of 15 years’ experience in the field of development sector including consultancy work with the Government and development partners in nutrition, health, food security or related fields.

· Excellent knowledge of health, food security and nutrition landscape and programs in Ethiopia.

· Experience of providing strategic policy advice to national and sub-national governments.

· Experience in working with multi-stakeholder platforms and processes, or other complex collaboration platforms across sectors, including health, water, education and agriculture

· Experience in coordinating and managing a team of experts.

· Excellent communication, analytical and writing skills.

· Specific experience in costing, budgeting, tracking expenditures, investment case development and resource mobilization, multi-year national or subnational food and nutrition action plan development and multi-sectoral engagement in nutrition related areas will be an added advantage.

· Experience in program design and M&E in combination with specialized experience in food security, health or nutrition will be added advantage

· Demonstrated ability to deliver quality results within strict deadlines.

Other consultants

· At least 8-10 years of experience in planning, policy, design, M&E, costing and tracking of nutrition, food security, health and other related programs.

· Excellent knowledge of food security and nutrition landscape and programmes in Ethiopia.

· Experience engaging with multi-stakeholder platforms and processes, or other complex collaboration and partner management platforms across sectors, including health and agriculture.

· Experience in coordination and partnership management.

· Excellent communication, analytical and writing skills.

· Demonstrated ability to deliver quality results within strict deadlines.

NI is committed to the fundamental principles of equal employment opportunity. Women are encouraged to apply.

Experience working in Ethiopia will be an advantage.

Applicants may consider a team of both national and international consultants

[1] https://www.r4d.org/wp-content/uploads/Tracking-Funding-for-Nutrition-in-Ethiopia-policy-brief.pdf

[2] https://sdreview.joomla.com/

Proposals should be submitted by email to Technical Assistance@nutritionintl.org before close of business, 30 November 2019, 1700 EST (Ottawa, Canada). Only complete applications will be reviewed.

· Up-to-date curriculum vitae (CV)

· Technical proposal: not exceeding five pages, describing the consultant’s understanding of the task, proposed methodology, responsibilities of key stakeholders and detailed work plan that breaks down activities and outputs.

· Financial proposal: including daily fee rate, suggested number of trips/days in-country and any other expenses required to fulfill the terms of the consultancy (field trips, meetings, materials, etc.).

NI is committed gender equality. Consultants are required to indicate how they will ensure that gender equality considerations are included in the provision of technical assistance.