A consultant on outbreaks strategies and policies for the Nutrition & Health Department

July 2023

Founded in 1979, Action contre la Faim is an international non-governmental organization fighting hunger worldwide. Its charter of humanitarian principles – independence, neutrality, and non-discrimination, free and direct access to victims, professionalism, and transparency – has underpinned its identity for 40 years. Its mission is to save lives by eliminating hunger through the prevention, detection and treatment of undernutrition, particularly during and after emergencies linked to conflicts and natural disasters. Action contre la Faim coordinates its programs around five areas of activity: Nutrition and Health – Mental Health and Care Practices – Food Security and Livelihoods – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene – Advocacy. Structured as an international network, our organization provides a coordinated response in nearly 50 countries. www.actioncontrelafaim.org

For the Nutrition & Health Department, we are looking for:

A consultant on outbreaks strategies and policies

1. General context

Origin of the project

ACF has been responding to outbreaks such as cholera since its creation, in 1979, through the WASH and Health sector. Over the years, it has remained one of the WASH sector essential activities while the health component disappeared in the 2000s.

ACF’s health and nutrition alignment approach has expanded in recent years, allowing an increased familiarity between ACF teams and national Ministries of Health (MoH). Therefore, more and more missions are receiving urgent invitations to participate in local outbreak control actions in their work areas, coming from health authorities and partners (international and national NGOs). Due to the importance of taking part on these efforts, an increased number of missions have been involved on WASH and medical activities outbreak responses in the last couple of years. With re-engagement in health, there is a need to better define what ACF outbreak comprehensive response is, and how we want doing this component.

Project stakes

ACF plans to develop a positioning framework the response to epidemics, in order to clarify internally the strategy and different activities formally endorsed by the Action Against Hunger Network, when addressing outbreaks.

The document also aims to inform our partners, both at a global and local level, on the Action Against Hunger Network’s specific positioning toward outbreaks, in order to foster more complementarity, more effective and efficient coordination, and a better collective impact

A first draft of the intervention framework was developed at the end of 2019, but it was not completed, due in particular to the COVID epidemic, which changed the priorities of the organization.

The objective of this consultancy is to build on the work initiated, while taking into account the significant developments that have taken place in the organization in recent years.

1. The project

Objectives

Develop ACF’s outbreaks positioning framework in collaboration with the health referent and the Emergency Readiness and Response Unit (ERRU).

Contributors

A working group was set up for the project:

• Health referent (Caroline Antoine)
• Emergency Health Coordinator (Miguel Suarez)
• Director of ERRU (Rowan Cody) and
• Emergency Monitoring, Systems and Analytics Advisor (Virginie Brision)
• WASH operational advisor (Tom health)
• Wash project manager (Camille Bureau)
• Preparedness referent (Guillaume Mathieu)
• HSS referent (Sarah Brousse)

Audience

ACF team in the field and external partners.

Final product

Expected: ACF’s Outbreak intervention framework.

1. Methodology

Facilitation

The process will be led by Caroline Antoine and Rowan Cody with the support of the working group.

Methodology

The consultant must base his or her work on existing technical positioning documents as well as the discussions and decisions taken by the working group. The work completed should be done in collaboration with the ongoing developments/updates of the Emergency Toolboxes, EPRP process and the emergency classification and alert systems.

Here is a suggested schedule

Calendar

•Aug 23 : Doccument framing

•SEpt : Interviews + positioning doc review

•Oct : Proposed detailed plan

•NOv-dec : Content development

•Finalization

HR and costs

Start date: August 16, 2023

End date: December 31, 2023

Budget maximum of 8000€ (incl. VAT)

English or French speakers accepted.