SQUEAC coverage survey consultant, South and West Kordofan

1. Background

Concern Worldwide (Concern) is an international humanitarian non-governmental 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 programme entitled “Enhanced Responses to Nutrition Emergencies (ERNE)” in South and West Kordofan, Sudan in 15 HFs. 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 programme is now in its second year of implementation. To establish a midline for the proposed activities, Concern will conduct a SQUEAC (Semi-Quantitative Evaluation of Access and Coverage) Survey in order to assess the coverage and barriers in accessing existing nutrition services, specifically relating to CMAM. This will be conducted in the West and South Kordofan State, specifically in the eight localities where the programme focuses.

To achieve the survey objectives; Concern is seeking the services of a competent expert to lead the survey from the planning phase, through implementation of the survey up to the final reporting.

2. Purpose of the Consultancy

The consultant will provide services for conducting all three stages of a SQUEAC survey to establish coverage of the existing CMAM services available at health facilities supported by Concern Worldwide

3. Essential and Desirable Experience/Qualifications

Education:

The consultant should hold an Advanced University Degree in Nutrition, Public Health, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Social Sciences or related discipline.

Required experience:

The expert should have at least five years’ previous experience in conducting coverage surveys, as well as managing enumeration staff for data collection / surveys.

The consultant must have experience in conducting key informant interviews and qualitative data collection, techniques and analysis, as well as training facilitation skills.

Desirable experience:

Knowledge of digital data gathering systems

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

The overall objective is to determine the coverage of CMAM services in the catchment areas of the facilities supported by Concern in the eight localities targetted for nutrition programming in South Kordofan State (3 localities) and West Kordofan State (5 localities).

Specific objectives:

· To undertake estimates of CMAM programme coverage and compare to 2021 coverage of in ERNE supported areas

· Develop the skills of key Concern and Ministry of Health nutrition staff in conducting access and coverage surveys using Semi Qualitative Evaluation of Access and Coverage (SQUEAC) methodology

· Determine the coverage of CMAM services, identification of barriers and boosters to service access

· Conduct small-area and wide-area surveys to determine CMAM coverage

· Develop specific recommendations in collaboration with CONCERN to improve coverage of the programme

Scope of work

The consultant will be required for a period of 42 days, to conduct a SQUEAC survey, to give recommendations of the SQUEAC survey area, to supervise on the SQUEAC survey area and to train enumerators in data collection analysing and reporting. The work is due to begin in May 2022.

Note that Concern’s Digital Data Gathering (DDG) tool will be used for the quantitative data collection surveys and data collection tools. Assistance with this will be provided by the Concern Worldwide team.

Using the specified methodologies (and data collection tools) laid out in the SQUEAC methodology, the consultant is expected to provide the following services (ensuring that considerations are given to COVID-19 and control measures are in place):

· SQUEAC – Stage 1 – qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis

§ Preparation of necessary tools and documents, as outlined in the SQUEAC methodology to investigate both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of coverage.

§ Review of appropriate secondary documents (requests to be made to Concern for information and support)

§ Outlining necessary meetings and advising Concern staff on whom should be interviewed

§ Analysis and reporting on qualitative and quantitative data

· SQUEAC – Stage 2 – formulate a hypothesis on coverage levels and small area survey

§ Develop and design SQUEAC survey protocol, including sample size estimation, population size, selection villages (as appropriate), and validate tools

§ Train the SQUEAC data collection teams and data clerks (including pre-testing questionnaire)

§ Assume overall responsibility for design and implementation of the SQUEAC, including daily supervision of SQUEAC teams and daily data collection quality assurance

§ Be responsible for data cleaning and analysis using appropriate software i.e. Xmind, Bayes SQUEAC

§ Prepare a draft SQUEAC report for review by Concern, ensuring that the assessment is comprehensive and includes all relevant indicators

· SQUEAC – Stage 3 – wide area survey

§ Prepare and finalize necessary tools for wide-area survey

§ Design survey appropriate methodology (based on SQUEAC survey guidelines)

§ Train enumerators and supervisors and ensure field readiness

§ Supervision of data collection

§ Analysis, using appropriate tools, and reporting of survey data.

§ The provision of the single coverage estimate, at a minimum**

· Final report

§ Prepare a final report including background, methodology, results, limitations, conclusions and recommendations incorporating feedback from Concern staff on the draft report

§ Prepare and lead a validation workshop for MOH and stakeholders in South and West Kordofan States. This presentation outcomes will be shared at national level via the Nutrition Cluster/ Nutrition working group.

Throughout the survey process, the expert is responsible to ensure the enumeration teams have the appropriate materials for data collection (qualitative or quantitative) with them prior to the commencement of data collection.

Geographical scope

The SQUEAC survey will be conducted in the eight localities in South Kordofan and West Kordofan states where the ERNE programme is implemented. For the data collection components of the SQUEAC survey villages will be selected from a list of villages contained within the catchment area of ERNE health facilities (‘qariya’ in Arabic).

5. Deliverables

· Detailed full SQUEAC Survey work plan including clear calendar of survey activities – to be agreed upon between the consultant and Concern Sudan

· 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. The report should take the following format:

1. Introduction and Background **

2. Objectives of Coverage survey **

3. Results of each stage of the survey**

4. Key Barriers

5. Key Boosters

6. Coverage estimators for OTP and TSFP Coverage estimation

7. Discussions including the interpretation of the results

8. Conclusions and recommendations

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

· 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.

Final payment is dependent on the submission of a good quality, well-written final report or completion of agreed outputs (as detailed in the TOR). In addition to methodology, findings and discussion, the report should include a comprehensive executive summary and a section outlining clear and concise conclusions and recommendations.

A digital copy of all reports will be required by Concern at the end of the consultancy.**

6. Lines of Communication

The consultant will report to the ERNE Programme Manager, and will work in close consultation with the Health and Nutrition Advisor

Monitoring and Supervision: For training of enumerators, monitoring of enumerators and data collection processes, the consultant will be provided with support from the H&N Coordinators and M&E staff in both locations.

7. Timeframe

The duration of the work is expected to be 42 days. 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 in May 2022.