Back Consultant for qualitative data collection, analysis and reporting of Gender Barrier Analysis (GBA) for Vitamin A, Luanda, Angola

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, Nutrition!

How can you make a difference? 

The UNICEF Nutrition Strategy 2020-2030 sets out UNICEF's strategy to support governments and partners in defending children's right to nutrition and ending child malnutrition in all its forms. It emphasizes the determinants of good nutrition and renews focus on preventing stunting, wasting, and micronutrient deficiencies, including vitamin A.
Essential vitamins and minerals deficiency can devastate children's survival, growth, and development, setting them off track for life. Deficiency of vitamin A, iron, folic acid, zinc, and iodine – independently or in combination – is associated with a significantly increased risk of mortality, morbidity, blindness, hearing impairment, anemia, and poor linear growth.
Social inequalities hinder access to good nutrition, essential health services, and adequate nutritional practices, which are linked to both access to services and resources, but also information. The relatively high cost of nutritious food prevents many children from enjoying an adequate diet, to their detriment, especially in vulnerable families, who already spend a more significant part of their income on food. Unequal power relations related to gender norms and roles between women and other household members, particularly men and mothers-in-law, continue to affect the quality and quantity of women's and girls' nutrition around the world, which has a ripple effect on their children and the generations to come1.
Research findings have shown that women with less decision-making power have less diverse diets and are at greater risk of experiencing violence, neglect, and (gender-based) abuse. Studies also suggest a link between women's economic empowerment, their ability to negotiate access to food and other household resources, and greater dietary diversity for themselves2.
Recently, an agencies coalition, including Nutrition International, developed the ‘’Gender Transformative Framework for Nutrition,’’ highlighting women’s agency, available resources, and opportunity structures around them as key concepts for addressing barriers to gender and delivering results for girls and women sustainably. Additionally, Canada launched its Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) in 2017, positioning Canada as an advocate for gender equality in its international assistance programming. Evidence shows that society is more prosperous, peaceful, and secure when women are valued and empowered in their communities and can fully exercise their rights3.
Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) programs have not addressed gender issues in the past. Door-to-door campaigns, in which VAS is co-administered with essential childhood vaccination, achieved high coverage in both sexes, reducing existent access barriers. As the need for mass immunization campaigns decreases, the transition to delivery of VAS through healthcare facilities and services has resulted in reduced coverage, as access barriers which were never strategically addressed, begin to reappear. This shift in delivery platforms increases the burden on caregivers and healthcare professionals, which has led to the requirement to address gender-related barriers and dynamics across VAS programs. Given that children's health issues and needs typically fall within the role of the mother, who is often the primary caregiver, access to health facility-based services can be a significant challenge due to the conflicting demands of the mother, other children to care for, the mother’s rights regarding mobility, financial access (to pay transport and/or clinical fees), along with overall limited rights and limited decision-making authority at home. All these barriers impact a mother’s decision and ability to prioritize her child’s health needs and take them to the clinic. While the goal of VAS programs remains the same – to reach all children – gender inequality is still not addressed as a factor affecting coverage outcomes or the burden on caregivers or providers.
In Angola, it is noted that there is a low availability of research on gender barriers to vitamin A supplementation. Growing global literature demonstrates the impacts of gender inequality and restrictive gender norms on health and well-being, including nutrition. This is demonstrated through significant gaps, for example, in access to vitamin A supplementation services for children under five years of age. Therefore, nutrition programs must respond to the challenge posed and consider how interventions can impact – and be impacted by – gender inequality and how they can become more gender-responsive or gender-transformative in the future, as per UNICEF's Nutrition Strategy. To do this, evidence is needed to identify the barriers and bottlenecks to increased VAS coverage in Angola. With funding from the Government of Canada for the ‘’Vitamin A in a New Age (VINA)’’ project, UNICEF is supporting the National Nutrition programme to conduct a gender-barrier analysis (GBA) to better understand these knowledge gaps. The results of this GBA will inform the national Vitamin A Strategy implementation and may also serve to inform the national Immunization Strategy.

PURPOSE, OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE:

Purpose:

The purpose of this consultancy is to recruit a professional to manage the collection, data analysis and report writing for the study “Análise da Barreira de Género para Vitamina A – Serviços de Saúde oferta e procura.”

Objective:

• Clean, code, and analyze qualitative data sets to generate key themes and findings on gender-related barriers in accessing vitamin A and health services to identify opportunities for improving Primary Health Care (PHC) services (including vitamin A supplementation), disaggregated by relevant sub-groups.
• Generate themes and findings on the perspectives of health professionals and health programme managers related to gender and gender-sensitive policies and programs at the health system level.
• Generate findings on gender-related barriers and opportunities informed by existing evidence and scientific literature.
• Provide recommendations on how the finding can improve access to VAS and inform the development of new community-level interventions that improve access, quality, and utilization/demand of essential child health services within the PHC system, including VAS.
• Prepare, with the involvement of the Ministry of Health, the final GBA report with view to strengthening capacity of Ministry of Health counterparts in the elaboration of such qualitative reports
• Draft a scientific journal article for peer review describing the GBA.
Scope
Setting: Data collection will take place in two provinces; Lunda Norte and Huila province, representing two different geographic zones in the country and provinces with two different experiences of external donor support.

Methodological approach:
This gender barrier analysis will adopt a qualitative methodology based on the document ''Why gender matters: Immunization Agenda 2030'' and research techniques such as Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), interviews with Key Informants (KIIs) with purpose-designed and previously tested questionnaires. FGDs will take place with the following groups: Leaders of faith-based organizations, Sobas (village leaders), Teenage mothers, Fathers, Grandparents, Mothers of children under five and KIIs with the following individuals: Healthcare workers, Local Administration, Traditional Healers/Birth Attendants. A minimum of six FGDs and three KIIs will take place in each province included in the study, such that data saturation is reached for each thematic area. Each interview will be recorded with Ministry of Health counterparts at field level responsibility for preparing interview transcripts.
The qualitative research consultant will be responsible for: a) the training of field level data collectors in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health nutrition and health promotion staff in two provinces; b) leading the process of data collection in two phase, starting from Huíla province and ending with data collection in Lunda Norte province.
Analysis:
The consultant is expected to employ rigorous and robust analysis of the qualitative data to identify the gender-related factors (and other intersectional identities and vulnerabilities) that influence access to and delivery of essential primary health care services, including VAS. The gender barrier analysis is expected to be guided through using the socio-ecological model to generate key themes related to patterns of power dynamics and decision-making, access to and control of goods and resources, gender roles and responsibilities, social/cultural norms and beliefs that impact gender norms, and laws, policies, and institutional practices within households, communities, and the PHC system. The analysis should document the unique experiences and needs of men, women, boys, and girls as per the regional and national contexts.
The GBA will identify, classify, and understand gender-related factors that influence PHC programming (women's health, child health, immunization and nutrition, including coverage trends, demand and supply side challenges, and overall performance) with a particular focus on access to and delivery of vitamin A supplementation (VAS).
The researcher will collect and organise the complete package of raw data from the field team, translated from the local language to Portuguese. The consultant will then be responsible for the cleaning, coding and analyzing of the data, preferably using qualitative data analysis software such as NVivo or ATLAS.ti. The key themes and findings of this analysis should be presented as a matrix and in a final report, and in a PowerPoint presentation and will be used to inform the development of strategies and activities that address gender barriers in the Vitamin A in a New Age (VINA) grant and to support interventions that will address identified barriers to improve access and use of PHC services and increase the coverage and equity of the package of essential services for children. The ultimate outcome of the GBA is to generate evidence for improving the health and well-being of Angolan children through strengthening the gender equality landscape in Angola.
Finally, the consultant will be expected to draft a scientific journal article for peer review.

How can you make a difference?

the selected candidate would be expected to carry out following tasks

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

Academic Qualifications:

Master degree in Social sciences, anthropology, gender, public health, psychology, epidemiology, and/or behavioural science
Work experience
• At least five years’ experience in qualitative data analysis using content analysis, including the application of conceptual frameworks, codebook development, and coding.

\"Candidates with a bachelor’s degree and an additional two years of experience may be considered in lieu of a master’s degree\"

• Proficiency with one or more qualitative analysis software such as NVivo, Dedoose, or MAXQDA for data management and analysis.
• Experience in gender barrier analyses, or analysis/project related to gender equality and empowerment.
• Excellent report writing and written communication skills and experience in producing high-quality reports on outcomes of qualitative analysis.
• Understanding of concepts of confidentiality and data security.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment; experience working in the UN or other international development organization an asset.
• Ability to organize own work and to carry out a project with limited supervision according to deadlines.
• Commitment to UNICEF’s core values of care, respect, integrity, transparency, and accountability.
• Fluency in English and Portuguese is required.

Desirable Knowledge/Expertise/Skills:

• Experience in working and/or conducting analysis in Angola or other similar contexts.
• Knowledge of local languages and/or another official UN language (such as a French, or Spanish) is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. 

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected consultant is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.