UNHCR, the UN Refugee agency, is offering a full time “SMART SENS Survey Consultant” in Republic of Congo operation.

The Consultancy will be within UNHCR Representation Office in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo and travelling to the field in the departments of Likouala and Plateaux. This exciting Consultancy vacancy is a unique opportunity to gain experience in not-for-profit branding as well as experience working within the UN system.

UNHCR is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women, and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. We are in over 125 countries, using our expertise to protect and care for millions.

Title: SENS SMART Survey Consultant

Duty Station: Republic of Congo

Duration: 2 months

Contract Type: Consultancy

Closing date: 15 August 2021

Start date: 20 September 2021

Organizational context

The Republic of Congo accommodates around 60,000 refugees and asylum seekers from different countries from with the big number of them from CAR, DRC, and Rwanda. The health system in Congo, specifically the departments accommodating refugees is marked with limited access to health services due to poor availability of infrastructures, insufficient qualified staff, recurrent stock out of essential medicines and poor care seeking behaviors among the population.

The food insecurity still a challenge and rate of malnutrition is high and still increasing. The joint assessment missions (JAMs) conducted in 2016 and repeated 2019 showed the increase of Global acute malnutrition (GAM) and Moderate acute malnutrition from 5.4% to 10.4% and 3.6% to 9.2% respectively, from 2016 to 2019, despite the small decrease of Severe acute Malnutrition(SAM) from 1.8% to 1.2% during the same period. The continuous increase has been identified during the routine screening in 2020, where the proportion of GAM and SAM reached 17% and 6% respectively.

This situation was deteriorated due to Covid-19 pandemic which lead to recurrent stock out of nutrition commodities, discontinuation of nutrition services in some locations, and affected the availability of diversified food to make balanced diet. The main and available diet in these departments is cassava and this is poor in micronutrients and minerals. The fish which can balance the diet and available to the market became very expensive and can’t be accessed by refugees due to their limited financial capacity. UNHCR aims to improve the nutrition well-being of the refugees in collaboration with the government and other partners, but there is a lack of updated data. The Standardized Expanded Nutrition Survey (SENS) will help to get updated data and unable UNHCR to plan the evidence- based interventions against this situation.

The position

The Consultant will lead and oversee the UNHCR SENS process from planning to training, implementation of data collection, data quality checks, data analysis and report writing. S/he will produce updated Anthropometry, Health, Anaemia, IYCF, Food Security, WASH and mosquito net coverage indicators on the settlements.

S/he will be under the direct supervision of the country Associate Health & Nutrition Officer, and Statistics & Data Analysis Officer with the Overall supervision of the Program Officer in Brazzaville where the position will be based.

Duties and responsibilities

The consultant will be expected to produce the below results according to the set objectives:

Primary objectives

1. To determine the demographic profile of the population (see Module 1).

2. To determine the age dependency ratio (see Module 1).

3. To measure the prevalence of acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 (see Module 2).

4. To measure the prevalence of stunting in children aged 6-59 months (see Module 2).

5. To determine the coverage of measles vaccination among children aged 9-59 months (or context-specific target group e.g. 9-23 months) (see Module 2).

6. To determine the coverage of vitamin A supplementation in the last 6 months among children aged 6-59 months (see Module 2).

  1. To determine the two-week period prevalence of diarrhea among children aged 6-59 months (see Module 2)*.*

8. To measure the prevalence of anaemia in children aged 6-59 months and in women of reproductive age between 15-49 years (non-pregnant) (see Module 3).

  1. To investigate IYCF practices among children aged 0-23 months (see Module 4)*.*
  2. To determine the population’s overall ability to meet their food needs with assistance (see Module 5).
  3. To determine the extent to which negative coping strategies are used by households (see Module 5).
  4. To assess household food consumption (quantity and quality) (see Module 5).

13. To determine the ownership of mosquito nets (all types and LLINs) in households (see Module 6).

14. To determine the utilisation of mosquito nets (all types and LLINs) by the total population, children 0-59 months and pregnant women (see Module 6)*.*

  1. To determine the population’s access to, and use of, water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities (see Module 7)*.*

16. To determine the population’s access to soap (see Module 7)*.*

17. Include other additional objectives negotiated for the survey

18. To establish recommendations on actions to be taken to address the situation in Republic of Congo operation*.*

Secondary objectives

  1. To determine the enrolment into the targeted supplementary (TSFP) and therapeutic (OTP/SC) nutrition programmes for children aged 6-59 months (see Module 2).

  2. To determine the coverage of the blanket supplementary feeding programme for children aged 6-23/6-35/6-59 months (if applicable) (see Module 2).

  3. To determine the coverage of deworming (soil-transmitted helminth control) with mebendazole and/or albendazole in the last six months among young children (include context specific target age group, 12-59m/24-59m) (if applicable) (see Module 2).

  4. To determine the coverage of the blanket supplementary feeding programme (BSFP) for pregnant women and lactating women with an infant less than 6 months aged 15-49 years (if applicable) (see Module 2).

  5. To determine enrolment into Antenatal Care clinic and coverage of iron-folic acid supplementation in pregnant women (see Module 3)*.*

  6. To determine the proportion of households in each of the targeting categories (if applicable) (see Module 5).

  7. To determine the population’s access to and use of cooking fuel (if applicable) (see Module 5).

  8. To determine the household coverage of indoor residual spraying in the past 6 months/12 months (if applicable) (see Module 6).

Optional objectives

  1. To determine the use of oral rehydration salt (ORS) and/or zinc during diarrhoea episodes in children aged 6-59 months (see Module 2).

  2. To determine the prevalence of MUAC malnutrition in women of reproductive age 15-49 years (include if all, pregnant and/or lactating women with an infant less than 6 months are measured) (see Module 2).

  3. To determine the time of arrival of the children in the camp/asylum country (see Module 2).

Note: in addition to the above-mentioned objectives, the SENS consultant is advised to include the UNHCR nutrition and health team in Republic of Congo actively in all of the process of SENS and train them / build their capacity.

Essential minimum qualifications and professional experience required

The successful candidate will:

· Have a university degree or the equivalent, with advanced education in nutrition, with a specific competency in humanitarian emergencies.

· Have significant experience in undertaking nutrition surveys (design and methodologies, staff recruitment and training, sample size calculation, sampling, field supervision and data analysis/write up).

· Be familiar with the SMART survey methodology and ENA for SMART, Epi Info software.

· Be familiar with analyzing nutrition surveys with multiple indicators, beyond the basic anthropometric (SMART) indicators.

· Be fluent in French with excellent writing and presentation skills. Oral and written communication skills in English will be an advantage.

· Minimal two (02) years of experience in nutrition particularly related to SENS

· Prior experience with conducting SENS surveys in refugee contexts is an asset.

· Prior experience with conducting surveys using Open Data Kit Collect application and mobile technology is an asset.

Location

The successful candidate will be based in Brazzaville and travelling to the fields in the department of Likouala and Plateaux.

Conditions

The consultancy is for two months and the start date is on 20 September 2021 to 20 November 2021. It is a full-time role with working hours starting from 8.30am to 5pm. The mission travel will be undertaken to the Department of Likouala and Plateaux.

This vacancy is archived.

Recommended for you