The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global humanitarian aid, relief and development nongovernmental organization. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers emergency aid and long-term assistance to refugees and those displaced by war, persecution or natural disaster.
Experience
Location Borno
Job ID: req58910
Description
- We are seeking a dynamic and experienced independent consultant with strong technical expertise in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL), particularly in nutrition-related programs, to conduct a comprehensive Endline Evaluation of the SSNR project.
- The assessment will evaluate the project’s effectiveness, capture outcomes, and generate learning across key components including CMAM, IYCF, and Tom-Brown implementation. Below is a summary of the project:
- Project Title:
- Strengthening Sustainable Nutrition Services and Resilience for Vulnerable Communities in Northeast Nigeria
- Project Impact:
- Ending the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children under five years due to poor nutrition across three LGAs (MMC, Jere, and Monguno) Borno state
- Project Outcome:
- Children under 5, caregivers, and PLW have increased access to skilled support for breastfeeding, micronutrient intake, and sustainable quality treatment for acute malnutrition; Community members participate in community-based problem-solving.
- Outcome indicators:
- % of exclusive breastfeeding among infants <6 months
- % of children discharged as recovered from acute malnutrition at SSNR sites
- Project Outputs:
- Increase equitable access to quality essential nutrition services
- Services are embedded within strengthened health systems and are tailored to the needs of the population.
- Increase access to supplements and messages on healthy diets among women, adolescent girls and children while building greater awareness about health-seeking behavior and healthy diets.
- Citizens can influence government and other decision-makers on the drivers of preventable deaths from poor nutrition
- Locations/Areas of Intervention:
- Maiduguri Metropolitan City (MMC)/Jere (4 outpatient therapeutic program centers, 2 stabilization centers)
- Monguno Local Government Areas (LGA) (4 outpatient therapeutic program centers)
- Operating Partners:
- IRC- The lead consortium partner providing nutrition and governance support across the project locations.
- Green concern for Development: Provide nutrition services in MMC and Jere (2 OTPs)
- Targeted Groups:
- Children 6 – 59 months, Caregivers (Male and females), community volunteers and community leaders.
- Project Title:
Responsibilities
Endline Objectives:
- To assess the relevance, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the SSNR project interventions (CMAM, IYCF, Tom-brown and PDIA).
- Independently assess project progress against project indicators.
- Identify implementation gaps, learning and actionable recommendations to stakeholders for future programming and sustainability.
Scope of work:
- To achieve the objective of assessing the relevance, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability of the SSNR project interventions (CMAM, IYCF, Tom-Brown, and PDIA), the consultant will carry out the following tasks:
- Design and finalize the evaluation framework and methodology, ensuring alignment with international standards and donor expectations.
- Conduct a desk review of project documents, including baseline data, project reports, and monitoring data to establish context and track progress against planned indicators.
- Develop and validate tools for data collection (quantitative and qualitative), incorporating indicators that reflect relevance, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability.
- Conduct field data collection across all intervention LGAs using mixed methods, including key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and household surveys.
- Analyze community and caregiver knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to nutrition, with a full comparison of endline findings to baseline data to measure changes and impact.
- Identify key implementation gaps, challenges, and successes related to each of the project components (CMAM, IYCF, Tom-Brown, and PDIA).
- Provide actionable recommendations based on the evidence gathered to inform future programming, scale-up strategies, and sustainability efforts.
- Independently assess progress made against the project’s logframe indicators and theory of change.
- Present key findings to IRC, GREENCODE, and relevant stakeholders, incorporating feedback into the final report.
Evaluation Criteria:
- The final evaluation will be based on OECD DAC criteria. The main evaluation questions are based on SSNR project quality framework as described below:
- Relevance:
- Assess how well the SSNR project design and interventions (CMAM, IYCF, and Tom-Brown implementation) addressed the actual nutritional needs of children under five, pregnant and lactating women (PLW), and caregivers in Monguno and Maiduguri.
- Evaluate the alignment of project objectives with community priorities and the broader nutrition and health goals of Borno State.
- Collect community and stakeholder feedback to validate whether the program remained appropriate and responsive over its implementation period.
- Effectiveness:
- Measure the extent to which the SSNR project achieved its intended outcomes, such as increased access to skilled breastfeeding support, micronutrient intake, and quality treatment for acute malnutrition.
- Examine changes in key nutrition indicators (e.g., MUAC, SAM/MAM treatment rates) among under-five children and PLWs.
- Document successes and lessons learned how well program interventions performed in each of the eight (8) implementation communities.
- Efficiency:
- Review the cost-effectiveness and timeliness of project implementation strategies.
- Assess how well resources (funds, staff, supplies, partnerships) were utilized in delivering nutrition services across the LGAs.
- Identify any bottlenecks or inefficiencies in coordination between IRC, GREENCODE, health workers, and community volunteers.
- Impact:
- Evaluate the broader effects of the SSNR interventions on maternal and child health outcomes in the target communities.
- Analyze how the program influenced community awareness, health-seeking behavior, and practices around child feeding and nutrition.
- Investigate any unintended positive or negative consequences of the intervention.
- Sustainability:
- Assess the likelihood of continued delivery of nutrition services (CMAM, IYCF, Tom-Brown supplementation) beyond the project’s end, especially by local health structures and community groups.
- Review existing community-based problem-solving mechanisms introduced or supported by the project.
- Provide recommendations for strengthening institutional capacity, community ownership, and potential scale-up of successful models.
- Relevance:
Deliverables:
- Inception Report:
- Conduct an in-depth literature review
- Complete Inception meeting
- Develop of data collection plan and tools
- Write and present a comprehensive inception report.
- Data Collection:
- Design and development of data collection tools
- Conduct Proper training of data collectors on both qualitative and quantitative questionnaires
- Continuous monitoring of data collected by assessing the reported data
- Supervise data collection exercise to improve data quality
- Conduct Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) discussions
- Clean and analyze data (Quantitative and Qualitative)
- Draft assessment report
- Final Reporting:
- Organize and hold workshops to present findings and recommendations and co-develop work plans
- Submit a final report of not more than 40 pages excluding annexes.
Payment Rate and Schedule:
- Payment rates shall be subject to negotiations. Payments shall be scheduled at inception stage (40%) and at the final reporting stage (60%) based on satisfactory completion of the key deliverables.
Requirements
- At least a master’s degree or PhD in one of the following fields is required: Food Security and Nutrition, Public health, Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation, Social Sciences, Nursing or any related medical field.
- Experience in Implementation of Nutrition technical assessments such as SMART, SQUEAC will be a plus.
- Prior experience in carrying out Endline assessment of UKAID funded project will be a plus.
- Experience with the use of Mixed method approach and use of Commcare, Kobo collect, ODK for tool design.
- Experience working in Nigeria, especially in BAY states. Experience as a consultant producing and delivering quality results.
- Experience in interacting with stakeholders at all levels, including but not limited to community, facility level and state.
- Experience in fostering open dialogue, building trust, and engaging key stakeholders.
- Excellent interpersonal skills required, including strong professional communication ability.
- Advanced computer skills with proficiency in Windows, Microsoft Office and other digital media
- Strong written and spoken English ability.
Remuneration
- Compensation: Monthly
- Currency: United Kingdom Pound.
Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should send their Application to: [email protected] using the Job Title as the subject of the email.
Application Procedure
- Interested candidates are kindly requested to adhere to the following instructions:
- Submit technical and financial proposals -embedded in one PDF document. Ensure it includes a cover page, description of your understanding of the consultancy, technical approach and updated Curriculum Vitae/Resume of the relevant personnels (Not exceeding 15 pages).
- Please note that the technical proposal should cover the methodology describing how the objectives and research questions will be addressed.
- The consultant should include a work plan and link to previous evaluations conducted in the past 3 years.
- Also note that the financial proposal should be submitted with a breakdown of thematic cost areas such as evaluation of staffing costs, training costs, travel costs and field data collection costs.
- Financial proposal costing can either be made in Naira or USD.
