Country: Senegal
Closing date: 27 Sep 2018
BACKGROUND
To achieve our vision of a world free from hunger, Action Against Hunger committed in its International Strategic Plan 2016-2020 to embed nutrition within all key sectors that can have an impact on people’s nutrition, including agriculture, education, health, social protection, water, sanitation and hygiene, and mental health and care practices.
A nutrition sensitive social protection will be broader than social protection and will protect and promote nutrition of the most vulnerable. While some important progress has already been achieved in the sphere of Social protection, the achievements up to today remain insufficient. That is the reason why there is a growing need and interest for having Social protection incorporated as a cornerstone of any strategy.
Action Against Hunger Regional Office for West African (WARO) has a strong interest toward nutrition sensitive Social Protection. Indeed, Social Protection programs are being developed in most countries of the region with the support of key partners such as the World Bank, ILO or UNICEF. The design and roll out of new Social Protection policies in several countries is a great window of opportunity for Action Against Hunger to influence the construction of tomorrow’s social protection systems and to make sure they will be contributing to the overall decrease of undernutrition in this region.
In Nigeria, Action Against Hunger is directly involved in the implementation of the Child Grant Development Program (CGDP) for influencing nutrition-sensitive social policy programming. Our organization also runs regular seasonal cash transfers programs in Sahel that complement national social protection programs. For that reason, the WARO started in 2015 consultation at national and regional levels to start a transitioning from food Assistance to Social Protection systems and Programs. Strong actors on Social protection (DFID, the World Bank) started consultation on Adaptative Social Protection and Action Against Hunger’s significant experience in targeting and managing cash transfers (and their associated conditionalities) focusing on nutritional outcomes was recognized by those stakeholders. That said, as Social Protection is not a core mandate of Action Against Hunger, additional resources need to be allocated in developing sound partnerships with relevant actors, particularly within national and regional institutions. Our goal is to define a pathway to influence social protection policies and programming in West Africa towards a long-term agenda in which NGOs and civil society play a prominent role in assuring the rights of the most vulnerable populations.
JUSTIFICATION OF THE CONSULTANCY PROJECT
The interest around Social protection is not recent within Action Against Hunger as our organization developed in 2009 a position paper and practical guidelines on Hunger safety nets. Since that date, Action Against Hunger has also been involved in the design, formulation and implementation of safety nets projects, while developing technical capacity at national level for strengthening social protection systems, especially in the West Africa Region as mentioned before.
However, there is a need today for our organization to integrate a broader reflection on Social protection programs, policies and systems, and to have a clear framework on Social protection to support our operational and research agenda. A first consultancy is being held at global level to reinforce Action Against Hunger´s knowledge, expertise and capacities on Social protection in order to develop a global Technical agenda for the network. This Technical agenda on nutrition sensitive social protection for West Africa will detail what is Action Against Hunger´s specific vision on Social Protection and how Action Against Hunger is going to make that vision happen by 2020, by explaining the challenges, the solutions and our contributions at global level.
Considering our high interest and involvement in the development of nutrition sensitive social protection systems in West Africa, the WARO wants to carry on the roll-out of Action Against Hunger global technical agenda on social protection in this specific region. Indeed, the WARO, HQ and missions are in great need of guidance for strategic but also programmatic positioning to guide their interventions. This will be the cornerstone of the development of Action Against Hunger’s strategy to influence social protection in this region in the year to come.
OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY PROJECT
The main objective of the consultancy is to provide technical support and guidance to Action Against Hunger for translating the global agenda on Social Protection to the specific context of the West Africa Region.
To reach that general objective, it is expected that the consultant will:
Support Action Against Hunger to identify strengths, weaknesses, risks and opportunities for working on Social protection in the context of West Africa - in a large sense: by implementing projects (as direct implementer, as technical assistant…), through advocacy, research…
Analyse how Action Against Hunger is perceived by others as an actor working on Social protection.
Identify if any gaps in the positioning and priorities defined by Action Against Hunger at global level in the Social protection technical agenda for the roll-out in the context of West Africa.
Help in defining key priorities for Action Against Hunger on Social Protection in the context of West Africa to be summarized in a document to complement the Social protection technical agenda developed at global level.
GOVERNANCE CONSIDERATiONS
The overall management of this consultancy project will be done by a Project Supervision Team composed of two (2) persons, namely the lead of the Food Security and Livelihoods Regional Advisor and the Nutrition and Health Regional Advisor based in Dakar WARO office.
The role of this Project Supervision Team will be to:
Supervise and support the consultant in accessing information and data,
Share progress of the work with the WARO team and the members of the Social protection Working Group,
Ensure an active participation of the members and persons that will take part in the consultancy project.
Apart from the WARO staff and the members of the Social Protection Working group, other internal resources persons or experts will participate in this consultancy project, especially country staff involved in social protection strategic positioning or programs. All those persons will be in charge of working with the consultant during the whole project, until the final validation of deliverables.
All technical and methodological proposals made by the consultant will need to be approved by the Supervision team.
METHODOLOGY
The methodology will have to be proposed by the consultant. Here is a tentative methodology suggested by Action Against Hunger:
1/ Desk review of Action Against Hunger policies, technical guidelines and projects directly and indirectly linked with Social Protection.
2/ Desk review and mapping of on-going initiatives related to Social Protection at West Africa regional levels relevant to Action Against Hunger´s work and mandate, especially donors initiatives and funding.
3/ Review of Action Against Hunger´s global Technical agenda on Social Protection.
4/ Consultations with internal staff (WARO, HQ and Missions) to identify strategic and programmatic priorities for Action Against Hunger in the Region based on the global agenda.
5/ Consultations with external partners and key stakeholders on social protection in the region to understand their positioning on social protection and better understand and define Action Against Hunger added-value on social protection in the region.
6/ Definition of the operational road map of the global Technical agenda for Action Hunger Hunger in social protection for West Africa region.
The consultant will have to use creative and participatory teaching and facilitation techniques in order to engage the experts in an effective learning-by-doing process. The role of the consultant will be to facilitate and guide the process of elaboration of the Technical agenda for the region.
EXPECTED DELIVERABLES
All deliverables should be provided in ENGLISH and FRENCH?
Consultancy report
Operational road map on Social protection tailored to the specific context and challenges of West Africa based on Action Against Hunger global Social Protection Agenda.
List of resources materials and tools on Social Protection relevant to Action Against Hunger´s mandate and work in West Africa.
Review and mapping of Social Protection initiatives implemented by Action Against Hunger and other main actors in the region.
TIMEFRAME OF THE CONSULTANCY PROJECT
To ensure availability of the keys persons that will have to play an active role in the proper implementation of the consultancy project, the project is planned on 2 months, meaning that the consultant will only work a few days per month on the project, depending on expected results.
The duration of the assignment is foreseen as 30 calendar days, starting in October 2018.
PROFILE OF THE CONSULTANT/PROJECT TEAM
The consultancy might be implemented by a team (e.g. junior and senior category experts) or by a single expert covering all the expertise required. The minimum skills required from the expert or from the team are listed below.
Qualification and skills:
Master or PhD in Social protection
Minimum 5 years of experience in the area of Social protection
At least 3 years of experience in consultancy projects or activities applying participatory facilitation and training techniques
At least 3 years of experience in West Africa
Good knowledge of the humanitarian sector
Good knowledge of nutrition security will be an asset
Good command of spoken and written French and English
Full computer literacy
LOGISTICS AND FINANCIAL CONDITIONS
Possibility of home-based consultancy, with a good access to internet (but also can be based in Dakar).
Flexible timetable to adapt to the time zone and availability of the contributors.
The consultant should have his/her own computer.
SELECTION PROCESS
Interested candidates should submit their proposal. The submission deadline, on Wednesday, 27th September 2018 at 17h GMT. Each proposal should include a technical and financial proposal including at least the following elements:
Project Team Capacity
Contact information
Motivation and interest to conduct the consultancy project
Detailed methodology
Detailed work plan
Detailed budget
References of similar consultancy projects
Proposals can be submitted in English or in French.
How to apply:
https://www.accioncontraelhambre.org/es/licitaciones-tenders-appel-doffres
Proposals should be submitted by email, to: lmbodj@wa.acfspain.org with copy to: Mamadou Diop Interviews might be conducted with preselected applicants before the deadline.