Nutrition International www.nutritionintl.org (formerly Micronutrient Initiative) is an international Non-Governmental Organization dedicated to ensuring that the world's most vulnerable -especially women and children in developing countries - get the vitamins and minerals they need to survive and thrive. With headquarters in Ottawa, Canada Nutrition International maintains regional offices in New Delhi, India and Nairobi that manage country offices in Asia and Africa.

POSITION PROFILE

Background

Technical Assistance for Nutrition (TAN) is a project supported by UK aid from the UK government, and seeks to improve the capacity of countries who have joined the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement to design, deliver, and track the progress of nutrition programs and to generate, learn from and adopt knowledge of what works. NI is contributing to TAN by coordinating the provision of technical assistance (TA) to help national SUN Focal Points (SUN FPs) in select countries to overcome gaps in capacity for the design and delivery of multi-sectoral national nutrition plans, tapping into its global hub to source and deploy the expertise needed.

Under-nutrition is a major public health concern in Bangladesh, severely limiting the development of individuals and the country. Though there has been significant progress in tackling undernutrition, still 36.1% of the children under five years of age are stunted, 14.3% are wasted and 32.6% are underweight.

Access to adequate nutrition as a basic human right is enshrined in the Constitution of Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) is committed to invest in nutrition, and has been developing various policies and policy instruments integrating food security and nutrition. The National Nutrition Policy (NNP) endorsed in October 2015 provides the necessary direction to implement and strengthen strategies and actions to improve the nutritional status of the population. Aligning with the objectives of the NNP and expressing the country’s continued commitment to combat malnutrition in all its forms, the second National Plan of Action for Nutrition (NPAN2) 2016-2025, approved by the Hon’ble Prime Minister
in August 2017, has been formulated with identified priority strategic actions.

Advocacy and social mobilization have been stipulated as key activities under the NPAN2. Bangladesh has also formulated national comprehensive Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Strategy which was endorsed in 2016 with actions prioritized to contribute significantly for improvements in food and nutrition security. Advocacy towards sustainability is envisaged as central to implementation of the SBCC strategy.

The strategy proposes development of an advocacy plan led by the Bangladesh National Nutrition Council (BNNC), which is currently being revitalized, to advocate with the policy makers for existing nutrition planning and programmatic gaps, and necessary policy change. In course of revitalization of BNNC, there is plan to establish advocacy and communication as one of the core nutrition platforms. In addition, the in-country partners, guided through their organizational mandates and interests, are also engaging in advocacy for nutrition policy/program design and decision-making at different levels.

A need exists to consolidate all ongoing efforts to build and strengthen consensus for actions to be steered by the BNNC to ensure political, legislative and social support for nutrition issues through advocacy. In this context, the SUN FP of Bangladesh has sought TA from NI under the TAN project to support formulation of an advocacy plan for nutrition aligned with the comprehensive SBCC strategy to be led by the BNNC to raise the profile of nutrition among government, donors, and partners in view of strengthening commitments and investments in nutrition-specific and -sensitive actions.

Under TAN, NI is currently supporting the BNNC with a long-term TA provider for its revitalization and restructuring, and is preparing to support for operationalization and monitoring of NPAN2.

Objectives

Overall objective

Support the formulation of an evidence-based advocacy plan for nutrition aligned with the national SBCC strategy for advocacy with government and other partners. The advocacy plan will seek to increase focus on nutrition, thereby facilitating enabling policies and interventions, commitments and investments.

Specific objectives

1. Analyze existing national nutrition policies, plans, guidelines, legislative frameworks, etc. to identify gaps and key focus areas that could be addressed through advocacy
2. Assess ongoing/planned advocacy efforts and mandates of different partners to identify ways to consolidate the efforts for better alignment with actions prioritized under SBCC strategy
3. Design a robust advocacy plan for nutrition by engaging with national and subnational level stakeholders
4. Garner stakeholder consensus for finalization of advocacy plan for nutrition

Expectations

This TA is expected to bring a significant contribution to the country government’s ability to influence high-level decision-makers for increased commitments to nutrition. It is expected that this consultancy will lead to the following results:

1. Nutrition advocacy needs will be identified through improved coordination and coherence among relevant in-country stakeholders.
2. An advocacy plan for nutrition will be agreed upon by the government and other relevant stakeholders.

Nutrition International is committed to gender equality. Consultant(s) are required to indicate how they will ensure that gender equality considerations are included in the provision of TA.

Scope of Work
The purpose of the TA is to support the design of an advocacy plan (including implementation modalities) for nutrition to guide bolstering of efforts of the government and other partners to increase focus on nutrition in their agenda.

Expected duration of the assignment is 60 working days spread over a period of six months.

This TA could be delivered by either one consultant or a team of consultants. In case this support is provided by a team of consultants, the lead consultant will share the list of consulting team members with NI for agreement on roles and responsibilities of each team member. The lead consultant will be assigned the overall role of managing this assignment and be responsible for the work completed by other team members and all resulting deliverables. The consultant(s) will work in synergy with technical assistance team envisaged under the BNNC.

Applicant(s) are requested to present specific objective-based activities along with proposed level of effort required for each activity, in terms of number of days, as part of their technical proposal.

Deliverables

1. Detailed work plan, within 2 weeks from the date of signing of the contract
2. Desk review report prepared including:
• Gaps in existing nutrition policies, plans and government commitments, and key thrust areas that could be addressed through advocacy
• Ongoing/planned advocacy efforts and mandates of different partners for consolidation and better alignment of actions
• Stakeholder mapping consisting of potential allies, key influencers, and target audience for nutrition advocacy
3. Summary report of Key Informant Interviews (KIIs)/consultations with stakeholders at national and sub-national level to gain inputs for development of advocacy plan
4. Draft advocacy plan for nutrition developed including:
• Advocacy actions
• Advocacy messages
• Implementation roadmap/modalities
• Stakeholders roles and responsibilities matrix
• Monitoring and evaluation framework
• Budget plan
5. Multi-stakeholder workshop conducted to garner consensus for validation and finalization of the advocacy plan. Workshop report prepared.
6. Final advocacy plan for nutrition shared

Duty Station/Location
The consultant/all or some of the team members will be based out of Dhaka, Bangladesh for this assignment. The BNNC will provide official work space to the consultant(s) to hold joint discussions, meetings and reviews. The consultant(s) are expected to visit NI Country Office regularly to apprise the Country Director and team of the progress made.

Travel
The consultant(s) are expected to undertake some travel to/within the country. All travel required under this consultancy will be provided for by NI and/or BNNC/GoB.

Time line
This support to the BNNC would be for a period of up to 60 working days spread over 6 months, starting from 1st August 2018 to 31st January 2019.

Management and Reporting/Coordination mechanism

1. The consultant(s) will directly report to the Additional Secretary, MoHFW who is also the Government SUN Focal Point, and work closely with Joint Secretary, MoHFW. The consultant(s) will also work closely with Secretary and other officials of BNNC and MoHFW, and NI team members.
2. The BNNC will facilitate the operational linkages with all the other relevant sectors and stakeholders under this TA.
3. The consultant(s) are expected to work in close coordination and harmony with other consultants/development partners working with the BNNC and MoHFW.
4. NI will provide the funding for the assignment, and payment will be subject to performance and reaching deliverables as agreed upon at the moment of contract signing.
5. NI will provide technical input into the assignment and is responsible for assuring the quality of the work being delivered by the consultants.

Profile/qualifications of consultant
The lead consultant will be selected following a competitive recruitment process.

The consultant(s) will possess expertise in the fields of advocacy/communication/public affairs/media relations related to health/food and nutrition security. In case the TA is provided by a team, the lead consultant would be responsible for work completed by the team members.

The profile of the lead consultant/team has been presented below.

Education:

• Post-graduate level qualification in Development Communications/International Development/Media/International relations/any other related field(s)
• Qualification in Nutrition would be an advantage

Language Skills:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is mandatory
• Fluency in written and spoken Bengali is mandatory

Experience:

1. Excellent knowledge of Bangladesh’s national nutrition and health policies and programs
2. Proven international/regional/national/sub-national level experience of supporting government(s) in developing and implementing advocacy strategies or field based advocacy initiatives, preferable in the area of health/nutrition/food and nutrition security. Experience of working in Bangladesh will be an advantage
3. Excellent analytical and communication skills
4. Proven experience of engaging with relevant stakeholders including development partners, and managing and working with multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral working groups in national and/or sub-national settings
5. Experience of working in a multi-cultural environment is an asset

Application Process

Interested consultants are invited to submit the following by email to TechnicalAssistance@NutritionIntl.org before 18th March 2018.

• Up-to-date curriculum vitae of consultant/all team members.
• Technical proposal: not exceeding five pages, describing the consultant(s) understanding of the task, proposed methodology, roles and responsibilities of each team member (clearly linking their expertise to the role required) and detailed work plan that breaks down activities and outputs as per timeline.
• Financial proposal: including monthly/daily fee rate(s) for each member, suggested number of trips/days to/within the country and any other expenses required to fulfill the terms of the consultancy (meetings, materials, etc.).

Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered.

Kindly mention 'BGD-05 – Advocacy Plan Support’ in the subject line of the email.

Nutrition International (NI) is committed to the fundamental principles of equal employment opportunity. Women are encouraged to apply.

NI is a non-smoking work environment