Terms of Reference (ToR)

Conducting an Annual Household Survey of SONGO project

BACKGROUND:

Cordaid (former ICCO Cooperation) is an international organization, whose mission is to end poverty and injustice in the global south, in partnership with enterprising people. We invest in the power and dreams of entrepreneurial people, stimulate their entrepreneurial spirit, and connect them with businesses, governments and social organizations.

Cordaid is playing the lead role in implementing the EU funded “Sustained Opportunities for Nutrition Governance (SONGO) project” aims to improve maternal and child nutrition in Kurigram and Gaibandha districts. The SONGO is 5 years long project with 4 inter-linked outcomes; (1) Local nutrition governance and decision-making mechanisms are strengthened (2) Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition Practices are improved (3) Household WASH Practices Improved (4) Household access to nutritious food is improved. RDRS Bangladesh has been Cordaid's long standing partner in a variety of large poverty alleviation and development projects in Bangladesh, often with food security components. RDRS Bangladesh is implementing project activities such as community mobilization, capacity building, committees' formation, meeting organization, workshops, monitoring, etc at a field level.

SONGO emphasizes the importance of sustained governance as a primary outcome and a precondition to achieve other outcomes that are based on three interlinked pillars or pathways (as per the UNICEF Conceptual Framework on Under nutrition and used in 2008 & 2013 Lancet Series):

  • HH food and nutrition security (including availability, economic access and use of food)
  • Feeding and care giving resources and practices (including maternal, HH and community levels)
  • Access to and use of health services as well as a safe and hygienic environment (i.e. food, care and health).

While availability and accessibility of nutritious and safe food at HH level is a precondition for improved nutrition it does not automatically lead to improved nutrition among all HH members. Lack of nutrition, health and WASH related knowledge, attitudes and practices as well as intra-HH dynamics often impede nutrition improvement. Evidence has also shown that the extent to which women have access to and control over productive resources, time, knowledge and social support networks largely determine their own nutritional status and the kind of care they provide for their children and for the rest of the HHs. The nutritional status of a woman before and during pregnancy has a direct impact on the development and nutritional status of her baby. In order to address child undernutrition fully, the SONGO project will therefore employ nutrition-specific as well as nutrition-sensitive interventions through a lifecycle approach to deliver the right services and messages to the right person at the right time. The implementation will incorporate a Social and Behavior Change (SBC) strategy, using multiple approaches

 2. WORKING AREA AND TARGET GROUPS:

SONGO project is implemented in 18 unions of 6 Upazillas in Kurigram and Gaibandha district with direct 148,000 beneficiary households focused on women with reproductive age, youth, adolescent and children. The table below illustrates the working areas:

District
Upazila
Union
Kurigram Chilmari Chilmari and Ramna
Rowmari Bandaber, Datvanga and Jadurchar
Char Rajibpur Rajibpur and Mohonganj
Gaibandha Gaibandha Sadar Ghagoa ,Gidari and Kamarjani
Sundarganj Belka, Chandipur, Haripur, Sreepur and Tarapur
Fulchhari Fulchhari,Udakhali and Kanchi Para

3. TARGET AUDIENCE

SONGO is working with 148000 households covering 95000 Women with Reproductive Age, 90000 Male adults, 80000 Adolescent, 55000 children under 5 years of age, 20000 children under 2 years of age. The major stakeholders are as follows:

  • 2 District Nutrition Coordination Committee (DNCC)
  • 6 Upazila Nutrition Coordination Committee (UNCC)
  • 18 Union Development Coordination Committee (UDCC)
  • 18 Union WATSAN Committee (UWC)
  • 18 Union Disaster Management Committee (UDMC)
  • 72 Union Parishad Standing Committee (UPSC)
  • 162 Ward WATSAN Committee (WWC)
  • 18 Union Federation 
  • 1800 Producer Group
  • 67 Community Clinic (CC)
  • 13 Union Health & Family Welfare Center (UH&FWC)
  • 162 Nutrition Sales Agent (NSA)
  • 36 Farm Business Advisor (FBA)
  • 54 WASH entrepreneurs
  • 1045 trained youth
  • 6 NSA Association  
  • 3 Private companies
  • Government frontline workers of DAE, DLS, DOF and health.

4. PURPOSE OF THIS CONSULTANCY:

SONGO has a plan to submit an annual progress report to its donors. As a part of this process an annual household survey is required to be conducted to measure the updated status of outcome level indicators which is not possible to report without any assessment.
The major purposes of the assignment are as follows:

  • To measure the present status of outcome and output level indicators as agreed to report annually to donor and incidental analytics;
  • To measure the effectiveness of the specific interventions that have been implemented in this fiscal year;
  • To identify the improvement area for project activities implementation and the potential recommendation/solution/alternatives to overcome the same.
  • Based on the findings, provide specific data-driven recommendations on what needs to emphasize for the remaining period of the project to reach the objectives and ensure sustainability.

5. PROPOSED APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY:

The study should be conducted by using mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) and gathering information from both primary and secondary sources, including drawing on successes from similar initiatives and contexts as well. The consulting firm/consultant(s) will be required to design a detailed methodology, tools, and work plan in close consultation with the SONGO PMEL team. The Consulting firm/consultant must use online data collection tools to collect the information, and throughout the collection process must ensure the SONGO PMEL team is given access to exports (preferably xls format) for ensuring quality and providing timely concerns to the consultancy team.

Tentative sample size by population groups and methods:

SL
Target group/respondent
Sample size
01
Face to face interview:
Pregnant women, Children 0-5 months, Children 6-23 months and Children 24-59 months
1000
02
In Depth Interview for capacity assessment:
DNCC, UNCC, UDCC, UWC, WWC
15-20
03
Focus Group Discussion:
Adolescent boys and girls, household heads, pregnant and lactating mothers, producer group member etc.
25-30
04
Key Informant Interview:
Retailers, Agri-service providers, pregnant women, lactating mothers, adolescent girls,Private company
10-15
05
Meeting:
Staff, UDCC members, UNCC members, and DNCC members
06-10
06
Case stories
05

6. DELIVERABLES:

The selected consulting firm/consultant (s) must deliver according to the signed contract with      SONGO, however below are the major deliverables for the consultant(s):

  • The chosen consultant should submit an inception report after reviewing the project documents and communication with SONGO PMEL team.
  • A detailed work plan and methodologies which can be adjusted after sharing with SONGO team.
  • Interview schedule/questionnaire for household data collection and FGD, KIIs which will be revised by SONGO team before applying for data collection.
  • The brief report of the assessment with potential recommendations in both soft and 3 hard bound copies, including data table annexures upon completion of the consultancy.
  • The copies of all resource materials used (including data, interview transcripts, images etc) should be submitted in Soft Copy upon completion of the assignment.

7. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CONSULTANT (not limited to):

The chosen consulting firm/consultant(s) must perform some responsibilities by themselves, and which may be adjusted after consultation with SONGO team:

  • Meet with the SONGO team to get a clear understanding about the assignment
  • Adhere to data collection tools and guidelines from the consultant(s) and understand them properly, including but not limited to FANTA III, BBS - HIES, BDHS, WHO, SDG, MICS assessment methodologies in detail.
  • Prepare data collection plan and share with SONGO team for seeking suggestions/feedback and field test the data collection tools/instrument/application 
  • Recruit enumerators/field investigator and supervisors with addressing gender and Organize training of the enumerators including a day for field practice, with strong focus on correct methodology, survey protocols, avoiding bias
  • Pre-testing the data collection tools with the respondents before finalization
  • Share data cleaning and analysis plan with SONGO PMEL team for finalization
  • Clean data and analyze as per data analysis plan and share with the SONGO PMEL team
  • Prepare the final tabular report with descriptive statistics in English and submit to SONGO
  • Submit cleaned data set and brief summary report to SONGO

8. RESPONSIBILITIES OF CORDAID (not limited to):

  • Oversee the whole process of assessment and provide feedback on data collection tools, data quality controlling, draft reports.
  • Provide information about the SONGO working area, community, beneficiary information, intermediaries, government stakeholders and others if needed.
  • Upon request from consultant(s), facilitate meetings/interviews/discussions with key local stakeholders.
  • Receive all the above-mentioned deliverables from the consultant(s) with checking quality.
  • Keep close connection with consultant(s)

9.REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE OF CONSULTANT (S):

The Lead consultant should have the following:

  • An advanced degree in Nutrition Science /development studies/social sciences/Statistics/Agriculture/ Management/ Economics or other relevant disciplines from any reputed university;
  • At least 5 years' experience in leading/ conducting similar types of assignments in home and/abroad. 
  • Having in-depth knowledge and understanding about basic nutrition, food habits/consumption behaviors of rural people.
  • Experience in different survey methodologies for qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis.
  • Able to use poverty lines calibration
  • Excellent English report writing, and presentation skills is a must
  • Ability to work under pressure and to deliver in a timely manner without compromising quality standards

10. TIME FRAME:

This consultancy is expected to be completed within 31 August 2022. The consultant(s) will be expected to submit the preliminary drafts by at least 7 (seven) days before the expected end of the consultancy duration.

11. SELECTION PROCESS:

The evaluation of the consultant/firm will be based on the combined scoring method – where the methodology, qualification and experience are given 80% weightage and financial offer will be given 20% weightage. Only consultants/firms meeting a minimum of 75% of total points under technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation. The following specific criteria will be assessed:

SL
Scoring criteria
Marks
1 Technical proposal
(80)
1.1 Quality of the proposal (Understanding, Design and Methodologies, quality control mechanisms etc.) and Approach for the Deliverables
30
1.2 Organizational profile/consultants team profile (team composition and expertise of the technical team, division of roles.)
15
1.3 Work Plan and Clear breakdown of tasks according to timeline
15
1.4 Experience of similar types of work, reporting evidence etc.
20
2 Financial proposal* (Proposed amount and justification, logical and detailed breakdown of budget)
(20)

12. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSAL 

Interested consulting firms/individual consultants must submit the following documents for appraisal. The proposal should include:

  • Updated CV of Consultant(s) highlighting similar achievements
  • Introduction letter including a brief overview of the consultant’s understanding of the assignment and their suitability for the assignment;  
  • Technical proposal (understanding, methodologies, work plan, data quality control etc.) Work Plan should consider a minimum of 15 core health, nutrition, WASH, food security indicators (each multi-question), basic demographic/household profiling and with an aim to sample a minimum of 1000 households with Children under 5 residing. Following a multi-stage pseudo-random cluster sampling method, with at least all 6 Upazilas visited.
  • Financial proposal with a detailed itemized budget (honorarium, travel, enumeration cost etc.)
  • Annexes: any assignments conducted by the consultant(s) demonstrating strong use of any of FANTA III, BBS - HIES, BDHS, WHO, SDG, MICS assessment methodologies previously
  • Submit the photocopy of trade license, Income tax, VAT, organization profile (for firm only).  

Prospective consultants should submit a written proposal (Technical and Financial in separate envelop) hard copy to Parvez Zabed, Head of Finance, HR & Admin, Cordaid, Bangladesh Country Office, House 7, Road 33, Gulshan-1 Dhaka, or soft copy with duly signed by the authority to: procurement.bd@icco-cooperation.org

Any queries about the consultancy should be addressed to Md Shariful Islam, shariful.islam@cordaid.org

**Cordaid holds the authority to cancel the order without any compensation if the deliverables do not match the contract

Deadline: 30th June 2022

List of Indicators to be measured:

  • Proportion (%) of UPs that have access to and use up to date available nutrition data
  • Minimum Dietary Diversity Attainment of others and Children of 6-23 months
  • Proportion (%) of infants aged 0-6 months fed exclusively with breast milk
  • Proportion (%) of households practicing equitable food distribution among all members, as per 3 primary food groupings
  • Incidence of CU5 suffering from diarrhea
  • Proportion (%) of households using ORT and ZINC to treat diarrhea in CU5
  • Proportion of households (%) performing safe handwashing practices with soap
  • Proportion (%) of households that are food secure
  • Average # months of adequate household food provisioning
  • Average Poverty status of households (%)
  • Proportion (%) of Unions where civil society is capacitated on lobby and advocacy in local nutrition governance support structures
  • # of Nutrition Action Plans including budgets and active monitoring mechanisms in place
  • # of Unions with locally relevant Nutritional Information made available for informed decision making
  • # of Unions with Households eligible for social safety nets are identified and shared with relevant authorities
  • # of AFHCs are capacitated to provide SRH services to adolescent girls
  • # of Community Clinics with strengthened knowledge and skills in nutrition
  • # of NSAs with increasing annual sales volumes of nutritional and hygienic products
  • # Wards with Community leaders informed on gender roles in household nutrition
  • # of wards drinking water sources with water risk status identified
  • # of additional households with access to improved latrines
  • Number of WATSAN Committees (re)formed and capacitated
  • # of producer groups members trained on improved agricultural practices and climate resilient crop cultivation
  • # of youths/ women/ persons with disabilities trained to improve their skills for better employment
  • # of Farm Business Advisors capacitated to build agri-input/ output market linkages for local producers