Senior consultant to review of IYCF Packages for alignment with the new Complimentary Feeding Guide and Integration of ECD Elements at United Nations Children’s Fund: (Deadline 28 June 2024)

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For every child, Nutrition

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Background:

Since its launch the IYCF counselling cards in Rwanda have been operational for the last 10 years at all levels under the leadership of NCDA and MOH. UNICEF and WHO continue to work with partners to provide guidance and Technical Support to facilitate the operationalization of the MIYCN across different sectors.

The c-IYCF counseling package was first published in 2010 by UNICEF in collaboration with NCDA and USAID. Its focus is on skills building and it uses participatory adult learning techniques for people of low literacy. The c-IYCF counselling package was developed as SBCC tool for improving IYCF practices. It includes IYCF practices, hygiene and sanitation, feeding the sick child, infant feeding and HIV, recognizing danger signs, maternal nutrition and Family Planning. The package includes a planning guide, facilitator guide, a participant manual, counseling cards with high quality images.

WHO also recently finalized recommendations on improving Early Childhood Development. As part of their recommendations, they stated that responsive care and early learning should be included in interventions for optimal nutrition of infants and young children. The nutrition lead community-IYCF counselling packages provide a good opportunity to integrate these ECD elements as they are already widely used and integrated among nutrition programmes. Moreover, in November 2023 new global Guideline for complementary feeding of infants and young children 6–23 months of age published. This guideline provides evidence-based recommendations on complementary feeding of infants and young children 6–23 months of age living in low, middle-and high-income countries. It considers the needs of both breastfed and non-breastfed children.

The purpose of the consultancy is to do a thorough review of the generic IYCF counseling package (including the planning guide, facilitator’s guide, participant’s manual and counseling cards) to make recommendations to strengthen the ECD elements, particularly support for responsive feeding, and opportunities for early learning and possibly attention to maternal mental health or wider care for caregiver well-being. The consultant will also review the c-IYCF packages to ensure consistency and alignment with the November 2023 WHO complimentary feeding guideline.

The WHO/UNICEF Care for Child Development will be a good source for identifying updates in IYCF materials related to responsive caregiving and early learning.  The consultant will work close with the UNICEF/NCDA team that is spearheading adaptation and strengthening of ECD and nutrition services to support responsive feeding and caregiving, early learning and aspects of safety and security.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The purpose of the consultancy is to do a thorough review of the generic MIYCN/IYCF counseling package (including the planning guide, facilitator’s guide, participant’s manual and counseling cards) to align with the new Complimentary Feeding Guide and make recommendations to strengthen the ECD elements, particularly support for responsive feeding, and opportunities for early learning and possibly attention to maternal mental health or wider care for caregiver well-being.

Key Tasks:

In consultation with NCDA and UNICEF Nutrition and ECD teams:

1. Consult with the technical working group for this task to identify related global goods and materials.
2. Map and review the content of the current IYCF counseling package according to the 5 components/domains of nurturing care (including the planning guide, facilitator guide, participant’s manual and counseling cards) and the new Nov 2023 complimentary feeding guideline to identify gaps and good practices.
3. Assess alignment and complementarity between the IYCF counseling package and other packages (such as IMCI package, CCD or other parenting/caregiving packages)
4. Provide clear recommendations on revisions and additional content to be made/included in the current IYCF counseling package
5. Revised IYCF counselling cards and relevant materials
6. Pre-test the new content of the package
7. Provide a summary of findings from review of packages including lessons learned and best practices.
8. Develop a slide deck that can be used for dissemination and present to the TWG.
9. Short report on key findings
10. Draft paper for peer-reviewed journal
11.  The consultant will do a pre-test in three Districts for 2 days in each District.

Tasks/Milestone:

• Map and review the content of the current IYCF counseling package according to the 5 components/domains of nurturing care (including the planning guide, facilitator guide, participant’s manual and counseling cards) and the new Nov 2023 complimentary feeding guideline to identify gaps and good practices.
• Assess alignment and complementarity between the IYCF counseling package and other packages (such as IMCI package, CCD or other parenting/caregiving packages)
• Provide clear recommendations on revisions and additional content to be made/included in the current IYCF counseling package.
• Revised IYCF counselling cards and relevant materials
• Pre-test the new content of the package
• Provide a summary of findings from review of packages including lessons learned and best practices.
• Develop a slide deck that can be used for dissemination and present to the TWG.
• Short report on key findings
• Draft paper for peer-reviewed journal

Deliverables/Outputs:

Payment 1: 40%

1. Key findings report available: Describing identified gaps, additional content, and recommendations. To be completed by 30 June 2024

Payment 2: 30%

2. Updated pre-test IYCF counselling cards and relevant materials (including the planning guide, facilitator guide, participant’s manual and counseling cards). To be completed by 30 July 2024
3. A summary report of findings available from review of packages including lessons learned and best practices. To be completed by 30 July 2024

Payment 3: 40%

4. Final report and slide deck finalized. To be completed by 30 November 2024
5. Draft paper for peer-reviewed journal finalized. To be completed 30 December 2024

Duration and Location

The consultancy will be for 6 months from June to December 2024 and the consultant will work from home and in the office (UNICEF)

Selection Criteria

Applications shall be assessed based on their technical and financial proposals. Maximum scores for technical and financial applications will be 75% and 25%, respectively.

Successful candidates in technical evaluation will be requested to send their most competitive, all-inclusive financial proposals.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Child Nutrition, public health or early child development
• Minimum of 8 years of expertise in the development and implementation of programmatic tools and guidance for child health/nutrition/early child development programming
• Clear understanding of child health, nutrition and ECD programming at the PHC level (e.g. IMCI, iCCM, IYCF etc.)
• Highly motivated, with the ability to work independently, take initiative and finalize deliverables.
• Work in a multi-cultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships.
• Strong interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills.
• Knowledge of Rwanda’s nutrition landscape and MIYCN Rwanda package is an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit  here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks: 

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.