Introduction

CARE International has been in operation in Somalia/Somaliland since 1981 implementing both Humanitarian and Development programs. Over the years, CARE International has forged strong working relationships with local communities and authorities throughout the country. Building on its commitment to strengthening local capacities and emphasis on local actions and solutions to local issues. CARE is working with 19 national NGOs to provide Humanitarian and development assistance across different regions of Somalia/Somaliland.

CARE is registered with both the Somali Federal Government and its Member States as well as Somaliland line ministries for the implementation of Health and Nutrition programs. CARE’s emergency response focus on the needs of the most vulnerable populations, particularly girls and women. CARE implements its emergency response through Health & Nutrition, Education in Emergencies, Protection, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), Food security, and livelihood sectors with aim of providing a holistic response to the multiple needs of the most vulnerable people in the community.

Health and Nutrition sectors are key areas of humanitarian interventions for CARE among drought-affected and displaced communities in the regions of Lower Jubba, Galmudug, Sool, Sanaag, Bari, and Togdheer. As the drought situation is getting worse, CARE is planning to undertake a Standardized, Monitoring and Assessment in the Relief and Transition- (SMART) survey to assess the current nutritional levels of the populations particularly under5 children and pregnant and lactating women (PLW)rs living in the targeted areas,

Overall goal and objectives of the assessment

The main objective of this survey is to estimate the nutrition status of children under 5 years and pregnant and lactating women-PLW and factors influencing their nutrition status in selected districts of Erigavo, Elafweyn, Badhan, Caynaba, Lasanood, Bosaso, Dhusamareeb, Abudwak, and Kismayo

The specific objectives are

1. Estimate the prevalence of acute malnutrition 6-59 months
2. Determine the proxy level of IYCF standard indicators among children 0- 23 months
3. Assess the maternal nutrition status of women of childbearing age (WCBA) and Pregnant and lactating women (PLWs)
4. Estimate retrospective crude mortality rate and under-five mortality rate
5. Establish coverage of Vitamin A and deworming among children under five years
6. Estimate rate of hand washing during critical times
7. Estimate key food security indicators at the household level
8. To determine the coverage of measles vaccination among 9-59 months aged children and Vitamin A supplementation and deworming among 6-59 months and 12-59 months respectively.
9. To determine safe water access, sanitation, and hygiene practices of the survey population.
10. To assess the current food consumption score and coping strategy situation of the surveyed population.
11. To draw recommendations for addressing identified gaps and support advocacy, planning, decision-making, and monitoring purposes.

Study area

The survey will be conducted in SOM-SHARP targeted districts of Erigavo, Elafweyn, Badhan, Caynaba, Lasanood, Bosaso Dhusamareeb, Abudwak, and Kismayo. CARE will agree with the consultant on the specific villages to be targeted for data collection.

Study Methodology

The survey will use the Standardized, Monitoring and Assessment in the Relief and Transition-SMART methodology. This method is an improved survey method that balances simplicity for rapid assessment of acute emergencies and technical soundness[1] of the process. ENA software 2020 will be used to run all possible analyses expected within a standard SMART survey that includes analysis for standardization test, calculation of samples, selection of clusters, and final calculation of wasting both for WHZ score and MUAC. CARE expects the consultant to develop a detailed and realistic methodology within the stated approach that best serves the purpose and scope of this survey.

Sampling

For survey will use systematic random sampling stratified two-stage cluster sampling design. Each district will serve as the primary stratum for the survey. The first stage of sampling will involve a cluster sampling design with Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) sampling to sample villages/IDPs (clusters) within each district, which will serve as the primary units for the survey. In each village/IDPs a sample will be drawn independently. A systematic random sampling methodology will be used to select households in each cluster.

For the qualitative tools, a purposive sampling approach will be used to select participants for the Focus Group Discussions-FGD and Key Informant Interviews-KII to get an in-depth view of the situation. Each FGD comprises 8-12 men/women participants. FGDs will also be disaggregated by age i.e., under 19 yrs and 19+yrs in order to gauge the age-specific views of participants.

Survey Teams

Depending on the sample size, the number of teams to be employed will be determined during the inception phase. However, for planning purposes, each team will comprise 4 team members each. 2 measurers, 1 Team Leader, and 1 community guide.

Survey Team Roles:

Measures: Will take anthropometric measurements following the right procedures ensuring the accuracy of taking and reading.

Team Leader: Ensure proper procedure in HH selection, introduce the team to the community leadership, record measurement and manage cluster control forms.

Community Guide: Will lead and introduce the teams in the community. Will help in the identification of selected HH.

For high data quality standards, each team will be required to constantly update the overall survey supervisor on the progress. The consultant and the field team supervisors are required to randomly visit the teams and observe the completeness of the questionnaire, the accuracy of anthropometric measurements, and any other challenges faced by the team. This will allow early identification of any technical issues that might have a negative impact on the outcome of the survey.

Training of enumeration teams

Enumeration teams will be selected to undertake the actual data collection in the targeted districts. CARE has a pool of roster data collectors who have taken quite a several training on survey data collection and become conversant in the process for both quantitative (mainly mobile data collection methods) and qualitative.

Enough teams will be identified for data collection and each team will collect data for a specific district. Each team will comprise four members paired into two and equally distributed by gender.

Enumerators will be trained for four full days to fully understand the contents of the tools. To enhance the accuracy and timeliness of data collection, during the training, enumerators will be familiarised with the purpose of the survey and the digital format of the tool to be able to fully administer the tool during the data collection. They will also have the opportunity to visit a selected cluster to undertake a piloting session to check the accuracy and coherence of the tools and more importantly identify the time to be spent in each interview. With this, they will foresee opportunities and challenges out there in the field that can facilitate or hinder data collection. After the field test, a debriefing session will be held to enable participants to share their experience in the field and what has worked or didn’t work well during the field test. This will be addressed to improve effectiveness.

Data quality management

The accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness of the assessment outcome will greatly depend on the adopted data quality management approach and measures. Thus, we aim to emphasize appropriate data quality management measures to make sure that the information collected and data captured are of the required quality. We propose;

1. **Effective supervision:**to facilitate effective supervision, a well-structured enumeration of teams will be set. Each team will have a team leader to facilitate on-spot supervision during data collection to minimize and prevent recording inappropriate data or leaving some information unanswered. In addition, the consultant will supervise the data collection at the field level to ensure adherence to the survey methodology.
2. **Frequent upload of completed interviews:**after ensuring that the data was accurately captured, team leaders will confirm that the complete forms or questionnaires are successfully uploaded to the server or database to avoid data loss. Any data that fall below the required standard will be detected and the consultant will share feedback with the field teams accordingly and on time.
3. Anonymity and confidentiality: the information provided by the participants will be held anonymously and will not be disclosed to any third party. Also, the information for the participants will not be used to any purpose other than the one stated in the consent letter and TOR for this assignment.
4. Plausibility tests: The consultant will run Plausibility tests on a daily basis. Key plausibility checks should be applied and individual team feedback should be given on time.

Time frame

The survey will be conducted within a period of 45 days including training days, travel, data collection time, and analysis and reporting. The consultant should clearly articulate their ability to accomplish the required tasks within the specified timeline due to the urgent need to use the findings in the current response. The field data collection is expected to take place between February and March 2023. The first draft of the report should be submitted no later than 10 working days after data is completed

Consultant Roles and responsibilities.

• Develop a detailed inception report highlighting appropriate methodology and design survey protocol to share them with CARE technical team and nutrition cluster for validation.
• Develop tools for data collection and testing in ODK
• Assume overall responsibility for the design and implementation of the SMART survey, including daily supervision of teams and daily data collection quality assurance
• Train the data collection teams and data clerks in data collection standards and the use of the tools (including field testing)
• Implement the SMART survey in targeted districts and villages.
• Be responsible for data cleaning and analysis using appropriate software ENA for SMART, and ODK).
• Prepare a draft SMART survey report for review by CARE Somalia, ensuring that the assessment is comprehensive and includes all relevant indicators
• Prepare and lead a validation workshop (debriefing) for CARE Somalia Team
• Prepare a final report including background, methodology, results, limitations, conclusions, and recommendations incorporating feedback from CARE Somalia staff and other Nutrition stakeholders on the draft report and tools.

CARE’s role and responsibilities

• The project team, country office MEAL staff, and technical advisors will provide all the necessary support for the SMART survey.
• Provide project documents and will provide technical assistance (e.g. avail any other documents and information needed etc).
• Facilitate logistic arrangements including travel, accommodation, etc
• Recruit Enumerators
• Mobilize the target groups for interviews
• Liaise with respective line ministries both at the federal and Jubaland state level
• Provide input to the inception report, tools, and KAP draft report

Deliverables.

• Inception report that includes the design, implementation, and supervision strategy of the survey including data collection tools
• Data Collectors training power point
• First draft SMART survey report
• Submit PowerPoint presentation of key findthe ing
• Final detailed report with recommendations

Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in Nutrition, Public Health, Epidemiology, Biostatistics or related field. Certification in SMART Manager is a requirement.
• At least seven years of work experience at national or international levels in managing SMART nutrition surveys in Somalia or similar contexts.
• Sound knowledge and understanding of EPI INFO and emergency nutrition assessments(ENA) for SMART
• Experience in conducting Health, Nutrition, food security, and WASH assessments
• Experience in organizing and leading training
• Strong communication and training skills
• Experience working in Somalia and understanding of the dynamics
• Experience and knowledge of nutrition data analysis usingENA, EPI Info, SPSS, and KOBO.
• Somali language speaking is a pre-requisite

Application Requirements.

The below requirements will be considered as part of the selection process and therefore, all interested applicants are encouraged to send;

1. A technical and financial proposal highlighting their understanding of the ToR and how they propose to respond to the ToR requirements including the evaluation design, tools and technologies in place for them to perform the assignment, implementation plan, etc, and financial quote.
2. Company Profile:
3. Team structure: details of the consultant’s capacity and how they structure the evaluation team. This also includes the CVs of key evaluation teams including the lead consultant(s).
4. Sample work: at least three (3) samples of similar work (evaluation reports) performed for peer organizations in Somalia or in the Horn of Africa region for the last 3 years.
5. References: Names and contact details of at least three (3) organizations that have been performed similar work.

NB: Proposed key personnel used for bidding are expected to be the people executing the work of this contract.

[1] Official SMART Survey definition