Consultant (Analysis of Food Security and Resilience) at Oxfam Nigeria

Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organizations (affiliates) committed to creating a just world without poverty. In Nigeria Oxfam works in the areas of Economic Justice/Sustainable Livelihoods, Humanitarian Programming to save lives, Advancing Gender Justice and Good Governance, adopting a right based approach.

We are recruiting to fill the positon below:

Job Title: Consultant – Service for the Analysis of Food Security and Resilience of Rural Households in Prosell Communities of Taraba State

Location: Taraba
Timeframe: The consultancy is expected to be completed with 25 days from the date of award. The contract is expected to start July 4th and end July 31st, 2022.
Career category: Program / Project Management

Introduction

• Oxfam is an international confederation of 19 organizations working in over 95 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice around the world. Each organization (affiliate) works together internationally to achieve a greater impact through collective efforts. Oxfam’s stated goal is to ensure vulnerable people’s needs are met (saving lives and ensuring sustainable livelihoods), transform attitudes about women’s rights and supporting more active citizenship and a more accountable state and private sector.
• By adopting a rights-based approach and in solidarity with communities, Oxfam works with partners, public and private sector institutions to achieve a fairer economy with increases in incomes for the poorest and more effective support to those affected by crisis; and to change public attitudes so the rights of women are respected, to achieve a more accountable state and private sector institutions; and a stronger civil society in which women and men know and can claim their rights.
• Oxfam, in partnership with Development Exchange Centre (DEC), is implementing a 54- month Project funded by the European Union and Oxfam in Taraba State of northern Nigeria. The Project is titled “European Union Support to Food Security and Resilience in Taraba State (PROSELL)” and is being implemented across more than 80 rural communities in 6 Local Government Areas of Taraba State.
• PROSELL has been strengthening the capacities of about 40,000 rural households who rely on agriculture and natural resource-based livelihoods through best practice knowledge transfer, household/productive assets accumulation, financial inclusion services, linkages to market systems, climate change adaptation, and social safety programs among others. There has been some reported evidence of increase in productivity and improved wellbeing among project participants in the 80 rural communities. PROSELL interventions have contributed to an improved food security situation across the communities, as more foods are produced for household consumption and for enhanced household income generation.
• Now in its fourth year of implementation, PROSELL has demonstrated that resilience programming targeted at rural populations should be multi-dimensional and comprehensive enough to stimulate far reaching change process for vulnerable households.
• The project’s main objective is to build resilience of small-scale farmers, fishermen and livestock owners in various commodity value chains and rural enterprises. Its specific objectives are:
  • To increase income of small-scale farmers by enhancing their agricultural productivity, market access, and job creation along crop, fish and livestock value chains.
  • To enhance adaptive capacities and resilience of small-scale farming households to climate change.
  • To promote cooperation and mutual benefits of farmers, livestock owners, and all value chain actors.

Rationale:

• Food security has been a major development objective of national and international governments for a long time. The term describes a situation of having continuous and unhindered access to adequate and nutritious food supplies that are always sufficient to meeting the mental and physiological needs of the people. At the national level, food security will consider self-sufficiency in food production within a country’s national borders, a net positive food trade balance sheet when participating in international food trade, and a robust economy that supports adequate purchasing power per capita.
• At the household level, food security entails that every member of the household have physical, economic, and social access to food commodities delivering a minimum requirement of 2100 kilocalories of energy per person per day at a sustainable rate. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (NBS, 2016) practically captures the priority indices for global development and equitable distribution of resources for sustainable world economy. SDG 2 aims to End Hunger, Achieve Food Security and Improved Nutrition, and Promote Sustainable Agriculture 2030. Some of the key targets set by SDG2 are to end hunger and ensure access by all people, to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round by 2030; and to end all forms of malnutrition, by 2030.
• The 2020 Global Report on Food Crises revealed that 135 million people in 56 countries are in food crises or worse (Phases 3 to 5 of IPC[1]/CH classifications), 73 million of this people are in Africa where prolonged armed conflicts, climate change and economic instability have weakened food/nutrition support systems. The report also listed northern Nigeria among the 10 worst food crisis regions across the 56 surveyed countries. According to the report, northern Nigeria has over 5 million people in food crisis representing 5% of the analyzed 103.5 million population. In addition, 18.8 million people, representing 18% of the study population in northern Nigeria, are food stressed and they are at the immediate risk of sliding into food crisis.
• The situation described above predated the COVID-19 pandemic which has now further aggravated food and nutrition insecurity in the region.
• According to the Nigerian Living Standards Survey (NLSS) conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics in December 2019, 4 out of every 10 Nigerians are extremely poor with urban and rural poverty rates at 18% and 52% respectively. This implies nearly half of the population is vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition. In 2019, the State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) report estimated 13.9 million children (43.6%) under five are stunted, and 13.4% of Nigerians are undernourished. Although the SOFI reported low global acute malnutrition (GAM) rate in Nigeria (7.0%), the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Acute malnutrition analysis conducted for September 2019 – April 2020 shows certain domains in States affected by armed conflicts (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states) have Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates of over 10%. The nutrition situation in the country will be further worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the restrictive measures and overburdened health systems leading to de-prioritization of other health challenges including malnutrition, malaria and tuberculosis.
• March 2022 Cadre Harmonisé (CH) food security analysis highlights high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition.
• The current situation would have +150% of crisis affected people as compared to the same time last year. At least 7 million people were to be in food crises situation or worse from June 2020 (+42% from this past lean season), including more than 3.7 million in North-East only (SAM burden: 289,197 children and 591,884 in need of nutrition assistance), and for the first time since a decade some crisis-like situation in parts of the North-West.Because of the COVID-19 disruptions to food supply chains, experts suggest that these figures will increase further. COVID-19 is an additional stressor that intersects with conflicts, insecurity, climate change patterns and chronic vulnerabilities, including limiting populations’ access to basic social services that is more likely to exacerbate existing needs and potentially create new crises.
• The COVID-19 pandemic is already affecting food systems directly through impacts on food supply and demand, and indirectly – but just as importantly – through decreases in purchasing power, the capacity to produce and distribute food, and the intensification of care tasks, all of which will have differentiated impacts and will more strongly affect the poor and vulnerable.
• Now in its fourth year, PROSELL has worked with and supported rural households categorized as Very Poor, Poor, Middle, and Better-Off at baseline. The aim of the project is to help in transiting as many households found in the Very Poor and Poor wealth groups to Middle and Better-Off wealth groups over the period of its implementation. It is also intended to strengthen livelihoods resilience of these rural households to shocks and stresses such as COVID-19 and other related emergencies.
• For the purpose of result monitoring, learning, accountability, and knowledge management, it has become imperative to carry out an assessment of food security situations of those vulnerable households that have been supported by the project over the past four and half years.
• It is also important to examine their resilience capacities from absorptive, adaptive, and transformative perspectives while also investigating the relevance, sustainability and ownership of various resilience-strengthening systems established across project locations.

Objective of the Study

• The overarching objective of this study is to assess food security situations among project participants in rural areas of Taraba State where implementation has been ongoing.
• The assessment will also consider how well the resilience of vulnerable households in those project locations has been strengthened.

The assignment will help in doing the following:

• Analyse the socio-economic characteristics of the sampled participants
• Carry out food security assessment among rural households in PROSELL communities of Taraba State;
• Determine the extent to which rural resilience has been deepened among project participants and their communities;
• Check improvement or otherwise of dietary intake of the households.
• Assess some underlying risks and gaps of community members in the face of food insecurity.
• Determine factors responsible for improvement, or otherwise, in food security situations of rural households and their coping strategies;
• Make appropriate recommendations for different stakeholder categories outlined below towards ensuring sustainability of project results.

Audience and Use of Findings:

• The research findings will be used for quality improvement, evidence-based programming, and advocacy targeted at government, community leaders, traditional institutions, community based organizations (CBOs), development agencies, and the donor communities. The research findings will also contribute to existing knowledge on food and nutrition security, rural resilience, and adaptive social protection.
• Outcome of this assessment will help Oxfam and its partners to enrich their livelihoods programming works to deepen resilience among vulnerable populations across contexts. It will also embolden us in facts-based arguments to convince stakeholders on the need for developing comprehensive package of intervention that can enhance peoples’ capacities to assume their rights in the face of shocks and stresses.

Suggested Methodologies:

• This study will be conducted among project participants in Taraba State. It will be expected that appropriate sampling technique be applied to the study population to arrive at sample sizes that will be used for the study. List of project participants who have been targeted and treated with relevant interventions will be presented to for use by the Consultants.
• Individuals or firms engaged for this assignment will propose their own methodologies that are consistent with the standard framework for reporting methodology. The methodology should include primary and secondary data collection tools for both quantitative and qualitative data to be collected. Furthermore, it should adopt some participatory rural appraisal approaches and as much as possible, there must be some form of counterfactual analysis in the methodology to be adopted to provide evidence for the project’s contribution.
• The consultant is expected to adopt standard statistical procedures in achieving the required sample size for the study. Appropriate sampling of project participants (consistent with an optimal power of study) will be expected to be carried out to produce statistically significant sample size to be engaged using structured questionnaire, key informant interviews (KII), and focus group discussions (FGD). The methodology to be used for this study will have to be relevant in collecting appropriate quantitative and qualitative data, mostly of primary origin, to capture and analyze the following important food security and resilience outcome indicators:
  • Food Consumption Score (FSC)
  • Coping Strategy Index (CSI)
  • Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS)
  • Community Access to Food – Systems and Structure
  • Self-Help Group Functionality and Coverage
  • Early Warning System’s Coverage and Effectiveness
  • Community-led Disaster Risk Management
  • Factors affecting food security
• Digital data collection tools will be used as much as possible while appropriate data analytical procedures and software will be expected to be used for data analysis.

Timeline:

• This assessment will commence in the second week of July 2022 and will be expected to be completed by August 10, 2022. A formal review of the final report with the Consultants will be organized by Oxfam.

Deliverables:
The following deliverables are expected from the Consultant:

• Inception meeting
• Inception report
• Progress report
• First draft report
• Detailed reports for each of the activity outlined in the scope of work. Reports are expected to be structured as follows: Executive Summary, Introduction, Objectives, Methodology, Outcomes/Findings, Recommendations, Challenges, Conclusion. The main and final report should not be more than 45 pages.
• Register of all KII respondents interviewed and representatives of FGD participants.
• PowerPoint presentation with visuals/infographics, summarizing key findings of the assessment, methodologies, and recommendations.
• A minimum of 3 case studies/human stories with good visuals that highlights the key objectives above. This should show what the situation was before Oxfam’s intervention, clearly demonstrate how Oxfam’s intervention has contributed to these transformational changes and the impact it is having on the individual, household and community levels (if applicable). Please refer to Oxfam case study template for guidance.
• A policy brief
• High quality photographs
• All the data collected on the course of the consultancy.

Qualification and Experience
The lead consultant should:

• Have at least a Master’s Degree in Economics, Development Studies, Resilience, Rural development, or related field.
• Have at least five years’ experience undertaking food security Impact and research studies
• in development sectors and have a good understanding of concept of resilience.
• Cognate and requisite experience in food security, livelihoods, resilience, and market systems programming approaches such as Food Security and Livelihoods Assessment Missions, etc.
• Be conversant with application of cross-cutting themes such as gender mainstreaming.
• Demonstrate an understanding of Oxfam’s approach to resilience.
• Have proven experience of qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
• Have excellent analytical and report writing skills with skills in using statistical packages such as SPSS, STATA, etc. We welcome consultant with skills in using other relevant statistical packages which might be suited to the assignment.
• Have experience working in Nigeria.
• Be fluent in spoken and written English.

Project Management

• All documents, project designs, data and information shall be treated as confidential and shall not, without the written approval of Oxfam, be made available to any third party.
• The utilization of the reports is solely at the decision and discretion of Oxfam while all the documents containing both raw data/materials provided by Oxfam and final report, both soft and hard copies are to be returned to Oxfam upon completion of the assignment.
• All documentation and reports written because of this assignment or otherwise related to it, shall remain the property of Oxfam. No part of the report shall be reproduced or published except with the prior, expressed, and specific written permission of Oxfam.

Application Closing Date

26th June, 2022; 5pm.

Method of Application

Interested and qualified consultants / firms are expected to submit their expression of interest (technical and financial proposal) to: [email protected]

Note
Qualified consultants MUST submit among others the following:

• Technical proposal showing clear understanding of the Terms of Reference and methodologies to be adopted.
• CV(s) of consultant(s) (including company profile in the case of firms) who will undertake the study, including full name,, telephone number(s).
• Evidence of previous similar assignments successfully undertaken.
• Complement and sign an RFQ
• Complete and sign a supplier enrolment form
• If a firm, the certificate of registration should be added
• Proposed budget indicating clearly consultant’s fees and all logistical costs in local currency (NGN).
• The scope of this consultancy includes all logistical arrangements necessary for the Consultant and her/his team to deliver the outlined works and should therefore reflect in the financial proposal for this consultancy. For the avoidance of doubt, these costs include transportation, accommodation, feeding, and other incidental needs of the team.

Management Team:

• This work will be managed by a team composed of the Program Manager, Just Economies, Head of Quality and Compliance, PROSELL Project Manager, and relevant PROSELL Staff of DEC in Taraba State.