Summary
Date Posted: Wednesday, October 27, 2021 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Background
The First 1000 Most Critical Days Program (MCDP) is the Government of the Republic of Zambia’s official flagship program for coordinated nutrition actions for stunting reduction. It is currently in its a second phase which is being implemented from 2018-2022. Zambia has identified 37 priority districts for stunting reduction under the MCDP II, and these will receive comprehensive, integrated, harmonized, and large-scale multi-sectoral nutrition interventions using a common approach to deliver services.

The SUN II (Scaling Up Nutrition II) program is a 4-year initiative supporting MCDP II led by UNICEF in partnership with the National Food and Nutrition Commission, line ministries, other UN agencies, and non-governmental organizations. This program is implementing a focused minimum package of nutrition interventions aimed at reaching priority target groups at the community and household levels in 17 of the 37 priority districts of Zambia. It adopts multiple approaches to delivering converged services to target households.

The SUN II program identified Nutrition Support Group (NSG) (an adaptation of the ‘Care Group Model’) as the key structure to ensure the convergence of priority interventions at the household level. The NSG model is a community-based structure, to reach SUN II households with key behavior change lessons related both to nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive practices. It is also intended to support referrals to broader multi-sectoral activities within communities to ensure that households receive a package of interventions for greater impact on stunting reduction.

The NSG uses a cascade approach, to effectively support a group of community-based volunteers ‘NSG-Volunteers’ (also known as ‘Lead Mothers’ in traditional Care Group Model), to create platforms for peer-to -peer behavior change negotiation. On average, an NSG is comprised of 10-12 community-based NSG-volunteers. Each NSG-volunteer is responsible for regularly home visit and monitoring of 8-12 of her neighbors, sharing what she has learned and facilitating behavior change at the household level through the delivery of key nutrition and WASH messages.

The SUN II program expects both mothers, and other caregivers/influencers in these households to realize improvements in nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive practices through participation in NSGs, whilst also increasing coordinated participation in other skills and resource building activities such as village saving and loans groups etc. A recommended core minimum package of interventions covering four key sections, has been put in place as shown in the table below.
Minimum core package of priority interventions
Sector Intervention
WASH Promotion of access to safe water, hygiene, and sanitation
Social Protection
Promotion of women’s participation in village savings and lending groups
Health & Nutrition
Promotion of good nutrition and care practices at household level

Food Diversification
Promotion of production and consumption of diverse, nutrient-dense foods
The key line ministries that are central to the implementation of the SUN II/MCDP2 program include Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (MoFL), Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS), Ministry of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection (MWDSEP) and Ministry of Agriculture (MoA).
• Align the lesson content/structure and the facilitation manuals to the SUN II/MCDP2 requirements and SBCC campaign.
• Applying adult education techniques to ensure that the messages as easily understood by targeted households

Role of Catholic Relief Services in The SUN II Program
Due to its experience in implementing the Care Group Model in Zambia, CRS has been contracted to provide technical support to UNICEF in the adaption of the Care group/Nutrition Support Group approach for rollout in 17 SUN II districts, with the overall goal of creating a Nationally approved structure for use throughout Zambia. To date however, CRS curriculum for the Care Group has mainly been project focused with some areas of integration with government line ministries. One of the tasks for CRS is to update the curriculum so that it is more aligned and reflective of the various sectors and key line ministries which are working to address stunting in Zambia. CRS is seeking the services of a Behavioral Change Specialist with vast experience in adult education and curriculum development aimed at community volunteers and caregivers.

Responsibilities of the Social and Behavioral Change Specialist
In the SUN II/MCDP 2 program, CRS is guiding the adaptation of the Care Group training and technical content into a context specific ‘Zambian Nutrition Support Group Model’. This adaptation is aimed at calibrating the package from a project level to a national level focus. Whilst progress has been made in refining the facilitation manuals, the technical content and individual SBC lessons, intended for household level interpersonal communication need additional review and refinement. The SBC specialist will be engaged to support the CRS team in updating these materials based on SUN II/MCDP2 implementation priorities. Activities associated with this pending task include:
• Coordinating collaborative technical input and comments from Government of the Republic of Zambia key line ministries, National Food and Nutrition Commission and UN Agencies/UNICEF technical sections.
• Consolidating inputs to further refine and expand existing ‘SBC Household lessons’ into a complete ‘Nutrition Support Group Household lesson package’
• Ensure that NSG lesson package uses SBCC best practices and evidence-based SBC principles for individual behavior change delivered by community-based volunteers to households.

Qualifications and Experience
The SBC Specialist is expected to hold and advanced degree in Social Behavior Change or related disciplines (public health, nutrition, etc), ideally with extensive experience (minimum 5 years) in multi-sectoral nutrition programming, preferably with significant experience working on programs that implement the Care Group Model. She/he should have:
• Extensive experience in adult education and curriculum development for low literacy communities
• Extensive knowledge and hands on experience in the development of SBC implementation guidelines for program implementation
• Ability to synthesize available global evidence on peer-to-peer models (eg. Care Groups) to apply to the assignment for Zambia
• Ability to collate and summarize concepts and ideas from several sources
• Demonstrated ability in writing guidelines, training materials and SBC materials for different audiences
• Highly skilled in stakeholder engagement
• Committed to timely and accuracy in submission of deliverables
• Clear communicator

Orientation and geographical nature of the assignment
The successful candidate will receive a full orientation, including relevant documents before commencing the assignment to understand the full nature and specific context of the assignment. Introductory meetings will also be organized with the stakeholders including key line government ministries.

Deliverables
a) ‘Workplan’ indicating the proposed procedure and timeframes to complete specifics of the assignment (submitted no later than 3 days after orientation meeting/materials shared) for approval by supervisor.
b) Revised and expanded draft ‘NSG Household lessons package’ including incorporation of technical inputs from key line ministries, NFNC and UN/UNICEF technical sections to align to multi-sectoral needs of MCDP2.
Duration
This assignment is expected to be carried out and all deliverables submitted within a period of 2 calendar months/45 working days. There is an option to work on this assignment remotely 100% of the time.
Expression of Interest
Interested candidates to submit a cover letter stating why they feel they meet the requirements of the assignment. The cover letter should be accompanied by a CV and a sample of their written work relevant to the assignment. The applicant should also attach a schedule of their daily rates and other costs that may apply.

Contact
The direct contact for this assignment will be to the CRS Technical Advisor for the NSG program supported by the CRS Program Director. However, there will be close collaboration expected with CRS’ Head of program, CRS’ Regional technical Advisor for Nutrition, UNICEF Nutrition Section as the lead for the SUN ii program. The SBC specialist assignment can be undertaken remotely (i.e., from any location outside of Zambia).
c) Co-lead structured presentation/feedback session of draft ‘NSG Household lesson package’ to key stakeholders to solicit final remarks/edits before submitting final version of Household lessons package.
d) Revised nutrition Support Group training materials

Education Requirement: No Requirements

Job Experience: No Requirements

Work Hours: 8

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