UNICEF Consultancy - Cost analysis of Community Management of Acute Malnutrition - Jobs in South Sudan

UNICEF Consultancy - Cost analysis of Community Management of Acute Malnutrition - Jobs in South Sudan

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Background

In South Sudan, the cumulative effect of years of conflict, violence and destroyed livelihoods has led to a humanitarian emergency of high proportions.

The recently revitalized peace process promises to offer new opportunities in the coming years for South Sudan’s women, men and children.

The launch of the National Development Strategy 2018-2021 with the overall objective of consolidating peace and stabilizing the economy echoes the peace optimism.

The Nutrition Cluster was established in 2010 in South Sudan and currently comprises 64 active partners from Government, UN agencies, Donors and national and international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) supporting the implementation of nutrition responses on the ground.

Detection and treatment of children and women affected by severe or moderate acute malnutrition takes place at 57 stabilization centres (SC), 899 outpatient treatment program (OTP) sites and 854 targeted supplementary feeding program (TSFP) sites, established across the country.

The Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) are generated annually by Clusters to serve both strategic and operational guidance for programming by partners.

The HNO establishes the number of people in need and the targets while the HRP outlines the strategies and activities to be implemented, in order to reach the planned targets.

The core activities of the Nutrition Cluster are treatment and prevention of SAM and MAM. The Nutrition HRP budget is estimated by activity-based costing (or unit-based costing).

Implementing partners (national and international NGOs) rely on own funds or grants allocated by donors either directly or through United Nations agencies for nutrition service delivery. The HRP funding is monitored through the web-based Financial Tracking System (FTS).

Activity-based costing, or unit-based costing, depends on reliable estimates of unit costs for the planned activities.

Activity-based costing for humanitarian appeals refers to a method of estimating overall resource needs for a humanitarian response plan (HRP), using average costs per sectoral activity, per person served, or per item delivered. In this approach the costs per sector are determined on a unit cost per person per type of activity; sectors identify humanitarian activities, with indicators and targets, and present these in the sector response plans.

A costed HRP is an excellent tool for advocacy and resource mobilization. In South Sudan, the HRP budget is often questioned, mainly due to lack of robust and consensual unit cost for SAM and MAM treatment.

A case in point is 2016, when the cost of treating a child with SAM was estimated at US$ 207, which included 9% technical assistance, 20% cross sectoral and 8% cost recovery.

However, the cost did not include many aspects such as contribution from CSO partners. Therefore, the SAM unit cost was revisited in 2018, in a more comprehensive way, with a new estimate of US$ 350 per SAM child treated. While the revised unit was closer to some published in the literature, still there was no consensus among partners and donors.

Furthermore, cost drivers, such as, infrastructure, human resources, equipment, supplies, logistics, security, and other related cost, remain unclear.

The lack of clarity on unit cost of treating a child with acute malnutrition leads to incessant misunderstanding in budget allocations.

The complex and uneven operating environment coupled with logistical constraints, and operation costs which differ from one region to another makes costing of intervention much more challenging in South Sudan.

In South Sudan, series of attempts to use the FTS to derive unit costs of treatment from the funded nutrition budgets have not been successful because of unreliable data.

Furthermore, the FTS is

not regularly updated, and where updates are provided, concerns are raised about possible double submission by donor and implementing partners, or inaccuracy in the case of integrated programs with a nutrition component, and multi-year programs.

It is therefore critical that standard basic unit costs are established to inform the development of country-level costed plan, program effectiveness and budgetary analysis for nutrition.

Purpose / Tasks and expected results

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to establish an average unit cost of delivering treatment for children with SAM and MAM in South Sudan.

The cost estimation will include cost of supplies, logistics, programme and administrative components from UN agencies and NGOs. The result of this exercise is expected to inform costing of the Humanitarian Response Plan for the year 2020.

Under supervision of the Nutrition Cluster Coordinator, in close collaboration with the Nutrition Cluster Cost Analysis Technical Task Force, and Strategic Advisory Group (SAG), the Consultant will accomplish the following tasks in five phases:

Partner consultation to include bilateral meetings with key partners (MoH, UNICEF, WFP and WHO) and two group meetings, i.e. the cluster forum and the donor group meeting. This will lead to the exhaustive listing of partners that contribute to nutrition service delivery.

Conduct review and discussions on programming at national level, with exhaustive identification of cost drivers.

Develop detailed cost analysis protocol, indicating and explaining:

Choice of the methods (ingredient approach, expenditure approach, or mixed, or others);

Identification of partners to be contacted for response in the study;

Cost drivers to be considered;

The design/structure of the cost analysis tool to be used;

Analysis plan for the cost estimation exercise.

Preparation of data collection template;

Orientation for relevant partners on the use of data collection template, and submission.

Submissions will focus only on 2018 data and will be done directly to the consultant only.

Consolidation of partner submissions;

Control of data exhaustivity (number and completion of submissions);

Control of data quality (internal and external consistency);

Feedback to partners, with request for corrections and/or explanations where needed;

Data analysis in conformity to the data analysis plan.

Develop a study report with the following layout outline:

Executive summary;

Background;

Justifications;

Methods and approaches;

Plan and conduct meeting with partners to validate the costs analysis report;

Plan and conduct a briefing meeting with donors;

Plan and conduct a briefing meeting with OCHA;

Plan and conduct a briefing meeting with MoH.

Finalize the study report as per recommendations of the validation meeting.

Prepare a Nutrition Field Note to document the process for dissemination.

Expected results

The expected result from this consultancy is the overall unit cost for SAM and MAM treatment in South Sudan with a breakdown by cost drivers.

Secondary results include nutrition programme total cost and cost-efficiency analysis and recommendations for improvements. Updates to FTS and recommendations for a continuous monitoring of the system are also expected.

Qualifications and Competencies

Advanced university degree in health economics/financing, health policy and planning or related fields, with significant knowledge of nutrition interventions especially CMAM programs.

Experience

At least eight-year expertise and experience in strategic planning and management, including costing of plans and programs.

A proven track record of high quality work/ product previously done in program costing and/or economic evaluation.

Strong capacity to meeting deadlines, an ability to prioritize tasks within his/her work program and strategies for working both collectively with others in a team and independently to deliver high quality products.

Excellent facilitation skills, ability to bring together stakeholders from different sectors and backgrounds.

Strong leadership and team work abilities.

Strong information-gathering and analytical skills, coupled with excellent written and oral communication skills.

An understanding or knowledge of and experience in CMAM programming in developing countries.

How to Apply

Interested and qualified candidates should apply online by 5th July 2019

For more information and job application details, see; UNICEF Consultancy - Cost analysis of Community Management of Acute Malnutrition - Jobs in South Sudan