Invitation To Bid For Consultancy of service for Development of School Health and Nutrition Guideline – Somaliland

INVITATION TO BID FOR CONSULTANCY

Save the Children International (SCI) Somalia program hereby invites interested consultants to bid for the consultancy assignment detailed below.

Title of Consultancy

Consultancy service for Development of School Health and Nutrition Guideline

SCI Contracting Office

Save the Children.

Hargeisa, Somaliland

Period of Consultancy

20 Consultant days

Consultant type required

Firm or individual can apply

Responsibility for Logistics arrangements and Costs

The consultant will not cover for any Logistics arrangements and costs; including food, accommodation and local transport.

Taxation Provisions

Consultant shall be responsible for all Taxes arising from the consultancy in line with the local Tax regulations applicable at the SCI contracting office named above

Travel requirements

SCI will only provide transport and accommodations for the consultant traveling outside Hargeisa. The consultant is responsible travel/flight costs outside the country

Security requirements

Consultant will comply with standard Save the Children Security procedures, including the completion of SCI online security training prior to travel to Somaliland (if applicable)

TERMS OF REFERENCE:

Consultancy service for Development of School Health and Nutrition Guideline.

1.        Background

The education sector serves as a major contributor to Somaliland’s social and economic development, and The Government of Somaliland and the Ministry of Education are committed to utilizing education to support Peacebuilding and State Building Goals and the longer-term development priorities of Somaliland. The Somaliland National Education Policy (SNEP, 2015-2030) shows the commitment of the Ministry of Education & Science (MOES) to the reconstruction and development of education. Because of this commitment, the MOES In partnership with international and local educational development partners and communities continues to invest in the expansion of access to quality learning, both in rural and urban areas.

2.      The Project details.

The government of Somaliland declared state of drought emergency in January 2022 and the president nominated a national drought response team led by the vice-president. The drought come as a result of the inadequate of 2021 Gu’ rains (April-June) followed by a poor Deyr season (October-December), which has caused widespread crop failure and a decline in livestock productivity, rapidly pushing the rural communities in the affected areas into a food insecurity Crisis. According to recent FAO drought update, many parts of the country remained generally dry throughout the month of February 2022 leading to persistence of drought conditions.

Pasture and water are in extremely poor conditions and close to a complete depletion in key pastoral livelihoods across Somaliland. Severe water crises have resulted to increased water trucking and prices, which pastoral and agro pastoral households meet through increased debt accumulation and/or livestock sales. Conceptually, drought conditions are expected to worsen until the start of Gu season rainfall in April – June 2022.

According to a rapid assessment about the impact of drought on the education system which was conducted by the MOES in January 2022, the findings indicate that the current drought situation has negatively impacted on the attendance and retention of children for schools in the all the affected areas. The assessment confirms that 74 primary schools in the rural areas of Somaliland had already been closed due to the drought. The assessment findings also indicate that 5,966 children who used to attend in these closed schools dropped out. In additional to that, latest updates from the regional education offices highlights that additional schools are likely to close in February and March 2022.

Three GPE-AF outcomes are also of interest to this application, including:

1.       Outcome1: Increased and equitable access and retention of emergency affected vulnerable children in safe, supportive and protective learning environment

2.       Outcome 2: Vulnerable girls and boys displaced by the drought have continued access to protective quality basic education

3.      Output 3: The capacity of MoES to deliver an effective and coordinated education in emergencies at national, regional, district and school levels is strengthened

Development of School Health and Nutrition Guideline

The MOE&S is currently implementing large and complex education programs jointly with International and UN Agencies in addition to the government’s allocated budget involving variety of school level activities including feeding programs. Save the children is currently willing to develop School level health and nutrition guideline for the Ministry of Education and Science.

3.      Aim and objectives of the consultancy

Overall objective

The purpose of this activity is to enhance the well-being of the children in the schools affected by droughts through school health and nutrition guideline, increasing awareness for the school communities on children health and nutrition services. The guideline will also help the for the Ministry of Education and Science be able to expand knowledge on key health, and hygiene issues; improve access to curative and Preventive health and nutrition services of school children. Lastly, this guideline will serve to increase the ability of children to attend school and attain an education; as well as influence the wider community’s overall health, and hygiene practice.

Specific objectives

·         To conduct desk review related to the procedures, manuals and systems used by the MOE&S.

·         Conduct consultation sessions with relevant stakeholders at different levels.

·         Develop a comprehensive guideline that in line with the national government health and nutrition policies and other public best practices.

·         Produce draft guideline based or the agreed outline.

·         Facilitate validation workshop and present the draft guideline amongst key stakeholders.

4.      Proposed methodology of the service.

§  The consultant(s) should work closely with the directorate of the department of the planning, inclusion, and other relevant department in MOES.

§  Conduct consultation session with the key stakeholders.

§  The consultant will utilize questionnaire guides, key informant focus group discussions.

§  The consultant will present the development process, first draft of the guideline then and the Education Stakeholders for approval and endorsement.

§  The consult will work independently to compile findings, recommendations and necessary initiatives requirements for the development of health and nutrition guideline.

5.      Deliverables/outputs

The following outputs should be delivered

§  Conduct Desk review of the relevant literature of tools, manuals, guidelines and systems in place.

§  Conduct consultation sessions with relevant stakeholders at different levels.

§  Develop a comprehensive guideline that in line with the national government health and nutrition policies and other public best practices

§  Produce draft guideline based or the agreed outline.

§  Facilitate validation workshop and present the draft guideline amongst key stakeholders.

6.      Timeframe

The consultancy shall be executed within a maximum of 30 days” commencing 25th July 2021. The Proposal should include a detailed schedule. The following should be used as a guide.

7.       Management and supervision of consultancy

The consultant will report to Save the children with day-to-day supervision by the Ministry of Education and Science (Planning Department).

9. Consultancy experience and experts’ qualifications

The Lead consultant should have the following qualifications and experience:

·         Advanced degree in Nutrition, Public Health, Business administration, Accounting, or CPA.

·         At least five (5) years of experience in Health & Nutrition field

·         Ability to synthesize large quantities of complex data into actionable information

·         Ability to work and effectively communicate with senior-level business partners

·         Excellent business judgment, analytical, and decision-making skills

·         Knowledge of financial reporting and data mining tools such as SQL, Access, etc.

·         Strong demonstrated use of Excel, Word, and PowerPoint

·         Experience on the development of adoptable tools, guidelines and manuals for financial management.

·         Excellent communication skills in English, verbal as well as written.

·         Excellent report writing skills.

Excellent teamwork and facilitation skills.

8.      Application process

All applicants must meet the minimum requirements described above. Each application should include the following:

• Cover letter including the applicant’s suitability for the position and current contact information and profile (if a company)
• Technical and financial proposals
• CV, including detailed work experience, education/degrees of the experts