Consultant - REACH Project at Save the Children Nigeria - Gombe, Katsina and Zamfara

Save the Children is a leading international organization helping children in need around the world. First established in the UK in 1919, separate national organizations have been set up in more than twenty-eight countries, sharing the aim of improving the lives of children through education, health care and economic opportunities, as well as emergency aid in cases of natural disasters, war and conflict.

In Nigeria, Save the Children has been working since 2001. The early focus was on getting children actively involved in shaping the decisions that affect their lives. Today, Save the Children is working in seven federal states - Zamfara, Yobe, Jigawa, Katsina, Kano, Bauchi and Kaduna - focusing on providing basic healthcare and protecting children.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - Adaptation of Choices, Voices and Promise in REACH Project States

Locations: Gombe, Katsina and Zamfara

Background
Save the Children (SC) Nigeria is implementing Reaching and Empowering Adolescents to make informed Choices for their Health (REACH) in Gombe, Katsina and Zamfara states in Northern Nigeria. The three year project specifically targets states with some of the worst indicators for adolescents, especially girls, with a focus on rural and hard to reach communities where rates of early marriage, early childbearing, low educational attainment and discriminatory social and gender norms significantly affect the ability of adolescent girls and boys to make decisions and access services to protect and improve their sexual and reproductive health (SRH). REACH will utilize a socio-ecological model to address deep-seated gender based barriers and improve equitable access of 100,000 married and unmarried adolescents to high quality, gender-responsive and adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health services and rights.

REACH will also contribute to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 (ensure universal access to ASRH services, including FP information and education, and integration of RH into national strategies and programmes); and SDG 5 (achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls), by:

• Improving access to high quality, gender-sensitive and adolescent-friendly SRH services for unmarried and married adolescent girls and boys;
• Increasing the decision-making of married and unmarried adolescent girls about their own SRHR; and
• Improving the integration of civil society contributions and evidence-based best practices in ASRHR policy design and implementation at local and state levels.

Rationale:

• REACH project recognizes that an ecological approach identifies behaviors and norms that are influenced by multiple individual and social factors. This ecological perspective helps to better understand the complex social system that sets norms between children, their families and their communities. This understanding has helped shape our approach, we will depend on the use of three interventions apart from other approaches: Choices, Voices, and Promises(CVP). CVP is an innovative gender transformative package use to foster individual behavior change as well as broader social norm shifts, improve gender equality  among very young adolescents (VYA) 10-14 years old and ultimately improving the lives of very young adolescents in their communities.
• Evidence of the need to work across multiple levels of society inspired Save the Children to develop the CVP package to move a community towards social and behavior change with regards to  gender equality among adolescents with the following goals: (1) Improve boys’ and girls’ access to information and reflective activities that challenge restrictive gender norms and promote gender equality with the Choices curriculum; (2) Increase dialogue between parents and children that improves equitable treatment in the household with the Voices intervention; and (3) Shift norms within the community to create an environment where boys and girls are valued equally and gender and age-based barriers at the community level can be addressed through the Promises intervention. When working across an ecological model, the effects on gender norm changes among VYA and the expectations, restrictions, and opportunities for boys and girls will be more likely to shift when these three interventions are used simultaneously in a community. Below is a brief on each of the gender transformative package:

Choices:

• Throughout the world, girls and women face discrimination on multiple levels by virtue of their sex. Many girls and women are unable to fully participate in school, family life and economic activities because of this and may be exposed to various forms of physical and psychological violence.
• On the other hand, boys are socialized that a real man knows he is above a woman, he is strong, macho and doesn’t show emotion. Adolescence is frequently viewed as a “window of opportunity” to formulate positive attitudes and behaviors. Developing gender equitable norms during adolescence reduces the need to invest in the difficult task of changing behavior later in life.

Voices:

• Save the Children developed Voices to challenge harmful norms, beliefs and attitudes held by parents on restrictive gender roles and their gendered expectations of their children, while fostering dialogue between parents and children about gender equality.

Promise:

• Save the Children sought to develop a new innovation to help shift community behaviors that would lead to the greatest impact on gender equality for VYA.
• The end result was called Promises: a communication approach targeting community members. The approach sees influential community members unveil a set of community billboards each tackling a different but related issue related to gender equality, social norms, gender and age-based barriers to accessing services, and ASRHR.

Purpose of Consultancy
The Adaptation of CVP in each country differs but follows a step-by-step guide and approach. These steps are developed by SCI to ensure that the newly developed CVP approach responds to the needs and context of VYA in their communities/country. Furthermore, the steps ensures that the adapted and developed CVP is utilized properly and will create the changes in attitudes and behaviors identified through a formative assessment in the community.

Recognizing the importance and need of an ecological approach SCI Nigeria REACH project decided to adapt CVP to maximize the achievement of its aim and objectives in challenging negative gender norms and improving VYA access to much needed gender responsive SRH, improve decision-making capabilities of girls and shift norms within the society where boys and girls are giving equal opportunities. To achieve this, SCI Nigeria REACH project needs an experience consultant in gender transformative approaches to provide the much-needed support to the REACH team in the adaptation of the CVP, someone that has experience using the tools. Specifically the consultant task will be:

• Participate in a 5 days CHOICES adaptation inception workshop in November
• Develop a methodology and approach for the assignment, workplan and budget
• Develop a TOR and work with SCI in the selection of local consultants to support in the adaptation and pre-test of CHOICES
• Design a formative assessment methodology  using a guide from the CVP adaptation  guide
• Work with a translator to Produce a Hausa translation of the formative assessment tools
• Work with formative assessment team to conduct CHOICES formative assessment research in 3 states. Provide full report of the assessment.
• Incorporate comments to the draft formative assessment report and produce a full report ,Producing a formative research report that specify attitudes and behavior
• Produce first draft of CHOICE within a week after the approve formative research report
• Work with a translator to translate CHOICES
• Develop pre-testing plans and work with local facilitators to pre-test CHOICES
• Produce final translated CHOICES
• Provide TOT for CSO’s in the 3 states.

Approach and Methodology

• The consultant must possess strong understanding of gender inequalities and determinants in northern Nigeria and specifically how this impact on adolescent boys and girls. 
• A core competence and cognate experience in developing and implementing formative research is an essential skill requirement. 
• The national consultant should be capable of working and facilitating a team of local consultant to achieve the assignment goal.

Proposed Methodology
CVP inception workshop:

• Participate in a 3-5 day CVP inception workshop

Desk review:

• Mapping of existing documents on gender transformation, analyzing and utilizing it as support for the adaptation of CVP
• Formative research
• Design a formative research methodology including assessment tools using the approved SCI guides and approaches for CVP
• Pre-test assessment tools
• Conduct formative research and produce report
• CVP development
• Utilize findings from the formative research to develop the CHOICES

Outputs, Deliverables and Reporting
During the consultancy, the following is expected:

• Milestone delivery within timeline
• Approach paper/Inception report (including timeframe and detailed methodology - all instruments that will be used including a list of documents reviewed and tools etc)
• Initial Briefing with REACH team to review approach and guide on some of the internal processes.
• Formative research protocol
• Final draft and report that responds to comments or questions from REACH team
• Pre-testing of CHOICES

At the end of the consultancy, the following approved deliverables are expected:

• Final CHOICE document (English and Hausa).

Key Skills and Experience

• Degree in Social Sciences
• Proven years of experience working in Gender Equality, ASRH with VYA,OA
• Proven Experience in research and adaptation of toolkits
• Proven experience in Gender Equality, analysis and mainstreaming 
• Excellent communication, analytical and report writing skills.
• Excellent communication in Hausa, written and spoken.

Timeline:

• Start: November 12th 
• Inception report/Approach paper : within 2 days of commencement
• Final report: February 2019
• Completion of all responsibilities: 25th February 2018
• Total workdays: 30 days including pre-test days and training days.

Milestone payment in three Tranches

• First instalment - 30% after the desk review of collected documents ad recommendations and inception report submitted.
• Second instalment - 40% - After the submission of CHOICES and pre-testing of curricula and report of pre-testing incorporated into draft CHOICE. Final and approved copy of translated CHOICES submitted.
• Third Instalment - 30% -  Training of TOT and final training report submitted

Application Closing Date
18th October, 2018.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online