Consultancy for the development of a Value for Money analysis protocol and tool to calculate the ‘value’ of using Social Behaviour Change (SBC) in nutrition. Req.# 564304
Job no: 564304
Position type: Consultant
Location: United States Division/Equivalent: Programme
School/Unit: Programme Group
Department/Office: Nutrition and Child Development Section
Categories: Nutrition
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Vacancy Announcement: Consultant
Consultancy Title: Consultancy for the development of a Value for Money analysis protocol and tool to calculate the ‘value’ of using Social Behaviour Change (SBC) in nutrition.
Section/Division/Duty Station: Nutrition – PG /NYHQ
Duration: 15 September 2023 – 28 February 2024 – Remote/Home based.
About UNICEF
Over 75 years UNICEF has worked on the ground in 190 countries and territories to support child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
BACKGROUND
Purpose of Activity/Assignment:
The purpose of the consultancy is to develop a practical and user-friendly Value for Money (VfM) framework/protocol and related analytical tools that can be used when evaluating the VfM of SBC interventions for nutrition. The consultant would also be expected to facilitate the protocol and tools’ immediate use in two country contexts where projects on SBC for nutrition are being implemented.
Scope of Work:
Background & Rationale
UNICEF is active in more than 190 countries and territories through country programmes and national committees. UNICEF works with governments, civil society organizations, and other organizations around the world to advance children’s rights to survival, growth, development, protection and participation and is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Improving the nutritional status of children and their mothers is a core part of UNICEF’s Strategic Plan.
The world is facing a growing nutrition crisis. The Global Burden of disease study (2017) found that approximately 11 million deaths were attributable to dietary risk factors. Many countries struggle with a “triple burden of malnutrition”, where large parts of the population are either hungry, suffering from micronutrient deficiencies, and or dealing with the consequences of overweight and obesity.
SBC programmes have a key role to play in helping to improve nutrition outcomes by shaping the choices people make and supporting the decisions and actions, including nutritional behaviours and choices. These choices have a broad impact on society, affecting not only the quality of life of individuals and communities and the cost to public services, but also the performance of business and the economy1.
Whilst there are a growing number of helpful guidelines for evaluating SBC interventions, many of them focus on more traditional Communication activities, or they focus on evaluating the cost-effectiveness of programme focusing solely on health outcomes. Yet, nutrition SBC programmes contribute much more to society. Therefore, when trying to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a SBC programme, we must look at it from a VfM or a broader Social Return on Investment (SROI) stance.
Calculating the SROI for SBC activities can be challenging and often must be based on a set of assumptions. Nevertheless, with an increasing burden of disease and growing need to show value for money, it is important to try and demonstrate the relative SROI of SBC programmes.
Scope & Duty
To establish a methodology and use this to evaluate the VfM of SBC interventions for nutrition in two countries with different contexts. The countries will be carefully chosen by the UNICEF team to ensure the relevant data is available at a national level around costs.
- Work with UNICEF HQ colleagues to develop an Advisory Group (AG) for this project
- Review of existing methods and tools
- Development of Measurements for ‘Costs’, Potential Health and Social Gains
- Develop the VfM methodology
- The methods should draw upon the growing evidence around this topic area through a literature review and workshops. Possible methods could use Quality Adjusted Life Years or Disability-Adjusted Life Years to support the calculations, as well as relevant data to determine cost savings in relation to health care and productivity gains/losses. To access country specific data, the WHO National Burden of Disease Tool could be used, among other data sources.
- The tool should consider costs and benefits to all other stakeholders including employers, government, as well as the health sector. The methods should ensure that future benefits and cost savings can be estimated over the remaining life of the target audience.
- The calculation should also estimate the impact of things such as support groups/peer-to-peer activities, and steps to encourage school or community action for healthy lifestyles on persistence rates.
- Piloting of the VfM tool
*1 Lister, G. et al. (2008). Measuring the Societal Impact of Behavior Choices. Social Marketing Quarterly 14:51-62.
Terms of Reference / Deliverables/Deadlines
- Work with UNICEF HQ colleagues to develop an AG for this project
- Working with UNICEF HQ, identify 6-8 stakeholders to be included on an Advisory Group, including both external and internal stakeholders and experts in the field. By 30 September 2023
- Organize and chair an initiation meeting of the AG. By 30th September 2023
- Review of existing methods and VfM protocol and tools
- Identify and review internal and external relevant VfM and SROI tools, materials and resources. By 27th September 2023
- Develop a presentation (max 10 slides) in English, outlining the findings from work detailed in 2a. By 27th September 2023
- Present the presentation to the AG. By 30th September 2023
- Development of Measurements for ‘Costs’ and Potential Health and Social Gains
- Facilitate 2 online workshops. 1 workshop will be held with relevant HQ colleagues in nutrition and SBC and 1 workshop with Regional Office teams. By 30th October 2023
- Based on the workshops, develop the metrics for the VfM protocol and tools. By 15th November 2023
- Develop a presentation (max 6 slides) in English, outlining the metrics for the VfM protocol and tools. By 30th November 2023
- Develop the VfM methodology
- Based on the reviewed literature and the two workshops, develop a methodology to evaluate the VfM of SBC interventions for nutrition. By 31st December 2023
- Develop a presentation (max 20 slides) in English, outlining the methodology. By 20th January 2024
- Develop a user-friendly tool which can easily be used by country offices to calculate the VfM of their SBC nutrition programmes. By 20th January 2024
- Present the presentation and tool to the AG. By 25th January 2024
- Piloting of the VfM tool
- After feedback on methods and tools from the AG, finalisation of the methods and user-friendly tool. By 5th February 2024
- Piloting of the tool in two country offices. The exact locations will be identified by the UNICEF HQ team in discussion with the regional offices. By 15th February 2024
- Produce a final presentation (max 20 slides) in English detailing the findings from the piloting. By 25th February 2024
- Present the presentation and tool to the AG. By 28th February 2024
Qualifications
(1) Education
- Relevant Master’s or high qualifications in health economics or a related subject area.
(2) Work experience
- At least seven years’ experience of carrying out value for money analysis on health projects. Experience of working on nutrition projects desirable.
(3) Competencies
- Knowledge of social behaviour change and experience in evaluating social behaviour change interventions is desirable.
- Knowledge of VfM methodologies and SROI.
- Fluency in English is required, excellent written and verbal communications skills in English.
- Excellent analytical, report writing, and human relations skills.
Requirements:
- Completed profile in UNICEF’s e-Recruitment system
- Upload copy of academic credentials
- Financial proposal that will include:
- Costs for each deliverable and total all-inclusive (lump sum) fees for the whole assignment.
- Travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR
- Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
- Indicate your availability
- Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
- At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
- Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.
U.S. Visa information:
With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here
UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.
Remarks:
Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.
The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.
Advertised: Jul 24 2023 Eastern Daylight Time
Application close: Aug 20 2023 Eastern Daylight Time
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- Closes Aug 20 2023Consultancy for the development of a Value for Money analysis protocol and tool to calculate the ‘value’ of using Social Behaviour Change (SBC) in nutrition. Req.# 564304 in United States
UNICEF seeks a Consultant for the development of a Value for Money analysis protocol and tool to calculate the ‘value’ of using Social Behaviour Change (SBC) in nutrition. The consultant will establish a methodology and use this to evaluate the VfM of SBC interventions for nutrition in two countries with different contexts.
