State Consultant

Established in 2003, Malaria Consortium is one of the world’s leading non-profit organisations specialising in the prevention, control and treatment of malaria and other communicable diseases among vulnerable populations. Our mission is to save lives and improve health in Africa and Asia, through evidence-based programmes that combat targeted diseases and promote universal health coverage. We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: State Consultant Locations: Bauchi and Niger Purpose of the Assignment The purpose of this engagement is to recruit experienced research personnel to support the implementation of quantitative and qualitative surveys under the SMC + VAS project in Bauchi and Niger States, including the Post MNCHW round 1, LQAS end-of-cycle 1 and 2, and Post MNCHW round 2 surveys. The surveys will assess the coverage, quality, effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of co-implementing Vitamin A Supplementation (VAS) with Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC), as well as the effect of the integration on the uptake of other key MNCHW interventions across all the LGAs in both states. The study will be conducted across 45 LGAs in the two implementation states (20 LGAs in Bauchi State and 25 LGAs in Niger State), excluding security-compromised LGAs where applicable. A multistage sampling approach will be used to select respondents from sampled communities and households across the LGAs. For the quantitative component, a minimum sample size of 900 children per survey round will be targeted, amounting to approximately 1,800 children across both round 1 and 2 in the two states. A minimum of 45 clusters/communities will be sampled per survey, with approximately 20–25 households selected per cluster depending on the survey type. Overall, the surveys are expected to cover about 1,791 sampled settlements/communities across both states (Bauchi = 323 wards; Niger = 274 wards), with eligible households selected from each sampled settlement. For the qualitative component of the Post MNCHW 1 and Post MNCHW 2 surveys, a National Consultant, State Consultants, who are also the interviewers will be engaged to coordinate and implement the qualitative activities, including training, field testing of tools, data collection oversight, transcription and translation, analysis, and report writing. A total of 13 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) will be conducted, comprising 6 FGDs with Health Workers (HWs), 3 FGDs with Maternal and Chile Health (MCH) Focal Persons, and 4 FGDs with caregivers. In addition, 11 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) will be conducted, including 6 KIIs with state stakeholders and 5 KIIs with national stakeholders. For the quantitative component of the Post MNCHW 1 and Post MNCHW 2 surveys, State Consultants and Data Collectors will be engaged to support household data collection activities using electronic data collection platforms such as SurveyCTO or KoboCollect. In Niger State, dedicated data collectors will be recruited and trained specifically for the surveys, while in Bauchi State, the survey will leverage the existing LQAS data collectors engaged by the PF-SMC project to support implementation and if need be extending the number of days worked. The LQAS surveys 1 &2 will align with the existing planned SMC LQAS (cycle 1 &2/3) activities in the states and will assess SMC coverage, adherence to treatment protocols, and implementation immediately after each SMC cycle to support timely corrective actions where required. The VAS project Senior M&E Officers (SMEOs) for Niger and Bauchi States will work closely with the engaged national and state consultants, as well as data collectors, and will also coordinate with the respective State M&E officers and SMC M&E Managers to ensure effective implementation of the assignment and integration. The engaged State Consultants will support data analysis and interpretation in line with the LQAS methodology, while the National will be responsible for reviewing state-level analyses and consolidating final reports across both states. The consultants and supervisors will train data collectors and provide oversight for the data collection process, while data collectors will be responsible for conducting field data collection using an electronic data collection platform. Survey Components Survey Type Methodology Timing Post MNCHW Survey 1 LQAs Quantitative Post MNCHW Round 1 End of Cycle 1 (LQAS) Monitoring Survey Quantitative End of SMC+VAS Cycle 1 End of Cycle 2/3 (LQAS) Monitoring Survey Quantitative End of SMC Cycle 2 or 3 Post MNCHW Survey 2 LQAs KII &FGD Quantitative Qualitative Post MNCHW Round 2 Post MNCHW Round 2 Scope of work The surveys will be conducted across all 45 LGAs in Bauchi (20 LGAs) and Niger (25 LGAs) States, covering 323 and 274 in Bauchi and Niger respectively, 1,791 settlements/communities, and 20-25 households selected per cluster during each survey round sampled through a multistage sampling approach. The quantitative surveys will target eligible children aged 6–59 months and women of child-bearing age (15–49 years), while the qualitative component will involve purposively selected state stakeholders, LGA officials, health facility workers, community drug distributors (CDDs), MNCH focal persons, malaria focal persons, and caregivers. 1 National and 6 State Consultants/ qualitative interviewers, 10-13 supervisors, 67-84 quantitative data collectors, will be engaged in each state to support the implementation of the Post-MNCHW and LQAS surveys under the supervision of the SMC-VAS Senior M&E Officers and the state MC/VAS teams. Quantitative data collectors will administer structured ele