Background
Save the Children is a child
rights organization working to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world
treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.
Save the Children International (SCI) established an office in Nigeria, the
most populous nation in Africa, in 2001. The organization focuses on full
spectrum programming – development and humanitarian – with core thematic work
in education, child protection, hunger and livelihoods, child rights
governance, health and nutrition. Activities generally focus on building
government capacity in policy development and service delivery, while also
working with communities and civil society organizations to build demand and
accountability mechanisms, and implementing direct services through specific
projects and operational research activities. Working with and through partners
such as UNICEF, Action against Hunger (ACF), SCI has also invested heavily in
advocacy and campaigns.
Save the Children uses
different strategies including Advocacy, Capacity Building, and Service
Delivery to gain financial and political commitment from government to lead the
response to improve under-nutrition.
Project
Summary
The Child Development Grant
Programme (CDGP) is a DFID funded programme that provides an unconditional cash
transfer of 4,000 NGN per month to pregnant women and women with children under
the age of two in Zamfara and Jigawa states. It is delivered in partnership with
Action Against Hunger (AAH). The programme is being implemented in close
collaboration with state governments. The programme is aimed at reducing the
prevalence of stunting and improving food security. The overall anticipated
outcome is: A
scalable programme showing how cash transfers can bring cost-effective
immediate and long-term food security and nutrition benefits to eligible
households with young children in poor communities in northern Nigeria:
- Output 1: Secure payments mechanism providing
regular, timely cash transfers to pregnant women and women with under-2s
- Output 2: Effective system for mobilization,
targeting and delivering complementary interventions established.
- Output 3: Enhanced government capacities for
and engagement in managing social protection and cash transfers in focus
states.
- Output 4: Evidence of cash transfer
modalities and impacts provided to policymakers and practitioners at State
and Federal levels.
DFID, SCI and AAH, through
the CDGP, aim to secure increased political and institutional commitment by the
Zamfara and Jigawa state governments, as well as Federal government, to make
provisions for and implement effective state-wide social protection to deliver
improved nutrition, food security and poverty reduction for women and children
at scale. The CDGP is accompanied by an independent evaluation that will
provide rigorous evidence on impact that will be used at a variety of stages
through the life of the programme to influence Zamfara and Jigawa state
governments to adopt and scale up state-wide the approaches used in CDGP.
The programme also aims to inform the design and roll out of the National
Social Investment Programme (NSIP) and specifically their flagship programme,
National Social Safety Net programme (NSSNP).
Objective
and Overview of the Consultancy
Beyond their human
development impacts, recent evidence shows that cash transfers can foster
important productive impacts and support broader economic development in the
communities where they are implemented. These impacts originate through
increases in household ownership of capital, along with changes in household
behaviour (e.g. increased investment in productive activities and changes in
the allocation of labour). In addition to economic impacts among beneficiary
households, cash transfers also stimulate demand within local economies, which
can also benefit non-beneficiary households and local enterprises, generating a
‘multiplier effect’.
This study will look at
whether (and to what extent) the CDGP has led to:
- Increased agricultural
activities within beneficiary households (e.g. ownership of livestock and
agricultural tools) as well as any greater tendency to participate in
non-farm enterprises and to what extent this has translated into changes
in income (for both on and off farm).
- Any reallocation of
labour (e.g. away from casual agricultural wage labour to household on or
off-farm economic activities).
- A decrease in
households engaging in negative coping strategies, such as borrowing or
selling off assets to access food and other basic needs.
- An increase in economic
activity at the community level, whether this has led to changes in income
and if possible, whether this has been associated with any price
inflation..
While some elements of this
information have been captured by the programme (e.g. through the evaluation),
there is a need for much further analysis to really understand the overall
economic benefits being achieved through CDGP. This assessment will therefore
address these information gaps, with a specific focus on providing evidence for
policy advocacy by the programme. The findings from the analysis will
therefore need to be not only robust and of a rigorous methodological standard
to be highly credible, but also articulated in a manner that is clear, concise,
and relevant for the target audience, primarily the Federal Government of
Nigeria, but also the State Governments and other stakeholders.
Consultant
Duties and Responsibilities/ Expected Deliverables
The consultant will be
expected to provide technical leadership (including the overall direction and
approach of the research questions to be addressed, in consultation with CDGP
staff) and development of the methodological approach and tools. These should
be submitted in a brief Inception Report.
The consultant will also then be responsible for data collection &
data analysis, and authoring the draft and final Reports as well as presenting summary findings for non-technical stakeholders.
Proposed
Methodology
The consultant will first of
all be expected to review the existing data available through the programme and
determine its adequacy for delivering on the objectives of the consultancy.
Gaps in data will then need to be identified along with a plan of how to gather
any missing data that will be needed.
For estimating community
level economic impacts, the consultant will be expected to review appropriate
methodologies, including the Local Economy-Wide Impact Evaluation (LEWIE)
methodology, which has been used extensively by the Transfer Project to
estimate local multiplier effects in a range of cash transfer programmes across
sub-Saharan Africa. A proposal should then be made as to what the most appropriate
methodology would be, considering the strengths and limitations of the
different options.
Tasks
& Timeline for Proposed Work
The work should commence by
January 22, 2018 and is expected to be completed by March 19, 2018 (40
days).
Key
Competencies
- At least seven years’
experience in impact evaluations, ideally of cash transfer programmes in
sub-Saharan Africa (evaluations of other interventions will also be
considered), with demonstrated experience of estimating household
income-multiplier effects (again, ideally of cash transfers).
- Poverty analysis and
econometric modelling across a range of countries internationally, with a
demonstrated track record of analytical work to support policy engagement
with government stakeholders.
- Post-graduate degree in
Economics, Statistics, or other social science.
- Strong analytical
(including data analysis) and writing skills.
- Good computer skills (Microsoft Office
and other statistical software)
- Fluent in English
- Evidence of similar
work done
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