Consultant TORs-Coordination consultant-Skardu Closing date

Project Name: Leveraging Social Protection Programs for Adolescent Girls Nutrition (SOPRAN)

Background and Context

SOPRAN, commissioned by the Gates Foundation (GF) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is being implemented by Client Support to Social Protection including Social Health Protection (SP-SHP) project. This initiative aims to address food insecurity and malnutrition in adolescent girls. The project seeks to explore innovative ways to utilize Social Protection Programs and improve the nutritional status of adolescent girls, targeting issues such as hidden hunger and micronutrient deficiencies. By engaging Benazir Income Support Programme (client) Kafalat households and fostering collaborations among Health, Education, Social Protection, and local food systems stakeholders, the initiative specifically aims to help widen the scope of social assistance programmes in Pakistan, making them a key element in nutrition security.

In Pakistan, 22% of the population resides below the poverty line, with multidimensional poverty significantly higher than this at 40%. Pakistan deals with challenges tied to political instability, economic crisis, and heightened vulnerability to natural disasters, resulting in food insecurity. Hence, the population faces dual challenge of food insecurity and malnutritionleading to issues like stunting, wasting, and micronutrient deficiencies. The Pakistan Cost of Diet Analysis 2016 estimates that 67% of the households in Pakistan are unable to afford a nutritionally adequate diet and approximately 5% of all households are unable to afford a diet that meets even the minimum requirements for energy. Vulnerability analysis of the survey data (Household Integrated Income and Consumption Survey (HIICS)) suggests that 12% of the households at the national level are extremely vulnerable and food insecure in terms of their calorie intakes, balanced diet, and adequacy of micronutrients.

According to the National Nutrition Survey 2018, malnutrition among adolescent girls (ages 1019) remains a serious concern:

Underweight: 11.8%

Overweight: 11.4%

Obesity: 5.5%

Anemia: 56.6% (with 0.9% experiencing severe anemia)

These statistics highlight the dual burden of malnutrition, encompassing both undernutrition and overnutrition. Anemia, primarily caused by iron deficiency, affects more than half of adolescent girls.

The largest social safety net programme in Pakistan,, launched its flagship Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) based stunting prevention program under the name of Nashonuma. This program incentivizes pregnant women and lactating mothers to have regular antenatal and postnatal check-ups and provides follow up care for infants and children under two years of age within Kafalat households. client Kafalat is an Unconditional Cash Transfer, providing quarterly cash payments directly to female beneficiaries in eligible households. These programs run in unison with another CCT known as the Taleemi Wazaif which supports access to education by providing top-up payments to children of client beneficiaries currently attending school. Client is piloting this project in seven districts across Pakistan by supporting Taleemi Wazaif Program to fight micronutrient deficiencies in adolescent girls who are enrolled in schools. The goal of this project is to test the feasibility and impact of leveraging existing social protection programs and addressing gender considerations on the nutritional intake of vulnerable populations, especially adolescent girls. To support activities under this project, Client seeks to hire the services of a sector specialist to coordinate with the stakeholders and organize field trips, inception workshop and steering committee meeting for the project under Client.

Purpose of assignment

The assignment aims to coordinate with project counterparts, including client and regional health, food, and education departments, to gather data, facilitate meetings, and align them with the plan of action for the nutrition project. Key tasks include:

To monitor change agent activities, nutrition education and WIFA supplementation in the field and provide comprehensive report of each activities the details of the report must include the total number of the beneficiaries, the background of the activity, summary of the activities, method of delivery, the take aways by the beneficiaries, conclusion and recommendation keeping in view the national adolescent strategy and guidelines in view.

Review the SBC tools, its utilization in the field, its dissemination report and its learning outcomes by interviewing the girls.

Provide the detail of the WIFA stock availability, storage and the coordination between education and health department.

Visiting chakkis, taking brief from the chakki owner to know their motivation towards sustaining the program, facilitating connecting the food department with the chakki for the quality assurance.

Incorporating all processes and its documentation in the process documentation document after discussion with all other district consultants.

Ensure good quality of pictures received from the field describing all field activities and incorporating them in the reports provided for each activity.

Must ensure good quality writing, with no extra and duplicated information, all data should be provided with references.

Supporting Client in any logistics of the events

Support in Coordination and Stakeholder Engagement:

Anticipated Work Plan

Facilitate the communication, coordination, and collaboration between client and various non-government and government stakeholders, including Food, Health, and Education departments.

Assist in organizing meetings, workshops, and consultations with stakeholders.

Maintain regular contact with client, government departments, and developing and implementing partners to ensure that project activities are aligned.

Support project advisors in knowledge-sharing efforts, identifying synergies with other organizations.

Assist in developing and reviewing evidence-based policy products, such as policy papers and briefing notes, for advocacy and external engagement.

Support the project advisor in implementing inclusive methodologies to avoid bias or discrimination.

Support consensus-building between client and government departments on adolescent girls' nutrition policies.

Specific tasks laid out in the table below shall be conducted within the contract terms for a maximum of 57 working days between Sep 2025 to February 2026.

S#

Activities

Description

Days

Timeline

1

Organizing Field Visits

Field visit preparation (1 day/ per month)

Establish contact with the stakeholders at districts and regional level

Coordinate schedules with stakeholders

Set up meetings with each partner involved in the field interventions (CERP and NI)

Field Visits to complete the following tasks (4 days / month):

WIFA supplementation

Change agent activities, Support NI in organizing the role plays on the nutrition intake of the adolescent girls of the last 7 days

Making sure the parents have participated in the nutrition related activities at least once a month

Meeting chakki owners and reporting on the production of FWF of the specific month

Participating in the advocacy seminars and providing the report

Making sure the SBC tools were disseminated, and school sessions are conducted in each school by having the data received from each school and verifying with CERP and NI

Follow-up (1 day / month)

Compile feedback and suggestions received from stakeholders.

Discuss and plan next steps based on stakeholder input and project requirements.

30 days

Sep 2025 Feb 2026

2

Monthly Field Reports

Prepare a report summarizing the outcomes of each district visit and any actionable items identified

Ensure all meeting notes, reports, and communications are properly documented for future reference.

Develop, finalize, and submit field visit report for each visit including discussions, decisions, and way forward.

Report should compliance monitoring and quality assurance tracking of different project activities, and lessons learning paragraph

Total days: 4 days/month *5

20 days

3

Operational Plan

Review all project documents and policy documents needed for desk review

Compile inputs from partners (WFP, NI and CERP) where relevant for content of the operational plan

Responsible for drafting and finalising the identified chapters (listed below) for the operational plan

Coordination with other consultants to compile respective chapters within the operational plan.

Provide draft for review to Client and client, prior to finalisation

10 days

Total days

60 days

Deliverables

The Consultant will deliver the following as per anticipated workplan:

Field visits once per month (maximum 4 days) to cover all deliverables.

Submit a comprehensive monthly field report covering (structure of report below):

Compliance monitoring of the activities mentioned above

Quality assurance of nutrition education delivered by teachers.

Implementation and tracking of change agent activities.

Monitoring of peer education sessions led by selected adolescent girls.

Assess if fortified flour (FF) is being utilized at the household level (random checks).

Report must include a paragraph of Lessons Learned

One Linked-In Post Draft Each Month

Ensure adequate and effective stakeholder engagement at all levels through regular coordination with stakeholders.

In coordination with the 2 other consultants, this consultant is expected to contribute to the completion of an Operational Plan of SOPRAN by compiling 2 chapters of the Operational Plan. These chapters include: Social Behavioural Change and Communication Strategy & Implementation; Monitoring and Evaluation

Monthly Report Structure:

Background of the activity, linked to the overall SOPRAN scope (consultant must review project documents thoroughly).

Activity methodology.

Number of girls reached.

Identified risks and mitigation strategies.

Basic before-and-after data analysis (small scale).

Field observations.

Lessons learned and future recommendations.

High-quality photographs.

Operational Plan Structure

Scope and Purpose of the Operational Plan

Rationale of the project (Nutrition Situation in Pakistan etc.)

Introduction and Key Objectives, Targeting of Project

Key Stakeholders, Governance structures and Coordination Mechanisms

Essential Implementation Processes/Steps

Social Behavioural Change Communication Strategy & Implementation

Monitoring and Evaluation

Any additional sections as requested by stakeholders

Remuneration/Payment Methodology

The consultant will be paid upon submission and approval of all deliverables on a monthly basis. These deliverables must be approved by Client. Payments will be subject to deductions of income tax based on the prevailing rate according to the following breakdown:

Deliverable

Payment

1

September Monthly Report + Linked In Post

15%

2

October Monthly Report + Linked In Post

15%

3

November Monthly Report + Linked In Post

15%

4

December Monthly Report + Linked In Post

15%

5

January Monthly Report + Linked In Post

15%

6

Three chapters of Operational Plan (as described above)

25%

All payments will be subject to deduction of applicable advance income tax at source as per tax laws of Pakistan.

There is no provision of verbal commitment, therefore, all changes must be mutually agreed upon by both parties and submitted in writing.

Payment cannot be released of the quality of work is not as per the requirements.

Period of assignment

The contract duration will be from 1st Sep 2025 to Feb 2026 with a total of up to 60 expert days.

Reporting and coordination

The consultant shall work in close coordination and collaboration stakeholders and will report to Director General delegated personnel.

Required Competencies and Experience of Consultant:

The Consultant shall have at least:

General Criteria

Minimum 1 to 3 years of experience in health and nutrition sector

Specific Criteria

Place of assignment

Principally the consultant should be placed in the place of assignment (Skardu), however, the travels are allowed for the candidates living in Islamabad.