1. Background & Scope
The combined impact of climate change, conflict and inequality is preventing families from accessing food and threatening children’s futures. With 70% of the world’s hungry living in conflict zones, conflict is the biggest driver of hunger. In addition, with the number of climate-related disasters tripling in the past 30 years, climate shocks are decimating farming communities and driving displacement, resulting in millions of families not being able to access enough food. If children and families have access to basic needs and high-quality health and nutrition services, then maternal and child morbidity and mortality will decrease, and wellbeing will improve.
Save the Children developed the Resourcing Families for Better Nutrition (RF4BN) common approach to address child nutrition in the First 1,000 Days. RF4BN (activities of the approach are also known as Cash Plus) provides a comprehensive approach to reducing maternal and child undernutrition, in particular stunting and wasting, in development and humanitarian contexts. The approach combines regular cash transfers that are designed and implemented to maximize impacts on nutrition, with a contextually informed package of social behavior change communication (SBCC), linkages to basic maternal and child health and nutrition services, and additional context-appropriate, nutrition-specific interventions.
Save the Children also developed a Global CVA Research Agenda in 2022 to identify and address major evidence gaps related to how best to design and deliver CVA to achieve outcomes for children and their families. Since early 2022, several impact evaluations and research pilots have been implemented to assess the overall effectiveness of CVA as well as to determine the extent to which CVA contributes to child outcomes such as:
- reduction in malnutrition among children under five years old;
- reduction in child engagement in child labour, incidence of child marriage, and recruitment into armed groups; and
- increase in school attendance and learning,
As part of the continuous improvement and expansion of our evidence generation efforts, we are seeking an experienced consultant to support our latest research endeavour under a multi-country multisectoral Global Hunger Crisis award.
2. Purpose of Consulting
The purpose of this consultancy is to identify best practices and actionable recommendations that can be integrated into CVA programming. Drawing on evidence from our Global Hunger Crisis project; recently completed studies, including pilots, quasi-experimental, and experimental research, the consultancy will also update and tailor guidance for the existing cash ‘plus’ approach (RF4BN) to ensure its relevance and adaptability across diverse operational contexts.
More specifically, the consultancy will support the CVA Lead and Senior CVA Research Advisor with data cleaning, advanced analysis, and interpretation; and updating the existing RF4BN Comprehensive Overview (technical guidance) document.
3. Methodology
- Kick-off meeting with CVA Lead and Senior CVA Research Advisor to align on expectations, timelines, and available data.
- Desk Review of existing documentation including RF4BN guidance and and recent studies (pilots, quasi-experimental, and experimental).
- Data cleaning and validation of datasets from the Global Hunger Crisis project and other relevant studies.
- Advanced statistical analysis to identify trends, correlations, and causal relationships (where applicable) between CVA interventions and child outcomes (nutrition, protection, education).
- Development of actionable recommendations for CVA programming, including design, delivery, and integration with health and nutrition interventions.
- Consultations with CVA and Nutrition advisors to validate findings, recommendations, and gather qualitative insights.
- Revision of RF4BN Comprehensive Overview to integrate new evidence and tailor guidance for diverse operational contexts.
4. Duration
The remote consultancy is expected to start w/c 10th November 2025 for an estimated duration of 24 working days. This will include desk reviews, data analysis, development of best practices and recommendations, and update of the RF4BN Comprehensive Overview (technical guidance) document.
5. Key Deliverables
The successful bidder will be responsible for the following activities:
- Work Plan – including timeline, data sources, and deliverables.
- Cleaned and validated datasets – with documentation of cleaning procedures.
- This may include, but is not limited to, baseline, post-distribution monitoring, endline, follow-up surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews, among others.
- Analytical Report – presenting findings from quantitative and qualitative analysis (pivot tables and graphs).
- Best Practices – slide deck or brief summarizing effective CVA strategies and actionable insights for CVA design and implementation with contextual considerations.
- Updated RF4BN Comprehensive Overview – revised technical guidance document.
- Presentation Materials – slide deck and summary for dissemination.
6. Child Safeguarding
The responsibilities of this post do not require direct contact with children but will require contact with de-identified adult and child beneficiary data.
How to apply
Selection Criteria for Consultant or Consultant Team
- Advanced degree in social sciences, nutrition, international health, international development or related field.
- Demonstrated experience in implementing cash and voucher assistance and/or nutrition interventions.
- Demonstrated experience developing and implementing monitoring and evaluation processes in various contexts. Experience working in humanitarian settings is desirable.
- Demonstrated experience using quantitative data collection (Kobo Toolbox, ODK) and analysis (R, STATA, SPSS, Power BI) tools.
- Ability to produce high-quality analysis and technical reports within set deadlines.
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team, particularly remotely.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
- Proficiency in speaking and writing English (Spanish and/or Arabic is a plus).
Application Instructions
Interested parties are requested to submit proposals including the following documents:
- Technical proposal: briefly and clearly describe your understanding of the task and technical aspect of the proposal.
- Detailed curriculum vitae (CV): detailed CV with contact details (including at least two traceable references). If the consultant is a firm, provide CVs of key staff that will work on the evaluation.
- Signed financial proposal/budget: broken down into each of the aforementioned “deliverables” and include total consultancy daily rate (in USD) and estimated number of days (expected 24 days max)
- Please respond to the following:
- Have you ever developed an analysis plan (quantitative)?
- Yes/No
- If yes, annex one relevant example.
- Have you ever authored a research study or evaluation?
- Yes/No
- Annex one relevant example.
- Have you ever produced a technical guidance document?
- Yes/No
- Annex one relevant example.
- Date you are available to begin.
This Request for Proposal does not constitute an offer, and SCI does not bind itself to accept any proposal. SCI reserves the right to accept a proposal in part, rather than in full.
Please submit bids to Save the Children: Bianca Gallagher bianca.gallagher@savethechildren.org and Qundeel Khattak, qundeel.khattak@savethechildren.org.