Strategic Planning & Policy – Consultant

Background

Launched in 2023, the Movement Against Malnutrition is a new venture, founded by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), with a single goal: to ensure that no child dies of hunger, especially when we have scalable and proven solutions. Our solution is to simplify treatment to reach every child. That means a simpler, scalable treatment approach that treats all forms of acute malnutrition with a single food product at a single point of care, using simplified diagnosis and dosing. We aim to broaden this global movement to more partners, to unify all of the IRC’s groundbreaking innovation, research, program delivery and advocacy under this new umbrella venture, and intensify funding and focus to end this unconscionable global tragedy once and for all.

Our unique structure is our strength. We are embedded within one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations but operate like a nimble start-up to spur a global movement with partners across government, the nonprofit sector, academia and corporate world.

As part of this movement, we are seeking a short-term consultant to help us build out a plan to radically scale-up acute malnutrition treatment in 1-2 distinct contexts, as both a proof of concept and a blueprint for the transformational change we envision. The aim of this consultancy is to develop a country-level strategy for the Movement in Nigeria and CAR to transform treatment coverage in target regions in coalition with governmental, civil society, private sector, academic partners, and others. We know that the solutions to scaling acute malnutrition treatment must be led locally, and the Movement seeks to support this effort.

This consultancy aims (1.) To design a scaling approach for Nigeria and CAR that maximizes simplicity, accountability, local leadership and transparency. The resulting model should draw on successful approaches in global health including Gavi and The Global Fund. At a minimum, the approach should include the development of a nationally-led, costed strategic plan that aligns resources and partners against a set of activities and goals and transparently monitors progress.(2.) Tostrengthen/build new partnerships to participate in the coalition; and (3.) To develop a viable implementation plan to deliver on the strategy at the moment that funding is secured. In short, the consultant will prepare both a proposal and an inception plan/report for scaling up malnutrition treatment in [Nigeria // CAR] in partnership with the relevant network of partners in order to quickly accelerate implementation in [Nigeria // CAR].

The successful consultant will be knowledgeable about the country’s context, nutrition and/or health systems, and key governmental/non-governmental stakeholders; as well as possess skills in facilitating out-of-the-box design and exceptional capabilities in writing strategy document(s). The consultant will have a demonstrated track record in collaboration, working alongside the well-established IRC country program colleagues to amplify and leverage existing partnerships & relationships and build new ones. The consultant will be responsible for facilitating the wide group of stakeholders and actors in the nutrition space in Nigeria and CAR to produce a participatory, local-context driven strategy to scaling up malnutrition. This strategy will be the basis for ongoing, collective fundraising efforts by IRC and other stakeholders who are part of the strategy and, ultimately, will lay the groundwork to rapidly begin implementation when funding is secured.

This consultancy is unique. Organizations often recruit for Project Directors/Chief of Party at the time of submitting a solicited call for proposals with the caveat of ‘contingent on a winning bid,’ but IRC is taking a new approach with this proactive design process. We seek a consultant who can both develop an effective strategy for Nigeria and CAR that secures funding and, if successful, could become the leader of delivering on this strategy as an integrated component of the IRC country program.

The consultant will dual report to the Nigeria and CAR Country Director and a member of the Movement against Malnutrition leadership team throughout the period of the consultancy. The consultant will also engage directly with the MaM Executive Director, the Nutrition Global Practice Lead, as well as other members of the MaM leadership team for different functional support and engagement (eg. fundraising, advocacy, and communications). An advisory group for MaM will also support the consultant both to provide steers and learn from the work of the consultant.

Scope of work

• Engage IRC internal stakeholders country program, regional, and central teams) and a wide range of external stakeholders to create a plan for a radical scaling and simplification effort. Identify key elements of the plan including but not limited to:

• Who are the key local leaders of the effort (Principal Recipients in the Global Fund model)
• → Once identified agree with these stakeholders in as much detail as possible on:
• What could a concise, high quality, transparent planning and budgeting process to align stakeholders and budgets look like
• Who might we expect to be key partners, both governmental and non-governmental (including private sector)
• What would be an appropriate geographic scope based on different hypothetical budget levels

• Support local leader(s) in facilitating a participatory design workshop/conference, including resulting in athorough SWOT analysis for achieving 80% scale in a defined geographic location including

• What health systems building blocks are relatively strong or weak
• What specific tactics could be used to target bottlenecks to scale
• What cost-effective approaches may be prioritized in this setting
• What are the greatest risks to scale and what mitigation measures can be put in place

• Develop/write a compelling data-driven proposal & plan for scaling up malnutrition treatment coverage based on the collaborative design work; validate the proposal/plan with a network of partners.

• In collaboration with the IRC country program as well as MaM leadership, make recommendations on what internal structures are needed within IRC to ensure radical transparency, efficiency, local collaboration and achievement of targets including:

• Program org structure and staffing (including to support extensive work in partnership)
• Financial/grants management (including extensive partnership)
• Governance of the program in [[Nigeria/CAR]]
• Measurement and accountability
• Communications and transparency
• Sustained advocacy

Deliverables:

A complete draft program plan including:

Stakeholder analysis, identification and documented high level agreement with key stakeholders. (This should include at minimum top 10-15 national stakeholders, 10-20 pg write up)

Description of the agreed approach, maximizing the principles of simplicity, accountability, transparency and local leadership building on the funding, planning and measurement models established by Gavi and the global fund. (20 pg write up)

Preliminary workstreams and indicative activities aligned against the SWOT results

Preliminary internal organizational structure and staffing

Preliminary budgeting and financial flows

Preliminary project timeline including inception phase, launch and programming at scale

Selection Process:

As part of the consultant selection process, short-listed candidates would be asked to:

• Submit a past writing example (at least 20 pages)
• Complete a timed assignment
• Participate in a panel interview

Minimum Qualifications:

Requirements:

• At least 15 years of experience with increasingly complex roles in public sector leadership, strategy and delivery
• Experience developing strategic plans for complex public sector programs
• Experience interacting at all levels of government, civil society and the private sector
• Demonstrated ability to bring divers stakeholders together to achieve outputs, outcomes and goals
• Deep knowledge of the country contexts
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills
• Fluency in French (for work in CAR)
• Knowledge of public health issues, actors and concepts
• Specific knowledge of nutrition a plus