Job Opening at The Kenya’s Scaling up Nutrition Civil Society Alliance (SUN CSA)

Scaling Up Nutrition – Civil Society Alliance Kenya

Background: Malnutrition in Kenya remains a big public health problem. The situation is worsening due to changes in climatic conditions particularly lean and short rains seasons. 73,000 children in Kenya are severely malnourished and at risk of dying from drought-related hunger.

The high burden of malnutrition in Kenya is not only a threat to achieving Sustainable Development Goals and Vision 2030 but also a clear indication of inadequate realization of human rights. Reducing malnutrition in Kenya is not just a health priority but also a political choice that calls for a multi sectoral focus driven by a political will that acknowledges the integral role that nutrition plays in ensuring a healthy population and productive workforce.

The goal of Kenya Vision 2030 is to “transform Kenya into a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life by 2030”. However, malnutrition in Kenya is one of the biggest threats to Kenya’s attainment of Vision 2030 and the stipulated rights within the constitution where nutrition is Key. Without scaled-up and sustained efforts to address malnutrition, the country’s economic growth and long-term development will be seriously affected.

SUN CSA KENYA Programme aims to ensure that “Nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions are integrated into Kenya and sub-national agricultural policy development and implementation processes”.

Through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) and through their national development planning processes, countries committed to investing more in nutrition. However, the nutrition commitments lack baseline data from where they can start to track progress in investment on nutrition.

In furtherance of this objective SUN CSA KENYA with support from nutrition advocacy fund have partnered with other member CSOs to influence government to scale up investment in nutrition. The joint assignment will help support the partnership in engaging government on how to close the nutrition investment gap in individual governments in the region. The report will also aim at rallying civil society organizations to the cause of nutrition.

Through the partnership under SUN CSA KENYA, the alliance facilitated the strengthening of CSO SUN Alliance. The study will therefore cover counties in Kenya especially those where the CSO SUN alliance has committed to being a member of the network and formed SUN CSA chapters.

Currently these counties are Kwale, Mombasa, Kajiado, Homabay and Narok. The result of the analysis will be used to engage with Governments as they are preparing their Malabo Biennial Implementation Report and as they develop future annual budgets. The results of the analysis should therefore provide recommendations on how different governments can invest more in nutrition from their national budget as they leverage donor and private sector support.

Objectives

The objective of the budget analysis is to track the resources allocated to nutrition and nutritional programmes to ensure that they are adequate and used for the right purpose. Result will be used to lead evidence led advocacy in pushing for increased nutrition budget and related policy implementation. The analysis is also aimed at establishing the baseline investment in nutrition in Kenya especially for Mombasa, Narok, Kajiado, Homabay and Kwale.

Specific Objectives

The following are the specific objectives of the assignment in each of the afore-mentioned countries:

• Analyze the national government and five county governments budget allocation to nutrition including sector allocation.
• Assess the adequacy of national and county policy on nutrition and how these policies have been implemented through national budget investment.
• Explore investment to leverage private and civil society efforts to enhance nutrition work.
• Provide recommendations for nutrition advocacy by civil society, private sector and other players in the nutrition space

Scope of work

The study should focus on the Governments investment on nutrition through national budget from the past 3 years to establish the trend of commitment. The analysis should also look at how the national budget allocation to nutrition is a response to policy and international commitments that the governments have made especially on SUN and SDGs.

The analysis should further explore the adequacy of the policy framework to support the nutrition challenge of the counties.

Some of the critical documents to analyze are:

• National and 5 county budget documents.
• 5 -year development plans: assess the long-term planning process of nutrition work.
• National policy on Nutrition and its implementation Plan.
• Previous studies done
• The East and Southern Africa budget analysis report 2015

Time Frame

The assignment is expected to be completed in 21 days. After the assignment, the consultant will submit a draft report which DSW/SUN CSA Kenya will review and provide comments within 5 days after which the consultant will address the comments and a final draft produced within 5 days after submission of the comments.

Methodology of the Assignment.

The assignment will be primarily by desk research. The consultant will obtain documents for the analysis through their own resourcefulness with the support of the SUN CS Alliance Coordinator and the Chairs of the SUN CSA chapters in the counties. The consultant should analyses both the qualitative and quantitative data pertaining to investment efforts by government for the advancement of the nutrition agenda and make recommendations per county and for the Kenya.

Qualification

• It must have proven research experience in the area of nutrition
• The principal investigator assigned should have strong nutrition understanding and the structure of the health and finance system in Kenya.
• S/he have the following qualifications : Minimum of degree in, Economics, health field, demography, Nutirion, sociology or developmental studies.
• Previous experience with technical expertize in budget analysis/studies
• Similar work in the last 3 years (to provide sample copy of a recent report).