Scope of Work for national consultant Food Safety Assessment for Feed the Future Ethiopia Growth through Nutrition Activity implemented by
Save the Children
Background
USAID/Ethiopia's multi-sectoral nutrition program Growth through Nutrition provides assistance to the Government of Ethiopia (GOE) to strengthen the multi-sectoral nutrition institutional and policy environment, develop its human resources for nutrition, and implement strategies that address poverty and food security and social and behavioral barriers to optimal nutrition. A Food and Nutrition policy is under development in Ethiopia. Growth through Nutrition has an important role to play in assisting the government formulate a food safety component under this Policy. Food safety is a critical concern in Ethiopia, but little is known or documented about the main drivers of the problem, or which strategies and regulatory and institutional arrangements would be best suited to address it. Food safety is a rising priority as development practitioners strive to promote nutrient-dense yet highly perishable foods, such as meat, milk, vegetables and fish particularly among vulnerable populations.
The key causes of maternal and child malnutrition in Ethiopia are poor feeding practices, suboptimal water, hygiene and sanitation in the household and community, as well as poverty, food insecurity and gender disparities. Poor management of agricultural production and post-harvest handling threatens both production and food safety, leading to foods contaminated with aflatoxin and/or microbial and viral pathogens. Foodborne illness is a major concern across Ethiopia as well concern about chemical hazards in the food supply.
In a renewed commitment to improving nutrition, the Government of Ethiopia (GOE) has declared its goal to end child undernutrition by 2030. This pledge made in the Seqota Declaration 2015 recognizes malnourished children have reduced cognitive, schooling and employment outcomes. The GOE is tackling malnutrition using a coordinated, multi-sectoral approach involving thirteen ministries. This brings nutrition to the forefront of the GOE’s development agenda and builds upon other recent GOE initiatives, including development and expansion of the National Nutrition Program (NNP) and incorporating nutrition into the Health Sector Transformation Plan, and the Nutrition Strategic plan of Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (MOANR). Growth through Nutrition is an opportunity for the USG and its partners to continue assisting the GOE to build the strong institutional systems and human resources needed to implement sustainable multi-sectoral nutrition programming and achieve the Seqota goal. Development of food safety protection and regulatory capacity within the national and regional government is an important step in ensuring a safe and secure food supply that protects and improves public health.
The Growth through Nutrition goal is to improve the nutritional status of women and young children in Ethiopia’s four productive regions, as measured by reductions in stunting. Its results framework includes IR1: Increased access to diverse, safe, and quality foods.
As part of this intermediate result, Growth through Nutrition will begin to address concerns of food safety and post-harvest losses. It will support studies and assessments to generate the evidence needed to inform the Nutrition and Food Policy on food safety issues, and to develop a Food Safety Strategy and Implementation Plan/Manual linked to the Policy.
Food safety encompasses a variety of levels, from households and communities, wet markets, small farms, restaurants and large producers and industrial food processing. This SOW focuses on the scope of Growth through Nutrition, with particular emphasis on households and communities, and key value chain commodities that affect households and communities in the four Growth through Nutrition intervention areas.
Purpose of the Assignment
With and under the international food safety consultant, contribute to an assessment of food safety issue and food safety enabling environment in Ethiopia:
Objectives
· Identify food safety initiatives in Ethiopia that may be complementary to Growth through Nutrition programming
· Review existing food safety regulatory system in Ethiopia to identify strengths and gap
Outcomes
· Documentation of types and causes of highest priority food safety challenges within the Growth through Nutrition and FTF target areas
· Identification of potential programmatic approaches to address food safety risks and prevention of foodborne illness for Growth through Nutrition, including consumer education/SBCC, and technical support to other FTF implementing partners working with communities and household
· Policy brief on food safety with recommendations that can be used within the new national food and nutrition policy, and inputs into the GOE enabling environment and regulatory framework to ensure a safe and secure food supply that protects and improves public health
Activities and outputs
· Identify government ministries, development partners, academic/research centers or private sector agencies working in Ethiopia to address food safety and prevent foodborne illness at the household, community and market levels, what types of activities are being done, and where
· Identify in country laboratory capacity to analyze presence of pathogens and carcinogens in food
· Undertake field visits with international consultant to project sites to examine food safety challenges at HH, community and local market level including investigation of modes of contamination (wet markets, homestead farms, communities, households). This fieldwork will be carried out in targeted woredas in the four Growth through Nutrition regions: Amhara, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNPR,) Oromia, and Tigray.
· Document observations and data collected during field visits
· In consultation with the international consultant, recommend interventions in line with the identified systemic gaps, practical solutions for prevalent food safety problems, including input into SBCC strategies
· Work along the International Food Safety consultant and provide timely reports and follow up assignments
· Review how the issue of food safety is addressed within existing nutrition-specific and –sensitive training materials, SBCC tools and NNP implementation platforms (especially in Growth through Nutrition programming focusing on consumer education).
· Facilitate meetings/communications with identified stakeholders on food safety, as necessary
· Develop tools, presentations, and reports on observations, data collected, and other activities in consultation with the International consultant
Deliverables
1. Report 1: Document of government ministries, development partners, academic/research centers or private sector agencies working in Ethiopia to address food safety and prevent foodborne illness at the household, community and market levels, what types of activities are being done, and where, and in country laboratory capacity to analyze presence of pathogens and carcinogens in food
2. Report 2: Food safety challenges at household, community and local market level, including documenting modes of contamination (wet markets, homestead farms, communities, households)
3. Documented observations and data collected during field visits
4. Other Tools, presentations, and reports prepared during consultancy.
Assignment Length
30 days
Six days to Document of government ministries, development partners, academic/research centers or private sector agencies working in Ethiopia to address food safety and prevent foodborne illness at the household, community and market levels, what types of activities are being done, and where, and in country laboratory capacity to analyze presence of pathogens and carcinogens in food
24 days (to work jointly with International Food Safety Consultant)
Field work and primary data collection: meet with GOE officials responsible for food safety, conduct field visits to GTN woredas, visit academic centers with offering food safety education and training, meet with other food safety experts working in Ethiopia
· Food safety challenges at household, community and local market level, including documenting modes of contamination (wet markets, homestead farms, communities, households)
· Documented observations and data collected during field visits
Expected Time-Line to achieve objectives
Major Activities / Deliverables | Estimated Level of Effort (working days) | Location |
1. Doucumentation of secondary data, activities under implementation and status of laboratories in the country | 3 | Addis Ababa |
2. Field work and primary data collection: meet with GOE officials responsible for food safety, conduct field visits to GTN woredas, visit academic centers with offering food safety eduction and training, meet with other food safety experts working in Ethiopia | 24 | Addis ababa and Project Regions |
3. Discussion of findings and recommendations with GTN, GOE and VC staff | 2 | Addis Ababa |
4. Debriefing to SCI-GTN Management Team (PowerPoint presentation) | 1 | Addis Ababa |
Total Working Days – Year 1 | 30 |
|
Logistics:
The Growth through Nutrition will facilitate meetings, field work and data collection. Flights to the field (regional), as necessary, will be arranged by the project. Ground transport, fuel and driver for field work and data collection will be provided by the Save the Children logistics department. Dan Abbott will be the primary in-country facilitator of this assignment.
Payment
Payment will be received in 3 installments, following submission and approval by SCUS and Growth through Nutrition of deliverables, at the following percentages:
Deliverable 1: 25%
Deliverables 2-4: 75%
Qualifications of Successful Candidate
· MSc or PhD or its equivalent in Food Safety, Environmental Health, Microbiology, Public Health, Sanitation or related technical field.
Preferably
· At least 5 years’ professional work in national and/or international level in Public health, Environmental Sanitation, Food Science, Food Safety or Microbiology.
· Good English language skills
· Good analytical and documentation skills
· Good people skills
· Experience working in a multicultural environment
Let Employers Find You
Upload/Update Your CVFeatured Jobs