Terms of Reference

The following is a generic terms of reference for the consultant who will facilitate the survey:

Consultant – Anthropometry

As part of its regular process of monitoring and evaluation, the project will conduct rapid nutrition surveys at three points during the life of the project. These surveys can provide a measure of project impact in terms of changes over time in food security, nutritional status and overall human welfare in the targeted communities.

The primary indicator in the programme area will be chronic malnutrition (‘height-for-age,’ or ‘stunting’) among children aged under 5 years. Other key indicators that will be reported include acute malnutrition (‘weight-for-height,’ or ‘wasting’) and underweight (‘weight-for-age’).

Each survey round should take approximately 20 to 30 days to complete. A consultant experienced in anthropometry will be needed to facilitate research activities, including:

• the calculation of the sample size
• the construction of the sampling frame
• the training of local researchers
• the supervision of data collection
• data entry
• data analysis; and
• the production of the final report

Staff from the local health centres will be invited to participate as local researchers and will receive training in anthropometry and the collection of data. Other local researchers may be drawn from NGOs working in the region.

The consultant will be expected to complete computerized data entry and data analysis using the Epi Info 2000-software package. This software is available free of charge from the Centers for Disease Control of the United States Public Health Service.

The consultant will be responsible for producing the written report, including the three indicators disaggregated by gender. The raw data tables are to be included as an appendix to the main report.