Baseline Evaluation of McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Project (Mauritania)

Deadline: 30-Jan-23

The Counterpart International (hereinafter Counterpart) is soliciting proposals for the Baseline Evaluation for the McGovern-Dole Food for Education project, entitled Bridging the Future as described in this Request for Proposals (RFP).

The project is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (hereinafter USDA).

This five-year program (2022 – 2027) will assist the Government of Mauritania (GOM) to improve food security, reduce the incidence of hunger, and improve literacy and primary education to contribute to more self-reliant and productive communities.

Objectives

The key objectives of the project are as follows:

Improve student attendance rates by providing nutritious daily school meals.

Improve health and dietary practices by providing access to deworming medications and increasing knowledge of nutrition, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), safe food preparation and storage practices.

Improve school infrastructure and increase access to clean water and sanitation by building storerooms, latrines, and water station systems.

Improve the literacy of school age children through promotion of bilingual instructional methods and tailored capacity building at the national, regional, and school levels; and

Increase the capacity of and incentivize local community members and groups including School Management Committees (SMCs) or Comité de Gestion Scolaire (COGES) and ParentTeacher Associations (PTAs) or Association des parents d’élèves (APE) to engage in sustainability-focused activities to improve the quality and self-sufficiency of primary schools, and to lead and maintain school feeding programs.

Main Activities

The project main activities are:

Training: Management & Supervision for Inspectors and Directors: The project will deliver training on leadership and management techniques to include more supportive supervision; and develop classroom management guidance for teachers and improve teaching conditions by conducting frequent and random inspection visits at schools to inspectors and school directors.

Promote Teacher Attendance & Recognition: The project will enhance teacher attendance by rewarding teacher with high attendance rate and increase awareness on the importance of teacher’s attendance and create a culture of respect and initiative for the responsibilities of teaching.

Training: Teacher Professional Development: The project will strengthen teachers’ capacity to utilize bilingual teaching methodologies and improve understanding and implementation of evidence-based reading instruction (EBRI) through five holistic teacher professional development interventions.

Extra-Curricular Activities: The project will establish Girls’ Clubs for Grades 4 and 5 in project schools and hygiene kits to participating girls.

Professional Development for Data Management, Analysis & Decision Making: The project will train a corps of government officials in the Education Statistics and Analysis Division to analyze learning data and incorporate data points into their system for documentation to address the lack of data on student performance evaluation at the national level.

Provide School Meals and Take-Home Rations: The project will provide nutritious breakfasts and lunches as well as take home rations (THR) for cooks and Pregnant and lactating women (PLW).

National Attendance Database and Operating Procedure: The project will work with the GoM Division of Planning and Coordination to develop a prototype student attendance registry system and the accompanying operating procedures.

Training: SMC/COGES, PTAs/APEs, Civil Society Groups: The project will strengthen school management committees (SMC/COGES) and parent teacher associations (PTA/APES) to improve the student’s experience.

Advocacy and Awareness Raising: The project will collaborate with MoE’s Direction de l’Animation Socio-Educative to raise awareness on the benefits of children staying at school beyond Grade 5. The project will also facilitate MoE officials’ participation at key international conferences including the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) conference and Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) conference.

Training: Good Health, Hygiene, and Nutrition Practices: The project will conduct social, and behavior change communications (SBCC) interventions to improve nutrition, health, and hygiene practices of mothers and their children under five as well as PLW and provide the THR in Maternal and Child Nutrition (MCN) activities and host Health/Nutrition/WASH themed fairs.

Training: School Food Management Systems: The project will establish training capacity within the Division of School Nutrition and Health (DNES) unit to conduct training at the departmental level.

Building/Rehabilitation: Pipeline Extensions and Water Storage Systems and Cook Stations, Cafeteria, Food Storage Units: The project will install or rehabilitate water systems facilities to increase access to clean water, construct or rehabilitate sanitation systems, including handwashing stations with faucets and basins or latrines, install a cook station and provide energy-efficient stoves, and construct eating areas.

Campaigns – Distribution of deworming medication, vitamins, and minerals: The project will reduce schistosomiasis and other parasitic infections by conducting deworming campaigns in all schools.

Building Capacity: Local and Regional Procurement: The project will purchase locally and regionally sourced commodities to school meals in addition to import commodity while strengthening local and regional supply chains and market systems and enhance the GoM’s capacity in LRP management.

Qualifications

Within the technical response, bidders should include information which will allow Counterpart to adequately assess the following qualifications:

Evaluation Team Lead must have a masters or PhD degree in a social science discipline or related field

Minimum 8 years experience designing and leading quantitative data collection and analysis in developing countries

Experience designing and managing surveys

Ability to research and write at a high level of technical mastery

Ability to research and conduct interviews with key informants

Skill with statistical software such as Stata or R.

Experience working in Mauritania required

French speaker required and strong writing skills in English.

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