GAIN was launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. GAIN is a global, Swiss-based foundation that mobilises public-private partnerships and provides financial and technical support to deliver nutritious foods to those people most at risk of malnutrition.

GAIN contributes to fighting malnutrition in Ethiopia through innovative and sustainable models that increase access to affordable nutritious foods among communities vulnerable to malnutrition. In this regard, it is currently in the preparation to implementing large scale Better Dairy Access and Demand project. The project’s overall objective is to increase the quality of children’s diets by improving the consumption of dairy and associated products at household, school, and industrial parks. This programme will run for five years (2021-2026) and be focused on lower-income consumers and aims to impact 325,000 Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) individuals to consume dairy.

PROJECT UNDERSTANDING

For this specific assignment, it will focus on rural and peri-urban households in Amhara and on supporting two intervention strategies: creating demand and increasing access. Within the area of supporting demand, the end goal will be to increase dairy (fresh milk, yoghurt etc.)  consumption among children ages 6 months-7 years and pregnant and lactating women by addressing religion-based social norms related to dairy consumption on fasting days and during fasting periods. This will focus on clarifying that such rules do not apply to young children or pregnant and lactating women, and it will use a multi-channel, engaging demand-generation approach, based on lessons learned from prior projects and this assessment activity. This will be done working closely with religious and social institutions and key community influencers. The demand strategy will also try to address a current gap in caregivers’ skills with using dairy in diverse ways to enrich children’s diets, especially in understanding barriers during fasting periods. The second end goal will be to increase access through retail and institutional channels. Among the retail channels, it will likely focus on milk houses and cooperatives, channels that reach lower-income consumers, and aim to increase product quality, desirability, and reach while focusing on inter-community trading for rural households with their on dairy production units.

SCOPE OF WORK

Considering the above, GAIN has started the groundwork towards developing the overarching demand generation and access plan & strategy towards consumption of dairy products whereby 51 woredas have been mapped as target areas of intervention. Accordingly, the consultant is expected to identify the key barriers (both supply-side and demand-side) to providing dairy products to children and pregnant and lactating women in Amhara households, specifically focused on fasting periods. GAIN would like to understand practical barriers that prevent caregivers from providing dairy, as a part of daily food consumption in regard to purchasing, preparation, and feeding practices to children under 7 years and PLW (Pregnant and Lactating Women to be considered separately). These insights on barriers should be detailed and specific, so that they can be used to develop effective interventions, including a main behavioural change communication strategy and tools. Furthermore, the consultant is also expected to identify specific sources for accessing dairy products in targeted rural and pre-urban households to implement effective interventions to create better access to dairy products from target markets to improve consumption and meet the needed demand generated at household level.

For this work, the target households have been segmented according to these profiles:

1.     Rural- households that have their own cow milk production unit, as a source of income, or family consumption.

2.     Rural- households with goats or sheep, and do not have cow that both use for consuming milk as well as those not mainly using for dairy consumption due to social taboo but could be potential sources of consumption

3.     Rural- households that do not have any milk production unit (cow or goat/sheep), but rather source dairy products from the market and other points of access external to the household.

4.     Urban/semi urban- households that do not have any milk production unit, but access diary products from local market, door to door supply, kiosks, groceries, and/or supermarkets.

SAMPLE SIZE, TARGETS AND METHODOLOGY

Total number of households targeted in the study are 25 households per segment with 100 households in total. The study will follow in depth qualitative approach.

The following zones have been targeted to sample the study woredas: West Gojam, East Gojam, Awi, South Gondor and Central Gondor zones.

KEY ACTIVITIES

Accordingly, the key activities of the assignment addressed in this TOR are:

1. To conduct a household insight assessment study to understand practical barriers and/or enhancers to providing dairy to children and PLW (separately) using qualitative tools, including deep in-house (day in life) observations in targeted households, covering all four of above segmentations.
2. To conduct a point of access assessment through this household assessment to identify key barriers and/or enhancers to accessing dairy products for households in each of the above segments.
3. Generate insights to address barriers and/or enhancers to access and household use. Based on these insights, identify tangible strategies for each segment.
4. Provide creative recommendations towards developing effective demand creation tools to address key barriers and use identified facilitators to achieve actual behavioural change in the targeted households from the caregivers to provide dairy products to their children during fasting periods.
5. Work with GAIN Demand Creation Teams, to develop the demand creation final strategy for the project.

ACTIVITIES/DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINE

Considering the above scope of work, below are the specific deliverables with key indicators the agency is expected to fulfill as part of the assignment.

N.B Agency is expected to provide a detail work plan with associated costs within the budget and scope to the above listed deliverables.

GAIN will provide detail briefing on scope of project, overall strategy, target profiles, main needs, support letter and relevant data of selected woredas to conduct the study once the consultant is selected for this assignment.

QUALIFICATIONS

·       Proven record with full research and creative agency capabilities, tools, and technologies to design the assessment

·       Ground-level implementation experience, with particular focus on semi-urban and rural areas.

·       Proven understanding of community-based nutrition demand creation or related interventions.

·       Experience with consumer feedback and insight assessments with focus on qualitative approaches, as used to implement promotional activities.

·       Clear and systematic thinking that demonstrates good judgment, expert problem solving, and creativity for innovative recommendations.

·       Experience working in a public/private partnership environment highly desirable

·       Qualified team with expertise in demand generation creative strategy and insights, concept development, tools development, design work.

·       Fluency in the local language is a requirement.

·       Ability to deliver on short deadlines with the expected quality and outcome intact.