Project Description: Stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. Children are defined as stunted if their height for age is more than two standard deviations blow the WHO Child Growth Standard Median (WHO,2009). Stunting in children may start at a different angle during growth. It may start from pre-conception when an adolescent girl and who later become mother is undernourished and anaemic, it worsens when... Stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. Children are defined as stunted if their height for age is more than two standard deviations blow the WHO Child Growth Standard Median (WHO,2009). Stunting in children may start at a different angle during growth. It may start from pre-conception when an adolescent girl and who later become mother is undernourished and anaemic, it worsens when Infacts' diets are poor, and when sanitation and hygiene are inadequate. Stunting is most likely to occur within the first 1000 days, the period from conception to the second child birthday (WHO,2013) after this period the stunting becomes irreversible even with improvement of Nutrition (UNICEF,2013) Impaired growth has adverse functional consequences on the Child. Some of those consequences include an underdeveloped brain, with long-lasting harmful consequences including diminished mental ability and learning capacity, poor school performance in childhood, reduced earnings and increased risks of nutrition-related chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in future (International Food Policy Research Institute,2015) This Consultancy project will seek to provide a detailed description of the drivers of stunting in Njombe Region. The assignment will be conducted over a period of 25 days. When undertaking the assignment, the consultancy will be required to review available global and national evidence on factors contributing to stunting reduction. The Consultant will analyze qualitative and quantitative data/documents focusing on nutrition, health, WASH, social protection and agriculture in Njombe. The assignment will involve review and r-analysis of national demographic and nutrition surveys (2014-2018). This will include but not limited to the 2014 and 2018 National Nutrition Surveys, National Multi-sectoral Nutrition Action Plan, National Adolescent Investment Action Plan, and Regional Nutrition Reports. During the assignment, the consultancy will work in consultation with stakeholders working on nutrition, education, livelihood, social protection, and private sector actors. The stakeholders will include the Government of Tanzania, Donors, NGOs and UN agencies.
Principal Investigator : Ester Elisaria
Department Name : HSIEP
Time frame: (2019-12-15) - (2020-02-15)