Consultant – Social & Behavior Change (SBC) for Agriculture and Off-farm Livelihoods for SCALE – Remote

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Background:

The Strengthening Capacity in Agriculture, Livelihoods, and Environment (SCALE) program is a five year Associated Award funded by the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) through the Technical and Operational Performance Support (TOPS) program led by Save the Children US. SCALE is designed to further improve the impact, sustainability, and scalability of BHA’s programming in agriculture, natural resource management, and alternative (off-farm and non-farm) livelihoods in emergency and non-emergency settings. Specifically, the program focuses on sustainable and climate sensitive approaches that foster resilient agricultural systems, and enhance income opportunities within or outside agricultural systems. This program is managed through Mercy Corps’ Agriculture Technical Support Unit (TSU) and is in its fourth year.

Purpose / Project Description:

SCALE, in collaboration with the USAID/BHA-funded PRO-WASH Award, recently developed the social and behavior change guide, Make Me a Change Agent: An SBC Resource for WASH, Agriculture, and Livelihoods Activities (MMCA). The MMCA guide supports agriculture, livelihoods and WASH staff to build the communication, facilitation and negotiation skills necessary to promote lasting behavior change in their program implementation communities. Having conducted MMCA trainings in Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, and Uganda, SCALE and PRO-WASH are now designing and developing an e-learning (virtual) course that will make the materials available to a wider set of practitioners. This e-learning course will be available for a multi-sectoral audience, with the majority of the examples, role plays and activities related to the agriculture, livelihoods, and WASH sectors.

SCALE also provides MMCA-related support in response to ongoing requests from BHA-funded programs. Recent requests include support for remote MMCA refresher sessions, group coaching, Training of Trainers, review of cascade plans or Quality Improvement & Verification Checklists (QIVC), and guidance on cascading MMCA and adapting the materials for particular contexts and challenges. In addition to these MMCA activities, SCALE captures and shares Social & Behavior Change (SBC)-related learning with BHA-funded implementers on an ongoing basis, with a focus on lessons learned and promising practices for promoting the sustainable adoption of agriculture, NRM and livelihoods-related approaches within food security programs.

The SCALE SBC Consultant will support SCALE in refining its MMCA-related e-learning materials, responding to MMCA-related training, refresher or coaching requests, and sharing relevant SBC-related learnings to the wider BHA implementing community.

Consultant Objectives:

Make Me a Change Agent

During the MMCA e-learning course design and development, the consultant will serve as the SBC/MMCA subject matter expert for the agriculture and livelihoods components of the curriculum. The consultant will collaborate closely with PRO-WASH to: review the initial storyboard; review examples, role plays and activities to ensure the agriculture and livelihoods components are in line with SBC best practices and appropriate for the contexts in with BHA-funded implementers work, predominantly vulnerable rural households facing high levels of food insecurity; and coordinate agriculture and livelihoods stakeholder input related to the pilot testing of the materials. Additionally, the consultant will ensure that the messages and approaches in the e-learning course align with sound SBC theory and principles to encourage staff behavior change over time.

As needed based on requests from BHA partners, the consultant may coordinate with PRO-WASH on MMCA training preparations, and lead up to 3 remote refresher sessions and/or 3 coaching sessions with agriculture and livelihoods technical staff. This requires distilling core MMCA content and activities into short sessions and delivering them remotely via Zoom.

Consultant Activities:

The Consultant will:

• Review MMCA Guide and related materials (c. 2 days)
• Provide technical review of MMCA e-learning lessons to ensure the agriculture and livelihoods examples, role plays and activities reflect SBC best practices and are appropriate for BHA-funded implementers (c. 5 days)
• In close collaboration with SCALE Capacity Strengthening Advisor, identify agriculture and livelihoods participants to pre-test the training content, liaise between the learning partner and the RFSA staff for the piloting of materials, and incorporate their feedback into the revision (c. 2 days)
• Design and deliver up to 3 remote MMCA refresher lessons to BHA-funded implementers, as needed and requested by partners (c. 3 days)
• Design and deliver up to 3 remote MMCA coaching sessions to Madagascar-based agriculture and livelihoods program staff, as needed and requested by partners (c. 3 days)
• Coordinate with PRO-WASH on MMCA training preparations for Zimbabwe-based partners (c. 2 days)
• Review and provide feedback on BHA-funded partners’ MMCA plans related to agriculture and off-farm livelihoods, such as MMCA training cascading plans or QIVCs, as needed and requested by partners (c. 2 days)
• Contribute to capturing relevant SBC-related learnings and sharing with the wider BHA implementing community through learning briefs or preparing for and participating in online knowledge sharing events (c. 3 days)

Consultant Deliverables:

• MMCA e-learning course activities, role plays and examples for agriculture and livelihood staff reviewed and finalized
• Presentations and brief bullet points of lessons learned for up to 3 one-hour remote MMCA refresher sessions with program teams, as needed
• Preparations and brief bullet points of lessons learned for up to 3 remote MMCA coaching sessions with Madagascar team
• Presentation slides and other training preparation materials for Zimbabwe MMCA training

Timeframe / Schedule:

Approx. 22 working days between April-December 2021

The Consultant will report to:

SCALE Capacity Strengthening Advisor

The Consultant will work closely with:

SCALE Program Director, PRO-WASH Senior Specialist, SCALE Collaboration and Learning Advisor, SBC TSU staff, and other SCALE staff

Required Experience and Qualifications:

• 5-10 years of experience in a relevant technical field
• Experience developing and disseminating SBC strategies and materials, preferably within USAID/BHA contexts and related to the adoption of agriculture and livelihoods behaviors
• Prior experience conducting Training of Trainers for SBC facilitators, and advising on effective design, planning, implementation and monitoring of SBC at household and community levels
• Prior experience advising on ways to enhance the quality and effectiveness of messages, tools, approaches, materials and activities related to the adoption of agriculture and livelihoods behaviors
• Experience designing remote learning experiences for adults, such as short refresher sessions, interactive activities, and coaching.
• Skilled in adult education techniques, participatory learning techniques and/or dialogue education.
• Experience coaching/mentoring people from diverse cultural backgrounds
• Previous experience with MMCA, strongly preferred
• French fluency, preferred

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