Tiwoloka Project
Terms of Reference
Cost of the Diet Study
CARE is a global leader in humanitarian and development programming, committed to ending poverty and improving the lives of vulnerable communities. As 1998, CARE Malawi has worked in close partnership with the Government of Malawi and other key stakeholders to implement impactful programs, with the goal of reaching over 3.2 million women, girls, and vulnerable individuals between 2025 and 2030.
The Tiwoloka program (2024-2029), funded by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition (FFECN) initiative, is currently being implemented by CARE in partnership with the Ministry of Education of Malawi and local partners FAWEMA and WaterAid. Tiwoloka seeks to 1) improve literacy outcomes among school-aged children; 2) increase the use of positive health, nutrition, and dietary practices; and 3) strengthen government policy and systems towards a government-led, evidence-driven school feeding program (SFP). Tiwoloka will directly benefit 105,564 people, including 84,331 primary and pre-primary students in six districts of Malawi through improved literacy, health, nutrition, and hygiene outcomes. Tiwoloka is being implemented in 106 schools in the Central and Southern Regions of Malawi.
Through the present Terms of Reference (ToR), CARE Malawi seeks to hire a consultant to conduct a Cost of the Diet (CotD) study to inform Tiwoloka‘s implementation and advocacy efforts towards the development of a national SFP.
Objective of the Assignment. The CotD study aims to identify cost-effective and culturally acceptable options for components of school and household meals. Tiwoloka will use these recommendations as part of (i) its advocacy with the Government of Malawi (GoM) and School Meals Coalition for the development of a national SFP and (ii) community and school-level training on nutrition, including but not limited to Care Groups and School Feeding Committees. Tiwoloka will also disseminate the findings to the School Meals Coalition to inform school feeding programming implemented by other development partners.
Scope of Work. The consultant will use a combination of primary and secondary data to develop recommendations for cost-effective school meal menus responsive to primary school-aged children’s dietary gaps in Malawi. In consultation with Tiwoloka‘s MEAL Manager and CARE USA’s Director of Research,the selected consultant will develop data collection tools to collect primary data for this study. Informed by the findings, the consultant will identify affordable nutritious foods available in local markets in six districts of Malawi – chiradzulu, Kasungu, Lilongwe Rural West, Mulanje, Ntcheu, and Thyolo – and develop locally relevant and cost-effective school meal menus. The consultant will also develop recommendations of nutritious foods and recipes to increase dietary diversity of children under five years of age (CU5) and women of reproductive age (WRA). The consultant will consider cultural preferences, local farmers’ production, seasonal availability of food items, and the workload required for planning of meals in the development of recommendations.
The scope of work includes:
- Development of electronic data collection tools and training of Tiwoloka‘s MEL staff to collect data using those.
- Primary data cleaning and analysis.
- Triangulation with available secondary data sources and Tiwoloka baseline findings.
- Report writing.
- Preparation of a short version (3-4 pages) of the report with key results for external dissemination.
Data sources. The CotD study will use the following data sources:
- Primary data collected from markets in the six target