Research Consultant

Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition is recruiting a Research Consultant, to be based in Maputo, Mozambique.

Description

• Qualitative study consultant for Market assessment on consumer behavior of food habits and preferences in Mozambique
• The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is an alliance driven by the vision of a world without malnutrition; GAIN Mozambique has received funding from the Department for International Development (DFID) for the project “Catalysing Private Sector Participation in Scaling Up Nutrition in Mozambique” (CPS)
• The CPS project aims to increase consumption of nationally produced nutritious foods, focusing on those that are likely to be highly acceptable to low income households, with potential for demand to be quickly responsive to improved availability and affordability, such as:
• Animal source products, like eggs, poultry, cow, goat, and fish (dried and fresh); Fruits and Fortified and bio-fortified foods, such as flowers, oil, salt, and orange fleshed sweet potato
• As part of GAIN’s support to the SBN, the CPS project is commissioning a study to identify opportunities to improve demand for above nutritious foods
• This study aims to understand the drivers of food choice of households including perceptions, attitudes and behaviours related to nutritious foods and the affordability of foods
• The results of this study will be used to identify opportunities and barriers to increasing demand and must provide clear recommendations to inform the development of marketing, sales and distribution guidelines for private sector companies which are in the market of nutritious foods, or that already are in the food business and wish to add nutrition properties into their current food products

Scope of the study

• The objectives of this study will be met by exploring current food purchase patterns in Mozambique and the main drivers of food purchase, with a particular focus on specific categories of nutritious foods; This study should address the following topics and should include probing questions related to all sub-points listed at minimum
• Note that relevant additional topics can be added as long as the study remains focused on the primary topics with information directly relevant for the proposed objective
• In all cases, data collection methods and instruments must be developed and implemented consistently in a manner which will solicit information naturally avoiding leading/suggestive questions, thus avoiding bias in responses
• The data collection will approach both consumers and vendors, in order to explore the research questions more specifically
• Consumer Research Questions:
• Where are food acquired (e.g. home production, purchased from other local producers, market, etc.)?
• Why are specific foods more selected than others?
• Explore reasons related to availability, affordability, desirability (e.g. taste, status of foods, cultural norms, advertising, product placement, food quality), convenience
• How is acquiring the foods affected by seasonality?
• What are the facilitators and constraints (barriers) for food acquisition?
• Vender Research Questions:
• Explore vendors' reasons on which foods to sell and how to present it, what they think about how consumers make purchase decisions
• The study will be qualitative to obtain insights on consumers’ perceptions, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors

Sample

• The sample is to be implemented with urban and peri-urban low to middle-low income families and vendors selling to this segment in six districts – at least two in each of the following three provinces:
• Nampula, Sofala, and Maputo; The studied segment is categorised in two strata based on income representing low to low-middle income, constructed based on The Economist Mozambique
• Household Income Data Base Segmentation:
• Income group 1: 3.500 – 6.500; (60 – 100 USD)
• Income group 2: 6.500 – 11.000; (100 – 180 USD)
• It will be important to include methodologies that help identify the income/expenditure breaks per family for selection of interviewees and in the initial phase the interviews; Details of the selection procedures should be explained in detail and amply justified
• Within each household, the interview should take place with the individual(s) regularly responsible for food purchasing, and food purchasing decisions in the household; as such, a gender ratio for the survey population will not be specifically recommended
• Demographic and socio-economic data (household and respondent) should be collected to permit a clear description of the study sample and reporting of all results desegregated by key demographic characteristics (age, gender, disability, etc.) and wealth quintiles
• The sample will consist of a minimum of 36 interviews with consumers, 6 focus groups with consumers, and 12 interviews with vendors
• The key to the sample is to come up with a creative methodology to make the interviewees think about and articulate choices that they are not necessary aware about

Duties

• Guide the study and liaise with the hired implementing company
• The consultant will be involved in reviewing the sample and data collection methodology, developing data collection instruments, managing the client during data collection, conduct quality control of the collected data and during the analysis
• The consultant is expected to start as soon as possible; The length of the consultancy is expected to run until 31 March 2018, depending on the timeline of the study

Requisites

• The consultant is expected to have a degree within social research (Sociology, Social anthropology, or the like), to have experience in qualitative data collection and analysis, speaking Portuguese and have experience within Mozambique

Notes

• Only short listed applicants will be contacted
• Please do also refer any questions to the address below

How to Apply

1. Documentation

• Cover Letter
• Curriculum Vitae

2. Application

• Send your Documentation via email to consultant.mozambique@gainhealth.org with the Subject line “Consultant”