Consultancy for Nutrition Programme Costing and Resource Requirements Analysis

The consultant will conduct a comprehensive costing analysis of nutrition programmes in Afghanistan to estimate financial resources required to achieve national nutrition targets. The assignment includes generating evidence on programme costs, resource needs, financing gaps, investment priorities, and cost-effectiveness to support strategic planning, budgeting, advocacy, and resource mobilization.

Responsibilities

• Conduct a Nutrition Programme Costing Analysis to estimate recurrent, capital, and total programme costs at national and sub-national levels.
• Calculate costs per beneficiary reached, service delivered, child treated for SAM and HR-MAM, pregnant and lactating woman served, FHH supported, CNDCC supported, and health facility delivering nutrition services.
• Assess cost variations across provinces and delivery models, identify key cost drivers and efficiency bottlenecks.
• Determine the most cost-effective intervention packages and benchmark costs against comparable programmes where feasible.
• Develop 3–5-year resource requirement projections for maintaining and scaling up services, including emergency surge scenarios.
• Conduct a financing gap assessment to estimate funding needs, identify financing risks, and assess efficiency gains.
• Develop a Nutrition Investment Case demonstrating the burden of malnutrition, costs and benefits of priority interventions, cost-effectiveness and return on investment, priority investments required to achieve national targets, and recommendations for sustainable financing and resource mobilization.

Requirements

• Master’s degree (or Higher) in Nutrition, Public Health, Health Economics, Health Financing, Development Economics, Epidemiology, Statistics, or a related field.
• At least 8–10 years of progressively responsible professional experience in nutrition, public health, health systems strengthening, health financing, programme costing, or economic analysis.
• Demonstrated experience in conducting programme costing, resource requirements analysis, budget analysis, financial modelling, or investment case development in the health and nutrition sectors.
• Proven track record of leading complex assessments involving multiple stakeholders, government institutions, UN agencies, development partners, and nongovernmental organizations.
• Experience in developing costing models, financing scenarios, investment cases, and resource mobilization strategies.
• Experience working in fragile, humanitarian, or conflict affected settings, preferably in Afghanistan or similar contexts.
• Strong understanding of nutrition programming, including maternal nutrition, infant and young child feeding, micronutrient interventions, Integrated management of acute malnutrition (IMAM), and nutrition information systems.
• In-depth knowledge of health and nutrition financing mechanisms, public financial management, and sector planning processes.
• Expertise in costing methodologies, including activity-based costing, ingredient-based costing, unit-cost estimation, and expenditure analysis.
• Strong knowledge of economic evaluation methods, including cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, and value-for money analyses.
• Familiarity with national and international nutrition policies, strategies, and frameworks.
• Knowledge of nutrition programme implementation within humanitarian and development contexts.
• Strong English writing and communication skills, with the ability to interact effectively with stakeholders and partners at all levels.
• Advanced qualifications (PhD preferred) in Health Economics, Public Health, Nutrition, Health Financing, Development Economics, or a related field (desirable).
• Experience in nutrition programme costing, resource requirements analysis, and development of nutrition investment cases and financing strategies (desirable).
• Previous work with international organizations, such as UNICEF, WHO, WFP, World Bank, USAID, GFF, Gavi, or the Global Fund (desirable).
• Familiarity with Afghanistan's health and nutrition systems, including government planning, budgeting, and coordination mechanisms (desirable).
• Experience conducting cost-effectiveness, ROI, and value-for-money analyses and developing costing tools or financial planning models (desirable).
• Knowledge of public financial management, programme-based budgeting, and domestic resource mobilization (desirable).
• Experience supporting national nutrition, health, or multisectoral strategic planning processes (desirable).
• Additional training or certification in costing, economic evaluation, health financing or programme budgeting will be an asset (desirable).

Skills

• Nutrition Programme Costing
• Resource Requirements Analysis
• Health Economics
• Health Financing
• Economic Analysis
• Programme Costing
• Budget Analysis
• Financial Modelling
• Investment Case Development
• Public Health Systems Strengthening
• Costing Methodologies
• Activity-Based Budgeting
• Ingredient-based Costing
• Unit-Cost Estimation
• Expenditure Analysis
• Economic Evaluation Methods
• Cost-effectiveness Analysis
• Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Value for Money Analysis
• Nutrition Programming
• Nutrition Information Systems
• Public Financial Management
• Sector Planning Processes
• Resource Mobilization
• Financing Scenarios
• Nutrition Investment Cases
• Programme Budgeting
• Strategic Planning
• Stakeholder Engagement

Languages

English