Food and Nutrition Security, Enhanced Resilience Plus (FANSER+) / M&E expert with national experience

Background and Rationale

Zambia faces significant development challenges, with 60% of its population living below the national poverty line and rural poverty rates reaching 79%. Despite progress over the past two decades, malnutrition remains a major concern: over one-third of Zambian children are stunted, and the majority of households cannot afford a healthy diet.

The BMZ-funded FANSER+ project builds on the successes of its predecessor, aiming to improve the nutritional situation and resilience of poor rural households, particularly women and young children, in Eastern and Luapula provinces. FANSER+ distinguishes itself by prioritizing the active involvement and capacity building of government structures to ensure sustainable, government-led implementation of nutrition and gender-transformative approaches.

Objectives

1. Increased the number of women of reproductive age meeting the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDDW) standard.
2. Improved meal frequency and diversity for infants and young children, aligning with the Minimum Acceptable Diet (MAD) standard.
3. Supported thousands of households in expanding agricultural production to include climate-resilient and nutrient-rich crops and foods.
4. Strengthened women’s participation in household nutrition decisions, as reflected in the Household Decision Making Index. (Note: This indicator has been flagged for future revision due to inconclusive baseline data.)
5. Enabled government representatives to enhance nutrition-related policies and services through multisectoral coordination.

Tasks of the expert

• Overseeing the design and use of monitoring tools to track progress across all work packages (Care Groups, SILC, GTA, and capacity development).
• Supporting the team in documenting implementation processes, bottlenecks, and good practices for adaptive management and knowledge products.
• Ensuring regular data collection from District Coordinators and Thematic Advisors is consolidated and fed into results reporting.
• Providing inputs to GIZ templates and contributing to quarterly and annual reporting.
• Supporting indicator tracking against the logical framework (incl. surveys) and identifying emerging trends across districts and work packages.
• Coordinating with the FANSER+ M&E focal point and aligning with the overall M&E strategy of the programme.