Action Contre la Faim Hire a Data Analysis Consultant

Action Contre la Faim recruits a Data Analytics Consultant for a mission in République Democratic Republic of Congo.

Background

Child malnutrition results from multiple determinants, both immediate and underlying. While food insecurity and biomedical factors are widely documented, the international literature increasingly highlights the role of psychological distress, anxiety and depressive disorders as well as post-traumatic stress in altering functional and parental abilities. Perinatal depression and parental psychological distress are associated with lower quality of parent-child interactions, reduced early stimulation abilities, and increased difficulty in mobilizing available resources for child nutrition and health. In this perspective, mental health is an essential underlying determinant of nutritional security.

This problem is part of a global humanitarian context marked by an intensification of crises. In 2026, nearly fifty countries are in an emergency situation and 239 million people need assistance (OCHA, 2026). Protracted conflicts, forced displacements and epidemics have profound impacts on individuals, especially in long-exposed regions such as Ituri or North Kivu in the DRC. International estimates show a significant burden of mental disorders in these environments, but available data often remain global, heterogeneous and difficult to transpose to local realities. Areas affected by protracted crises, as well as some vulnerable groups of young children, adolescents, pregnant and lactating women, caregivers or people with disabilities remain particularly under-documented. Moreover, comparative and evolutionary analyses are rarely possible in unstable environments.

Since the 2000s, Action Against Hunger has integrated mental health and psychosocial support into its multisectoral strategy to combat malnutrition. In DRC, since 2019, the organization has established programmatic databases including standardized measures of well-being, psychological distress, resilience and perinatal mental health. These data offer a unique opportunity to produce contextualized analyses that allow us to better understand the role of mental health in vulnerabilities and to assess the impact of psychosocial interventions implemented in areas such as Drodro, BamboGoma and Mweso since 2021.

Main objectives

• Estimate the prevalence of psychological distress at the scale of Drodro and Mweso health zones, in relation to nutritional vulnerabilities.
• Document the mental health situation of under-studied high-risk groups in humanitarian settings, including young children, adolescents, pregnant and lactating women, and caregivers working in unstable settings.
• Evaluate the impact of psychosocial interventions on indicators of well-being, resilience and psychological symptoms.

Summary of planned activities and expected results

The study will be based on a meta-analysis of programmatic data collected by ACF between 2021 and the first quarter of 2026 in the Drodro health zones, BamboGoma and Mweso. In coherence with the objects of study, the research will be spread around two major methodological axes. The first focus is on the prevalence and determinants of psychosocial distress. It will be based on a descriptive epidemiology approach that will allow to examine the variations observed according to displacement dynamics, socio-demographic characteristics as well as the specificities of different groups, including children, pregnant and lactating women (FEFA) and caregivers. The measurement tools mobilized will include, for adults, WHO-5 to assess subjective well-being, HAD for anxiety and depression, PCL-5 for posttraumatic stress symptoms and CD-RISC for individual resilience. For children and adolescents, the study will use CPDS and CRIES, while the EPDS scale will be used to document perinatal distress in pregnant and lactating women. The second axis concerns the evaluation of the impact of psychological and psychosocial interventions implemented. It will consist in comparing the scores obtained before and after the interventions with the same tools. The protocols reviewed will include the Action Against Hunger protocol, WHO protocols and EMDR variants that are particularly relevant for nutritional security. Overall, the methodology used will produce strong and contextualized empirical evidence to understand the evolution of mental health in humanitarian environments marked by instability, protracted crises and repeated displacement.

Dissemination and use of results

Restitution workshops will be held with local health authorities and humanitarian partners. The analyses produced will feed into national strategic thinking and contribute to advocacy for a stronger integration of mental health in strategies to combat malnutrition, especially in protracted crisis contexts. A scientific paper will also be produced and submitted in a journal.

Innovative aspects

The project is based on a longitudinal corpus of programmatic data accumulated over several years in the context of chronic crisis, allowing comparative and evolutionary analyses rarely possible in unstable environments. It aims to produce subnational data directly exploitable by health authorities and clusters, and empirically document mental health as the underlying determinant of malnutrition. By assessing the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions integrated into nutrition programmes, the study will help to strengthen the available evidence on multisectoral approaches in a binding humanitarian context.

Objectives of the mission

• Conduct rigorous data analysis
• Highlight the relationships between the different variables
• Developing statistical models
• Produce a clear, structured and actionable report for scientific writing, advocacy, capitalization and programmatic decision making.

Tasks to be carried out by the consultant

a.) Getting started with the protocol and tools b.) Cleaning and structuring of databases c.) Quantitative statistical analysis (via Jamovi, SPSS, Statistica or equivalent)

• Prevalence of psychological distress
• Mental health status of high-risk groups
• Evolution of individual well-being and resilience; trauma, depression, anxiety, mentalization abilities
• Influence of socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, economic status, experience of conflict, etc.). d.) Qualitative analysis (via NVivo or equivalent tool)
• Identification of key perceptions about well-being, resilience, and coping mechanisms.
• Triangulation of qualitative and quantitative results. e.) Modelling of relationships between variables
• Development of explanatory models for the evolution of psychosocial well-being, resilience and coping skills.
• Graphic representation (diagrams, networks of variables, causal patterns).
• Proposal of composite indicators or aggregate scores, if applicable. f.) Deliverables expected
• A comprehensive analysis report including: Analytical methodology used; Detailed quantitative and qualitative results; Constructed statistical models; Interpretation of results; PowerPoint presentation support.
• A scientific draft article

Candidate profile

Statistics/epidemiology, applied social sciences or equivalent. Proven experience in mixed data analysis (quantitative + Qualitative). Mastery of Jamovi, NVivo, tatistica or SPSS tools. Knowledge of humanitarian contexts and techniques and methods in epidemiology Rigor, autonomy and ability to popularize results.

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