Consultant Vacancies at Management Sciences for Health

Posted on: Tue 21-10-2014

The USAID-funded Program to build Leadership and Accountability in Nigeria's Health system (PLAN-Health) is implemented by Management Sciences for Health (MSH). This is a long-term trans-formative program designed to strengthen Institutional Capacity of select Public Sector Institutions (PSIs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for improved Health and HIV/AIDS service delivery across the three tiers of the Nigerian health sector. (Federal, State and Local).

Position: Consultant

Grade: NG-Abuja

Center/Office: CLM-General

Project/Program: PLAN-Health

Job ID: 13-7802

The purpose of this consultancy is to:

• Document in a step wise and chronological manner the project’s interventions and strategies deployed across IRs and clients since inception. The resulting documents should clearly articulate PLAN-Health’s interventions outlining the processes and specific activities utilized.

• Write articles for potential publication submission. This will require the consultant to work with the respective team to determine to which potential journals, magazines, and professional materials the team should submit work.

• Significant pieces of work to be documented in a monograph format.

• Trainings, tools, survey instruments, and guidelines might best be reflected in manuals or guidelines.

• Other documents as determined by content.

This consultancy has the following objectives

Document PLAN- Health’s interventions and technical processes (step-by-step) according to thematic areas and clients as outlined in Fig. 1. below.

Fig. 1

Public Sector Institutions (PSIs)			Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)
IR	Client/institution	Technical Briefs	IR	Client /Organisation	Technical Briefs
IR6	NHIS AKI HIS	ESTABLISHING WARD BASED COMMUNITY HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME	IR1 IR2 IR3	All CSOs engaged since project inception	8. STRENGTHENING ORGANISATIONAL SYSTEMS OF CSOs Financial management grants Resource mobilization M&E Board governance Strategic and operational planning
IR6	SHELL PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY-COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAMME	DEPLOYING PERFORMANCE BASED FINANCING TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF SERVICE AND ENAHNACE COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME	IR2	CSOs that received grants	9. PERFORMANCE/RESULTS BASED GRANTS TO CSOs
IR2	FMoH DPRS AKI DPRS GOMBE DPRS FCT DPRS	WORK FORCE PLANNING DOCUMETATION ADAPTING NATIONAL GUIDELINES FOR STATE HRH POLICIES AND STARTEGIC PLANS
IR2 1R4	FMoH DPRS AKI DPRS GOMBE DPRS FCT DPRS	STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL PLANNING
1R4	FMoH DPRS &NACA AKI DPRS & AKSACA GOMBE DPRS & GOMSACA FCT DPRS & FACA	DEVELOPING COORDINATION AND PARTNERSHIP FRAMEWORKS
IR2	FMoH DPRS AKI DPRS GOMBE DPRS FCT DPRS	UNIFIED HMIS SYSTEM A THE STATE LEVEL (HDCC, M&E MEETINGS; DHIS; STATE M&E PLAN)

LDP/LDP+ for CSOs and PSIs

PEPFAR FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME

Articulate clearly the activities and processes involved for each of the interventions and strategies for the IRs, thematic areas or clients.

Collate all the tools, survey instruments and guidelines in an annex for each of the strategies per thematic and or IR areas.

METHODOLOGY

• Review of relevant project documents and reports and identify content for manuals and/ handbooks.

• Work with the Team Lead and team members to identify significant activities of the project over its lifetime.

• Determine which of these activities can and should be documented and in which manner.

• Ensure all tools, guidelines and national standards and protocols for each interventions are collated.

• Interviews and discussions with Technical Advisers of Multi-Functional teams and other key team members of the PLAN- Health project [1].

• Possible interviews with clients at the state level.

• Select the type of documentation that best showcases the work.

• Gather material from the teams to write the document.

• Write and prepare material for final editing.

Specific Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK

The consultants will carry out the following tasks:

• Development of technical materials detailing the step-by-step approach utilized in carrying out PLAN- health interventions.

• Review intervention documents, annual reports, progress reports to donors, and/or other documents that are considered relevant to this assignment.

• Confer with PLAN- health team[1] and clients to establish technical interventions carried out and develop papers/documents as appropriate for publication.

• Travel to locations outside Abuja to meet with PLAN-Health clients, as needed.

• Organize material and complete writing assignment according to set standards regarding order, clarity, conciseness, style, and terminology.

• Maintain records and files of work and revisions.

• Review published materials and recommend revisions or changes in scope, format, content, and methods of reproduction.

• Select photographs, drawings, sketches, diagrams, and charts to illustrate material.

• Description of methodology, implementation arrangements and checklists as well as a detailed work plan for the assignment for initial discussion prior to onset of work.

• Draft documents for the various interventions according to thematic areas and IRs as outlined in Fig 1.

• Report of the consultancy, not to exceed 10 pages with an executive summary.

OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES

• Description of methodology, implementation arrangements and checklists as well as a detailed work plan for the assignment for initial discussion prior to onset of work.

• Draft documents for the various interventions according to thematic areas and IRs as outlined in fig. 1 above.

• Report of the consultancy, not to exceed 10 pages with an executive summary.

TIME FRAME

The Assignment will be for 45 working days (Mondays- Friday only) in the first instance with a breakdown as shown below in Fig 2

Fig.2.

Dates and number of days	Activities	Deliverables
10 days:	Review of project narratives, intervention documents, reports and interviews/discussions including technical sessions with project team and relevant clients cutting across the PSI and CSO clients as provided in Fig 1	Notes of discussions to inform thetechnical briefs/other documentation
33 days:	Draft thematic area *technical briefs/documentation* for comments. Incorporate comments for final copies.	*Technical briefs* as listed in Fig 1
2 days	Final report writing and submission. Briefing meeting.	Report of consultancy and finalised copies of *technical briefs*

OTHER

Consultant will be paid 50 % of payment half- way through the consultancy. The remaining 50% will be paid at the end of the consultancy.

MSH PLAN Health reserves the right to extend the consultancy for 30 additional days, as needed.

Qualifications

REQUIRED EXPERTISE

• A consultant with a mix of the following expertise and experience is required:

• Health System Strengthening.

• Organizational Development and Institutional Capacity Building.

• Interview and Listening skills.

• Writing, Graphic and Editing skills

• The consultant should have demonstrable and relevant work experience in developing technical documents as required in this consultancy. Example of previous writing documents will be reviewed prior to hiring.

The project’s interventions are designed around six Intermediate Results (IRs) outlined below, which align with World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended health systems building blocks as well as the National Strategic Health Development Plan (NSHDP).

Strengthen leadership and management practices of select PSIs and CSOs.

Develop and strengthen organizational systems (e.g., HR, Finance, HMIS, Supply Chain, Service Delivery, and Planning) of PSIs and CSOs.

Strengthen governance practices (e.g., accountability, board development, business development) of PSIs and CSOs.

Strengthen the coordination among PSIs at all levels and partnerships with CSOs.

Develop a new cadre of individuals and institutions providing technical assistance in management and leadership that meets international standards.

Strengthen the institutional capacity of NHIS, state counterparts, local communities and select CSOs to provide access to quality health services through sustainable community based health insurance programs.

The 5-year project began in July 2010 engaging with the Federal Ministry of Health’s Department of Planning Research and Statistics, (DPRS), the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), the National AIDS and STD Control Programme (NASCP), the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), at the Federal level and their State corresponding agencies in Gombe and FCT. The project took on Akwa Ibom as a third state in July 2012.

Engagement at the Local Government Level did not really materialise until 2011 with a pilot of PMTCT improvement project in Gwagwalada area council of FCT. The Project also engaged the Country Coordinating Mechanism Secretariat (CCM) of the Global Fund as one of its client to which it provided Technical Assistance. As part of the Project’s mandate in developing individuals and institutions that have skills and practices effective in improving the HIV/AIDS sector, nine cohorts of the PEPFAR Fellowship programme were implemented to date with participants drawn mainly from the project’s focal states.

RATIONALE:

As PLAN-Health enters its fifth year of program implementation (end date of June 2015), there is a need to document the strategies and interventions deployed across clients and Intermediate Results areas of the project. It is expected that the information gained will be crystallised and developed into documents, including technical briefs show casing project interventions in a step wise manner.

The outcome of this consultancy will be technical documentations for various PLAN Heath intervention and strategy areas disaggregated by IRs and or clients as the case may be.

How to apply

Click here to apply

Closing Date: 31st October 2014

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