Consultant at Management Sciences For Health - MSH

Grade: Senior
Job ID: 13-7802
Location: NG-Abuja
# of Positions: 1
Center/Office: CLM - General
Posted Date: 2014-10-17
Project/Program: PLAN-Health
Application Due Date: 2014-10-31

OBJECTIVES:
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.

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.

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.
Background Information
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).

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.