Terms of Reference for the Engagement of Data Manager at PACT

Background

Globally, the number of women dying due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth has decreased by 43% from an estimated 532,000 in 1990 and 303,000 in 2015. Despite the achievement, maternal deaths remain unacceptably high in sub-Saharan Africa where 550 of the daily 830 global maternal deaths occur. At the country level, Nigeria accounts for 19% of the global maternal deaths and there is more than a 10% chance that no progress was made reducing it between 1990 and 2015. In 1990, maternal deaths in Nigeria stood at 57,000, 62,000 in 2000, and 57,000 in 2015.

Skilled care during child birth is key to reducing maternal deaths. About 65% of all maternal deaths could be prevented if births occurred in health facilities. This is important in settings like Nigeria, where skilled care during childbirth overwhelmingly exist in health facilities; and only about half of all live births occur with skilled support. The situation is worse north of Nigeria where about 94% of pregnant women who do not deliver with skilled support go through childbirth with no one present at all. In Gombe state, in northeast Nigeria, only about one in every five women with a live birth in the previous 12 months deliver with the support of a skilled birth attendant.

Clearly, the situation calls for better ways to reach pregnant women with effective and scalable interventions. However, interventions aiming to reduce maternal deaths must also address fundamental correlates as mother’s education, economic security, decision-making autonomy, and social security as these are crucial to increasing utilization of skilled birth attendants during childbirth. In the light of this, as part of its overall strategy, the State Accountability and Quality Improvement Project (SAQIP) in Gombe, is implementing a community-based intervention aimed at increasing the utilization of skilled obstetric and newborn care services in primary health facilities. The intervention which commenced in 2016, utilizes an integrated approach to empower women to become more: aware of obstetric complications; educated through adult literacy classes; economically independent; able to negotiate decisions at home; willing to pay for MNCH services and utilize and pay for MNCH services when the need arises.

In the light of this, the project is seeking a consultant to manage its database cutting across all the three major outcome areas i.e. Institutional strengthening, Health system strengthening and utilization of Maternal, Neonatal and Child health Services (Mothers’ Group).             

Objectives

The objectives of the consultancy are to;

• Support the enhancement, development and implementation of SAQIP’s DHIS2 database.
• Support the team in improving information flow and existing systems.
• Guide SAQIP in informed-decision making;
• Support the design and development of data architecture and models to integrate tool and reporting needs of SAQIP and its CSOs for routine data collection, reporting, use and dissemination at all levels.

Qualification for the consultant

The consultant must meet up with the following requirements;

• Bachelor Degree is required. Preferable in computer science or information and statistics and/or related fields.
• Years of experience in supporting activities in analogous software, data and statistics field is required.
• Experience with Excel, Word, PowerPoint and basic database management is required.
• Experience with basic computer software and hardware maintenance would be an asset.
• Should have sound knowledge and experience of application software, database software (Microsoft Access, Postgre SQL etc).
• Experience in projects, INGO, NGO is preferable.

Deliverables

Specifically, the consultant will deliver the following deliverables:

Reporting Requirements

(Activities and/or Outputs)

To be completed by no later than these Due Dates

Delivery Instructions

Develop automated report and graphs for SAQIP on the project’s database

By 15th of month

Clean and upload SAQIP’s routing MG data using the offline template

By 15th of month

Support database development and management needs for other project(s) as needed

By 15th of month

Assist in verifying the authenticity and accuracy of the data reported

By 15th of month

Ensure timely data entry of all SAQIP data from team members and partners

By 15th of month

Undertake field trips to assess issues and challenges with data

By 15th of month

Train staff on offline data entry on SAQIP’s database

By 15th of month

Remuneration

Major cost drivers will cover firm’s fee rates and travel costs. Pact Nigeria will bear the cost of relevant expenses incurred during this consultancy.

Line of reporting

The consultant will report to Pact Nigeria’s Director for Monitoring Evaluation Research and Learning, who will be responsible for communicating with the wider Pact team.