Financial Costing Expert at Palladium Group

Job Ref.: req7868
Location: Abuja

Program Activity

• Consultancy to lead the costing of the 5-year National Strategic Plan (NSP-TB for 2021-2025) for NTBLCP and other related financial analysis to ensure appropriate budgetary allocation for the NSP activities

Background

• Health Policy Plus (HP+) is a global USAID-funded five-year project with a mandate across global, country and sub-national levels to strengthen and advance health policy priorities in the areas of family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH), HIV, and maternal health.  
• HP+ aims to improve the enabling environment for equitable and sustainable health services, supplies, and delivery systems through policy development and implementation, with an emphasis on voluntary, rights-based health programs.
• HP+ will help public health and policy leaders attach higher priority to their national and sub-national health needs, secure sustainable financing, advance health equity, and monitor policy implementation to ensure gains stay on track.
• HP+ aims to secure long-term enduring change by working with coalitions both inside and outside of health and showing common cause with neglected populations and other development actors. Central elements of HP+ revolve around building in-country capacity, institutionalizing achievements of past investments, and promoting country ownership of programs and initiatives.
• HP+ also provides support to the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Program (NTBLCP) in the area of sustainable financing for TB. Currently, NTBLCP is drafting its National Strategic Plan (NSP-TB) for 2021-2025 and HP+ is supporting it to cost the NSP.

Rationale:

• The NSP-TB is a crucial document that will drive the activities of the NTBLCP in line with the vison and mission of the program. Effective implementation of the NSP-TB requires accurate costing of the NSP and analysis of the NSP performance in the past years. To achieve this, NTBLCP requires support from an experienced costing consultant.

Objective:

• The aim of the consultancy is to work with the NTBLCP to estimate the cost of executing the NSP for TB (2021-2025) currently being developed and conduct other financial analysis related to the NSP-TB as may be required by NTBLCP.

Roles and Responsibilities

• The consultant is expected to be a full-time consultant and will be required to develop finalized cost estimates for the NSP-TB and analyze the financial gap for the NTBLCP in the last 5 years. The analyses will also include the cost of monitoring the progress towards the NSP goals.  

Specific Role of the Consultant includes:

• Review the draft NSP (2021-2025) to identify the details of the thematic areas to be costed
• Review the budget of the 2015 – 2020 NSP and the expenditure till date to help with the financial gap analysis
• Prepare and present clear and standard methodology for the costing exercise taking into consideration relevant recommendations from recognized institutions such as WHO and Global Fund
• Determine cost estimates for each thematic area and activities in the NSP for TB using nationally and internationally standardized and recognized costing tools
• Produce a cost estimate report specifying the computations, the assumptions and relevant resources used for the costing
• Provide weekly progress update report to the NTBLCP and HP+ on status of the costing exercise
• Other financial analysis relevant to the development of the NSP that may be assigned by the NTBLCP Monitoring and
• Evaluation Lead and Program Coordinator
• This position will be based in the NTBLCP Abuja office.

Deliverables
The major products of this assignment are:

• A thematic cost estimate report of the 2021-2025 NSP-TB reviewed and approved by NTBLCP. The report must include detailed cost estimates for the agreed actions / activities in the NSP.
• The report will detail the NSP elements to be costed and include a costing framework that highlights the selected tools and methodology to be adapted for the NSP costing including references where appropriate. This task will be the basis for the methodology and some assumptions used for the NSP costing.
• The costing model showing the calculations and assumptions. The costing model must be easy to understand by stakeholders and ideally produced in a modifiable Excel sheet. The consultant is expected to tutor the NTBLCP M&E / HF team on the use of the model after the completion of the costing exercise.  
• A report of the financial gap analysis of the 2015 – 2020 NSP. This will include an analysis of the NSP budget, the amount released and expenditure till date.
• Brief weekly progress updates to HP+ country director and NTBLCP M&E lead
• Final consultancy brief (not more than 8 pages) summarizing the key activities conducted and relevant insights.

Period of performance of the consultancy:

• April 6 – May 10, 2020, (15 working days)

Skills and Expertise Required
The consultant should possess the following:

Qualifications and required experience:

• A degree in Health Economics, Health financing, Public Health, or numerate disciplines such as Accounting, Statistics, etc. or any other equivalent degree
• Postgraduate qualification in Health Economics, Health Financing, Statistics, Health Management, Accounting or other related fields
• Minimum of 8 years’ experience in data management and analytics, at national level in Nigeria or other countries
• Experience working with Ministries of Health, international NGOs, and other relevant national parastatals developing national policy documents
• Expertise in economic cost estimation at state or national level. Experience in costing national strategic plans, national health programs or other similar assignment in Nigeria is preferred
• Experience in using M&E systems and tools
• Experience in research, report and analytical writings

Required technical competences:

• Expertise in economic costing and strong data analytics skills
• Familiarity with academic literature on health economics and policy development including costing models
• Knowledgeable about budgeting processes and financial planning at the national level in Nigeria
• Proficiency in Excel, proficiency in other data analytics software an advantage
• Demonstrable understanding of the development and content of national strategic plans
• Strong writing skills