Roster of Consultants -Human Resources for Health (HRH) / Health System Strengthening Experts at World Health Organization (WHO)

Background

• One major weakness of any health system is the poor state of its health workforce: Nigeria is one of the 55 countries with a severe shortage of health workforce, this is made worse by inadequate investment in the production of more health workers and implementing strategies to optimize the available stock of HRH. The main HRH challenges include shortages and inequitable distribution of the health workforce, poor HRH planning, uninformed policy decisions, inadequate recruitment and retention strategies, and inadequate training capacities. These challenges result in disparities in health workforce densities by geographical locations (urban and rural areas) and levels of health care delivery. These disparities in the distribution of health workers have been strongly associated with lack of access to quality health care and poor health indices of populations. In recent times the Government of Nigeria through the Federal and State Ministries of Health, increased its momentum to enhance an equitably distributed, competent and effective health workforce by strengthening the Human Resources for Health (HRH) strategic planning. However, achieving and maintaining an equitably distributed, competent and effective health workforce is a continuous efforts requiring not only synergy among partners, but, also, innovative, and comprehensive national and state planning and strategic actions

Deliverables

Duties

• The Consultants will work under the supervision of the World Health Organization Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Health to deliver one or several duties from the following list:
• Output 1: Country support on various aspects of HRH analysis and evidence-generation for policymaking
• Deliverable 2.1: Undertake literature review, landscape, bottleneck analysis and situation analysis on HRH at national or state levels by employing relevant research methods.
• Deliverable 2.2: Support conduct of health labour market analysis (HLMA)
• Deliverable 2.3: Document country case studies or best practices of HRH interventions and develop state Health workforce profiles.
• Deliverable 2.4: Technical guidance on mid-term or end-term documentation of implementation of HRH policies and plans.
• Deliverable 2.5: Facilitate policy dialogue on different areas of work around HRH, in advancing the design and implementation of system reform
• Output 2: Developing transformative strategies for scaling up HRH development strategies, policies, and tools, including competency-based curricula development and reviews.
• Deliverable 3.1: Development of costed HRH annual operational plan and conduct of joint annual review (JAR) applying the whole-of-government approach
• Deliverable 3.2: Support the process for developing HRH policy and HRH strategic plans, considering health labour market forces, population, and health system needs in addressing shortages and maldistribution of health workers including gender, and inequity in access to health workers.
• Deliverable 3.3: Support the country in strengthening regulatory bodies and states to coordinate the development of evidence-based curricula, facilitate accreditation, expand training places, and improve certification and continuous professional development of health workforce cadres.
• Output 5: Establishing an investment case/plan for HRH as a vital component of health financing and investment towards UHC and the SDGs
• Deliverable 5.1: Support to develop and implement an investment case on HRH to address health system needs in the health workforce and maldistribution of existing Health workers
• Deliverable 5.2: Support in translating Essential Health Service Packages into health workforce needs, cost, and the health, social, and economic return on investment at PHC
• Deliverable 5.3: Support capacity building of Health managers, policymakers and health workers on Human Resources for Health and Leadership, develop training materials and coordinate adaptation of training manual for certificate programs.
• Output 6: Optimizing health Worker Retention, equitable distribution and Performance
• Deliverable 6.1: Build the capacity of health sector stakeholders, including ministries of health, in planning and negotiation of bilateral agreements informed by HLMA
• Deliverable 6.2: Support the country in building capacity by applying the Workload Indicators of Staffing Needs (WISN) tool for equitable distribution and for developing staffing norms for PHC workers.
• Deliverable 6.3: Support the country in establishing evidence-based mechanisms for the retention, motivation and improving performance of health workers. Through the conduct of studies and development of policies, guidelines, and tools for improving retention and performance of health workers.
• Deliverable 6.4: Support the implementation of strategies for optimizing health workforce utilization through integrated task-shifting and sharing in States and conducting capacity building for health workers

Education

Qualifications and experience

• Essential: Postgraduate degree in health policy, public health, health services management, health economics, Data sciences, social sciences or other public health-related sciences.
• Desirable: PhD or advanced degree/ fellowship in the relevant areas highlighted

Work Experience

• Essential: 10 years’ experience in health systems at sub-national, national and/or international level(s) with health workforce experience covering one or more of the areas of expertise presented above.

Desirable

• Relevant work experience with Academia, UN agencies or other recognized national and international non-governmental organizations

Skills And Knowledge

• Excellent analytical, planning, and organizational skills
• Ability to work independently to deadlines
• Ability to work in a team with limited supervision
• Technical competence in health systems and service delivery management and organization