Job Openings at Malaria Consortium

Purpose of the Assignment

• The purpose of the assignment is to support MC in the conduct of community-level demand creation before and during peak malaria season (SMC season) to boost malaria vaccination uptake.

Scope of Assignment

• Social and Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC) is key to the effective implementation of the hybrid model of malaria vaccine delivery in highly seasonal malaria transmission settings.

Technical assistance is required to support the project with the development of an SBCC strategy suitable for the context of the LGAs in which the project will be implemented in Kebbi state. This would involve a range of activities:

• Conducting a detailed situation analysis identifying the:
  • Challenges to be addressed and the context of the challenge(s)
  • Persons affected by the challenge(s)
  • The behaviors contributing to the challenge(s); contextual factors influencing the behaviors
• Determining the programmme theory to base the SBCC strategy
• Audience profiling to identify potential priority groups to be targeted with the SBCC strategy
• Assessing the communication needs and resources to determine strategic approaches. This will include but not limited to planning for engagement activities, development of SBCC materials and tools, facilitation, capacity building of SBCC related personnel.
• Positioning of the SBCC strategy. This involves having an identity for the SBCC strategy which is based on identification of a central theme for the SBCC strategy in the project implementation. This would form the basis of message development and creative implementation of SBCC activities.
• Development of a detailed implementation plan. This entails defining who, what, when and how to deploy the SBCC strategy to be deployed for the project.
• Development and implementation of the SBCC strategy monitoring and evaluation plan

Specific Objectives

• Develop inception report detailing the process of conducting SBCC strategy for the project, including methodology to be used, SBCC implementation plan, M&E plan etc and timelines for accomplishing the tasks
• Develop and submit SBCC strategy
• Develop and submit a detailed SBCC Implementation Plan
• Develop and submit a SBCC Monitoring & Evaluation Plan
• Support the development of SBCC materials
• Train SBCC personnel (CDDs etc)
• Provide technical support for all SBCC activities implemented in the Project
• Monitoring and evaluation reports submitted
• Develop Final SBCC report
• Develop Consultancy report

Expected Output / Deliverables

• Inception report
• SBCC Strategy
• SBCC Implementation Plan
• M&E Plan
• All SBCC materials developed
• Training report
• Implementation of SBCC activities
• Implementation report
• M&E reports submitted
• Final SBCC report submitted
• Consultancy report submitted

Qualifications

• An Advanced Degree in Communication, Development Communication, Health Promotion, Public Health, Social Sciences, or related field and at least 8 years post-graduation.
• Proven experience (minimum 5 years) in social and behavior change communication, preferably in the context of health promotion campaigns.
• Familiarity with the cultural context and preferences of the target population.
• Familiarity with the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) and malaria programs
• Proven experience in writing reports for public health programs or projects in Nigeria or similar developing country context
• For this position, previous working experience with MC is a added advantages.

Type of Personnel Required:

• Proven experience in managing public health programmes or projects in
• Demonstrated ability to monitor, supervise, and train in health service programmes
• Excellent leadership qualities.
• Experience with a flexible approach to managing and prioritizing significant workloads and multiple tasks, in a fast-paced environment, with tight deadlines is required.
• Demonstrated ability to monitor, supervise, and facilitate trainings.
• Strong representational skills and ability to interface with multiple stakeholders, representatives, and partners (including representatives of government agencies) in a professional manner on an ongoing basis.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively under pressure and to prioritize competing demands.
• Strategic, analytical and decision-making skills.
• Excellent technical writing and oral presentation skills are highly desired.
• Excellent experience in using Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Experience of proactively identifying and addressing bottlenecks/issues desired.

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Job Purpose

• The purpose of the assignment is to conduct a comparative cost analysis of a hybrid vaccination schedule with different delivery approaches.

Scope of Assignment

• The overall objective of this consultancy is to support MC in generating evidence to be considered for a more feasible and cost-effective model that would increase the impact of malaria vaccine deployment in resource-constrained settings. 
• This involves assessing the costs associated with implementing the hybrid malaria vaccine immunization with different delivery approaches. The key outcomes to be measured are
• Program costs (Additional costs for vaccination, promotional activities, training, logistics and infrastructure)
• Incremental cost per vaccinated child.
• Incremental cost per completed vaccination series.

This assessment would engage a range of quantitative and qualitative methods:
Program Costs:

• Vaccination costs: Additional costs related to vaccine procurement, storage, transportation, and administration, associated with the increased pre-season demand.
• Promotion costs: Costs of enhanced community promotion activities, including materials (e.g., posters, flyers), and community outreach workers.
• Training costs: Costs of training healthcare providers and community workers involved in hybrid vaccination and promotional activities.
• Logistics and infrastructure costs: Additional resources needed to implement the enhanced schedule.

The following methods will be used to measure each component:
Demand creation Costs (Pre-season Community Engagement and key messages through SMC):
Method:

• Activity-based costing: Identify and allocate costs associated with each promotional activity (e.g., printing materials, community outreach workers, media campaigns).
• Survey or key informant interviews: To capture the time spent by outreach workers on promotion activities and how much time is devoted to different communities.

Training Costs:
Method:

• Cost analysis of training sessions: Document costs related to the design and implementation of training (e.g., materials, venues, trainer salaries).
• Staff time analysis: Collect data on the number of staff attending, duration of training, and wages/salaries for estimating opportunity costs.
• Surveys or focus groups with trainers and participants: To assess the effectiveness and scope of the training.

Logistics and Infrastructure Costs:
Method:

• Health facility assessments: Conduct infrastructure assessments to document additional infrastructure needs such as cold storage or transportation expansions.
• Survey or interviews with health facility/logistics managers: Understand the specific logistical challenges and costs introduced by the hybrid schedule.

Incremental Cost per Vaccinated Child:
Method:

• Cost-per-child analysis: Divide the total program costs (vaccination, promotion, training, logistics) by the number of children vaccinated to calculate the incremental cost per vaccinated child.
• Cost comparison: Compare these costs between the hybrid schedule and the standard schedule using historical data for the standard schedule.

Incremental Cost per Completed Vaccination Series:
Method:

• Cohort analysis: Follow a cohort of children through the entire vaccination process to determine how many complete the full series of doses.
• Cost-per-series calculation: Use the total costs of vaccination and promotion and divide by the number of children who complete the full vaccination series.

Deliverables:
The successful candidate will deliver the following items:

• Protocol for cost effectiveness analysis
• Tools for data collection for cost effectiveness analysis
• A short inception report to define the scope of work, proposed timeline outlining the approach to be taken, key assumptions and trained project team members
• A PowerPoint presentation (max 25 slides slides), outlining data collection/extraction procedures of the cost analyses.
• Data collected on cost data
• All the underlying calculations used in the cost analyses in Microsoft Excel format, which can be fully modified by Project team in the future
• Data transcripts and codes
• First draft of comprehensive report with recommendations 5 days after completion of activities
• Final Consolidate Consultancy report

Key Tasks and Responsibilities

• Develop protocol for cost effectiveness analysis
• Develop costing assumptions and tools for data collection for the cost analyses
• Train data collectors
• Collect relevant costing data
• Conduct relevant stakeholders’ engagement
• Conduct cost analyses, carry out reviews and updates and produce relevant reports.

Person Specifications:

• The successful applicant will possess thorough understanding of costing approaches in the context of public health and community health. 
• They will possess significant experience of undertaking costing exercises and economic evaluations.

Essential Qualifications

• A PhD (preferred) or at a minimum Master’s level degree in economics, preferably health economics.
• Significant demonstrable experience of undertaking and overseeing costing exercises, including primary cost data collection and developing health economics models.

Experience and Knowledge:

• At least 10 years of progressive experience in collecting costing data and carrying out budget impact and cost effectiveness analysis, developed costing assumptions and tools for data collection for cost effectiveness analysis, collected routine project implementation costing data, carried out budget impact analysis, and conducted cost effectiveness analysis.
• Demonstrable track record of similar work in the past five years
• Demonstrated experience in liaising with government; and managing relationship with stakeholders and partners at health financing, budgeting, implementation science, and policy levels.
• Experience in health financing and budgeting
• Demonstrated experience in health economics.

Skills and competencies:

• Strong analytical skills.
• Strong command of Microsoft office suites (Ms Word, Ms PowerPoint, Ms Excel and Ms Project packages).
• Excellent organizational and time management skills are required.
• Ability to work both independently and as a member of a team and to handle multiple priorities is required
• Experience as a trainer and/or supervisor for quantitative and qualitative data collection, management, and/or analysis is preferred
• Excellent analytical, writing, synthesis, communication and facilitation skills.
• Experience of working with partners at international, regional and national levels.
• Proven academic experience, including pieces of research, publications and written reports
• Familiarity with the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) and malaria programs
• Proven experience in writing reports for public health programs or projects in Nigeria or similar developing country context.