Baseline Analysis Consultant at the Management Sciences for Health (MSH)

The Management Sciences for Health (MSH), a global health nonprofit organization, uses proven approaches developed over 40 years to help leaders, health managers, and communities in developing nations build stronger health systems for greater health impact. We work to save lives by closing the gap between knowledge and action in public health.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Baseline Analysis Consultant

Job ID: 13-10824
Location: Nigeria
Grade: Consultant
Group/Office: PDG (Program Delivery Group)
Dept/Unit: PDGGEN – Program Delivery Group
Project/Program: A576 – PMI – S

Report
The consultancy firm will report to the following:

The PMI-S state coordinator in the state of assignment – Daily.
The PMI-S Senior M&E Advisor and Project Director at MSH/Abuja – Bi-weekly. Generally, this consultancy will be carried out under the overall guidance of the PMI-S Project Director.
The consultant will work closely with the Senior M&E Advisor, State Team Director, and State Coordinators.
The SM&E team in the MSH home office and state offices will also provide technical support to the process.

Overview

PMI-S is a five-year, USAID-funded malaria project in Nigeria implemented by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) with an expected coverage of eight states: Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Oyo, Plateau, and Zamfara. The goal of the project is to contribute to the National Malaria Elimination Program (NMEP) vision of achieving “a malaria free Nigeria” and the PMI Strategy 2015-2020 goal to further reduce malaria deaths and substantially decrease malaria morbidity toward the long-term goal of elimination.
This goal will be achieved through interventions aimed at enhancing both the supply of and demand for malaria-related services within a stronger health system.
Successful implementation of the proposed interventions is expected to result in improved coverage of quality malaria services, especially for vulnerable populations; a strengthened health system for delivering higher quality malaria services; improved demand for and use of malaria case management services; and improvements in the prevention of malaria in pregnancy.

Objectives of the Consultancy:

MSH is seeking an experienced and highly skilled research firm with vast experience in the latest PMI malaria programming and research to serve as a consultant and conduct baseline analysis in four PMI-S intervention states (Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ebonyi, and Oyo).
The overall objective of the consultancy is to lead the design and implementation of the baseline analysis.

The goals of the baseline analysis are:

To assess the strengths and gaps of malaria programming in each state
To identify areas for strategic interventions to achieve project objectives and results

Scope of the Baseline Analysis
State level – The consultant will conduct a review and analysis of the following programmatic, management, and leadership areas related to the functions of the State Malaria Elimination Program (SMEP):

Program Management: Institutional organization and human resource capacity of SMEP
Malaria policies and guidelines: Establish the availability and use of malaria strategic documents, guidelines, standard operating procedures (SOPs), job aids, plans, manuals, and training materials for malaria case management, intermittent preventive treatment for prevention of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp), seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC), and surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation (SME).
Conduct a desk review of malaria policy documents, guidelines, SOPs, job aids, plans, manuals, training materials, and standards adapted to the local context by the states, to determine alignment with corresponding national documents.
Coordination: Review the functionality of malaria coordination and management structures at the state ministry of health (SMOH), SMEP, and state primary health care development agency (SPHCDA) including staff numbers, responsibilities, and reporting, sub-committees, and review meetings, among others. Examine current practices and identify strengths, challenges, and areas that need improvement.
SME: Review existing structures and systems for data collection, data analysis, data quality assurance (DQA), data interpretation, and data use at SMOH, SMEP and SPHCDA. Examine current practices and identify strengths, challenges, and areas that need improvement.
Conduct a review and analysis of routine and non-routine data for key state-level malaria indicators, using the District Health Information System 2 (DHIS2) and malaria survey reports to understand the performance of key malaria indicators over a period of time.
Private sector engagement: Document involvement of community health care providers and private sector health service providers in malaria programming by the state and local government areas (LGAs), including their roles, coordination mechanism, service delivery, and reporting.
Mechanism for state planning and budgeting: Review human and financial resources for malaria control, the availability of annual operational plans (AOPs), the process for developing AOPs, the quality of AOPs and their alignment with the National Malaria Strategic Plan (NMSP), the understanding of AOPs by critical members of SMEP, and the use of AOPs to guide implementation, coordination, and resource mobilization. Document sources of funding for state malaria elimination activities.
Existing systems for monitoring and supervision: Review systems at all levels, including state to LGA, LGA to health facility, and health facility to community levels; the availability and use of standard monitoring and supervisory checklists; reporting and feedback to lower levels; and follow-up on action points.
Gender considerations: Document any malaria-specific gender programming practices and opportunities for mainstreaming gender in malaria.

Local Government Area level (two LGAs per senatorial district):

Malaria policies and guidelines: Establish availability and use of malaria policy documents, guidelines, SOPs, tools, job aids, and training materials in selected LGA health departments and selected primary health care centers (PHCs).
LGA-level malaria coordination: Review the functionality of malaria program coordination and management structures at selected LGA health department and malaria units, including staff strength, responsibilities and reporting, sub-committees, review meetings, among others. Examine the current practice, identify strengths, challenges and areas that need improvement.
SME: Review existing structures and systems for data collection, data analysis, data quality assurance (DQA), data interpretation, and data use at selected LGAs. Examine current practices and identify strengths, challenges, and areas that need improvement.
Mechanism for state planning and budgeting: Review human and financial resources for malaria control, the availability of LGA malaria plans, the process for developing the malaria plans and alignment with state malaria AOP, and the use of LGA malaria plans to guide implementation, coordination, and resource mobilization. Document sources of funding for LGA malaria elimination activities, including support to PHC facilities.

Methodology:

The consultancy firm may utilize mixed methods and triangulation of sources/data to ensure the credibility of key findings and recommendations from the baseline analysis.
Desk review to document the availability and use of national malaria policies and guidelines and their use in the state, and review of these documents to ascertain the alignment of policies and guidelines adapted to the local context by states with the respective national documents.
Analysis of malaria DHIS 2 and survey data, data triangulation, and data disaggregation by gender, where applicable.
Small group discussions and individual interviews with relevant state and LGA personnel
Other tools: The consultancy firm may recommend other tools as appropriate for the analysis.
The consultancy firm will be required to pretest baseline analysis tools to help determine the relevance, clarity, and substance of analysis questions and the amount of time needed to complete them.

Specific Responsibilities

Develop a work plan with indicative timelines for the assignment.
Lead the development of protocol and data collection tools for the baseline analysis.
Lead the recruitment and training of research assistants and data collectors.
Lead the process of conducting introductory meetings at the state and LGA levels.
Lead the selection of respondents for small group discussions and individual interviews with relevant state and LGA personnel.
Lead key informant interviews and focus group discussions with selected government officials at the state and LGA levels.
Lead desk reviews of malaria policy guidelines, SOPs, job aids, manuals, annual operational plans, work plans, annual reports, and analysis reports at the SMEP, SMOH, SPHCDA, and selected LGAs.
Lead the analysis of state level malaria service data for reportable program indicators from DHIS 2.
Review and/or analyze state-specific non-routine data on malaria service indicators from nationally representative household surveys (e.g. DHS, MIS).
Collate and analyze qualitative and quantitative baseline analysis data.
Develop a draft report of the baseline analysis and deliver it to the PMI-S Project Director.
Receive corrections from PMI-S and revise the report.
Submit the finalized report of the baseline analysis to PMI-S.

Consultancy Tasks and Deliverables
Deliverables – Specific day for completion after contract signing:

Submission of a detailed work plan and budget for the analysis with indicative timelines and responsible persons – Day 3
Development of baseline analysis protocol and data collection tools, and approval of draft tools by MSH – Day 4
Conduct a pre-test of data collection tools in Nasarawa state – Day 7
Submission of a report of pre-testing of data collection tools to MSH, and review of the tools based on the results of the pre-test -Day 10
MSH to review and approve final data collection tools – N/A
Commence field work – data collection at state and LGA level – Day 15
Complete field work data collection at state and LGA level – Day 30
Development and submission of a report to MSH on finalization of field work data collection – Day 32
Development of a detailed draft report of the baseline analysis, and submission to MSH for review and comments – Day 37
MSH team review draft report and share comments with consultant – N/A
Consultancy firm to update report based on MSH comments – Day 40
Submission of final report by firm and approval by MSH, including a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the key findings and recommendations of the analysis. – Day 45

Qualifications of Consultancy Firm

Evidence of registration of consultancy firm with the Corporate Affairs Commission (as may be applicable)
Experience in malaria research
Evidence of similar consultancy jobs successfully completed in the last 1-3 years
Demonstrated evidence of good analytical, presentation, and reporting skills
Excellent interpersonal, multicultural, and team-building skills
Ability to respond to comments and questions in a timely, appropriate manner
Ability to write high-quality, clear, and concise reports in English
Excellent organizational skills – detail-oriented and accurate
Demonstrated evidence of skills in data analysis, data visualization, data interpretation, and data use
Demonstrated understanding of the importance of gender in malaria data
Comfortable working in teams as well as acting independently in the implementation of specific tasks, multitasking and prioritizing, working under pressure, and meeting deadlines
Familiarity with, and understanding of, USAID procedures and processes
Experience working with, and understanding of, government ministries, departments and agencies, particularly at the state level
Knowledge and understanding of the local political, economic, and social context in the baseline analysis states
Experience working on similar assignments at the national or state level will be an added advantage