Consultant, Support for the Optimizing ITN Access in Africa (OPITACA) Project (Global) at International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Yaounde, Cameroon

The overall objective of this consultancy is to provide support for the operationalization of the ITN assessment procedures guidance document developed under the Gates funded ITN Campaign Efficiency Project and to build capacities of AMP TA and national malaria programmes (NMPs) on household registration/ITN distribution quality assessment for campaign distribution.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Workstream 3: Estimated LOE – 20 days

To provide technical support to NMPs, implementing partners, and members of the AMP technical assistance team on household registration quality assessments and ITN campaign post-distribution assessments
To support capacity building for national malaria programmes and AMP TA providers on M&E approaches and strategies
To review protocols and M&E planning documents for the in- and end- process monitoring of ITN mass campaign activities, providing technical oversight to national malaria programmes, and implementing partners
To assist national programmes with planning, implementation, data analysis, reporting, and to identify lessons learned from implementation experiences on campaign quality assessment
To support the review and operationalization of the clustered lot quality assurance (cLQAS) procedures guidance document for assessing the quality of household registration and post-distribution assessments, including to review and update the methodology and sampling strategies
To support the development of a cLQAS training package including curricula, materials, and practical exercises that can be easily adapted to the country and campaign context
To support organization of webinars and/or trainings on household registration/ITN distribution quality assessment
To support development of best practice examples of protocols, questionnaires, tools, and reports from countries implementing cLQAS for cross-country learning
To support the development of online training materials and short guides for key technical aspects of cLQAS
To expand the cLQAS procedures with an additional focus on investigation and follow-up based on results from data analysis and mapping

Deliverables of the consultancy will include:

Review of protocols and M&E planning documents for national malaria programmes and implementing partners based on requests
Trainings provided to national malaria programmes and AMP TA providers on identified specific M&E areas for ITN campaigns
Review and prepare a list of sections to be updated in the ITN procedures document based on feedback from internal reviews, AMP TA providers, partners, national malaria programmes, and other users of the guidance document
Support provided for the development of an online cLQAS training package, including curricula, materials, and practical exercises adaptable to various country and campaign contexts, to be developed and made available on the AMP website

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)

Alignment to the IFRC’s objectives and strategy:

The Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP)’s mandate aligns to the Federation’s Strategy 2030 as it supports the achievement of strategic aims:

1) Save lives, protect livelihoods, and strengthen recovery from disasters and crises

2) Enable healthy and safe living.

Project objectives and timelines:

Objective #1: To generate new evidence and best practices that will inform more efficient and effective ITN distributions, primarily but not exclusively through campaigns.

Desired outcomes: Increased availability of evidence-based approaches and guidance for optimizing ITN distribution through mass distribution and continuous distribution channels.

Support to be provided to the consultant

The consultant will be supported by the Manager – Malaria Programmes, Senior Officer – Optimizing ITN Access project and the Officer, AMP Coordination.

Time allocation for budget purposes

The total budget for the contract is CHF 10,000. This budget is based on an estimate of 20 billable days working days at CHF 500.

Compensation is based on a daily rate, with eight billable hours equalling one day for billing purposes.

The consultancy timeframe will be from 30^t^hMarch 2024 to 15^th September 2024.

Notes

The consultant will be contracted by the IFRC and the standard contractual terms will apply.

Education

Required

Advanced degree (master’s level) in public health, monitoring and evaluation, epidemiology, statistics, international development, social science or related field

Experience

Required

Minimum of five years of experience in establishing M&E frameworks and managing M&E systems for health projects, particularly in malaria and immunization programming and evaluation.
Relevant experience in reviewing protocols, providing supportive supervision, mentoring, and coaching to national disease control programs.
Extensive knowledge and experience in using the LQAS/cLQAS methodology in immunization, malaria, or other health-related fields.
Experience providing M&E-related training in areas including process evaluation, in-process and end-process assessment, and data analysis.

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Required

Fluency in English and French is required for this consultancy, including the ability to train, review documents and write in French.
Demonstrated competency in implementing assessments/process evaluations, which includes:
- Designing assessment/evaluation methodology, along with data collection and analysis tools,
- Managing data collection in the field,
- Analyzing quantitative and qualitative data,
- Interpreting data and applying findings to improve the program implementation.
Proficiency in the use of statistical software such as STATA, SPSS, R, etc., for data analysis.