Application period: 18-Feb-2022 to 09-Mar-2022
"Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply."
The Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH) Senior Specialist shall work for the RBM CRSPC to facilitate and support countries with issues related to implementation of their national malaria programmes. The countries to be supported present highly complex technical, epidemiological and political contexts for implementation of malaria control and elimination embedded in an equally complex health system. These scenarios significantly enhance the complexity of malaria program implementation and require senior and experienced consultants, able to command the respect of senior government officials and partners. In addition, the consultants will need to work across programmes and departments and foster collaboration to address shared goals. The implementation support from the RSSH senior specialist will address core issues causing bottlenecks for implementation and/or issues where additional capacity and expertise is needed and cannot be found among in-country partners.
The Senior Specialist is expected to have a clear understanding of WHO policies and guidelines on the specific intervention area as well as an in-depth knowledge of the technical aspects of malaria prevention and control in endemic countries and the relevant health systems components that are required for success. The assignment also requires highly developed negotiation skills and a proven track record in achieving consensus across multiple stakeholders. The Senior Specialist will be expected to visit the country as necessary during the support period.
The Senior Specialist is required to have expertise in at least one of the intervention areas listed below in order to provide the targeted support a country requires. In addition, experience in contextualizing these health system pillars within or complementing a malaria program is required.
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Health product management, supply chain and systems strengthening
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Health management information systems and monitoring and evaluation – including digitization
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Human resources for health, including community health workers (performance management, quality improvement, capacity building, integrated supervision, effective referral system)
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Integrated service delivery and quality of care (ex. RMNCAH: malaria prevention in pregnancy – IPTp and ITNs, diagnosis and treatment)
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Financial management systems and health financing (ex. user fees)
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Health sector governance and planning
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Community systems strengthening to support community responses
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Laboratory systems
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Private sector engagement
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Emergency/Pandemic preparedness and response (prevention, detection and response)
Assignments should include (but are not limited to) the following and will be for a particular intervention area or across interventions:
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Develop the RSSH components of a Global Fund funding request within the context of malaria (whether RSSH funding is within a malaria funding request, a standalone or is part of another Global Fund disease grant)
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Carry out a comprehensive review of country programme documentation (Strategic Plan; operational plan, work plans; gap analysis, etc.) for a particular intervention area, as well as a sub-intervention area (for example, costing for integrating a community health workforce);
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Coordinate the analysis of underlying causes of implementation underperformance, and identify strategies and interventions to address these bottlenecks;
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Develop detailed strategies, operational and financing plans, as well as risk assessment and mitigation plans for the specific intervention or sub-intervention areas;
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Develop training, supervision, monitoring, evaluation and activity protocols for assessing key bottlenecks and questions, including timelines and indicators for finalization and monitoring of implementation;
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Review existing support and conduct partnership mapping of current activities, resources and anticipated changes;
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Review cost and efficiencies of programs
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Lead the fieldwork and analysis to develop an investment case
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Lead and/or support on review and validation of the comprehensive programmatic and/or financial gap analysis for a particular intervention area;
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Lead high-level discussions with senior management, partner representatives and other key stakeholders to broker consensus on any of the above intervention areas;
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Undertake a technical review of chosen strategies and interventions to ensure that they are technically sound and in line with WHO normative guidance, feasible to implement and will achieve sufficient impact based on the health system and malaria epidemiology of the country / area
Key Deliverables:
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To be determined based on the specific assignment, possible examples:
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RSSH components of a Global Fund funding request within the context of malaria
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Updated operational plan (ex. RMNCH strategy including malaria in pregnancy, integrated support supervision planning and tools, digitization plan for community based interventions, resource mobilization strategy)
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Draft protocol (ex. assessment of barriers to accessing primary care (including malaria) services, systems readiness to deploy pre-referral treatment for malaria)
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Final report to CRSPC Manager analyzing support provided including recommendations for improving future support to countries.
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Write and submit a report to the RBM CRSPC outlining in detail the support provided including suggesting lessons for future support
