Consultant at John Snow Incorporated (JSI)

John Snow Incorporated (JSI) – We are public health care and health systems consultants and researchers driven by a passion to improve health services and health outcomes for all.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant for Technical Support on Data Analysis and Final Report on Routine Immunization Data Spot-checks and COVID-19 Vaccination RDQA in focus states.

Location: Nigeria

Background

• Immunization services are an essential part of the primary healthcare system and a key contributor to people’s fundamental right to health. Vaccines are among the greatest advances in global health and development. For over two centuries, vaccines have safely reduced the scourge of diseases like polio, measles, and smallpox, helping children grow up healthy and happy.  Some populations – often the poorest, the most marginalized, and the most vulnerable – have little or no access to immunization services [Immunization-agenda-2030].  
• In 2021, 25 million children were un- or under-vaccinated and more than 60 percent live in just ten countries including Nigeria, and 18 million did not receive any vaccines (zero-dose children), an increase of 5 million from 2019 [WHO/UNICEF national immunization coverage estimates, 2021 revision].  
• MOMENTUM (Moving Integrated, Quality Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health and Family Planning and Reproductive Health) Round 3B,  hereafter referred to as MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity (M-RITE), is a global U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) cooperative agreement, which aims to sustainably strengthen routine immunization (RI) programs to overcome the entrenched obstacles contributing to stagnating and declining immunization rates in maternal, newborn, and child health, voluntary family planning, and reproductive health (MNCH/FP/RH) partner countries; and address the barriers to reaching zero-dose and under-immunized children with life-saving vaccines and other health services.
• M-RITE is a consortium of global leaders in immunization systems approaches, integrated management and service delivery, health system strengthening (HSS), financing, data and learning, social and behavior change (SBC), strategic partnerships, gender, and human-centered design (HCD).
• Led by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (JSI), along with PATH, Results for Development (R4D), Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP), CORE Group, and The Manoff Group, the consortium has extensive experience in shaping global strategies and collaborating with local partners to improve immunization outcomes and build on past learning and accomplishments.
• The project’s mandate is to strengthen the capacity of USAID partner countries to overcome entrenched obstacles to equitable immunization coverage. Additionally, M-RITE contributes to ongoing global efforts to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on immunization services and supports countries to prepare for and introduce COVID-19 vaccines.
• The project’s combination of expertise and perspectives is critical to addressing the complex problems that have contributed to the stagnation and decline of vaccination coverage in many countries, exacerbated by health service disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These disruptions have increased the risk of countries experiencing outbreaks of measles, polio, and other vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). Entrenched obstacles that impede the equitable vaccination of all children and older eligible populations, such as adolescents and pregnant women, are complicated, interrelated, and context specific.
• Working at multiple levels in USAID partner countries around the world, M‐RITE builds country capacity to identify and overcome barriers to reaching zero-dose and under-immunized children and older populations along the life course with life-saving vaccines and other integrated health services.
• Tailoring strategies to specific country and local contexts, M-RITE facilitates innovation, identifies critical intervention pathways, fosters adaptive leadership, and integrates SBC and gender transformative approaches at all levels.
• In Nigeria, the project provides support to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) at the national and state level for COVID-19 vaccination rollout and the design of the RI start-up program in five states of Nigeria: Bayelsa, Edo, Imo, Jigawa, and Lagos.
• M-RITE provides technical assistance (TA) focused on capacity-building, gender-sensitive microplanning, and service delivery to support the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines and help the NPHCDA to adapt its strategies as the pandemic and vaccine supply and service delivery strategies evolve.
• M-RITE conducted initial analyses and several partner discussions during a two-month start-up period, utilizing existing data on RI system performance as well as drivers of demand in the focus states and has engaged stakeholders at national, state, Local Government Area (LGA), and health facility levels to identify the root causes of persistent challenges to equitable immunization coverage in the five focus states. Through this investment, USAID aims to increase its impact on achieving high equitable coverage with RI services.

Purpose

• The Consultant will work closely with the Senior Advisor MEAL to support the M-RITE Nigeria MEAL team on the analysis, preparation and finalization of the final report of recently conducted Rapid Data Quality Assessment and Routine Immunization Data Spot-checks  in M-RITE focus states.

Duties, Responsibilities and Scope of Work

• The Consultant shall familiarize him/herself with the M-RITE Project document, COVID-19 introduction efforts of NPHCDA, SCALES 3.0 achievements and challenges, USAID RDQA tools, sources of data for COVID-19 coverage, Data Quality Improvement plans and protocols, as well as other documents required to inform the Consultant of the mandate and activities of M-RITE.
• The Consultancy entails research, editing and writing, and a commitment to deadlines, as well as providing advice and other technical assistance to the M-RITE project.

Reporting directly to the Country Director and the MEAL team, the Consultant will perform the following tasks:

• Develop the structure and outline of the final report and a “working” editorial and production schedule, where flexibility is built in to accommodate lapses, yet deadlines are set and overall, ensure that the final report is completed within 20 working days.
• Review all presented portions of the back-end data, with a view of ensuring:
  • Findings and recommendations are succinctly and logically presented and are empirically sound.
  • Consistency in MEAL and programatic language and pitch is maintained.
  • Proper and consistent referencing is maintained throughout the final report.
  • The RDQA final report is of high grammatical, editorial, and stylistic standard that is presentable to USAID and for publications in high impact journals, and
  • Provide logical, field based and policy level recommendations for identified issues.
• Incorporate revisions related to content, design and/or language. The text will adhere to the MRITE’s branding standards for language and presentation.
• The Consultant shall be required to sign a confidentiality agreement with the project.

Institutional Arrangement/Reporting

• The Consultant will be reporting on a weekly basis directly to the Senior MEAL Advisor, shall brief other members of the Country Director biweekly.

Duration and Modality of Work

• The duration of the consultancy is for 20 paid working days within 30 working days, noting that due to the nature of the assignment, there may be periods of time when no actual writing or research will occur because the Consultant will be waiting for text and/or information from the Senior MEAL Advisor.

Qualifications – Education, Experience and Language
The following skills and experience are expected:

• Proficiency in English (written and spoken);
• More than five years of experience in project evaluation, including collecting data in interviews, surveys and focus groups;
• Master’s Degree in a relevant field, including Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Public Health;
• Experience in pre, peri and post-campaign evaluations and working on security sector reform-related themes;
• Proficient in the use of data visualization software;  
• Experience working with international NGOs;
• Experience conducting quantitative surveys and analysis;
• Evaluation methods and data collection skills;
• Familiarity, contextual knowledge of and experience working with USAID funded project in Nigeria, experience vaccination or malaria campaigns contextual challenges is a comparative advantage.

In addition, the consultant is required to respect the following Ethical Principles:

• Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review. Consultant should conduct systematic, data-based inquiries. He or she should communicate his or her methods and approaches accurately and in sufficient detail to allow others to understand, interpret and critique his or her work. He or she should make clear the limitations of the review and its results.
• Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities, skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practice within the limits of his or her professional training and competence.
• Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information.
• Respect for people: Consultant respect the security, dignity and self-worth of respondents, program participants. Consultant has the responsibility to be sensitive to and respect differences amongst participants in culture, religion, gender, disability, age and ethnicity.

Analysis and Presentation

• The Consultant will be responsible for analyzing the qualitative and quantitative data and producing a final report. Proposal should include clarity on methodology (data verification, analysis), reporting writing and presentations.

Deliverables and Schedule of Payment

• Meetings with the  Country Director and MEAL Team ;
• Analysis of the database;
• PowerPoint presentation of findings;
• Analysis of the data collected and production of a draft evaluation report in English for review by M-RITE team ;
• A Final Report in English and (30 pages max in length, excluding appendices) that consists of (unless otherwise agreed upon with M-RITE team):
  • Table of contents
  • Abbreviations
  • Executive summary of methodology, limitations, key findings and recommendations
  • Background information (project specifics)
  • Methodology: Objectives, data collection and analysis and limitations of the study
  • Research findings, analysis, with associated data presented (should be structured around the main objectives/evaluation criteria and should cover all indicators)
  • Indicator table showing all baseline indicators
  • Appendices, which include detailed research instruments, list of interviewees, terms of references and evaluator(s) brief biography.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer and Evaluation Committee
An Evaluation Committee consisting of M-RITE staff shall conduct the review and selection process. The Evaluation Committee shall allocate marks during the review process on the following basis:

• Experience, qualifications, language, and technical proposal will be weighted for 70%
• Financial Criteria weight 30%. 

Presentation of Proposals
For purposes of generating proposals whose contents are uniformly presented and to facilitate their comparative review, you are hereby requested to submit:

Technical Proposal:

• CV
• Cover/Motivational Letter
• Proposed methodology
• Past experiences in similar consultancies and/or projects
• List of professional referees

Financial Proposal:

• Daily professional fee, communication and other expenses allowable by JSI policy)

Conditions

• Place of work: Desk-based
• Travel: None
• Type of contract: Short-term consultancy
• Duration: May-June 2023
• Fees: Professional fees
• Insurance: Professional indemnity insurance is a pre-requisite
• Equipment: Should have own computing and broadband facilities for remote collaborations

Application Closing Date
9th June, 2023.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates (Individuals or Teams) are requested to submit the following two documents to: [email protected] using “COVID-19 Vaccination RDQA in focus states” as the subject of the mail

Application Document

• Curriculum Vitae;
• A technical and financial proposal for the completion of the deliverables and a short cover letter.

Note

• Only two documents can be submitted, so the technical and financial proposals must be combined, along with the short Cover Letter.
• Note that any submission made after the stipulated date will not be considered.