ABOUT AFRICAN CONSTITUENCY BUREAU FOR THE GLOBAL FUND (ACB)

The Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) has two constituencies representing Africa namely the Eastern and Southern African (ESA) and West and Central Africa (WCA) constituencies. The two constituencies took a joined-up approach in 2012 with a twofold intent: to ensure that constituency priorities are reflected in Global Fund strategy and operational plans; and to strengthen the presence, voice and contributions of the constituencies, through their delegations, in all Global Fund governance deliberations and processes. The constituencies adopted a new governance framework that amongst other things, established a joint ESA and WCA Bureau – the African Constituencies Bureau, ACB – a policy think tank that support ESA and WCA Global Fund board members, committee members and delegations. Its primary functions include ensuring effective engagement, representation and participation of African constituencies in Global Fund processes. It also seeks to enhance the capacity of the African constituencies to shape Global Fund policies and processes. The constituencies comprise a total of 47 countries.

The ACB, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, ensures effective engagement, representation and participation of African Constituencies, ESA and WCA, in Global Fund Board processes.

Background to this Opportunity:

The Global Fund, the biggest multi-lateral mechanism, is at the centre of the global community’s efforts to end AIDS, TB and malaria by 2030. The fund is in the process of developing its post-2022 strategic plan. There is so much at stake for this plan given it will be the last before the 2030 goal of ending the three epidemics. It cannot be business as usual and the margin for error is therefore extremely limited.

Africa bears the biggest share of the global burden of malaria and HIV and a considerable burden of TB. As the epicenter of the epidemics, it is critical that the continent is at the forefront of developing evidence-based interventions that will turn the tide of these epidemics and engage in discussions on the Global Fund’s next strategy. This will be a huge demonstration of the continent’s ownership of global strategies towards ending the three epidemics in 2030.

In 2019, there were 1.7 million new cases of HIV, more than three times higher than the target of 500,000 for 2020. Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) are disproportionately at risk of HIV infection.  In sub-Saharan Africa, AGYW aged 15-24 years represent 10% of the total population, but account for about 24% of all HIV infections. In ESA, the sub-region most greatly affected by the epidemic, AGYW accounted for 30% of all new infections and there were 2.5 HIV infections among young women 15-24 years for every one infection among young men of the same age.

There is an urgent need to scale up well-designed and effective programs that meet the HIV prevention needs of AGYW beyond the health sector and address the remaining structural challenges and barriers to reduce HIV incidence among this group. The SDGs place a core emphasis on promoting gender equality by addressing the needs of women and girls through multiple commitments across interrelated SDGs that are to be achieved by 2030. The United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS adopted in June 2016 set the target to reduce new HIV infections among AGYW aged 15-24 years from 390,000 in 2015 to fewer than 100,000 by 2020; yet in 2019, as many as 240,000 still became newly infected with HIV. With Africa’s youth population projected to increase by 40% over the next decade, failure to act decisively could lead to a reversal of gains achieved to date. Progress towards reducing new HIV infections among AGYW would be greater if more men were reached by preventive strategies and comprehensive health services. Deconstructing harmful gender norms and stereotypes among men and boys is critical as it improves their risk perception as well as improves health-seeking behavior. Further, reducing HIV infection among men and ensuring they have good quality services and treatment has benefits for their sex partners, including women and girls.

The Global Fund strategy for 2017-22 formally incorporates specific commitments to scale up support programs for AGYW and advance sexual and reproductive health and rights. To this end, strategies to promote the health of AGYW are already being implemented in conjunction with a range of programs beyond the health sector, for example, to ensure that girls attend school and receive sex education and that AGYW have the opportunity to generate income and can protect themselves from gender-based violence. As part of the scaling up of its programs for AGYW funded through catalytic funds in 13 African countries in ESA with high HIV burden during the allocation period 2017- 2019, the main objective of the GF as part of the Strategy to Advance Gender Equality (SAGE) involves collaboration with partners to support investments in favor of a comprehensive and quality program to fight against HIV and tuberculosis for AGYW. The initiative aims to reduce the incidence of HIV among AGYW aged 15 to 24 by 58% in target countries by 2022.

In line with global partner guidance and global targets and initiatives such as the “DREAMS” initiative supported by PEPFAR, “Start Free, Stay Free”, “AIDS Free Joint Agenda”,  “All inclusive: rapid response to HIV in adolescents”, “U-report: empower and connect young people”, “Hello Teen: sex education and links to services on Android” and the Global HIV Prevention Coalition Agenda,  applicants and implementers seek to scale up evidence-based and integrated adolescent health programs to (i) eliminate new HIV infections among adolescents, (ii) reduce the prevalence of teenage pregnancies, and (iii) improve the health and well-being of girls during adolescence.

As can be seen from the foregoing, therefore, addressing the challenges of the HIV epidemic among AGYW in Africa is an important priority if the African region to end HIV epidemic by 2030. The ACB is therefore seeking to hire a consultant that will support the organization to map the AGYW epidemic in Africa and provide evidence-informed recommendations and guidance on how the region can move forward to end HIV among AGYW in 2030.

scope of work:

Below is the expected scope of work under this assignment:

• The consultant is expected to undertake a desk review of the latest available evidence on AGYW service delivery and programming, including from peer-reviewed and published articles, normative evidence from leading technical organizations and evaluation and reviews from the Global Fund, UNAIDS, WHO, PEPFAR, UNFPA and other research thinktanks. The consultant will be expected to share these resources for the ACB’s intranet.
• An in-depth mapping of the AGYW epidemic in Africa, detailing the trends, concentration of the epidemic, the progress and gains, remaining gaps, key enablers and opportunities for course-correction;
• Identify key global and African commitments towards addressing HIV among AGYW, including how countries are adhering towards these;
• Documentation of key prevailing initiatives in AGYW programming, including what’s working, what’s not working, key bottlenecks including gaps, best practices, key enablers of service uptake, etc.;
• Identification of the key social, cultural, legal, policy and religious barriers facing the AGYW programming and identification of strategies to address these;
• Where possible, the consultant shall be expected to interview and engage with key stakeholders to probe for, and validate, research findings. This shall include participating in the planned Constituency engagement sessions being organized by the ACB to identify the continent’s priority health issues and interventions, as part of a process to provide input to the next strategy for the Global Fund; and
• Make evidence-informed recommendations on how Africa can turn the tide of new infections among AGYW. The recommendations must address strategies, gaps, opportunities, key enablers of service uptake and actions needed by the Global Fund during the fund’s post-2022 strategy for addressing HIV infections among AGYW in Africa. Recommendations must also address what the Global Fund should do more to promote innovative and impactful AGYW programming, strengthening Ministries of Health’s capacities in leading AGYW programming at national levels and how AGYW can be better involved in planning, designing and implementing AGYW programmes.

Deliverables:

Under this assignment, the consultant is expected to deliver the following outputs:

• Provide an inception report detaining how the work will be achieved. This should be provided one week after signing the contract.
• A draft report detailing priority issues identified as strategic to Africa towards the next Global Fund strategy, the key findings and recommendations in word format.
• A final report, 50 pages[1] maximum, detailing the key findings, including:
• A 3-paged Executive Summary of the research providing a synopsis of the key findings and recommendations;
• Document some best practices in Africa;
• Recommendations relevant for African countries towards addressing HIV among AGYW in Africa as part of efforts to end HIV by 2030; and
• A PowerPoint presentation detailing the key findings and recommendations of the desk review.

Terms of Appointment

The successful consultant will be expected to complete this assignment within 30 calendar days and should be willing and available to participate in dissemination meeting(s) with various stakeholders, including countries, technical partners and funders.

QUALIFICATIONS

• An advanced university degree in health policy, public policy, public health, epidemiology, social sciences, infectious diseases, etc. 

• A PhD in a relevant field will be an added advantage.

EXPERIENCE

• Preferred: an adolescent sexual reproductive health (ASRH) subject matter expert with a minimum of 10 years of experience in HIV and ASRH work across the prevention, treatment, care and support continuum, including program design and implementation, research and policy development for ASRH programs and interventions.
• Experience undertaking evaluations of HIV and ASRH programs in Africa.
• Experience with publishing peer-reviewed scholarly articles, including on various aspects of HIV and ASRH.
• Experience with disseminating research findings and making conference presentations with relevant stakeholders.