Human Resources for Health (HRH) Policy Research

at The African Constituency Bureau to the Global Fund
Location Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Date Posted August 8, 2020
Category Business Development
Facility Management
Job Type Full-time
Currency ETB

Description

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 world’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 largest burden of malaria and HIV with a significant share of the TB burden. As the epicenter of these 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 any health system, improving health service coverage and health outcomes depends on the availability, accessibility, and capacity of health workers to deliver quality services. The 2006 world health report defined health workers as “all people engaged in actions whose primary intent is to enhance health”. The health workforce plays a vital role in building the resilience of communities and accelerates progress towards universal health coverage, ending AIDS, TB and malaria and the UN Sustainable Development Goals by ensuring equitable access to quality services for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care within strengthened health systems. The “World Health Organization Global strategy on human resources for health (HRH): workforce 2020” outline key principles for HRH policy, advocacy, analysis, planning, governance and data management. Countries are required to:

  • Promote the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health;
  • Provide integrated, people-centred health services devoid of stigma and discrimination;
  • Foster empowered and engaged communities;
  • Uphold the personal, employment and professional rights of all health workers, including safe and decent working environments and freedom from all kinds of discrimination, coercion and violence;
  • Eliminate gender-based violence, discrimination and harassment;
  • Promote international collaboration and solidarity in alignment with national priorities;
  • Ensure ethical recruitment practices in conformity with the provisions of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel;
  • Mobilize and sustain political and financial commitment and foster inclusiveness and collaboration across sectors and constituencies; and
  • Promote innovation and the use of evidence.

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries supported by the Global Fund face HRH challenges including shortages and inequitable distribution of health workforce, high turnover, inadequate education and training, poor working conditions, lack of reliable health workforce data to support effective planning and management, migration   of   qualified   health   workers, inadequate   remuneration   and incentives, maldistribution  of  the  available  health  workers, underinvestment in  the  production  of  sufficient  health  workers and low implementation of most  of  the  existing  national plans.

In some countries, the shortage is so severe as to constitute a crisis in the health sector and a major bottleneck in tackling the three diseases. The inability to meet the HRH creates a gap in service delivery that in turn impedes the delivery of AIDS, TB and Malaria services to an acceptable level. Of the 47 countries in the Region, 36 have critical shortage of HRH, with only about 0.8 physicians, nurses and midwives per 1000 population while the minimum acceptable density threshold is 2.3 per 1000 population set by the WHO in 2014.

In response to this HRH crisis, in 2012, the Ministers of Health of the WHO AFRO Region endorsed a Regional Roadmap for Scaling Up the Health Workforce for Improved Health Service Delivery in the African Region: 2012–2025. The roadmap provided the guideline with six strategic directions that will assist countries in developing their HRH strategic plans:

  • Strengthening health workforce leadership and governance capacity;
  • Strengthening HRH regulatory capacity;
  • Scaling up education and training of health workers;
  • Optimizing the utilization, retention and performance of the active health workforce;
  • Improving health workforce information and generation of evidence for decision making; and
  • Strengthening health workforce dialogue and partnership.

However, the capacity of many SSA countries to generate, analyze, disseminate and use Health workforce data for strategic policymaking remains inadequate. The ACB is therefore seeking to hire a consultant that will support the organization to conduct a deep dive into health workforce in Africa and provide evidence-informed guidance on how the region can be more strategic in this area.

Scope of Work

Below is the expected scope of work under this assignment:

  • The consultant is expected to undertake a desk review deep dive tapping into the latest available evidence on HRH and its programming, including from peer-reviewed and published articles, normative evidence from leading technical organizations and policy and research think tanks, evaluations and reviews from the Global Fund, technical organizations like the World Bank, WHO, etc. and other research think tanks. The consultant will be expected to share these resources for the ACB’s intranet which countries can access to further their work around HRH.
  • An in-depth mapping of HRH work in Africa detailing the key trends, the progress and gains being made to meet objectives, what’s working and what’s not working, remaining gaps and bottlenecks, best practices, key enablers and the opportunities for streamlining HRH programming;
  • Identify key global and African commitments on HRH, including the need for better regulation, integration and implementation of HRH interventions to maximize its contributions towards attaining UHC and ending the epidemics in 2030;
  • 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 the Global Fund can maximize and catalyze investments in HRH. The recommendations must address strategies, gaps, opportunities, key enablers and actions needed towards the Global Fund’s post-2022 strategy.

Deliverables:

  • Under this assignment, the consultant is expected to deliver the following deliverables:
  • Provide an inception report detaining how the work will be conducted. 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, no more than 50 pages[1], and making use of annexes, 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 globally and in Africa in particular
  •  Recommendations relevant for African countries towards integrating climate change and environment thinking as part of efforts to end the three epidemics by 2030. The recommendations
  • A PowerPoint presentation detailing the key findings and recommendations of the desk review.

Terms of the appointment:

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

Job Requirements

QUALIFICATIONS:

  • An advanced university degree in health systems, health policy, public policy, public health, epidemiology, social sciences, or infectious diseases. A PhD in a relevant field will be an added advantage.
  • Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, medicine or other relevant discipline such as epidemiology, public health, health policy or public policy.

EXPERIENCE:

  • Preferred: A health systems strengthening subject matter expert with a minimum of 10 years of experience in health systems cross the treatment, care and support, including program design and implementation, research and policy development for health systems programs and interventions in Africa.
  • Experience of working in Africa will be an added advantage.
  • Experience with undertaking HRH evaluations in Africa.
  • Experience with publishing peer-reviewed scholarly articles, including on various aspects on HRH.
  • Experience with disseminating research findings and making conference presentations with relevant stakeholders.

Applying Instructions

Interested consultants are requested to submit a technical and financial proposal for undertaking this 30-day desk review.

Proposal for this Consultancy should be directed to Info Mind Solutions acb@zebrajobs.com on or before August 30th 2020

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
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