Technical Assistance Consultant, Building Integrated Readiness for Community Health (BIRCH) project

This role was posted on April 14, 2023. Please note that we will review applications on a rolling basis and prioritize those received within the first one week of posting.

As of March 1, 2022, Last Mile Health is requiring staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 wherever legally allowable and adhere to COVID-19 vaccination requirements to perform core work activities in all locations. To learn more, review our policy.

The Role

At Last Mile Health (LMH), we make bold commitments that inspire innovation. Do you have progressive years of experience and technical expertise in the design and costing of community health interventions? If so, you may be our next Technical Assistance Consultant to support planning for Community Health Worker (CHW) intervention scale-up and quality strengthening during the development of the Funding Request to the Global Fund in the GC7 funding cycle in Liberia. 

Reporting to the Director of National Community Health Systems, the Technical Assistance- Consultant will support the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Liberia Coordinating Mechanism (LCM) in the design and costing of community health interventions for inclusion in the GC7 grant/fund request. 

This Consultancy is open to local Liberian consultants or International consultants.

Project Details

• Position: One (1)
• Location: Monrovia, Liberia 
• Start date: May, 2023
• End date: August, 2023

Background 

Community Health Workers (CHWs) are central to the Global Fund’s strategy and the delivery of strong, sustainable primary healthcare (PHC). Robust evidence indicates that when CHWs are trained, paid, supervised, equipped, protected, and linked to the health system, they play a vital role in enhancing prevention, detection, response to outbreaks, and maintenance of HIV, TB, Malaria (HTM) and broader PHC services.

COVID-19 had a profound impact on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), both directly and because of the indirect impact of weakened and underfunded community health systems. There is now an urgent need to enhance pandemic preparedness capabilities and health services for HIV, TB, and malaria through strengthened CHW platforms.

Countries and senior Global Fund leadership have urgently called for the reinvestment of COVID-19 funding in CHW platforms with the aim of enhancing countries’ pandemic responses, boosting pandemic preparedness capabilities, accelerating impact, and aligning COVID-19 investments with priorities of the upcoming Global Fund funding cycle.

The Liberia Country Coordinating Mechanism (LCM) has created a roadmap for the funding request development process: Liberia will submit its funding request in window 2 for review by the Technical Review Panel on 29th May 2023. Once the funding request is approved, the CCM/PRs will start the Grant Making Process.

The LCM has mobilized technical assistance to support this funding request development and grant-making processes to secure these resources. Additional technical assistance for the MOH and other in-country actors is required to ensure comprehensive and well-designed CHW investments across systems components, support a shift towards more medium/long-term planning with support spanning funding cycles, to build on the ongoing CHW program, and support coherence between the National Community Health support and disease-specific interventions delivered by CHWs.

Specifically, technical assistance will be needed to facilitate the identification of gaps and priorities in the National Community Health program, as well as the identification of opportunities for closer alignment and, where relevant and feasible, integration between the national community health program and disease programs in a phased manner.  Technical assistance will also support the identification and planning of interventions to be included in the funding request (including matching funds) and to complete the CHW programmatic gap table. The CHW programmatic gap table is a new tool designed by the Global Fund to help countries make the shift toward more comprehensive, well-designed CHW investments across systems components by identifying funding gaps and potential priorities for GF investment.

About the Building Integrated Readiness for Community Health (BIRCH) project

The Global Fund has launched the Building Integrated Readiness for Community Health (BIRCH) project, whose main goal is to provide technical assistance and strengthen CHW programming in eleven countries, including Liberia, between January to December 2023. Through project BIRCH, technical assistance will empower countries to enhance the design and effectiveness of existing and upcoming Global Fund investments in CHWs for pandemic preparedness, including investments through the Resilient and Sustainable System for Health (RSSH) matching fund.

The Global Fund has contracted Last Mile Health to manage this stream of funding across all BIRCH countries. Last Mile Health is working with a consortium of organizations to provide technical assistance to 11 countries during the funding application process to advance community health priorities. Last Mile Health Liberia will support the implementation of BIRCH activities in Liberia. 

What You'll Do

As part of the technical assistance delivered under project BIRCH, the following activities can be carried out: 

1. Support identification of operational priorities for the CHWs program and relevant interventions

• In collaboration with the MoH and LCM, prepare and facilitate stakeholder consultation meetings to identify and prioritize opportunities for collaboration, alignment, and, where feasible and relevant, integration between the National Community Health program and disease-specific community health interventions. This should aim to ensure wide participation and inclusion of relevant community-based organizations, and ideally, would take place in the relevant working group as part of the sector coordination mechanism. 
• Support the MOH and the LCM and, when selected, CSO PRs to reflect on lessons learned from the implementation of disease-specific CHW interventions in GC6, which may be relevant for the discussion on collaboration, alignment, and integration. This may include distilling learnings from previous evaluations, relevant Global Fund analysis, and other direct programming (DP) evaluations/reviews as relevant, particularly evaluations of the CHW programmed and previous phases of the national community health strategy. 
• Support the MOH to disseminate information on the National Community Health program to all relevant stakeholders in a timely manner.
• Support the MOH and other community health stakeholders to assess financial and programmatic gaps and priorities in the National Community Health Strategy to be included in the funding request, for instance, by supporting an AIM tool assessment as needed!
• Support the MOH, the CCM, and, when selected, CSO PRs to compile, analyze and use relevant data and support the costing of community health priorities identified.
• Coordinate with other technical assistance providers supporting the MOH/National disease programs to minimize duplication.

2. Support the preparation of the funding requests. 

• Inform the community health stakeholders – including the Ministry of Health, implementing partners, and community-based organizations - about the process of developing funding requests and the available resources to make sure all the stakeholders have the same level of information to be able to participate actively in the process.
• Depending on the timeline for FR preparation and the specific needs expressed by MOH and LCM, provide practical support to the MOH and the LCM to prepare briefs/sessions for different stakeholders, stakeholders from the three disease components, other RSSH counterparts, and writing consultants. 
• Lead the writing of the relevant sections of the funding requests (related to community health) and related annexes, including the CHW programmatic gap table, in close coordination with MoH and LCM. 

3. Support the MOH during the grant-making process.

• Support the MOH and the LCM and, when selected, CSO PRs to prepare work plans, budgets, and other relevant documents in preparation for the implementation of CHW interventions starting in 2024.

4. Support MOH to address feedback from the GF country team and Technical Review Panel (TRP)

• Support the MOH and the LCM to respond to requests for clarification/revision from the GF country team, who will review the different versions of the funding requests before final submission to the TRP.
• Support the MOH and the LCM, and when selected, CSO PRs to finalize the funding requests reviewed by the TRP and to answer any relevant questions, as needed.

5. Support the costing of the Community Health program intervention.

• Support the costing of the community health program interventions based on guidance from the MoH and LCM.
• Additional support as needed. 

Expected outputs and deliverables.

Output 1: Proposed work plan for delivering support in the funding application process.

• Deliverable 1.1: Work plan
• Deliverable 1.2: Priorities to be included in the funding request, including a summary of priorities for improved alignment and, where relevant and feasible, integration between the National Community Health program and disease-specific CHW interventions for GC7.

Output 2: Completed relevant sections within the funding request and relevant annexes.

• Deliverable 2.1: Completed CHW programmatic gap table.
• Deliverable 2.2: Relevant sections of the funding requests completed. 

Output 3: Inclusive and participatory stakeholder consultations

• Deliverable 3.1: Finalized sections of funding requests, incorporating feedback to Global Fund CT and TRP queries.

Output 4: Implementation readiness

• Deliverable 4.1: Finalized work plans, budgets, and other relevant documents related to community health interventions/priorities.
• Deliverable 4.2: Costed CHW program interventions included in the GC7 request application.
• Deliverable 4.3: Finalized consultant’s report and all project deliverables.

What You'll Bring

We are seeking a local consultant or international consultant with technical expertise in community health systems strengthening and with a combination of the following skills and experience:

• Master’s degree in public health, health management, behavioral sciences, organization strengthening or equivalent or recognized and long experience in supporting the health sector.
• Progressive professional experience related to optimization in health care, and design of health systems. 
• Relevant years of experience working with Global Fund financing, including experience writing. 
• Excellent knowledge of the health context in Liberia
• Good knowledge of issues related to pandemics and health systems strengthening, including community health systems strengthening.
• Excellent facilitation and interpersonal skills
• Fluency in English, with excellent writing, analytical, conceptual, and communication skills.

You’ll Impress Us If

• You have knowledge of and experience of community health programs in Liberia
• You have experience in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of development projects.

About Last Mile Health

Last Mile Health (LMH) saves lives in the world's most remote communities by partnering with governments to bring critical primary care services to the doorsteps of people living in the last mile. LMH is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and currently works in Liberia, Malawi, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Sierra Leone with US offices in Boston and New York. For more information, visit www.lastmilehealth.org

We are an equal-opportunity employer and value diversity at LMH. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.