Health Financing Consultant, Building Integrated Readiness for Community Health (BIRCH) project (Ethiopia)

This role was posted on May 15, 2023. Please note that we will review applications on a rolling basis and prioritize those received within the first two weeks of posting.

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The Role

At Last Mile Health (LMH), we make bold commitments that inspire innovation. Do you have progressive years of experience in public health care, and health financing related work? If so, you may be our Health Financing Consultant to support the Ethiopia Ministry of Health through the Community Engagement and Primary Health Care Executive Office to identify priorities in the Health Extension Roadmap 2020-3035. 

As part of the technical assistance delivered under project BIRCH, the Health Financing consultant working along with Lead Consultant  will lead and coordinate key activities and deliverables working under the supervision of Last Mile Health Country Director, Last Mile Health Director of Programs, Ministry of Health Primary Health Care Directorate, and working closely with the Global Fund Coordinator at the Ministry of Health (MOH).

This Consultancy is open to local Ethiopian consultants.

Project Details:

• Position: One (1)
• Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Start Date: July, 2023
• End Date:November, 2023

Background 

The overall objective of this Technical Assistance is to support the Ethiopia Ministry of Health through the Community Engagement and Primary Health Care Executive Office to identify priorities in the Health Extension Roadmap 2020-3035 which are aligned with the Global Fund Grant cycle 7 (GC7) in a participatory and inclusive process, and ensure these priorities are adequately included in the funding requests, complete relevant forms and templates and prepare for implementation of interventions starting in 2024.

Country context

Ethiopia is a pioneer in community based primary health care.  With its estimated 102 million population, Ethiopia constitutes almost 8% of the entire population of the African continent. A large population means a large need for health care services and the country has implemented the primary health care approach as the foundation of its health system designed to reach its vast population.

Community level interventions take center stage in Ethiopia’s primary health care strategy, with the introduction of its flagship Health Extension Program (HEP) in 2003. In the past two decades, Ethiopia has rapidly expanded community level primary health care delivery deploying 40,000 trained Health Extension Workers (HEWs) who run more than 17,000 Health Posts implementing a package of health extension interventions focusing on disease prevention and health promotion and selected curative services. HEW are salaried civil servants and the program is fully integrated and institutionalized with the primary health care system.

In 2019, the MOH conducted a comprehensive assessment of the HEP. The objectives of the assessment were to assess the status, determinants and areas of the program that need further attention, and to identify challenges and areas of intervention for program and policy decisions. In early 2021, Ethiopia launched an ambitious $12 billion 15-year (2020-2035) Roadmap for Optimizing the Ethiopian HEP to build on the successes and address the challenges identified in the assessment. In parallel, the five year Health Sector Transformation Plan 2020-2025 (HSTP) was also launched. 

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 community health programming in eleven countries, including Ethiopia 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 Community Systems and Responses (CS&R) 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.  

What You'll Do

The Health Financing Consultant, working alongside the Lead Consultants, will lead and coordinate the following outputs and deliverables:

Output 1: Support costing , review and submission of GC7 grant proposal; provide implementation support after submission. 

• Deliverable: Consultant supports the MOH in the development and submission of GC7 proposal by 8/31/2023 and provides implementation support through 12/31/2023

Output 2: Support development of GC7 grant proposal; Support the MOH to compile, analyze and use relevant data and support the costing of community health priorities identified; Support the writing of the relevant sections of the funding requests (related to community health) and related annexes including the CHW programmatic gap table.

• Deliverable: Consultant supports the MOH in the costing of GC7 proposal 08/30/2023

Output 3: Support the MOH to respond to requests for clarification / revision from the Global Fund country team with regard to costing who will review the different versions of the funding requests before final submission to the TRP; Support the MOH to finalize the funding requests reviewed by the TRP and to answer any related questions from MOH.

• Deliverable: Consultant supports the MOH with revision of the costing section of the CG7 proposal  implementation support after submission by 12/30/2023

Output 4:Conduct an analysis of the budget gaps of the HEP roadmap and mapping of partners working on the roadmap

• Deliverable: Budget gaps of the HEP roadmap completed by 6/31/2023

Output 5: Organize a workshop to present results of the budget gap analysis and draft an issue statement on HEP roadmap financing --the issue statement will provide key supporting documentation and messaging for health financing advocacy

• Deliverable: Budget analysis results presented and an issue statement on HEP roadmap financing needs is drafted by 8/31/2023

Output 6: Organize a consultation to present the issue statement to the MOH leadership and other relevant stakeholders to advocate for increased budgetary allocation for community health

• Deliverable: HEP roadmap financing issue statement presented to MOH leadership and other relevant stakeholders by 9/16/2023

Output 7: Conduct a multi-donor and other stakeholders interface roundtable on HEP roadmap financing: the status and the needs to build support for increased resource allocation for community health.

• Deliverable: Donor-stakeholder roundtable on community health financing: Status and the needs conducted by 11/10/2023

Output 8: Develop advocacy materials and dissemination plan with the aim of providing tools to advocate for increased financing for community health from donors and alternative resource mobilization mechanisms

• Deliverable: Advocacy materials and dissemination plan developed by12/10/2023

What You'll Bring

• Masters degree in health economics, public health, health management, or equivalent or recognized and long experience in supporting health sector
• Progressive professional experience related to public health care, and health financing related work.  
• Relevant experience working in health financing, preferably in costing of Global Fund applications.
• Excellent knowledge of the health context in Ethiopia.
• Good knowledge of issues related to pandemics and health systems strengthening, including community health systems strengthening.
• Fluency in English with excellent writing, analytical, financial analysis, conceptual and communication skills.

You'll Impress Us If

• You have experience implementing costing of the health extension program in Ethiopia. 
• You have experience in costing and financial gap analysis of national and sub national health plans.

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.