PACT New Job Vacancy Available

Pact is the promise of a better tomorrow for communities challenged by poverty and marginalization. We serve these communities because we envision a world where everyone owns their future. To do this, we build systemic solutions in partnership with local organizations, businesses, and governments that create sustainable and resilient communities where those we serve are heard, capable, and vibrant. On the ground in nearly 40 countries, Pact’s integrated adaptive approach is shaping the future of international development.

We seek suitably qualified candidates to fill the position below:

Job Title: Thought Leadership Consultant to Support Case studies on Mothers Group Component.
Location: Gombe

Background
The State Accountability and Quality Improvement Project (SAQIP) is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented in Gombe State by Pact West Africa. The project’s targets include; improving the governance capacity for the public health system, improved accountability and community participation in the public health system and increased utilization of public Maternal, New-born and Child Health (MNCH) services. To achieve this, SAQIP works with the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, including Local Government Area (LGA) Health Teams, Primary Health Centres, Ward Development Committees and members of Mothers Groups who are rural poor Women of Child Bearing Age within the eleven LGA’s in the State.

SAQIP’s Primary Outcome III focuses on increasing utilization of public MNCH services in health facilities using the WORTH Model (a literacy-led approach to economic empowerment for women through savings and loans). WORTH also layers health education sessions onto the literacy and savings & loans sessions to increase knowledge of danger signs associated with pregnancy as well as the motivation of members to seek MNCH services at the PHC’s. SAQIP also utilizes an MNCH module intended to improve knowledge and attitudes on MNCH for pregnant and other members of the groups/ women of reproductive age who come together to save and utilize the funds to increase access to MNCH services including health, nutrition and positive parenting practices.

As the project will be folding up in June of 2019, the project is seeking for technical support from a consultant to come up with case studies that will support Pact West Africa with an understanding of the effective practices and innovative solutions that evolved due to the implementation of the State Accountability and Quality Improvement Project (SAQIP) in Gombe under the mothers group component.

Purpose of the Consultancy

• To support technically in coming up with a case study that will showcase the effective practices and innovations that evolved due to the implementation of the State Accountability and Quality Improvement Project (SAQIP) in Gombe State under the mothers group component.

Description of Key Tasks

• Desk review of relevant literatures and program documents
• Develop protocol for qualitative study and dissemination plan for findings
• Develop interview guides and identify respondents for study
• Obtain ethical approval where relevant
• Interview and collect data from respondents using appropriate methods
• Analyze qualitative data and information gleaned from desk review
• Develop report describing the effective practices and solutions due to SAQIP

Requirements
Candidate with:

• At least an M.Sc Degree in Development Studies, Social Sciences, Public Health, Political Science, or Economics and at least eight years of research experience
• Experience in designing and conducting qualitative studies in the development/humanitarian space with evidence of conducting at least one in the last three years
• Experience using NVIVO and/or any other qualitative data analysis tool
• At least one peer-reviewed publication in a reputable national or international journal in the last five years
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to speak Hausa fluently
• Readiness to share sample(s) of similar work done in the last three years.

Language:

• Fluency in written/oral English and Hausa is required
• Expected Outcomes
• Study protocol
• Developed Interview guide and consent form
• List of respondents for study and justification for selection
• IRB ethical approval
• Taped recordings of interviews
• Copies of transcripts of interviews
• Final report of study

Milestones and Deliverables
Activities/Tasks Timelines Days Outputs:

• Inception report TBD 3 Soft copy of Inception report
• Study protocol TBD 7 Soft copy of study protocol
• Interview guide and consent form TBD 3 Soft copy of Interview guide and consent form
• List of respondents for study and justification for selection TBD 4 Soft copy of respondent list and justification for selection
• IRB ethical approval TBD 3 Soft copy Ethical approval
• Taped recordings of interviews TBD 20 Soft copy of recordings
• Transcripts of interviews Soft copy transcripts
• Draft report of study Soft copy of study report
• Final report of study Soft copy of final reports

Working Relationships:

• The Consultant will be expected to work in collaboration with the following SAQIP staff – Clusters Team, LGA PHCD Team, The Mothers Group Officer, Mothers group Assistants, and Advisors.

 

Job Title: Thought Leadership Consultant to Support Case Studies on Improved Accountability and Community Participation in Public Health System
Location: Gombe

Background
The State Accountability and Quality Improvement Project (SAQIP) is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented in Gombe State by Pact West Africa. The project’s targets include; improving the governance capacity for the public health system, improved accountability and community participation in the public health system and increased utilization of public Maternal, New-born and Child Health (MNCH) services.

To achieve this, SAQIP works with the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, including Local Government Area (LGA) Health Teams, Primary Health Centres, Ward Development Committees and members of Mothers Groups who are rural poor Women of Child Bearing Age within the eleven LGA’s in the State.

The project has built very strong and veritable partnerships across the state and LGAs through which it is providing the support to address institutional gaps that exists at the SPHCDA, LGA Health Teams and facilities. The project has evolved several strategies and approaches through the Ward Development Committees and Mothers Groups to strengthen community structures and stimulated action for the support of high impact primary health services across the 57 intervention wards. This capacity development processes that included hands on support and mentoring is observably showing improvement in their planning and coordination roles of the primary health services.

The LGA health teams now take charge of coordinating the activities of all partners within the LGA for effective collaboration and synergy to reduce duplication of efforts, and enhancing linkages and collaboration with other stakeholders and community structures contributing to their health systems.

The Consultant will be expected to support the Project in the understanding of effective practices and innovative solutions evolved in the course of implementation for institutionalization. The study will solicit responses of primary and secondary stakeholders of the project to harvest information’s through face to face interview. The respondents would be randomly selected across the 57 intervention wards; in addition to the desk review of literature and programme reports. The findings will serve as knowledge base for Pact West Africa and other Pact Offices across the globe.

Purpose of the Consultancy

• To support Pact West Africa with an understanding of the effective practices and innovative solutions that evolved due to the implementation of the State Accountability and Quality Improvement Project (SAQIP) in Gombe State.

Description of Key Tasks

• Desk review of relevant literature and program documents
• Develop protocol for qualitative study and dissemination plan for findings
• Develop interview guides and identify respondents for study
• Obtain ethical approval where relevant
• Interview and collect data from respondents using appropriate methods
• Analyze qualitative data and information gleaned from desk review

Candidate Requirements
Candidate with:

• At least an M.Sc Degree in Development Studies, Social Sciences, Public Health, Political Science, or Economics and at least eight years of research experience
• Experience in designing and conducting qualitative studies in the development/humanitarian space with evidence of conducting at least one in the last three years
• Experience using NVIVO and/or any other qualitative data analysis tool
• At least one peer-reviewed publication in a reputable national or international journal in the last five years
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to speak Hausa fluently
• Readiness to share sample(s) of similar work done in the last three years.

Language:

• Fluency in written/oral English and Hausa is required

Expected Outcomes

• Develop protocol for qualitative study and dissemination plan for findings
• Develop interview guides and identify respondents for the study
• Obtain ethical approval where relevant
• Interview and collect data from respondents using appropriate methods
• Analyze qualitative data and information gleaned from desk review
• Develop report describing the effective practices and solutions due to SAQIP

Milestones and Deliverables:

• Activities/Tasks Timelines Days Outputs
• Develop protocol for qualitative study and dissemination plan from finding TBD 1 Study protocol
• Develop interview guides and identify respondents for the study
• TBD 1 Interview guides and respondent list
• Desk review of relevant literature and program documents
• TBD 3 Literature & program documents reviewed
• Interview and collect data from respondents using appropriate methods
• TBD 9 Data collected from respondent
• Analyze qualitative data and information garnered from desk review TBD 3 Qualitative data analysed
• Develop report describing the effective practices and solutions due to SAQIP TBD 5 Analysis report developed

Working Relationships:

• The Consultant will be expected to work in close collaboration with SAQIP Staff, SPHCDA staff and Community Structures.

 

Job Title: Thought Leadership Consultant to Support Case studies on Quality Improvement and Clinical Mentorship.
Location: Gombe

Background
The State Accountability for Quality Improvement Project (SAQIP) is a six-year project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Nigeria officially launched in mid-January 2015. It is designed to develop the capacity of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA) and its associated Local Government Area (LGA) structures to carry out their mandate to provide quality maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) services through public primary health care centers (PHCs), while empowering community structures such as Ward Development Committees (WDCs) to provide the oversight needed to ensure delivery of quality health services at PHCs. The project works towards achieving this impact through four key approaches:

• Improved governance, capacity, and performance of the public health system
• Improved accountability and community participation in the public health system
• Increased utilization of public MNCH services

The SAQIP Quality Improvement (QI) approach uses an iterative process whereby QI teams share and learn from one another and build upon each other’s findings and results. Using the Model for Improvement tool, QI teams identify non-clinical and clinical maternal and newborn Health (MNH) problems in their communities and develop appropriate interventions.

Each of the 57 SAQIP supported PHCs have QI teams comprising of 4 healthcare workers, 4 WDCs and 1 traditional ruler and have tested changes in different domains: ANC, labor and Delivery, postnatal care and facility system strengthening. 35 of these facilities have layered use of WHO safe birth checklist on their QI structures. 19 changes have so far been tested for period ranging from 18 – 24 months. The teams have recorded remarkable success such as improved used of partograph to monitor labor, improved use of uterotonics and decrease in client waiting times. The facilities have also recorded increase access: ANC, skill delivery and post-natal visits.

In Gombe state, health care providers at primary health care level usually have little access to experienced clinicians and specialists to call upon for consultation, review cases, solve problems and reinforce clinical diagnosis and decision making. Most health workers at these levels are likely to have limited experience in managing complicated and emergency cases. Health care providers were trained to provide quality maternal and newborn care and were followed up with supportive supervision.

However, because of limited contact time between the care providers and the supervisors there has been slow improvement in skills and competence of the trained care providers that is expected to translate into improved maternal and newborn outcomes. This fact gave birth to the concept of S AQIP clinical care mentorship program. Experienced nurses and midwives were deployed as residential mentors to reinforce the skills of birth attendants at PHCs. 6 months into the program. Many successes were recorded in skills, adherence to protocols and attitude of the birth attendants at PHCs.

Purpose of the Consultancy

• To develop case study that will showcase the effective practices and innovations that evolved due to the implementation of the State Accountability and Quality Improvement Project (SAQIP) in Gombe State under clinical mentorship and quality improvement. The focus will be on the 3 following topics:
  • Synergizing for Impact – Layering WHO safe birth checklist on Quality improvement interventions
  • Community involvement in facility level Quality improvements: leveraging communities for impact
  • knowledge to action – Accelerating and maintaining health care provider’s capacities to provide BEmONC services in primary health care system

Description of Key Tasks

• Obtain ethical approval where relevant
• Interview and collect data from respondents using appropriate methods
• Interviews with clients and birth attendants
• Interviews with clinical mentors, mentors of mentors, LGA PHCD, GSPHCDA staff and SAQIP staff
• Interviews of birth attendants, clinical mentors, mentors of mentors and clients
• Interview with WDCs and traditional rulers
• Analyze qualitative data and information gleaned from desk review
• Develop report describing the effective practices and solutions due to SAQIP
• Desk review of relevant literatures and program documents
• Literature review of how stand-alone WHO safe birth checklist pilot test in other countries fared
• Background of SAQIP QI approach
• Operationalization of the QI approach
• Roles of QI teams
• QI Monitoring data
• Background of SAQIP clinical mentorship approach
• Operationalization of the clinical mentorship approach
• Monitoring data on service delivery and skills of birth attendants
• Develop protocol for qualitative study and dissemination plan for findings
• Develop interview guides and identify respondents for study

Requirements
Candidate with:

• At least an MSc degree in Development Studies, Social Sciences, Public Health, Political Science, or Economics and at least eight years of research experience
• Ability to speak Hausa fluently
• Readiness to share sample(s) of similar work done in the last three years
• Ability to carry out assignment in Northeast Nigeria
• Experience in designing and conducting qualitative studies in the development/humanitarian space with evidence of conducting at least one in the last three years
• Experience using NVIVO and/or any other qualitative data analysis tool
• At least one peer-reviewed publication in a reputable national or international journal in the last five years
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills

Language:

• Fluency in written/oral English and Hausa is required
• Expected Outcomes
• Study protocol
• Developed Interview guide and consent form
• List of respondents for study and justification for selection
• IRB ethical approval
• Taped recordings of interviews
• Copies of transcripts of interviews
• Final report of study

Milestones and Deliverables
Activities/Tasks Timelines Days Outputs

• Inception report/Desk review 29th – 31st August, 2018 3 Soft copy of Inception report
• IRB ethical approval 6th to 7th September 2018 Soft copy Ethical approval
• Taped recordings of interviews 10th to 27th September 2018
• 14 Soft copy of recordings
• Transcripts of interviews Soft copy transcripts
• Study protocol and submit application for ethical approval 3rd to 5th sept 2018
• 3 Soft copy of study protocol
• Interview guide and consent form 3rd to 5th September 2018 Soft copy of Interview guide and consent form
• List of respondents for study and justification for selection 6th to 7th September 2018
• 2 Soft copy of respondent list and justification for selection

Working Relationships:

• The Consultant will be expected to work in collaboration with the following SAQIP staff – Project director, Health System strengthening Advisor, IS Advisor, Clusters Team, LGA PHCD Team, Gombe state primary Healthcare Development Agency.

How To Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should submit their CV and Cover Letter on their suitability to: [email protected] however applications will be considered on a rolling basis.

All applications MUST be submitted as a single file in either word format or PDF. Applicants MUST indicate the position applied for on the SUBJECT of the mail (E.g. Thought Leadership Consultant on Quality Improvement and Clinical Mentorship).

Application Deadline 29th August, 2018.

Note: Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.