eMTCT Operational Plan,National Consultant Jobs in Rwanda

eMTCT
Operational Plan for UNICEF, Kigali, Rwanda
 CLOSE: 27/05/2016
Position
Title: National Consultant – eMTCT Operational Plan
Level:
Middle
Location:
Kigali

Duration:
30 days
Start
Date: Mid-June 2016
Reporting
to: HIV and AIDS Specialist
1. Background and
Purpose
The
HIV prevalence in Rwanda has remained stable at 3% over the last ten years1.
The principal mode of transmission of HIV in the general population is
heterosexual intercourse and for children is vertical transmission from HIV
infected mother to her child during pregnancy, child birth and breastfeeding
period. Interventions for prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT)
can reduce the risk of HIV infection in children. Since the launch of the
national PMTCT Programme in 1999, embarked on a national scale up of PMTCT
services by increasing access to HIV testing, antiretroviral drugs for pregnant
women and HIV exposed infants. Following the global agenda to eliminate mother
to child transmission of HIV and to keep mothers alive, Rwanda re-affirmed its
commitment to the global agenda and developed a five year (2011-2015) national
strategy for elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV (eMTCT) with
the goal to reduce the rate of MTCT to less than 2%. To date, over 90% of the
health facilities are offering PMTCT services, 93% of HIV infected pregnant
women are utilizing the services and the MTCT rate by 18 months of aged has
reduced to 1.8%.
An
end term review of the eMTCT strategy for 2011-2015 has shown excellent level
of implementation of the eMTCT strategy, so the observed programme coverage and
impact is not a surprise. However, the review indicated that the implementation
was not at the same level across the four outcome results areas and made
recommendation tailored to address challenges:
Primary
prevention of HIV

– Gaps in accessing youth friendly services (knowledge and skills for positive
behavior, HIV testing, medical male circumcision and condom use) at strategic
entry points, limited routine program data for monitoring and evaluation of
interventions for primary prevention other than national surveys like DHS, and
low quality of HIV prevention services and limited mechanisms for linkages and
referral between community based interventions and health facility for
specialized HIV prevention services such as post-test. Prevention of
unwanted pregnancy among HIV infected women
– Low demand for
utilization of modern family planning methods and challenges in reporting of
indictors on FP among HIV infected women
Reducing
vertical transmission from MTCT and HIV related deaths
– Limited access to
PMTCT service in private sectors and capacity of health care workers to deliver
comprehensive HIV treatment and care services for HIV infected mothers and
children at every step within the continuum of care and strengthen mechanisms
for retention and adherence to treatment
Cross-cutting Gaps in
Programme coordination across the four prongs, monitoring and evaluation at
national, subnational and community levels
2. Justification
According
to spectrum estimates, approximately 10,000 HIV infected pregnant women are in
need of interventions to prevent vertical transmission of HIV and over 450 new
HIV infections through MTCT will occur in 2016 alone[i] if the current coverage
and quality of PMTCT services remains the same. Primary prevention of HIV among
young women of reproductive age and unmet family planning needs among HIV
infected women have been identified as major’s challenges of the PMTCT
programme. In addition, HIV infected mothers and HIV exposed children are lost
to follow-up and are not receiving the range of services to achieve the desired
impact. Furthermore, utilization of available PMTCT service is relatively low
among vulnerable women including young women[ii] resulting in relatively higher
MTCT rates. In order to reduce MTCT rate and work towards achieving eMTCT as
per the WHO definition of less than 50 new case per 100,000 live births, RBC
plans to develop operational plan for eMTCT to address challenge and key
programmatic gaps that are an impediment to achieving eMTCT
3. Objective
To
develop 2016-2018 eMTCT operational plan that is informed by analysis of the
causes of the bottlenecks/barriers to achieving the set targets of main
interventions for each of the outcome results, and outline priority activities
to address the bottlenecks.
4. Methodological
Approach and Expected Outputs
The
consultant will conduct a desk review of Programme documents such as HIV
national strategic plan 2013-2018, HIV national guidelines 2015, current
national strategic plan for HIV EMTCT End term report, HIV annual report 2015
etc.; Will use the most recent validated national level data to determine
baseline indicators on each of the EMTCT result outcomes. Barriers to achieving
the desired coverage of key interventions will also be identified from the end
term review report of the 2011-2015 eMTCT strategy and any other national
documents. The consultant will then present the information to the national HIV
prevention, care and treatment TWG as reference and work with them to set
impact and outcome targets for 2018 and to discuss what needs to happen
(determinants) to improving coverage and identify barriers/bottlenecks to be
addressed in order to reach these targets. This information will then be
presented to a larger stakeholders’ workshop to collectively discuss and agree
on root causes of each of the barriers/bottlenecks and propose key corrective
actions to effectively address them. In consultation with the TWG, the
consultant will use the information obtained to develop output result
statements, indicators and targets for 2016 and 2018 for each of the EMTCT
outcomes, and develop a logical framework for 2016-2018. The consultant will
consolidate the inputs and draft the operational plan and submit it to the TWG
for inputs before validation by stakeholders.
5. Major Tasks,
Deliverables, & Timeframe
Major
Tasks
1. Conduct a desk
review to determine baselines indicators for impact, outcome and key
interventions for each of the eMTCT outcomes Deliverables : Report
comprised of latest baseline indictors for eMTCT, 30th May to 3rd
June
  1. Using
    the eMTCT end term review report and any other resources, consolidate
    barriers/bottlenecks to improved uptake/coverage of key interventions for
    each eMTCT outcome results (categorize the barriers into enabling
    environment, supply, demand and quality)
Deliverable
: consolidated barriers/bottlenecks for each outcome results, 6-9th
June
  1. Convene
    a meeting with TWG members to determine impact, outcome results for eMTCT
    by end 2018, determine outcome level result gaps and validate the barriers
    and bottlenecks
Deliverable:
Programme coverage gaps and barriers/bottlenecks identified and documented, 10th
June
  1. In
    collaboration with TWG, service providers, community members and
    beneficiaries of PMTCT, conduct a causal analysis of the
    barriers/bottlenecks observed to improved uptake/coverage of key
    interventions, identify corrective actions for each intervention and the
    ideal platform for delivery of services.
Deliverable:
Corrective actions to address identified bottlenecks and ideal platforms for
delivery of interventions identified and documented, 13-20th June
5.In
consultation with the TWG, use the identified corrective actions for each of
the interventions and develop output statements, indicators and target to be
achieved by 2018. Include activities on surveys for intervention indicators
that do not have baselines.
  1. Through
    application of the principles of Result Based Management, develop a
    logical framework for the eMTCT operational plan
Deliverable:
Logical framework for the eMTCT operational plan developed, 21st -27th
June6. 7. Draft the eMTCT Operational Plan, share with the TWG for feedback and
incorporate their feedback
Deliverable:
Draft Operational plan submitted to TWG, 29th June to 5th
July
  1.  
Support RBC to convene a national
stakeholder meeting to validate the eMTCT Operational Plan Deliverable: Report
on stakeholders validation meeting, 6th July
  1.  
Finalize the eMTCT Operational Plan
Deliverable:
2016-2018 eMTCT Operational Plan, 11th July
6. Stakeholder
Participation
RBC,
Districts, One UN, CSO, communities, service providers and PMTCT beneficiaries,
adolescent mothers and Organizations of people living with HIV
7. Qualification and
Requirements
  1.  
Technical competence in eMTCT
programming and understanding of the global, regional and national commitments
related to the AIDS response in general and eMTCT in particular relating to
selected country/region.
  1.  
Essential: Advanced degree in
medicine preferably with experience in public health, advanced university
degree in Public health; social science; demography or statistics.
  1.  
Essential: 5 years of
experience at national and/or international level of progressively responsible
experience in HIV programing especially PMTCT and Pediatric HIV
  1.  
Proven experience in working with
government and development partners, monitoring and evaluation or program
review
  1.  
Demonstrated ability to analyse and
interpret programme data
  1.  
Experience in developing technical
reports and documents in the field of PMTCT and Pediatric
  1.  
Proven writing skills + computer
literacy
  1.  
Fluency in English and/or French
8. Supervision
The
consultant will be supervised by UNICEF HIV and AIDS Specialist and will
receive technical guidance technical team composed of representatives from RBC
HIV Division, UNJTA team (UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNESCO and WHO) and
USAIDS/PEPFER development partners
9. Terms and
conditions
·
The Consultant will quote for an all-inclusive lump sum in RWF
·
Payment conditions: in case of field trips, the consultant will be reimbursed
based on incurred out of pocket expenses associated with the travel and the
subsistence allowance will be based on DSA prevailing UN rate. As a non-staff,
the consultant will not be issued a Travel Auhorisation. The claim will be
based on submitted voucher approved by supervisor.
·
UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if
performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or
for failure to meet deadlines
·
All materials developed by the consultant will remain the copyright of UNICEF
and that UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in future.
[i]
2014 spectrum projections
[ii]
Rwanda PMTCT Impact Evaluation Study, 2012
How
to apply:
Qualified
individuals are requested to submit their cover letter, CV and P11 form (which
can be downloaded from: http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc), to Human
Resources at: rwajobs@unicef.org
by 27th May 2016, quoting the indicative all-inclusive fee range and
the consultancy with subject: “National consultancy – eMTCT
operational Plan
.”
You
may also submit to: Human Resources Specialist, UNICEF Rwanda, and P.O. Box
381, Kigali, Rwanda.
Please
note that applications submitted without an all-inclusive fee/ rate will not be
considered. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Financial
proposal should provide a budget and timeline, using the table below:
Deliverables
Number
of person days
Delivery
date
Costs
Inception
report – Detailing methodology and action plan for the consultancy
3
4rd
June
10%
Interim
Report 1 – Literature review, latest baseline indictors for eMTCT, consolidated
barriers/bottlenecks for each outcome results
6
10th
June
20%
Interim
Report 2 – Comprehensive report on Output statements, key interventions and
targets, priority activities and platforms of delivery
7
21st
June
20%
Interim
Report 3: Draft eMTCT operational plan with a logical framework
10
29th
June
30%
Final
reports including a presentation: – eMTCT operational plan with a logical
framework
4
7th
July
20%
Total
30

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