Consultant: to support communication to potential beneficiaries and the development of an advocacy campaign for NHIF’s Linda Mama programme

Consultant: to support communication to potential beneficiaries and the development of an advocacy campaign for NHIF’s Linda Mama programme

Apply now
Job no: 535698
Contract type: Consultancy
Level: Consultancy
Location: Kenya
Categories: Social and Economic Policy

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The purpose of this assignment is to support NHIF’s communication and advocacy/public relations work on the Linda Mama programme. The consultant will develop specific messages on the programme, including the related dissemination modalities, targeted to potential Linda Mama beneficiaries, notably those that are hard to reach, using existing structures and systems within the NHIF and NSNP and other programmes and  also devising methods to reach a broader audience. The consultant will also support the development of an advocacy and public relations campaign for the programme, targeted to relevant stakeholders at national, county and local level.

Scope of Work:

Background and Justification:

The social protection sector has been expanding in Kenya in the last decade. The 2012 Kenya National Social Protection Policy (NSPP) is the guiding framework for development of an integrated social protection system in the country, comprising of policies and programmes in three areas: social assistance, social insurance, and social health insurance. Social protection, therefore, comprises public actions which address not only income poverty and economic shocks, but also social vulnerability, considering the inter-relationship between exclusion and poverty.

In 2013, the Government of Kenya (GoK) launched a National Safety Net Programme (NSNP). The main objective of the NSNP is to improve the well-being of and increase resilience among specific vulnerable groups to reduce poverty and vulnerability in Kenya. GoK currently has four major cash transfer programs that reach across the country and provide support to millions of vulnerable households. The four cash transfer programs include the 2005 Orphans and Vulnerable Children Cash Transfer Program (CT-OVC), the 2007 Hunger Safety Net Program (HSNP), the 2008 Older Persons Cash Transfer program (OP-CT), and the 2011 Persons with Severe Disability Cash Transfer program (PwSD-CT).

While the foundational elements of a social safety net are in place in Kenya, GoK is now committed to move beyond cash transfers to an integrated Social Protection system, based on an inclusive, lifecycle approach to enhance social and economic inclusion of the poor and vulnerable. This includes the introduction of innovative Cash plus, and a renewed attention on shock-responsive, life cycle and highly inclusive interventions. The 2018 Social Protection Investment Plan and the ongoing review of the social protection policy adopt and extensively elaborate these approaches.

At the same time, health coverage and provision of health services to the population are key priorities for GoK, with Universal Health Coverage (UHC) being part of GoK’s Big Four agenda, that contains four strategic priorities for the socio-economic development of the country linked to Vision 2030.

The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) is the primary contributory public health insurance in Kenya) is a key player in the health sector in Kenya, covering 93.9% of those with some form of health insurance in the country. NHIF works on a contributory scheme and provides medical insurance cover to its members and their declared dependents (spouse and children). Enrolment in NHIF is currently mandatory for formal sector workers and voluntary for those in the informal sector.

In Kenya, only 19% of the population had some form of health insurance cover in 2015/16  – at least in part because the majority of the population works in the informal sector (80%)  and lives on low incomes –, with a significant difference between urban (29.2% of the population with an insurance) and rural areas (13.3%). Out-of-pocket payments represent a high burden for many households, and especially for those in the lowest quintiles of the income distribution, who spend on average 10-15% of their budget for healthcare. This results in catastrophic and impoverishing effects on families when a house member, and notably the breadwinner, falls sick. Evidence suggests that after accounting for out-of-pocket payments, the proportion of poor people increases by 2.2 percentage points in both rural and urban areas, meaning that between 1 and 1.1 million individuals are pushed into poverty due health-related expenses.

The global Covid-19 pandemics, that hit in Kenya in mid-March 2020, rapidly resulted in a severe and widespread economic crisis, with a devastating impact on both health systems and livelihoods. Covid-19 not only increases health expenses for those who fall sick and their families – with catastrophic effects on those not covered by an insurance – but makes more difficult for people to have an income, with the likely effect of more and more not being able to afford healthcare – particularly informal workers, those relying on daily earnings and the most vulnerable groups.

Looking at maternal and child health, the proportion  of  births  assisted  by  trained  medical  personnel  (doctors,  mid  wife/nurses)  improved  greatly from  39%  in  2005/06  to  70.2%  in  2015/16  but geographical disparities between urban and rural areas, as well as across counties, persist, with some counties (e.g. Mandera and Wajir) registering less than 30% of birth attended . Also, nationwide 37.7% of the children aged 12-23 months were fully immunized against measles at 9 months, while 9.7% were fully immunized against measles at 18 months. Despite the great progress made in recent years, continued interventions are needed if all children and women in Kenya are to fully enjoy their right to health and be enabled to thrive.

Recognizing the challenges faced by the most vulnerable in accessing health insurance, together with providing a contributory health insurance, NHIF also runs some subsidized programmes for specific vulnerable groups. One of those is Linda Mama, which provides a package of free basic maternal and child health services to all pregnant women that are Kenyan citizens. Services covered include ante-natal care, skilled delivery, and post-natal care – all key elements for the health of mothers and children. Registration to Linda Mama can be done via a mobile phone, at NHIF branches, contracted hospitals/ health care providers and Huduma Centers countrywide. Linda mama’s goal is to “Achieve universal access to maternal and child health services and contribute to the country’s progress towards UHC”.

To ensure that all women are aware of, able to smoothly register to, and to access services provided by the Linda Mama programme, and ultimately make the best out it for their children and themselves, while also advocate to strengthen the programme, NHIF and UNICEF are seeking the support of a highly qualified consultant, to be based at NHIF, to support communication towards potential beneficiaries, notably those that are hard to reach, as well as the development and roll out of a public relations and advocacy campaign for Linda Mama. The campaign should overall build a dialogue around the programme and create commitment among stakeholders, to ensure cooperation in the long term.

Scope of Work

Goal and Objective:

The goal of the consultancy is to support NHIF’s communication and advocacy/public relations work on the Linda Mama programme. This will entail formulating and disseminating targeted messages on the programme for potential beneficiaries, particularly the hard to reach ones, as well as supporting the development of an advocacy and public relations campaign for the programme, targeted to relevant stakeholders at national, county and local level.

The overarching objective is to strengthen the reach and raise awareness of the Linda Mama programme among potential beneficiaries who are not accessing the programme, or are not utilizing it fully, as well as to effectively present the programme to stakeholders to ensure there is widespread knowledge around it, as well as commitment to strengthen it.

In the UNICEF Country Program Document, the assignment contributes to: Outcome 4 (Social inclusion):

An increased number of children from the poorest & most vulnerable households benefit from shock-responsive & integrated social protection interventions, as well as from child-specific policies. The assignment will critically contribute to enhance communication and advocacy work for NHIF’s Linda Mama programme, with the objective of enhancing beneficiaries’ awareness and knowledge, to ultimately increase coverage of Linda Mama, as well as strengthening advocacy with relevant stakeholders. This is also in line with the broader government’s agenda of achieving a Universal Health Coverage.

This technical support is an emerging need on referral and linkages as well as programming to increase health coverage in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) universal health insurance pilot. There is an increased need for UNICEF to support Linda Mama from and advocacy and awareness raising perspective for all the cash plus programmes as well as universal access to health programmes and well covered in the annual work plan and the reprogrammed funds and prioritized activities in response to COVID.

 

Activities and Tasks

Specifically, the consultant will perform the following activities:

  1. Develop a communication plan for Linda Mama

This will entail:

  1. Formulate communication messages targeted to potential Linda Mama beneficiaries, as well as to beneficiaries that are not fully benefitting from the programme. Albeit these messages should be meant for a broad audience, particular attention should be put in ensuring they are well targeted for the hard-to-reach and vulnerable households and enable them to access clear and practical information on the programme (including i.e. registration modalities, services covered, how to access services and so on), as well as promote nutrition and health counselling.
  2. Devise an implementation plan, specifying the most appropriate dissemination channels and modalities for the messages. The plan should consider the various actors involved in implementing Linda Mama and the role played by community structures (particularly Community Health Volunteers and the community units) and leverage them to better disseminate messages. Alongside NHIF’s and community-level structures, the implementation plan should also use existing NMCH programmes supported by UNICEF and other UN agencies in selected counties to disseminate messages on Linda Mama – notably NICHE in Kitui, Kilifi, Marsabit, West Pokot and Turkana; Imarisha Afya ya mama na mtoto in Kakamega; Boresha Afya ya mama na mtoto in Vihiga, as well the programmes currently being designed in Mombasa and Garissa.
  3. The two points above will feed into a broader draft communication plan, that will also include a review of unutilized opportunities for communication of messages to (potential) beneficiaries within NHIF’s and UNICEF’s structures, as well as community structures and other relevant platforms/systems.

 

  1. Develop an advocacy and public relations campaign for Linda Mama


This will entail:

  1. Develop advocacy briefs for relevant stakeholders, with the aim to raise awareness among stakeholders, involve them in the programme and encourage enrolment into the NHIF Supa Cover for protection for the entire family. This will be based on a stakeholder mapping (including international development partners as well as the key players at national, county, and local level) that the consultant will conduct and will also include an engagement plan.
  2. Additionally, the consultant will identify key messages, tools and channels to reach the above stakeholders, including Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials, such as brochures, billboards etc. Existing community structures, as well as structures from NHIF and UNICEF, and particularly the UNICEF-supported NMCNH programmes at the county level, should be leveraged to this end.
  3. The points above will feed into the draft communication plan to constitute, after approval from NHIF and UNICEF, a final communication and advocacy plan. The plan should include the main findings of the assignment, as well as inputs and recommendations for the way forward.

 

Work relationships

The consultant will undertake the assignment in close collaboration with the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), Ministry of Health (MoH), UNICEF Kenya (Social protection sub-section and other relevant sections, including Health, Communication and Communication for Development), the Social and Child Protection UNDAF group, County Governments implementing UNICEF-supported programmes in MNCH, other relevant government institutions in health and social protection, as well as other relevant stakeholders in these fields at national, county and local levels.

The work will mainly be desk-based, with the consultant working at NHIF premises and having continuous feedback and exchange to ensure NHIF’s inputs are well incorporated in the outputs. The consultant will also work closely with UNICEF Social Protection, Health, Communication and Communication for Development sections, with other UN agencies, county-level institutions implementing UNICEF-supported programmes and community-level structures if required.

The consultant will report to the Social Policy (Social Protection) Specialist at UNICEF Kenya and the NHIF Linda Mama Manager.

No activities that will require to travel out of the duty station are foreseen for this assignment.

 

Outputs/Deliverables

Under Activity 1 “Develop a communication plan for Linda Mama” expected deliverables are:

  1. Draft communication messages targeted to potential Linda Mama beneficiaries, as well as to beneficiaries that are not fully benefitting from the programme, with a focus on those that are hard to reach.

2.    Implementation plan, specifying the most appropriate dissemination channels and modalities for the messages. The plan should also detail the role played by community structures and existing NMCH programmes supported by UNICEF and other UN agencies in selected counties in disseminating the messages.

3.    Draft communication plan that will include the two deliverables above and link them to a review of unutilized opportunities for communication of messages to (potential) beneficiaries within NHIF’s and UNICEF’s structures, as well as community structures and other relevant platforms/systems.

Under Activity 2 “Develop an advocacy and public relations campaign for Linda Mama” expected deliverables are:

4.    Advocacy briefs for relevant stakeholders, including a stakeholder mapping and an engagement plan.

5.    Key messages, tools and channels to reach the above stakeholders, including Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials, that leverage community structures and UNICEF-supported programmes, as well as social protection programmes from other UN agencies.

6.    Final communication and advocacy plan approved by NHIF and UNICEF, that includes the main findings of the assignment and the way forward.

The consultant will be based at the NHIF and, under the supervision of the UNICEF  Social Policy (Social Protection) Specialist and the Linda Mama Manager, s/he will be responsible for the production and finalization of the deliverables under UNICEF administrative and technical supervision. Regular meetings will be held with the  Social Policy (Social Protection) Specialist and the Linda Mama Manager on a monthly basis.

Estimated 70 working days- Please provide an allinclusive finacial proposal to carry out the deliverables listed above

Advertised: E. Africa Standard Time
Deadline: E. Africa Standard Time

Back to search results Apply now

Share this:

|
More

To help us with our recruitment effort, please indicate in your cover letter & on the application form where (ngotenders.net) you saw this job posting.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *