Background:
The past fifteen years have seen tremendous gains in reducing the burden of malaria and progressing towards elimination. Between 2000 and 2015, global malaria incidence fell by 37 percent and mortality rates by 60 percent. Over 6.2 million deaths were averted, primarily among children less than five years of age. Since 1998, the RBM Partnership to End Malaria has been central to the global fight against malaria. It has been essential to mobilizing unprecedented resources and supporting scale up of innovative interventions to put the world on a path of eliminating malaria.
The Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP) is a workstream within the RBM Partnership to End Malaria. AMP is a partnership of more than 40 organizations, including government, private sector, faith-based and humanitarian organizations. AMP is housed and chaired by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
AMP provides distance and in-country support to mass ITN distribution campaigns as well as operational guidance on all aspects of ITN distribution. AMP works to coordinate the financial and technical resources of its members to support countries conducting mass and continuous distribution of millions of ITNs and works to resolve bottlenecks arising during planning and implementation of ITN campaigns. Its low-cost, action-orientated operational structure includes a Core Group of key partners overseeing AMP strategies, four working groups, and dozens of partners that volunteer their time and expertise. AMP partners have developed core technical competencies – planning/operations, logistics, monitoring and evaluation, social and behaviour change – to support ITN scale-up efforts.
New Nets Project:
Mosquitoes’ resistance to insecticides threatens to undermine progress against malaria. Although the number of new malaria cases has fallen dramatically over the past 15 years, progress has recently slowed. One of the most effective means of preventing malaria is sleeping under an insecticide treated net (ITN) and the increased access to ITNs over the past 15 years has significantly contributed to the reduction in malaria morbidity and mortality.
The New Nets Project (NNP) pilot will test the performance of new types of ITNs with different active ingredients under real conditions in select countries in sub-Saharan Africa and generate data to guide international policy on their use. The initiative is expected to fend off 37.5 million cases of malaria and save 92,000 lives in the five years beyond the project’s end. A successful pilot is expected to open up a market for the new nets and bring about competition among manufacturers, leading to lower prices and a sustainable, affordable tool for malaria-endemic countries.
Lead implementer IVCC will head a project consortium comprising the Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Population Services International (PSI), and PATH.Provision of technical and planning support to countries will be organized through the Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP) in partnership with the RBM Country Regional Support Partner Committee (CRSPC) and NNP partners to enable NMCPs and ITN procurers to conduct high-quality multi-product campaigns. (output 2: Pilot implementations of Dual AI LLINs delivered, and operational learning of effective methods for planning and implementation of Dual AI LLINs and multi product campaigns disseminated).
A small number of countries will distribute Dual AI LLINs in controlled pilot conditions under the project. It is important that the distribution is done accurately to achieve high coverage and use as the pilot distributions will be linked to costing and effectiveness evaluations. In order to achieve this, countries will receive technical assistance to operationalise these national multi-product type campaigns, with specific products targeted at specific districts. Moving forward, it is expected that these campaigns become the norm in malaria control and represent a massive shift in the operational context from the previous 10-15 years where all net distributions have been almost always of a single product type. In response to WHO guidance, some countries have recently begun integrating pyrethroid-PBO nets into their national campaigns, but this is happening with no additional funding available to support incremental learning around best practice approaches for efficient conduct of multi-product type campaigns. It is expected that having an operational guidance in place if and when a policy recommendation is made to deploy dual AI ITNs to certain settings will accelerate scale up and reduce planning inefficiencies.
Activities supported by this consultancy:
The consultant will support AMP’s engagement in the New Nets project and lead on the following issues:
§ Participate in all NNP coordination and partner calls and provide updates on NNP-specific campaigns, as well as on any issues arising through support to other multi-product campaigns in non-NNP countries that should be taken into account during planning and implementation
§ Participate in AMP weekly calls, as well as country-specific calls as organized
§ Support development of operational guidance based on implementation experience and ensure that any new guidance required has been identified, developed and disseminated
§ Support collection of information and data for reporting against the NNP indicators
§ Support the planning and implementation, as well as analysis of data and review of reports, for the process evaluations in NNP countries (plan for and help determine operational learnings including determining access and use)
§ Track campaign planning and implementation, as well as modifications put in place, for campaigns in NNP countries, as well as campaign outcomes
§ Coordinate the planning and deployment of technical assistance for NNP campaigns in collaboration with the AMP management team and RBM (development of country-specific terms of reference, sign-off from NMCP/NMEP, etc.)
§ Support review and quality control, in collaboration with AMP management, of all work products and reports prior to circulation
§ Backstop TA providers in the provision of support for macro (plan of action or implementation guidelines, logistics plan of action, communication plan, risks assessment and mitigation, timelines, budgets) and microplanning, as well as development of implementation and data management documents and tools
§ Support the NMCP with defining the data collection tools, methods and circuit for data compilation and for feedback to supervisors and monitors (may include linking to DHIS2, use of ICT4D, paper-based systems or mixed models)
§ Disseminate learnings (reports, operational guidelines via AMP toolkit) within the country and to other countries preparing for a pilot themselves
§ Support any organization for cross-country sharing of experiences, training or other online events (e.g. webinars) and provide inputs on the update of the AMP website
Alignment to the IFRC’s objectives and strategy:
The Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP)’s mandate aligns to the Federation’s Strategy 2020 as it supports the achievement of strategic aims;
1) Save lives, protect livelihoods and strengthen recovery from disasters and crises
2) Enable healthy and safe living.
Reporting line and support provided to the consultant
The consultant will report to and be supervised by the AMP Senior Implementation Technician
Time Allocation, for budget purposes
Working days to be defined
Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions there will be no travel associated with this consultancy.
The consultancy timeframe will be from October 1st to December 31st, 2020
Notes
· The consultant will be contracted by the IFRC and the standard contractual terms will apply.
How to apply
Interested candidates should send their CV, letter of interest, and daily consultancy rate in CHF (Swiss francs) to [email protected]
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview.
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