NTD Human Resource for Health Capacity Assessment Consultancy

1. CONSULTANCY SUMMARY
Proper understanding of the numbers and skills required to manage the NTD programme at the national and subnational levels is critical for planning for resource allocation, expansion of the human resource capacity and identification of gaps in service delivery. The need to better understand the levels and skills of the national NTD programme has been expressed by the MOH and partners, to enable a better understanding of the gaps. This will therefore require assessing the numbers and skills mix as well as coordination with both the focal points at the subnational level and the community focal points engaged in supporting these efforts. ASCEND plans to support the national NTD program unit in undertaking a human resource capacity assessment in 14 counties: 6 counties at the coast region- Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale, Lamu, Tana River and Taita Taveta, and an additional 8 VL-endemic counties – Turkana, Baringo, West Pokot, Marsabit, Wajir, Isiolo, Kitui and Garissa, ensuring that the marginalised counties are included1.

2. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The national NTD programme in Kenya recognizes that there is an inadequate level of health workforce and capacity to support quality implementation of NTD interventions. For the country to implement the Break the Transmission Strategy (BTS) and achieve targets for the control and elimination of NTDs, dedicated staff with relevant skills (including diagnostics) is needed to support efforts at the national and county levels. These staffs include; doctors, clinical officers, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory personnel and specialists at different levels of care. Additionally, other supportive staff cadres such as managerial staff, record officers, data managers and community-level staff (Community Health Volunteers -CHVs and Community Drug Distributors – CDDs) are key to the efficient delivery of NTD interventions and long-term sustainability.

3. SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF THE CONSULTANCY

Scope:

The goal of this assessment will be to provide the information that will be used to ensure that the national and sub-national NTD units are sufficiently resourced to implement NTD interventions by identifying gaps in NTD skills and numbers and work towards increasing the competencies and capabilities of the staff. In addition, this assessment will aim to ensure that efforts are made to sufficiently distribute the required staff by deploying or redeploying relevant staff in NTD endemic regions.

Specific objectives of the consultancy

NTD programme human resource capacity assessment will focus on;

1. Identifying existing staffing numbers, programme structure, job descriptions and national NTD programme engagement with NTD endemic counties

2. Determining the NTD programme staffing norms and capacity at the national and endemic counties

3. Conducting a human resource gap analysis of skill mix required and staff numbers. Also, outlining costs associated to support NTD control and elimination efforts to inform planning, budgeting and advocacy at the national level.

4. Providing recommendations and plan of action to address the gaps identified in the short-term and long-term for sustainability

Using findings of the human resource capacity assessment to inform the review of the next round of the national NTD strategic plan, informing policy and NTD programme advocacy efforts.

4. RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES

1. Work with the NTD programme at the national level to coordinate planning meetings, including liaising with head of the Division of Vector-Borne & Neglected Tropical Diseases and team, ASCEND CL and team and other relevant MOH departments of personnel, department of planning and budgeting as well as other partners.

2. Engage the NTD programme team and all partners in developing the assessment methodology approach

3. Carry out relevant literature and desk review

4. Develop the assessment data collection tools

5. Convene a meeting to validate the data collection tools with the NTD programme unit and ASCEND teams

6. Train the NTD programme data collection team

7. Coordinate the data collection process and synthesis

8. Draft the preliminary report and include the HRH and skills data analysis with costs associated and recommendations

9. Convene meeting that is led by the head of the DVB&NTD and attended by all other relevant partners to validate the preliminary findings and review of the initial draft of the report.

10. Incorporate inputs from the validation meeting

11. Develop a final report of the assessment with clear costs and recommendations

    Present the final report to the NTD programme unit and all stakeholders

5. CONDITIONS

The consultant will work and collaborate with the ASCEND Kenya country Lead on a day to day basis and the NTD programme head.

Further, the consultant will engage multiple NTD programme staff, stakeholders, and ASCEND HSS Lead in the drafting process.

The consultant will enter into a contractual agreement with ASCEND Lot 1 project through Crown Agents, Kenya Nairobi Office and will report to Kenya Country Lead for both technical and administrative requirement or its delegated authority.

6. QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

Experience

More than 10 years’ experience and expertise in the development of human resources for health policies and plans with a Master’s degree highlighted above or more than 5 years’ experience in human resources for health, health policy, planning and health economics with a PHD.

Desired

• One consultant with more than 10 years’ experience with a Masters’ level experience or more than 5 years’ experience with a PHD.

• Experience in conducting HRH and capacity assessments

• Previous work experience in developing HRH policies and costing the HRH policies

• Previous work working in the public health sector and the Ministry of Health will be an added advantage.

• Good use of excel or other databases

• Excellent writing skills (Evidence of reports and publications)

Language:

Good command of English, written and spoken

Skills:

Good interpersonal skills, presentation skills, demonstrate the ability to work under pressure.

7. TIMELINE

The development of the NTD HRH assessment consultancy will be for 18 days spread over a period of not more than 8 weeks. The final report will be developed and submitted to the client within two weeks after the end of the contract.

Proposed consultancy period is from October 1st to December 1st, 2020

8. DELIVERABLES

Interim Outputs

1. Inception report with clear methodology and approach

2. Data collection tools – National and County

3. Data collection training report

4. Collate and analyse data sets in excel template

5. HRH preliminary assessment report

6. Validation meeting report

Final Deliverables

NTD programme HRH Assessment report, gap analysis with clear recommendations and costs associated.