Organization Overview: Founded in 2002, by President William J. Clinton and Ira C. Magaziner, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (“CHAI”) is a global health organization committed to saving lives, reducing the burden of disease and strengthening integrated health systems in low and middle income countries.
CHAI Ethiopia is currently carrying out a wide range of programs to support the Ministry of Health in improving access to and increasing the quality of health services. As one of CHAI’s largest field offices with more than 170 staff, the Ethiopia office operates programs across a wide range of areas, including maternal, newborn and child health; HIV/AIDS; Cancer, nutrition; vaccines; health financing and human resource for health (HRH).
Project Title: Ethiopia Health Workforce Development-Increasing Access to Essential Specialty Services
Project Description: As part of its commitment to achieving Universal Health Coverage, the Government of Ethiopia has prioritized national investments in the public health sector to increase the availability and quality of specialty health services. Toward this end, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) requested CHAI to support scale up (intake and quality) of medical specialists training based on CHAI’s experiences with similar programs in Rwanda and Liberia. Thus, CHAI is collaborating with FMoH to set national targets for postgraduate medical training programs on select medical specialists and the mid-level healthcare providers (MLHP), revision and harmonization of curriculum; establish educational quality standards and develop a comprehensive operational plan for funding to strengthen and scale-up the trainings.
CHAI is approaching this work in two phases: during Phase I (2018), it has been working to established national training standards for ten priority postgraduate medical training programs, conducted capacity assessments of universities/institutions against these standards developed and staffing targets for selected residence programs. This work will inform the development of a long-term costed operational plan on prioritized interventions to strengthen medical specialty programs. CHAI will support the government to mobilize resources and engage partners to implement this plan. During this phase I, the program is focusing on postgraduate medical programs in Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, General surgery, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Dermatology, Oncology, Orthopedics, Pathology, Pediatrics and Radiology.
During phase II (2019), CHAI will develop conduct similar approach of Year 1, but focus on MLHP who are integral to the delivery of specialty training and services. This work will inform a costed strategy to scale up production and quality of the MLHP required to improve quality specialty training and access to the services.
The CHAI team is working closely with Government, the health education sector, universities, professional societies, other relevant government bodies; and INGOs to inform program design. The team is supported by CHAI’s Global Health Workforce Team to leverage CHAI’s health workforce experience in other countries.
Position Overview: In coordination with the Policy Associate, the consultant will be responsible for reviewing local and international MPL training program standards and curricula, prepare outline and template for standard development, draft working document on MLHP standards for TWG, provide technical support and facilitate TWGs to draft and finalize standards, develop capacity assessment tools derived from the standards.
Successful candidates must have a passion for results, a commitment to excellence, and a demonstrated capacity to work in high-stress environments, as well as a demonstrated capability for high-level analytical capability, critical thinking, and problem solving.
Duty Station: The position is based in in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with local travels.
Duration: 3 months
Responsibilities:
In coordination with the Policy Associate, the consultants key responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following;
I. Develop MLP training standard setting: Standards should be comprehensive addressing curriculum, infrastructure, equipment, facilities, faculty and other components of quality standards at training universities/institutions to provide a comprehensive and high-quality mid-level trainings. Standard setting will be consultative, and will be executed through serial of technical working group (TWG) workshops. S/He will work on 3 or 4 mid-level training programs in phased approach.
Therefore, the consultant is expected to;
a. Collect and review existing local and international training standards and curricula for respective MLHP training programs, prepare outline and template and other required materials that support the standard development.
b. Prepared working document (generic version of the standards) for each the respective MLHP training programs on which the TWG will build on.
c. Lead serial TWGs workshops, provided technical support and guidance, facilitate productive debates, and make sure the respective TWGs are working efficiently and according to the agreed framework/outline, approach and timetable.
d. Upon completion of the first TWG workshop, make ready the first draft of the standards for comments and inputs.
e. Circulate the first draft standards (jointly with the TWG members) to relevant stakeholders (mainly to universities to collect inputs from those who do not attend the TWG) to gather additional inputs, incorporate collected feedbacks and make ready for the second TWG workshop.
f. Upon the final TWG workshop, the consultant will submit a validated standard for each the assigned MLHP training program.
II. Develop tools for conducting training institution capacity assessment for the MLHP training program based on the established standards.
a. Collect and review existing local and international capacity assessment tool for MLHP training institution/training programs, prepare outline and template (generic version of the tools).
b. Develop capacity assessment tools that capture all key dimensions and components against the respective standards and are valid from a technical/educational perspective.
The primary deliverables associated with this role:
1) Validated quality MLHP standards for the respective training programs align with the template and outline of the generic version.
2) Validated and technically adequate tool to assess training capacity of respective MLHP training program
3) Other responsibilities as assigned by the Policy associate and SPM.
Required Qualifications: