Terms of Reference to design economic opportunity model for married adolescent girls in rural Ethiopia
Position Title: Individual Consultant for Economic Model Advisor
Department/Program: Maverick Next
Reports to: Program Manager- MN
Based in: Addis Ababa
Duration of contract: Pool (Based on call)
Remuneration: As per PSI/E Consultancy rate
Application Deadline: September 19, 2019
Who we are
We’re Population Services International (PSI), the world’s leading non‐profit social marketing organization. We work to make it easier for people in the developing world to lead healthier lives and plan the families they desire by marketing affordable products and services that range from mosquito nets to contraceptives to HIV testing. We are a $560m enterprise based in Washington, DC, operating in the private and public sectors in more than 65 countries.
Join us!
There are over 9,000 “PSI’ers” around the world. It’s a diverse group of entrepreneurs and professionals with an unusually wide range of backgrounds - from the medical industry to the music business - all with unique skills we bring to the job.
PSI/Ethiopia wants reimagine healthcare, put the consumer at the center, and whenever possible, bring quality care to the front door. We achieve health impact in Ethiopia by working with both government and private partners and harvesting technology innovation to bring quality care closer to communities, schools, and homes. We empower consumers by including them in the design of healthcare solutions, offering them more healthcare choices, and helping them to have a voice in influencing national priorities. We work with all market actors in the health system to understand their needs, designing and delivering solutions so that market systems can sustainably serve consumers for the long term, helping to support the Government of Ethiopia in achieving Universal Health Coverage.
We are looking for a dynamic and proactive individual consultant that understands, the current PSI A360 adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health program, explore the reality of married adolescent girls in the context of smart start and thoroughly investigate available opportunities and design a workable economic empowerment model.
Rationale and Scope of the Activity
PSI’s Ethiopia Adolescents 360 program has developed “Smart Start,” to increase contraceptive uptake among adolescent married girls in rural Ethiopia. The Smart Start counselling session responds to married rural girls’ here-and-now desire to have a financially stable future and discuss this desire with their husbands. The Smart Start experience creates discussion on resource and family plans (using a “baby calculator” to help young girls/couples understand the expense of child-raising in local terms such as sacks of grain and goats) and positions contraception as a key asset for girls/couples to achieve their goals by delaying pregnancy.
While Smart Start is achieving rapid uptake of modern contraceptives, the speed with which the program is forced to move – handing over Smart Start to the HEW after six weeks of intensive intervention -- means we do not know if contraceptive uptake is sustained. Given recent evidence on the importance of asset building for contraceptive uptake, we propose expanding two existing elements of the program – male engagement and economic empowerment -- to understand, refine, and measure the degree to which they support contraceptive use and continuation.
Smart Start Plus (Maverick Next) project is a project focusing on married adolescent girls and their husband aim to increase contraceptive acceptance and method continuation by increasing male engagement and finding a competing joy through enhancing economic opportunity among married girls of the ages 15-19 years old and their husbands. The project focus on designing a workable model that combines enhancement of male engagement in the contraceptive decisions and leveraging economic opportunities to married girls.
In Ethiopia right now, attention and resources are focused on capitalizing on the demographic dividend. The Government of Ethiopia hopes to increase economic opportunities for young people through a $360 million revolving fund to address the economic needs of youth. Smart Start plus could be a platform to offer economic opportunities to married rural youth, and we would like to use Maverick Next funding to identify the most appealing opportunities for married adolescents, as well as partner with government-funded and adolescent/youth-led programs to offer them an entry point to this population, strengthening their initiative as well as Smart Start. We will conduct insight gathering to build on our understanding of girls’ financial goals. Once we have a clear picture, we will explore partnerships with government-funded initiatives and link them to married adolescents through Smart Start or offer Smart Start as an add-on to their programming, depending on the outcome of the design process.
This individual consultant is intended to explore the reality of married adolescents in the context of smart start and thoroughly investigate available opportunities and design a workable economic empowerment model. Moreover, s/he will provide technical assistance in the development of an economic model for married adolescent/youth girls in rural Ethiopia.
Objective of Assignment
The objectives of the consultancy are:
Major Deliverables
Your background
What are we looking for? The basics
What would get us excited?