To Hire and second Technical Assistants to Zonal Health Departments on Maternal Newborn Health and Nutrition Collaborative Quality Improvement Initiative and Behavioral Communication Strategy Implementation
Background
To support the Health Sector Transformation Plan (2016-2020) of the Ethiopia, the Nutrition International Ethiopia has developed Right Start Initiative with emphasis on the first 1000 days of life, from conception to the child’s second birthday. It includes a project to Improve Access and Quality of the Maternal Newborn Health and Nutrition (MNHN) care in Ethiopia. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH), NI identified and prioritized a package of MNHN care that supports the national health and nutrition strategies and plans. This package of MNHN care includes Antenatal Care (ANC), Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (IFAS), skilled attendance at birth, optimal timing of cord clamping and cord care and early initiation of breastfeeding. NI is committed to support the Regional and local Ministries of Health to address the quality and health seeking aspects of this package of interventions particularly in building the capacity of managers, supervisors and service providers through tools / guideline development, training and technical assistance to enable them properly introduce and manage the Collaborative Quality Improvement (CQI) approach into the Primary health Care Unit quality management system and to strengthen the existing Pregnant Women Conference (PWC).
Since December 2016, the Nutrition International has been supporting MoH under the Right Start Initiative to improve the coverage and quality of maternal and neonatal health and nutrition services and care in Ethiopia. NI technically and financially supports Quality Improvement (QI) and Community facilitation capacity building activities. About 900 Primary Health Care Units (PHCUs) in 200 woredas benefited from QI tools, trainings, QI coaching, PHCU collaborative learning sharing workshop, social and behavior change communication (SBCC) materials to conduct family meetings and organize PWC forum, job aids and guides to help provide and promote MNHN services (IFA counseling, administering 4% chlorhexidine gel, SoP for Delayed Cord Clamping and supporting the initiation of breastfeeding, facilitator’s guide).
Description of consultancy work
The purpose of this consultancy work is to provide technical assistance to the Maternal Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) team of Zone Health Department (ZHD) and Woreda Health Offices (WoHOs) for a one year with possible extension specifically:
Scope of work
Identify gaps with the planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of CQI approaches and prepare TA plan (Level of Effort of 133 work days)
Database & report review
Prioritization coaching and supervision
Coaching & supervision tools
Recommendations and TA support plan
Provide on the job mentoring on QI skills to QI support team ZHD & QI coaches at WoHOs (implement the TA plan) (Level of Effort of 51 work days)
Quality assure the Zonal & Woreda PHCU CQI learning sessions (Level of Effort of 31 work days)
Quality assure the facilitation skills of the PWC facilitators (Level of Effort of 19 work days)
Provide on the job mentoring to the Zonal MNHN QI support team on QI-data base handling and on how to use the MNHN-CQI information for decision making and action (Level of Effort of 6 days)
Summary of Key Deliverables
Place of work:
Kelem Wollega, Dembi Dolo and Tigray, Mekele
The consultant will be hosted by Zone Health Department and frequently travel to all woredas in the project zone.
Reporting Line:
The consultant will directly report to the NI-MNHN Senior Program Officer and indirectly to Head of the project Zone Health Department. The consultant will be expected to work in collaboration with the heads of the Woreda Health Offices and officers in project Zone.
NB:All deliverables should be delivered in soft copies, reviewed and approved by MNHN SPO. The consultant should bring her/his own personal computer (laptop)