Posted Date 3 weeks ago(7/4/2024 3:28 AM)

Job ID

2024-6239

Location

KE-Nairobi

Category

International Positions

Employment Status

Consultant

 

Kenya, like many other low- and middle-income countries, faces significant challenges in ensuring the health and well-being of its newborn population, particularly those born premature or with complications. Newborn mortality accounts for 49% of all under 5 deaths in the country translating to a neonatal mortality rate of 21 per 1000 live births (> 44,000 deaths annually). Reduction in NMR has been slow with only a 1.6% annual reduction between 2000-2020. The neonatal mortality rate remains unacceptably high, with a significant portion of deaths occurring among small and sick newborns. In Kenya, almost half of all newborn mortality occur within the first 24 hours after birth largely due to prematurity (39%), birth asphyxia (26%) and neonatal sepsis (13%) and other causes account for (22%).

 

Scaled investment in the health of small and sick newborns is not only essential for reducing neonatal mortality but also for promoting long-term socio-economic development and achieving national and global health goals. The reduction in neonatal mortality is among the key priorities of the Kenya Essential Health Benefit package. Small and sick newborns in Kenya face multiple challenges, including inadequate access to quality healthcare services, lack of specialized equipment and trained healthcare providers, and socio-economic disparities. These challenges contribute to high rates of morbidity and mortality among this vulnerable population, undermining efforts to improve overall child health outcomes and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages.

 

In addition, newborn health is often bundled with maternal or child health therefore investment in newborn health continues to be low. With only 6 years to achievement of the SDG 3.2 on reducing neonatal mortality to at least 12 per 1000 live births by 2030, a robust investment targeting level 2 newborn care is required to generate more impact on the most affected population.

 

The investment case will be a key advocacy tool to showcase the process by which priority interventions were identified, determine the cost of these priority interventions and make the case for investing in them, as well as documents complementary financing (through domestic and external financiers) and gaps to achieve the transformative result(s) as well as related SDGs. It will also present a compelling case for a prioritized set of investments needed to put the country on the path to achieve the transformative result.

 

Budgeting processes in the country requires each sector to prepare their budget proposal based on their analysis of their need and present to the National Treasury for consideration. Lack of financial modelling within these government sectors presents a challenge of prioritization of interventions and advocating for adequate funding for such critical services for the population. This investment case will therefore facilitate advocacy for adequate financing by articulating the returns on investment in priority interventions to achieve the transformative result(s). In addition, it will also support in identifying fragmentation and duplication of financing of health priorities in the country and improve efficiency in the investments provided. It will also help in identifying complementary financing available and the resource gap that will help the country define a set of priorities to be implemented to achieve the transformative result.

 

The investment case is also expected to inform partnership efforts and mobilization of additional domestic and external financing required to achieve the transformative results in Kenya.

 

Underlying principles for the Investment case development process

The following principles will guide the process of developing the Investment Case to address a specific Transformative Result. These guiding principles will ensure essential stakeholders are involved in a consultative and transparent manner and reflects the national context:

1. National ownership and contribution to National Development Agenda.
2. Consensus building on intended impact results with underlying assumptions and prioritized high impact and cost-effective interventions.
3. Effective implementation modality.
4. Realistic costs and prices applicable to the country context, intended effective coverage and timeframe.
5. Evidence-based risk management.
6. Robust quality assurance mechanism; and
7. strengthening national capacity to develop and promote investment cases, to mention a few.

Purpose of consultancy

The goal of the investment case is to generate evidence on the potential benefits and returns on investment for providing improved essential newborn care and comprehensive newborn care for small and sick newborns in Kenya.

 

Objectives:

1. To estimate the unit costs and the total cost of providing essential newborn care package for level one newborn units at level 2 and level 3 facilities.
2. To estimate unit costs and the total cost of providing comprehensive newborn care for sick and small newborns for all level 2 newborn units at level 4 to 6 facilities.
3. Conduct impact modelling to project the benefits (lives saved and deaths averted that would result from providing an improved newborn care package.
4. To perform a return-on-investment analysis based on the cost and projected benefits of an investment newborn care.
5. Provide potential financing windows and pathway to implementation of the investment case.
6. Produce advocacy material based on the investment case

Methodology of the investment case process

 

The consultant will elaborate on a detailed methodology as part of their inception report. The methodology will involve conducting desk review of relevant documents on newborn service delivery including policies, strategies, guidelines and standards to understand the high impact interventions to be costed and the inputs necessary.

 

Methodology to cost high impact interventions shall be determined, and modelling approach to estimate the estimated number of lives saved at optimal and suboptimal service delivery coverage states.

 

The consultant shall also estimate potential cost benefit ratios which will outline the economic benefits vs the investment costs and used to predict the returns that would accrue from each dollar invested.

 

The consultant will also assess the financing and resource gaps to identify the possible sources of funding to implement the optimal scale up of newborn care. In addition, a phased implementation approach may be used to guide the implementation of the investment case.

 

The consultant will develop the Investment case for newborn care and develop advocacy material based on the investment case developed.

 

Scope of Work:

1. Define the scope of the investment case, including the geographical focus (type of hospital), target population, and types of interventions to be considered as per the norms and standards for newborn care
2. Identify the key stakeholders and their roles in the development and implementation of the investment case
3. Compile and analyse relevant data on newborn health indicators, including mortality rates, and access to care
4. Conduct a situational analysis to identify gaps and bottlenecks in small and sick newborn care services (Review existing government reports or UN reports on SSNC)
5. Explore various investment options for improving small and sick newborn care, including infrastructure development (increasing floor space/ new buildings), capacity building, HR and policy reforms
6. Assess the potential tools to use for benefits modelling
7. Assess potential costing methods to use
8. Identify potential sources of funding for the proposed investments, including government budgets, donor contributions, and innovative financing mechanisms
9. Facilitate consultations with key stakeholders, including government agencies, healthcare providers, civil society organizations, and donors
10. Create a policy document to foster collaboration and consensus-building among stakeholders to support the implementation of the investment case
11. Create advocacy material targeting key decision makers based on the investment case
12. Develop a monitoring and evaluation framework to track progress towards the goals and objectives of the investment case
13. Define key performance indicators and data collection methods to assess the impact of investments in small and sick newborn care
14. The scope of work may be expanded to include investment case for intrapartum maternal care as a continuum

 

Consultancy Team

1. Senior Consultant Economist
2. Senior Consultant Service Delivery
3. Support Consultant

Milestones

1	Inception Report
2	Investment case for the Newborn including provision of essential Newborn care and care for the small and sick newborn/and intrapartum maternal care
3	Technical brief on the investment t/o be used for advocacy to policy makers (politicians, and leaders in various government departments)
4	Implementation approach to scale up care for sick and small newborns
5	Consultancy report

 

The expected period of this consultancy is between August 2024 to January 2025.

Expected timeframe 

	Activity description	Aug 2024	Sept 2024	Oct 2024	Nov 2024	Dec 2024	Jan 2025
1	An Inception report	X
2	Review of newborn policy documents and identification of relevant cost items		X
3	An updated costing tool and analyses		X
4	Excel file with required costing data				X
5	Investment case report					X	X

 

Essential:

 

A firm/company with the following team members:

• A consultant with an advanced university degree in Health Economics, Health Financing, Health Planning, Health Systems Management, Demography or related fields
• A second consultant with public health or clinical health in newborn/paediatric care degree/masters in paediatrics or medicine
• A Public Health Practitioner with Health Systems Strengthening Experience

Experience

• Each consultant with at least 7years- of progressive professional experience related thematic areas
• Demonstrated successful experience in developing evidence-based publications, investment cases, financial sustainability plans, policy briefs, strategies, guidelines, reports in the health sector and preferably in newborn and child health
• Evidence of publication of research study articles in refereed journals
• Experience working with different multidisciplinary stakeholders/counterparts at national and global levels
• Demonstrated experience with writing and editing project plans, policy briefs and policy reports
• Evidence of publication of research study articles in high impact journals is an added advantage
• Experience in monitoring and evaluation is an added advantage

Skills/Knowledge

• Fluency in English with excellent writing, analytical and communication skills
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Excellent skills in using Microsoft Office
• Proven strong writing, communication and presentation skills
• Sound technical knowledge of public health and/or health economics
• Ability to work under pressure, be flexible, meet short deadlines and maintain diplomacy
• Ability to work harmoniously as a member of a team, adapt to diverse educational and cultural backgrounds

 

Important:

Kindly present your technical and financial proposals as one document detailing the following:

• Firm profile with CVs of the consultants with relevant skills and experience
• The firm will be required to provide a detailed work plan outlining the time (number of days and indicative budget in Kenya Shillings) required to deliver each of the outputs

 

Jhpiego offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive employee benefits package

Please apply at www.jhpiego.org/careers

Applicants must submit a single document for upload to include: cover letter, resume, and references.

For further information about Jhpiego, visit our website at www.jhpiego.org

Note: The successful candidate selected for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation.

Jhpiego is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

“Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins University affiliate, is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, other legally protected characteristics or any other occupationally irrelevant criteria. Jhpiego promotes affirmative action for minorities, women, individuals who are disabled, and veterans.

EEO is the Law”

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