Sr. Advisor-Consultant – Management Science for Health (MSH)
Consultancy and Training
Management Science for Health (MSH)
MSH, a global health nonprofit organization, uses proven approaches developed over 40 years to help leaders, health managers, and communities in developing nations build stronger health systems for greater health impact. We work to save lives by closing the gap between knowledge and action in public health. Since its founding in 1971, MSH has worked in over 150 countries with policymakers, health professionals, and health care consumers to improve the quality, availability and affordability of health services. Working with governments, donors, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and health agencies, MSH responds to priority health problems such as HIV & AIDS; tuberculosis; malaria; maternal, newborn and child health; family planning and reproductive health; and chronic non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and lung and heart disease. Through strengthening capacity, investing in health systems innovation, building the evidence base, and advocating for sound public health policy, MSH is committed to making a lasting difference in global health.
Project Name: Woreda Health Leadership Development Activity
Consultant role: Senior Advisor for the Woreda Health Leadership Development Activity
Period of Performance begins: March 7, 2022 and ends: August 1, 2022
Technical Supervisor: Kate Henderson, Senior Principal Technical Advisor, Leadership & Governance Practice Lead
Background:
MSH is a pioneering leader for improving leadership, governance, and management capacity of national and local entities working to support and sustain accessible, quality health services. Through six global projects funded by USAID that began in 1985 and concluded with the Leadership, Management and Governance program (LMG; $199 million; 2011-2017), MSH has worked alongside ministries of health, communities, and other local counterparts to codesign and deliver team-based capacity development in leadership, management, and governance in over 80 countries around the world. MSH brings globally recognized methods and tools to strengthen these capacities and produce results. We created a flexible and adaptable model—that USAID adopted as a High Impact Practice (HIP)—which has evolved with experience, evidence, and feedback from health leaders around the world. We have equipped thousands of teams and local facilitators and institutionalized the approaches in local public sector institutions, private sector organizations, CSOs, universities and networks to carry on the work themselves. In these experiential learning approaches, teams tackle real pressing challenges in their work environments with coaching, support and feedback from MSH, leading to improvements in trust, participation, transparency, equity, and accountability, and have achieved a myriad of health results.
MSH’s experience and capabilities in leadership, management, and governance (LMG) include more than a decade of LMG experience in Ethiopia. MSH has partnered with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health at all levels to design, implement and strengthen the quality of LMG programming, including supporting the MOH to develop standardized curricula and approaches for developing the LMG capacity of the health workforce, particularly at the Woreda- and facility- levels.
USAID is continuing to invest in LMG for the health sector through the anticipated Woreda Health Leadership Activity expected to be released June 30, 2022 and awarded September 30, 2022. The purpose of this forecasted activity is to enhance the LMG capacity and practices of the health leaders and managers of the woreda health office and primary health facilities to improve their performance, accountability and responsiveness.
This consultancy will support MSH’s efforts in pursuing the USAID Woreda Health Leadership Activity. This will include: participation in MSH-organized technical strategy discussions and deliberations; provision of insights on the status of the Ethiopian health system, especially relative to Leadership, Management and Governance (LMG) and other areas of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Health Systems Strengthening (HSS), ongoing or expected reforms (especially as it relates to the current political context and GoE/USG relations) important organizations and stakeholders, and key players with whom MSH should consult, especially local Ethiopian experts and organizations; and conduction of interviews with key informants and organizations. The consultant will also support development of the proposal, drafting sections and reviewing the document.
A: Description of Technical Assistance (TA) services to be provided
This consultancy will support MSH’s positioning for and the proposal development of USAID’s Woreda Health Leadership Activity.
B: Objectives
1. Collaborate with MSH staff to bring a fresh perspective to LMG approaches and design for the Ethiopian context, building off what exists and works well, addressing what currently is underperforming or missing, and identifying innovations to accelerate progress and amplify results.
2. Support MSH to engage stakeholders, including potential partners and personnel, and gather intel to mobilize a winning team and ensure the design is grounded in the priority needs and challenges facing Woreda health offices and health facilities.
C: Activities and Deliverables
1. During proposal positioning the consultant will:
a. Share relevant literature, evidence, and technical documents and reports.
b. Travel to different regional health bureaus and conduct stakeholder interviews. The consultant will provide documentation of meetings attended, including participants and main points of discussion.
c. Leverage their network to recommend and help MSH contact potential local partner organizations and key staff candidates.
d. Organize and attend partner calls as needed.
e. Contribute to proposal strategy, logic model/theory of change, illustrative approaches/activities in writing and through scheduled meetings/events.
2. Upon the solicitation’s release, the consultant will:
a. Submit technical comments and questions related to the NOFO.
3. During proposal development, the consultant will:
a. Participate in technical strategy meetings and draft assigned sections of the proposal.
b. Review all draft iterations, providing comments and feedback to the team, to ensure our approach is relevant and accurate to the Ethiopian context.
Qualifications
● At least Master’s degree in public health management or equivalent
● At least 7 years of work experience in designing, delivering, or overseeing programs that aim to strengthen the performance, sustainability and resilience of the Ethiopian health system, including experience in activities that improve leadership, management, and/or governance.
● Knowledge/familiarity with leadership, management and/or governance-related achievements, challenges, gaps and opportunities in Ethiopian context (e.g., what works and what does not, what is missing or what should be removed, where there are opportunities to innovate, etc.) is an important advantage.
● Familiarity with USAID’s expectations and rules and regulations in procurement processes and project design.
● Experience contributing to the development of proposal technical strategies, theories of change, and log frames.
● Experience designing staffing strategies and management plans for a variety of large projects in Ethiopia.
● Strong networks (especially in Ethiopia) and experience identifying viable local and international partners and designing partnership strategies.
● Excellent verbal and written skills in English.
