International consultancy roster: Health Financing and Governance, Western Pacific Region

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Purpose of the Consultancy

WHO will pre-qualify experienced professionals to be included in a Consultancy Pool, with the purpose to support the Health Policy and Strategy (HPS) unit within the Division of Health Systems (DHS) at the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO), for health financing and governance. The roster will be used to fill potential consultancies to provide technical assistance to Member States in developing and implementing equitable and sustainable health financing strategies. Core duties encompass performing quantitative and qualitative research and analytics to support the development of countries’ health financing policies and reforms, support the development of regional products and materials and supporting experience sharing and capacity-building initiatives.

The consultants will work either remotely or via short-term deployments to Member States as technical needs dictate. The consultant will operate under the supervision of the HPS Health Economist/Technical Officer for Health Financing, ensuring seamless collaboration with relevant technical teams at the country, regional, and global headquarters levels.

Successful applicants will be added to the Consultancy Pool and will be contacted and offered opportunities for consultancies (length of consultancies may vary) when appropriate opportunities arise. This pre-qualification process will be valid for a period of two years. 

Background

Over the past ten years, public investments and new health financing strategies have helped the Western Pacific Region make significant progress toward Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target for health. By expanding national healthcare schemes and improving the pooling of funds, many countries have successfully broadened population coverage and mobilized more resources to improve access to essential health services.

Despite this progress, stagnating government health spending has exacerbated ongoing challenges around service quality, financial protection, and unmet needs. In 2022, 596 million people still faced financial hardship. Meanwhile, Pacific nations face unique hurdles: while out-of-pocket costs remain low, geographic barriers and limited service availability result in significant forgone care. Across the broader region, healthcare costs are rising, and some countries struggle with donor dependence to sustain essential services. These vulnerabilities were heavily exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and are further strained by emerging pressures like noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), aging populations, and health security threats.

Given these compounding challenges, governments must urgently prioritize health financing policies and reforms. Many initiatives are currently focused on transforming health systems and their financial models to prioritize primary care delivery. Implementing fiscal policies, such as health taxes, can generate new revenue while simultaneously improving outcomes like NCD management. Additionally, as countries reform their social health insurance (SHI) or purchasing schemes, leveraging international best practices will be essential to achieving universal health coverage (UHC).

WHO and its Member States must foster equitable, efficient, and sustainable financing strategies to ensure health services remain accessible and affordable for everyone. To support this vision, this consultancy aims to generate crucial evidence and provide targeted technical assistance to both WHO and Member States.

Deliverables

The consultant(s) will directly support WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) and selected WPR COs and Member States on providing technical support to health financing policies and reforms across the region. 

The expected specific deliverables will differ depending on the specific consultancy and may include one or more of the following:

•    Supporting timely and quality data collection and research compiling for health financing technical products.
•    Producing reports, policy briefs, and other relevant technical documents for health financing policies and reforms.
•    Facilitating and participating in the WHO health financing meetings, workshops, and webinars for capacity-building and cross-country experience sharing purposes. 

Output 1: Supporting timely and quality data collection and research for health financing technical products.  

Deliverable 1.1: Produce the required health financing analytics of selective countries using WHO data collection templates and health financing frameworks.

Deliverable 1.2: Provide methodological support and technical oversight for country health financing analytics production and use, and in presenting the data and analysis in a digestible way for the policy makers.

Output 2: Production of reports, policy briefs, and other relevant technical documents for health financing policies and reforms.

Deliverable 2.1: Research, compile and systematically document relevant health financing and expenditure data, reports and information in support of ongoing health financing policies, reforms and initiatives.

Deliverable 2.2: Support efforts to demonstrate the policy relevance and uses of expenditure tracking by contributing to health expenditure policy briefs, summary slides, and other types of technical products upon request.

Deliverable 2.3: Contribute to the ongoing methodological work and discussions on health financing based on practical experience collected by working across the region.

Deliverable 2.4: Prepare and publish health expenditure analytics, methodological studies, and health financing technical products as required.

Output 3: Supporting and participating in the WHO health financing meetings, workshops, and webinars for capacity-building and cross-country experience sharing purposes.

Deliverable 3.1 Delivery of in-country missions, online or face-to-face training activities for health financing and governance. 

Deliverable 3.2 Contribute to strengthening capacity of health financing teams by developing best practices documents, facilitating experts' workshops and webinars, communities of practice and on-line training programs

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications:  

Essential: University degree in statistics, financial management, economics, demography, public health, or related field.

Experience 

Essential: Two to five years of experience in regional and country support to health financing and governance, preferably in the Western Pacific Region.

Desirable: Candidate(s) exhibiting a solid but broad range of knowledge and skills utilized to provide in-depth/comprehensive health financing support. 

Skills/Knowledge:

Essential: 

• Strong knowledge in health financing, specifically on primary healthcare financing, social health insurance management and financing, and/or donor transition.
• Capacity to work in a multidisciplinary team and communicate effectively with different target audiences.

Desirable:

• Strong technical and analytic skills in health financing.
• Excellent communications skills both written and oral, and effective presentation skills.

Language/s:

Fluency in English (reading, writing, and speaking).

Location 

Off site: Home-based, but travel to Regional Office and/or selected countries may be required based on agreement during recruitment process and upon request of the Country Offices and/or Member States. 

The consultant will primarily provide technical support remotely, with physical in-country missions upon request.

Travel

The consultant is expected to travel.  

Remuneration and budget:

Band level A - USD 3 955 - USD 6 980 per month.  The rate varies depending on the TOR requirements and the consultant’s qualifications.

Expected duration of the contract: The roster will include consultancies ranging from 6 to 11 months 

Additional Information:

This vacancy notice may be used to identify candidates for other similar consultancies at the same level.

Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.

A written test may be used as a form of screening.

If your candidature is retained for interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.

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Persons with disabilities can request reasonable accommodations to enable participation in the recruitment process. Requests for reasonable accommodation should be sent through an email to reasonableaccommodation@who.int.

An impeccable record for integrity and professional ethical standards is essential. WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter (https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/our-values) into practice.

WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of short-listed candidates.

WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.

Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority. 

WHO shall have no responsibility for any taxes, duties, social security contributions or other contributions payable by the Consultant. The Consultant shall be solely responsible for withholding and paying any taxes, duties, social security contributions and any other contributions which are applicable to the Consultant in each location/jurisdiction in which the work hereunder is performed, and the Consultant shall not be entitled to any reimbursement thereof by WHO.

Please note that WHO’s contracts are conditional on members of the workforce confirming that they are vaccinated as required by WHO before undertaking a WHO assignment, except where a medical condition does not allow such vaccination, as certified by the WHO Staff Health and Wellbeing Services (SHW). The successful candidate will be asked to provide relevant evidence related to this condition. A copy of the updated vaccination card must be shared with WHO medical service in the medical clearance process. Please note that certain countries require proof of specific vaccinations for entry or exit. For example, official proof /certification of yellow fever vaccination is required to enter many countries. Country-specific vaccine recommendations can be found on the WHO international travel and Staff Health and Wellbeing website. For vaccination-related queries please directly contact SHW directly at shws@who.int.

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The purpose of this vacancy is to develop a list of qualified candidates for inclusion in the advertised roster. Successful candidates will be placed on the roster and subsequently may be selected for consultancy assignments; however, contracting of rostered candidates is not guaranteed.