Health Governance Consultant

Background

The conflict in the East of Ukraine, that started in 2014, forced more than one million people to leave their homes to save their lives. Damage to infrastructure and widespread explosive remnants of war have made life dangerous and uncertain for many and complicated prospects for recovery. To date, over 9,000 persons have lost their lives, with more than 20,000 injured and almost 3.1 million people have been displaced (including approximately 1.5 million internally). The impact on communities in economic, social and psychological terms has been considerable. Recovery and Peacebuilding of the conflict-affected areas, as well as support of internally displaced people (IDPs) are among the top priorities for UNDP in Ukraine.

Recently adopted Health Reform creates additional challenges for the Donbass region. It is further envisaged that the implementation of the reform in the region will take time, therefore a step wise process is foreseen. The most crucial action is to gather all relevant resources, public and private, national and international, thus, technical support to health reform and its promotion at the local level will be essential.

In the shadow of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, people are struggling to receive treatment for their non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, lung and heart disease and diabetes. Roads are blocked, health facilities are in disrepair, medicines are scarce and financial resources to make out-of-pocket payments are absent. In view of it, the burden of NCDs is becoming ever more prominent after humanitarian crisis. Non-communicable diseases are estimated to account for 86% of annual deaths in Ukraine. The country has one of the highest mortality rates from cardiovascular diseases in Europe, and almost 30% of men who die from NCDs are under 60 years of age. This is due to widespread risk factors, namely high tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol and drugs.

UNDP has capacity on health governance, decentralization, capacity building, community and CSOs mobilization, and fighting corruption. UNDP’s Recovery and Peacebulding Programme for Donetsk and Luhansk Regions has renovated and modernized over 700 health facilities all over Ukraine during last decade, focusing on marginalized and disadvantaged rural communities.  The Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) in the health care sector recently conducted by UNDP in Donbass region showed that humanitarian and socio-economic consequences of the military conflict created further challenges to healthcare provision and prevention efforts. The report’s key findings showed that current organization of health financing is offering scarce resources and inappropriate incentives in the health sector, and it is very stringent in terms of control. The PETS action plans have been developed as follow up activity of PETS’ recommendations, that need to be implemented at the local level.

In line with it, UNDP seeks National Consultant to provide technical support and expertise to the UNDP field office on health governance, decentralization, and improving availability and accessibility of the healthcare services in Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Health Governance Consultant has to assist in preparation an action plan and proposals to start up efforts for health governance, decentralization, capacity building and healthcare reform promotion in Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONSIBILITIES / SCOPE OF WORK

1. Initiate and conduct meetings with local stakeholders, doctors and key medical personnel, decision makers on healthcare policies, challenges and needs of capacity building;
2. Validate the PETS action plans for Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts, provide support for its implementation;
3. Collect and conduct the situation analysis on promoting and implementing the healthcare reform at the local level, with focus on primary care, emergency medicine, NCDs, hospital districts functioning, public finance and planning;
4. Prepare an analysis, provide inputs and review developed proposals with focus on specific action points in line with local situation analyses, needs and donor’s requirements;
5. Conduct capacity assessment of the existing medical colleges (using the agreed benchmarks of high/mid/low institutional capacity) and complete the report;
6. Collect and analyze the official data on NCDs, and draft the concept note on community mobilization and advocacy efforts needed;
7. Assist to plan the awareness raising campaign for most vulnerable population on access to early diagnostic of most harmful diseases (cancer, diabetes);
8. Analyze and write the report on the current prevalence of NCDs and other communicable disease (HIV, TB);
9. Coordinate the efforts on planning the activities for combating NCDs at the regional/local levels;
10. Support site visits of donors and country office staff, and sharing experience among different hospital districts and oblast health authorities;
11. Attend local and regional events on behalf of UNDP, cooperate with other UN agencies on health-related issues;
12. Prepare final report, articles for the corporate website, social media and contribute to the interim UNDP reports;
13. Provide other consultations to the UNDP Ukraine upon request.

Deliverables

The expected duration of the assignment is up to 70 man/days. The target date for the start of work is 12 January 2018 and the expected completion date is May 2018.

Deliverable #	Task description	Deadline
1	Intermediate report #1 in English/Ukrainian with all relevant attachments: situation analysis (2.C), data collected and analysed,  capacity assessment (2.E) (up to 15 pages); Brief reports from the attended or conducted events or meetings	By March 30
2	Intermediate report #2 (up to 25 pages in English/Ukrainian) with all relevant attachments: concept note on community mobilization and advocacy efforts needed (2.F); report on the current prevalence of NCDs and other communicable disease (HIV, TB) (2.H), policy papers, planned activities; Brief reports with conclusions from the attended events (up to 5 pages) Improved and validated PETS action plans for Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts;	By April  30
3	Draft articles for the corporate site in Ukrainian/ English (at least 5); Proposals for action plan for health services decentralization (at least 10 pages); Final report (up to 5 pages in Ukrainian/English) with additional related attachments, incl. list of prepared materials, list of events with minutes of the events/round tables, agendas of the events/round tables, lists of participants, etc)	By  May 26

Monitoring/Reporting requirements

Work-progress reporting/monitoring meetings will be held with the Consultant on a regular basis. UNDP will be the final authority to control the quality and evaluate the work. No reports or documents should be published or distributed to third parties without approval of UNDP.

The Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Programme Coordinator.

The Consultant shall:

1. Submit monthly time-sheets indicating the days worked and short details of tasks per day;
2. Submit intermediate and final reports as described above.

Payment schedule

The payment would be initiated upon satisfactory of each delivery as specified above based on time-sheets indicating the days worked and short details of tasks per day approved by Programme Coordinator in consultation with Programme Specialist using the Daily fee rate.  

Competencies

• Understanding of, and preferably experience with, government functioning, budgeting and systems;
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities skills;
• Proactivity and ability to work independently as well as in a team;
• Excellent usage of computers and office software packages.

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• At least Masters’ degree in Health or Social sciences such as Health Governance, Epidemiology, Public Health, Sociology  or other relevant areas. PhD in Public Health will be an asset.

Experience: 

• At least 7 years of relevant experience in the field of public health, social policy or local governance.
• At least 5 years of relevant experience in the field of project development;
• Work experience in public institutions, and/or in UN system will be an asset;
• Fluency in Ukrainian, Russian, English is required.

?DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Applicants shall submit the following documents:

	Personal CV/P11, including information about past experience in similar projects / assignments and contact details for referees.
	Financial proposal
	Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP.

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

Lump sum contract

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount and number of anticipated working days.  

Travel costs

All travel costs will be reimbursed by the Project additionally and should not be included in the financial proposal.  In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

• At least Masters’ degree in Health or Social sciences such as Health Governance, Epidemiology, Public Health, Sociology or other relevant areas - 10 points max {5 pts – Master’s; 10 pts – PhD};
• At least 7 years of relevant experience in the field of public health, social policy or local governance - 25 points max {20 pts – 7-9 years; 25 – pts 10 years and more};
• At least 5 years of relevant experience in the field of project development – 20 points max {15 pts – 5-6 years; 20 pts –  7 years and more};
• Language Skills (fluency in Ukrainian, English and Russian) – 10 points max {5 pts – Ukrainian/Russian; 10 pts –  Ukrainian/ English/ Russian };
•  Work experience in public institutions, and/or in UN system - 5 points max.

Maximum available technical score - 70 points.

EVALUATION METHOD

  Cumulative analysis

  Contracts based on daily fee

The financial proposal shall specify a daily fee amount. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this daily fee based amount and number of anticipated working days.  

Cumulative analysis:

Contract award shall be made to the incumbent whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) having received the cumulative highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight: 70%

* Financial Criteria weight: 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70% from the maximum available technical score (49 points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal and will equal to 30. All other price proposals will be evaluated and assigned points, as per below formula:

30 points [max points available for financial part] x [lowest of all evaluated offered prices among responsive offers] / [evaluated price].

The proposal obtaining the overall cumulatively highest score after adding the score of the technical proposal and the financial proposal will be considered as the most compliant offer and will be awarded a contract.