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Consultancy: Public Finance Management expert, with a focus on immunization, health and nutrition supply financing (Sierra Leone), Supply Division

Copenhagen

  • Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
  • Location: Copenhagen
  • Grade: Consultancy - Consultant - Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Public Health and Health Service
    • Economics
    • Banking and Finance
    • Logistics
    • Public Policy and Administration
    • Nutrition
    • Supply Chain
    • Malaria, Tuberculosis and other infectious diseases
  • Closing Date: Closed

UNICEF is seeking a consultant: Public Finance Management expert, with a focus on immunization, health and nutrition supply financing (Sierra Leone)

Consultancy: Public Finance Management expert, with a focus on immunization, health and nutrition supply financing (Sierra Leone)
Procurement Services Centre, UNICEF Supply Division/ UNICEF Sierra Leone

 

Duty Station: home based and Freetown, Sierra Leone. The desk review and the reporting phases are expected to be home based, whereas the consultant is expected to travel to Sierra Leone for the implementation phase of the consultancy

Duration: 100 consultancy days over a period of 11 months

Field Missions/Travel: The consultant is expected to travel and stay in Freetown, Sierra Leone for the extended period (implementation phase of the consultancy)

Anticipated Start Date: October 2020

 

Context and Purpose of the Consultancy:

Critical health and nutrition programmes in Sierra Leone such as EPI, Free Health Care Initiative (FHCI), and Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) have experienced several financing challenges, affecting their sustainability. Funding challenges include among others, issues related to the high dependence on donor funding, forecasting and costing for procurement of essential supplies such as vaccines, FHCI medicines and commodities, and nutrition therapeutic supplies, planning, budgeting for programming costs, and releasing and execution of immunization/health and nutrition budgets.

UNICEF is currently looking for a consultant who would support in addressing such challenges to ensure budget allocation for the procurement of vaccines, FHCI medicines and commodities, and nutrition therapeutic supplies, including timely release of required funds, including co-financing obligations, to ensure timely procurement and uninterrupted availability of essential supplies. The key tasks would include amongst others: i) mapping of the budgeting process and systems for procurement of essential health, immunisation and nutrition supplies to identify challenges and required support in addressing them; ii) providing support in developing a long-term procurement budget projections and transition plan for gradual increase of domestic funding for procurement of essential supplies such as traditional vaccines in alignment with the overarching health financing strategy currently under development, while taking into account the Government’s co-financing obligations and ever-increasing funding needs; iii) reviewing / developing a procurement budgeting methodology and offline/online templates to help real time monitoring and visibility to track progress, including stocks and disbursement; and iv) supporting advocacy efforts for the increased funding for essential health, immunisation and nutrition supplies.

Key Tasks:

Under the overall guidance of Chief Supply and Chief Health & Nutrition and the direct supervision of Immunization Specialist, Nutrition Specialist, Health Supply officer, and Finance Specialist, the consultant will conduct the following assignment in phases:

1. Overall
- Conduct desk review of key policy, legislative, strategic and operational documents related to immunization, health and nutrition financing such as comprehensive multi-year plan for immunization (cMYP), National Health Sector Strategic Plan, annual work plans and their related budgets, draft health financing strategy (with landscape analysis report), National health account (NHA) reports, as well as MOHS/EPI’s financial management processes, controls and systems, programme budget, Mid Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and other critical national budget documents to fully understand the financing needs as well as challenges and their root causes.
- Hold key-informant interviews with relevant stakeholders in Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS), Ministry of Finance (MoF), Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Secretariat under the Office of the Vice-President and key development partners such as the World Bank, IMF, Global Fund, and DFID to collect information on the macro-fiscal framework (what resources are available), allocative efficiency (on what basis resources are allocated) and operational efficiency (how effectively the resources have been utilized to produce desired results).

2. Immunization supply financing
1) Vaccine Budgeting Process
- Map the Vaccine Budgeting Process within the broader health sector public finance management framework to identify challenges in overall health budgeting and health financing, forecasting, quantification and costing of procurement needs as well as cash flow timing and forex reserve issues, and propose solutions (Action Plan) to address them:
 at the strategic planning stage: short- medium- and long-term EPI strategic planning fully aligned with the overall health sector strategy, which will be the basis of budget development
 at the budget development stage: quantification and forecasting and its alignment with the costing, long-term national budget planning (development of multi-year budget, including identification of funding sources and potential gaps), quality of budget proposal submissions;
 at the budget negotiation stage: prioritization and budget allocation process with Parliament, MoF, and within MoHS at central level as well as Local Councils at district level
 at the budget execution stage: funds disbursement;
 at the expenditures reporting stage: review of reporting templates including Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track the financial and programmatic implementation as well as reporting process such as frequency.
The mapping exercise should include, amongst others, stakeholder analysis, review of budget cycle, its
critical timelines and their alignment with planning cycle, guiding principles of budgeting and pertaining
budget lines.
- Review and revise or develop a vaccine budgeting template accompanied by a user manual and online dashboard for visibility and real time tracking of the progress, as well as a written budgeting methodology.

2) Vaccine Funding
- Review the funding allocation for vaccine in the previous 5 years, and planned allocations (earmarking) for the coming years, including in the context of the general health financing in the country.
- Review and as appropriate, support revision / development of the forecast and consequent funding needs for the 2021-2025 procurement of vaccines and injection materials, including review of funding allocations to vaccine procurement in the next year’s budget / medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF), based in particular on vaccines co-financing projections and traditional vaccine needs.
- Support the government in the development of a multi-year transition plan to gradually take over the funding for procurement of traditional vaccines, while specifying the strategy to meet continued needs for external resource mobilisation, taking into account the Government’s co-financing obligations in Gavi-supported new vaccines, free health care (FHC) commodities, and nutrition therapeutic supplies as well as ever-increasing funding needs for immunisation, health and nutrition.

3) Advocacy
- Identify and orient champions/key stakeholders who can contribute in securing funding for immunization and in holding the Government accountable (Civil society organisations (CSOs), Parliament, etc.)
- Develop key advocacy messages and materials for increasing domestic resource allocation for immunization.
- Facilitate high level advocacy meetings (e.g., Parliamentarians, MoF) for increased domestic resource allocation for immunization and other essential lifesaving health and nutrition programmes.

3. Free Health Care Initiative (FHCI) supply financing
- Review the domestic and external funding allocation for essential drugs and commodities procurement (including FHCI, malaria, TV, HIV and therapeutic nutrition supplies) in the previous 5 years, and planned allocations (earmarking) for the coming years, including in the context of the general health financing in the country.
- Review and as appropriate, support revision / development of the forecast and consequent funding needs for the 2021-2025 procurement of FHCI drugs and commodities, including review of funding allocations to drugs and health commodity procurement in the next year’s budget / medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF).
- Support the government in the development of a multi-year transition plan to gradually take over the funding for procurement of FHCI drugs and commodities, while specifying the strategy to meet continued needs for external resource mobilisation, taking into account other competing funding needs.
- Review feasibility and appropriateness of other supply financing options such as trust fund, commercial financing options; explore ways for pooling the portion of the local health procurement budget for FHCI drugs and commodities.
- Develop the tracking tool to monitor the available budget for the procurement and distribution of essential health and nutrition supplies, including FHCI drugs and commodities (per funding source) and to identify opportunities for efficiency gains

4. Nutrition therapeutic supply financing
- Review and as appropriate, support revision / development of the forecast and consequent funding needs for the 2021-2025 procurement of life-saving nutrition therapeutic supplies (ready to use therapeutic food (RUTF), therapeutic milk (F100 and F75), and ReSoMal for management of severe acute malnutrition (SAM)), including review of funding allocations in the next year’s budget / medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF).
- Support the government in the development of a multi-year transition plan to gradually take over the funding for procurement of nutrition therapeutic supplies, while specifying the strategy to meet continued needs for external resource mobilisation, taking into account the competing funding needs as well as emerging alternative supply financing options, including Global Financing Facility - GFF; explore its possible integration into the overall transition plan for FHCI supply financing, considering that SAM supplies are listed as essential drugs and thus form a part of FHCI.
- Develop the tracking tool to monitor the available budget for the procurement and distribution of essential health and nutrition supplies, including FHCI drugs and commodities (per funding source) and to identify opportunities for efficiency gains

Deliverables:

- A workplan and draft consultancy report layout (3%-time allocation)
In close collaboration with the MoHS, the MoF, UNICEF Country Office, Regional Office, and Supply Division, and in consultation with other relevant stakeholders, the consultant will develop a workplan and the draft consultancy report layout.

- Stakeholder mapping and environmental scanning (5%-time allocation)
In close collaboration with the MoHS, the MoF, UNICEF Country Office, Regional Office, and Supply Division, the consultant will conduct environmental scanning (through desk review and key informant interviews).

- Vaccine Budgeting Process Mapping with identified challenges and proposed solutions (10%-time allocation)
In close collaboration with the MoHS, the MoF, UNICEF Country Office, Regional Office, Supply Division, and other key stakeholders such as the World Bank, the consultant will map the Vaccine Budgeting Process to identify challenges in overall health financing (including fiscal space), forecasting, quantification and costing of vaccine procurement needs, as well as cash flow timing and forex reserve issues, and propose solutions to address them.

- Vaccine budgeting template accompanied by a user manual, as well as a flowchart outlining budgeting methodology (9%-time allocation)
In close collaboration with the MoHS, the MoF, UNICEF Country Office, Regional Office, and Supply Division, the consultant will review and revise or develop a vaccine budgeting template accompanied by a user manual and online dashboard for real time tracking of the progress, as well as a simple flowchart / graph outlining budgeting methodology, which can be printed and walled in MoHS offices.

- Funding allocation review for vaccines in the previous 5 years, and planned allocations (earmarking) for the coming 5 years, in the context of the general health financing in the country (6%-time allocation)
In close collaboration with the MoHS, the MoF, UNICEF Country Office, Regional Office, Supply Division, and other key stakeholders such as the World Bank, the consultant will review the funding allocation for vaccine procurement in the previous 5 years and planned allocations (earmarking) for the coming years, including in the context of the general health financing in the country, and identify any funding gaps.

- Review and as appropriate, support revision / development of the forecast and consequent funding needs for the 2021-2025 procurement of vaccines and injection materials (6%-time allocation),
In close collaboration with the MoHS, the MoF and UNICEF Country Office, Regional Office, and Supply Division, the consultant will review and as appropriate, support revision / development of the forecast and consequent funding needs for the 2021-2025 procurement of vaccines and injection materials. This will feed into the new cMYP development.

- Development of a multi-year transition plan to gradually take over the funding for procurement of traditional vaccines (6%-time allocation)
In close collaboration with the MoHS, the MoF, UNICEF Country Office, Regional Office and Supply Division, the consultant will support the government in the development of a multi-year transition plan to gradually take over the funding for procurement of traditional vaccines, including the external resource mobilization strategy.

- Key advocacy strategy, including allies, targets, messages, and materials for increasing domestic resource allocation for immunization (6%-time allocation)
In close collaboration with the MoHS, MoF, UNICEF Country Office, Regional Office, and Supply Division, the consultant will identify champions/stakeholders, develop key advocacy messages and advocacy materials, and hold advocacy meetings for increasing domestic resource allocation for immunization.

- Development of sustainable financing plan and options for FHCI supply procurement (25%-time allocation)
In close collaboration with the MoHS, the MoF, UNICEF Country Office, Regional Office and Supply Division, the consultant will support the government in development of the forecast and consequent funding needs for the 2021-2025 procurement of FHCI drugs and commodities and a multi-year transition plan to gradually take over the funding for procurement of FHCI drugs and commodities as well as the tracking tool to monitor the available budget. The consultant will also explore feasibility and appropriateness of other supply financing options.

- Development of sustainable financing plan and options for nutrition therapeutic supply procurement (10%-time allocation)
In close collaboration with the MoHS, the MoF, UNICEF Country Office, Regional Office and Supply Division, the consultant will support the government in development of the forecast and consequent funding needs for the 2021-2025 procurement of SAM supplies and incorporate a multi-year financing plan of SAM supplies into the overarching transition plan for FHCI supply financing as appropriate. The consultant will also develop a tracking tool to monitor budget allocation and disbursement and as much as possible align with existing budget tracking tools for nutrition used by the SUN Secretariat.

- Draft report (10%-time allocation)
The consultant will consolidate all the above work done for three areas – vaccines, FHCI supplies, and nutrition therapeutic supplies - and prepare and share an integrated consultancy report for comments. The report will include:
a) environmental scanning of health financing context that influences domestic funding prospects for vaccines, FHCI supplies and nutrition therapeutic supplies in the coming 5 years;
b) a detailed mapping of the Vaccine Budgeting Process including identified challenges and proposed solutions to address;
c) the revised / developed budgeting template and online dashboard with accompanying methodology and a user manual;
d) the overview of:
a. funding allocation for vaccines, FHCI and nutrition supply procurement in the previous 5 years to take stock on the historical trend, and planned allocations (earmarking) for the coming years, including in the context of the general health financing in the country
b. funding needs for 2021-2025 procurement;
e) key highlights of the sustainable financing plan and options for vaccines, FHCI and nutrition supplies. This will include multi-year transition plan to gradually take over the funding for procurement of traditional vaccines (to be presented in the annex of the report).
f) key advocacy strategy, including allies/targets, messages and materials for increasing domestic resource allocation for immunization and other essential lifesaving health and nutrition interventions.

- Final report (4%-time allocation)
The consultant will finalize the draft report based on comments received.

Requirements

Academic: Master’s degree in business, Development or Public Finance, (Health) Economics / or in another relevant discipline for health / supply financing.

Professional Experience: Minimum seven years professional relevant work experience in public finance, health budgeting, fiscal space analysis, health / immunization financing, setting up financial solutions for health (including trust funds etc).

Language Requirements: Very good working knowledge of English (written and spoken) is required

 

Evaluation Criteria


Qualified candidates are requested to submit:


1. Cover letter/application.
2. Financial quote at a daily rate in US Dollars including all taxes.
3. form form if not applying through UNICEF Employment site
4. At least 3 Reference contacts.

The closing date of this advertisement is 2 November 2020

This vacancy is now closed.
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