Overall objective:
The objective of the proposed work is to support the AMP activities in reviewing and improving approaches to ITN quantification, determining cost-effective options for assessing ITN coverage and use, analyzing digital tools for mass campaign implementation.
The specific areas for support include:
§ Review of ITN quantification
§ Review of household registration and quality control for improving efficiency
§ Review of planning for deployment of multi-product campaigns
§ Support for review of country planning for and deployment of digital tools for data collection
Background:
The past fifteen years have seen tremendous gains in reducing the burden of malaria and progressing towards elimination. Between 2000 and 2015, global malaria incidence fell by 37 percent and mortality rates by 60 percent. Over 6.2 million deaths were averted, primarily among children less than five years of age. Since 1998, the RBM Partnership to End Malaria has been central to the global fight against malaria. It has been essential to mobilizing unprecedented resources and supporting scale up of innovative interventions to put the world on a path of eliminating malaria.
The Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP) is a workstream within the RBM Partnership to End Malaria. AMP is a partnership of more than 40 organizations, including government, private sector, faith-based and humanitarian organizations. AMP is housed and chaired by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
AMP is a global partnership focused on three main activities: (1) coordination of partners involved in insecticide-treated net (ITN) campaign and continuous distribution activities; (2) development of operational guidance for planning and implementation of ITN distribution; and (3) supporting countries to identify, address and document operational successes and challenges to meeting the WHO Global Technical Strategy (GTS) targets for high coverage and use of ITNs. Since AMP’s inception in 2004, the IFRC has housed the AMP secretariat, serving as an independent convening body for the AMP Partnership. Harnessing the global leadership and management systems of IFRC, AMP is uniquely positioned to support and advance country-level efforts to promote high-quality, high-impact, efficient distribution of ITNs to increase malaria endemic population access to nets, through both campaign and continuous distribution channels.
For over 15 years, AMP has cultivated strong relationships with National Malaria Control and Elimination Programmes (NMCP/NMEP) and with key technical, financial and implementing partners. Along with developing field-focused tools and operational guidance, AMP has established a globally recognized network of Technical Assistance (TA) Providers for planning and conducting ITN campaigns, covering strategy, training and capacity building, logistics, communication, and monitoring and evaluation. AMP is recognized as an essential global partnership platform and expert resource for developing, promoting, and conducting mass ITN campaigns and sharing best practices within the global malaria community and beyond. AMP is an integral part of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria’s Country and Regional Support Partner Committee (CRSPC) as a member of the CRSPC’s steering committee. The majority of funding for country-specific AMP technical assistance is provided through RBM.
With malaria indicators stagnating and intense pressure to improve access and use of effective ITNs, WHO has renewed focus on stratifying vector control strategies in countries. Along with the introduction of new, more expensive ITNs, countries are now challenged to determine where they should deploy different ITN types to manage insecticide resistance within limited funding envelopes, as well as to identify more efficient ways to implement mass ITN distribution. Countries that have accessed AMP technical assistance have significantly improved their capacity to modify and update strategies and tools to increase ITN access, use and accountability. They have also continued to identify further gaps and look for effective ways to address them. AMP has gathered information from countries on gaps identified, which has been the basis for the iterative process used over the past decade under the United States President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI)-funded NetWorks and VectorWorks projects, in which AMP collaborated with technical experts of Tropical Health to explore ITN distribution challenges and made lasting improvements to ITN policy. In particular, AMP has collaborated closely with key organizations in the global malaria community such as WHO, PMI, and the Global Fund (GF), leveraging close connections with national malaria programmes, a detailed understanding of ITN distribution operations, and donor priorities to identify operational best practices and implementation science questions that have the potential to dramatically improve campaign efficiency and effectiveness. AMP recommendations are reviewed by WHO, GF, PMI and RBM before dissemination, and these recommendations feed in directly to these institutions’ technical guidance, while simultaneously being disseminated to national malaria programmes via direct technical assistance and mentoring relationships, as well as through the AMP and RBM websites. AMP and technical experts affiliated with Tropical Health informed the entirety of WHO’s guidance on universal coverage and the vast majority of PMI guidance on ITNs. AMP must now continue to support countries to identify and operationalize additional efficiencies and innovative approaches to meet the ambitious GTS targets and reduce the burden of malaria.
From its inception, AMP has consistently supported gender-informed approaches to its work and will continue this under this grant. AMP’s work has demonstrated that women and children are prioritized for ITN use when there are insufficient nets for everyone in the household , and that school-age children as well as young adult males and adult males are consequently less likely to use ITNs. Issues of access to ITNs are also informed by gender, with women and girls less likely to have access to distribution channels and ultimately ITNs. Distribution activities for ITNs must also take gender into account in the makeup of campaign staff at all levels, respond to local gender norms about who may enter households to conduct registration, and implement gender-specific communications approaches as appropriate to the local context. Inclusion of female-headed households is reinforced during training sessions at all levels. For non-campaign approaches, school-based distribution depends on the gender equity of school enrolment in a given location, and community-based continuous distribution must also be designed with gender in mind to ensure that community agents involved are not disadvantaging certain groups. AMP will incorporate gender-informed approaches into the guidance we develop and make gender considerations explicit in those documents.
Terms of reference for consultancy:
· Support update and finalization of ITN tracking tool, aligned with priorities across major partners (GF, PMI, RBM)
· Develop a summary of Global Fund applications that plan to use digital data management for campaigns, including type of system proposed where available
· Review Global Fund applications and PMI Malaria Operational Plans (in collaboration with RBM) to consolidate the information related to multi-product campaigns (where, net types, any evaluation components, etc.) and update the ITN campaign tracker and RBM dashboard with this information
· Support organization of biweekly TA provider calls (including for TA teams doing updates) and participate in discussions related to the organization of the TA provider training in 2021 (as applicable)
· Support Tropical Health with work on ITN quantification, household registration and monitoring and end process evaluation (e.g. follow up with countries to collect data sets or additional information about decision-making)
· Develop, based on data and information available, updated recommendations on best practices for household registration and monitoring
· Support M&E plan consolidation and finalization
Education:
An advanced university degree (Master’s or Doctorate) preferably related to health or health programming.
Work Experience:
At least 5 years experience directly related to ITNs (campaign or continuous distribution) and preferably at least 5 years of additional experience in health programmes.
Knowledge and familiarity with ITN funding partners (PMI, Global Fund) and their processes.
Languages:
Fluency in English and good working knowledge of French language is preferred.
Alignment to the IFRC’s objectives and strategy:
The Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP)’s mandate aligns to the Federation’s Strategy 2020 as it supports the achievement of strategic aims;
1) Save lives, protect livelihoods and strengthen recovery from disasters and crises
2) Enable healthy and safe living.
Project objectives and timelines:
Objective #1: Scaling up and maintaining universal coverage targets of malaria prevention with ITNs through all available channels including mass distribution campaigns and continuous distribution channels.
Desired outcomes: To address some of the most critical challenges countries and partners face with ITN campaigns, by increased availability of evidence-based approaches and guidance for optimizing ITN campaigns; awareness of approaches and guidance by NMCPs and capacity to implement; and availability of evidence-based approaches and guidance for optimizing ITN distribution through non-traditional-campaign channels.
Support to be provided to the consultant
Consultants will be supported by the AMP Senior Implementation Technician, AMP Coordinator, AMP Core Group members, as well as Tropical Health staff and consultants.
How to apply:
Please send your CV and Cover Letter by email to health.department@ifrc.org until 5 October 2020 18:00 (CET).
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.