Period of (STTA) Performance: January 2025 – September 2025
Location Nigeria (Preference to be based in Jigawa State)
Estimated LOE (Days): 30
Purpose & Objectives:
Nigeria is off-track to achieving the SDG target for under-five mortality of 25 or fewer deaths per 1000 live births. For many high mortality burden states in Nigeria, deaths in the 1-59 months age group account for the majority of under-five mortality. A key issue in reaching these unreached children is equitable access to life-saving interventions.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has developed a national Child Survival Action Plan. The next phase is to support States in developing prioritized state-level child health operational plans. States with high numbers of zero-dose children also have limited coverage of timely and appropriate diagnosis and treatment of childhood illness. This activity will complement the work of MRITE in reaching zero-dose children to increase access to case management because these children experience multiple deprivations.
The purpose of this scope of work is to leverage M-RITE’s ongoing state-level work addressing zero-dose children and communities in Nigeria to develop an improved understanding of access to diagnosis and treatment of the leading causes of death amongst Nigerian children, and to utilize this improved understanding to strengthen and encourage prioritization of state-level child health systems.
The support will span one state, with the potential for expansion to a second state. The state(s) are selected in consultation and agreement with the USAID Nigeria Mission, the Federal Ministry of Health Nigeria, and the M-RITE Nigeria country team. Following the finalization of states, a co-creation process will be undertaken to determine the remaining activities to be conducted under this scope of work. The following scope of work lists four major potential activities to be conducted – Activity 4 (corresponding to deliverable 2) is subject to agreement from State level decision makers. In addition, the assessments conducted under Activity 2 (corresponding to deliverable 1) are dependent on the outcomes of the co-creation processes.
Activities:
Coordination of State Selection and Finalization
Support state selection and finalization processes, including facilitating communication and selection processes between key parties, and conducting outreach to confirm collaboration and agreement with state officials.
Consultations and Coordination of Co-Creation to Identify Focus Areas
Conduct outreach and consult with key officials and child health stakeholders at the state level to identify focus areas for support and specific activities to be conducted. This selection process should include a co-creation process which should include partners in the Child Health Technical Working Group (CH-TWG).
Assessment of State-level Child Health Systems
This SOW provides a comprehensive list of potential focus areas. However, actionable focus areas will be identified in Activity 2 (above).
Develop a timeline and plan for data collection based on the identified focus areas.
Conduct an assessment of the child health systems in the selected state to identify support needs. Potential focus areas for this assessment include the following:
An assessment of data collection, analysis, and usage for decision-making pertaining to diagnosis and treatment of childhood illness at the state level, as well as coordination and resource mobilization for broader child health.
Mapping of the key packages of care offered to children in both the public and private sectors, including quality of care of IMCI/iCCM and multi-sectoral action
Mapping of the membership and functionality of any existing child health program partner coordination mechanisms (A.K.A. Child Health Technical Working Groups) at the state level.
Mapping of any existing state-level LGA action plans for child health, inclusive of the level of priority given to the plan and the level of resourcing allocated for plan implementation.
An assessment of existing program monitoring procedures amongst key stakeholders at the state-level, including the presence and functionality of paediatric death audits.
An assessment of demand generation activities for child health services, inclusive of awareness generation and advocacy efforts.
An assessment of linkages between key programs impacting child health (e.g., immunization, nutrition, malaria) and functionality of cross-program coordination at the state level.
An assessment on the feasibility of micro-planning usage for child health programs at the state-level.
An analysis of equity, focusing on the extent to which zero-dose children lack timely access or use for diagnostic and case management services.
An assessment of the feasibility of developing an electronic child health partner dashboard, including the capacity and resource availability at the state-level to own and regularly update the dashboard following initial development.
For each of the key stakeholders involved in child health in the given state, determine recommendations for action to strengthen identified gaps and weaknesses within state-level child health programming. These recommendations should account for the stakeholder’s level of influence, as well as resource availability levels.
Support for Development of a Prioritized List of Activities for Child Health (Subject to agreement with State decision makers)
Building on the information collected during Activity 3 assessments and the federal-level Child Survival Action Plan, provide coordination and technical support/input for the development of a prioritized list of activities for child health that could potentially be integrated into the existing state-level health strategic or Primary Health Care plan.
This activity may include facilitation of an activity prioritization session.
This activity may include a co-creation or advocacy workshop to support integration of the prioritized list into the government workplans.
Provide support to ensure dissemination of the finalized list amongst key state-level stakeholders.
Documentation and Learning
Monitor and document learnings across activities with an emphasis on the following:
Learnings related to the use of the activity model (i.e., does an in-country consultant providing facilitation/coordination support and technical inputs result in a strengthened child health team and system at the state level?)
Learnings from leveraging existing M-RITE/JSI activities to support broader child health systems.
Key challenges encountered
Key successes and facilitating factors
Produce a case report detailing learnings and the process of building on M-RITE’s immunization support to strengthen child health at the state level.
Deliverables:
Child Health Systems Assessment Report
A report that details the following:
Literature review/desk review (e.g., list of key documents reviewed)
Methodology ( e.g., type of methodology used, types of stakeholders interviewed, etc.)
Findings, including key challenges, gaps, and strengths of the assessed focus area pertaining to child health.
Recommendations for action to improve the state-level child health system, broken down by key stakeholder.
Prioritized List of Child Health Activities that can be included in the state plan
A prioritized list of activities for child health for which the intention will be to enable integration into the existing state-level Health Strategic or the Annual Primary Health Care Workplan.
Case Report
Case report detailing key learnings regarding the use of an in-country consultant model for strengthening child health systems and the process of building on M-RITE’s existing presence to strengthen child health at the state level, as well as additional high-level learnings related to challenges and enabling factors for providing state-level support for child health systems in Nigeria.
The case report should also include any recommendations for improving the activity model.
Masters degree in public health, international development, or a related field.
Qualifications & Requirements:
Technical knowledge of child health systems and key child health issues, with a minimum of 10 years working in child health or a related field.
Strong qualitative research skills, including experience leading stakeholder interviews and document review and synthesis.
Strong communication and coordination skills, including the ability to conduct outreach with high-level stakeholders and officials and to facilitate high-level meetings.
Experience with report writing and documentation of key learnings.
40% travel expected to the selected state.
This is a local hire position. Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV to: recruiting@ng.jsi.com using the job title ‘’CHSS-Nigeria Consultant’’ as the subject of the mail.Application Closing Date 8th January 2025
Apply via :
recruiting@ng.jsi.com