Being a partner of the Alliance for Public Health, the All-Ukrainian Network of PLWH 100% Life and other regional and national partners in the implementation of the Global Fund funded regional HIV project “Sustainability of services for key populations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia” (#SoS_project), the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) is aimed at the improving the financial sustainability and allocative efficiency of HIV programs in EECA countries.
To contribute to this objective, EHRA is planning to conduct the assessment of the fulfillment of HIV related sustainability commitments given by the governments of 6 EECA countries in the context of their transition from the Global Fund‘s support to national funding. It is expected that based on the results of such assessment the key civil society regional and national partners working in those selected countries, will be able to adjust their advocacy efforts and actions to improve the financial sustainability and allocative efficiency of HIV national programs.
For that purposes in 2020 EHRA has developed a methodology and tools to conduct such assessment on a periodic basis (see below).
Now EHRA is looking for a consultant to help with piloting of the developed methodology and conducting such assessment in Georgia.
Consultancy task
The consultant is expected to conduct the national assessment process in accordance with the Assessment Guide “Benchmarking Sustainability of HIV Response in the Context of Transition” to be provided by EHRA. The assessment process should include the next stages:
1. Identification and collection of a set of strategic and programmatic documents, including national laws and regulations that captures/reflects the HIV transition process in the country and can be used to identify commitments given by the government;
2. Identification of commitments taken by the government with respect to transition process and sustainability of HIV programs. The identified commitments should be grouped by health system domains under each programmatic area in a specific format as suggested by the guide (p.13);
3. Prioritization of those commitments which fulfillment to be assessed. Prioritization should be completed with the support of the National Reference Group – more guidance on that could be found in the Assessment Guide;
4. Collection of data through desk research and/or key informant interviews to measure the progress for the selected set of indicators;
5. Analysis of findings. Input selected indicators into a Transition Monitoring Tool to calculate the score;
6. Development of analytical report to summarize the findings.
A Sample Outline of the National Report is provided in Annex 2 to the Assessment Guide. The report should include contextual sections, findings and conclusions for each of the assessed commitment as well as general conclusions and recommendations to government institutions, practitioners, civil society, technical partners and donors.
Also, EHRA is expecting the sub-contracted consultant to formulate and provide EHRA with a feedback and recommendations on the improvement of the piloted assessment framework, methodology and tools. Feedback and recommendations should be submitted as a separate document in addition to the report and include: what aspects of tool implementation did not work, what has been difficult and is there any suggestions on how to overcome those difficulties and improve the suggested framework\methodology\tools; suggestions on the relevance of the tool for local key populations and on how to make the process of benchmarking sustainable by using this tool.
Deliverables:
1.A. Repository and mapping of documents relevant to transition process (placeholders) and containing the government’s obligations with regards to transition (intentional or officially approved);
1.B. Repository of activities, which the country (or other relevant counterparts) have committed to implement in support of transition;
2. Filled in Transition Monitoring Tool;
3. Analytical Report on the results of the assessment of the fulfillment of HIV related sustainability commitments given by the Georgian government in the context of country transition from the Global Fund’s support to national funding.
4. Feedback and recommendations on the improvement of the benchmarking guide and tools in a separate document.
The language of the resulted documents should be English.
Timeframe
– The first 4 above mentioned stages should be completed by 10.07.2020. The report outline, instruments for structuring information and interview guide should be agreed with the EHRA in case they are changed\adjusted. List of the National Reference Group members should be agreed with EHRA as well by that date.
– Stages 5 and 6 should be completed by 07.08.2020.
– The draft report should be provided to the EHRA colleagues for the review and feedback by 21.08.2020.
– The feedback and recommendations on the improvement of the EHRA Benchmarking Guide, and tools should be submitted by 21.08.2020.
– The final report and all other deliverables should be submitted by 01.09.2020.
Payment
Payment for the work of the consultant\organization under this ToR will be decided based on the results of the tendering process. The consultant should state the number of days required to complete the task under this ToR as well as the daily rate. The stated daily rate should be confirmed by the consultant. The final daily rate could be the subject to agreement between the parties. In case the consultant can’t confirm the stated daily rate or EHRA is not being able to agree the daily rate with the consultant, EHRA reserves the right not to sign the contract with the expert and approach the next candidate in line in accordance with the results of the tendering process. The total contract cost for the work under this ToR should not exceed 2,500 USD (including all taxes).
Requirements to the consultant
A National Reviewer – a consultant under this assignment – is a person, who carries an overall responsibility for planning and conducting the study and drafting the report. Given the essential role of this individual, she/he should comply with the following requirements, which should be clear from CV and\or the LoI:
• Excellent understanding of the Georgian national HIV service delivery and funding systems (20 points maximum);
• Knowledge and access to relevant stakeholders to be interviewed, including government officials, community members and experts (15 points maximum);
• Experience of similar assessments conduction and a strong record of adherence to evidenced-based approaches (15 points maximum);
• Good understanding of epidemiological data (10 points maximum);
• No conflict of interest (10 points maximum);
• Fluent in English and the national language (10 points maximum);
• Proven set of skills for interviewing, conducting a literature review and writing (10 points maximum);
• Optimal daily rate (10 points maximum).
The maximum possible amount of points is 100.
How to apply
The individual consultants are invited to submit their CV, Letter of Interest and the completed Daily Rate Form (daily rate should be stated in USD and include taxes) by e-mail referenced under title “Consultant to conduct the assessment of transition related commitments in Georgia” to ivan@harmreductioneurasia.org by COB 22 of June 2020 24:00 EET.