Consultant, Operations Research on PHC Financing
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Deadline:
Options Consultancy Services Limited was established in 1992 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marie Stopes International. We are a consultancy organisation providing technical and management expertise in the health and social sectors to governments and international development partners to transform the health of women and children.
Job Field:
Job Description:
- Options seeks a consultant to conduct operations research on Primary Health Care financing that will identify sources of financing and decision-making processes that influence resource management at the PHC level in Nigeria.
- The purpose of this research is to provide information to the Nigerian government, health professional bodies, and CSO advocates on how to ensure more accountable funding of PHCs. The research will focus on answering the following questions:
- What budget lines/programmes should be used to track Primary Health Care? What are the sources and funding flows for each of these?
- Through what schemes do PHCs receive resources (e.g. Free MNCH, DRF, BHCPF, other?) and how do these co-exist? What are the differences between urban/rural facilities in receiving these funds?
- How do facilities manage funding to provide quality services (e.g. who manages the funding, how do they make decisions on how to spend these resources in a way that improves quality of care? what investments do they prioritise? What autonomy do they have on how to spend the resources they receive or is this determined by government? What about other resources such as commodities and equipment) and what guides this process?
- How do PHC facilities track and report back on funding utilisation and service delivery performance?
- For a sample of facilities, what funding is expected v. disbursed to the PHC facility level and how does this affect decision making and the ability to provide services? Where does the funding expected by the facility go?
- What prevents facilities from accessing government funds/resources that they are entitled to?
- How are community members engaged in decision making on the way in which funds are spent or resources (e.g. drugs) are distributed?
- The consultant will be expected to propose a methodology for approval, prior to commencing field work. This should include iterative data collection, ensuring that findings from the desk review feed into interview protocols for KIIs, FGDs, and areas of observation for facility visits; feeding learnings back into the E4A programme throughout the assignment.
Job Requirements:
- Experience carrying out similar research focused on health financing in the health sector
- Solid understanding of the health sector, including the relationship between national, sub-national and local government levels
- Extensive experience working within Nigeria health system especially at primary health care level
- Strong research and analytical skills with experience designing research protocols and data collection tools.