Consultant - Human Resources for Health (HRH) at Palladium International Development Nigeria

Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact - the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with foundations, investors, governments, corporations, communities and civil society to formulate strategies and implement solutions that generate lasting social, environmental and financial benefits.

Applications are invited for:

Job Title: Consultant - Support to Federal Capital Territory (FCT) HRH

Subject RFP #: TO7/217727/Consultancy/Fixed Price Contract-2020-0003
Location: Abuja
Project: Integrated Health Program, FCT Activities

Purpose

• Palladium invites applications from suitably qualified individual consultants to provide technical support to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Health and Human Services Secretariat (HHSS) Human Resources for Health (HRH) unit to mentor the Area Councils and the PHC officers-in-charge on the development of operation plans (OP), the finalization and validation of the Human Resources for Health Policy and Strategy Plan.
• The consultancy aims to provide technical assistance to develop operational plan for the Area Councils, to address the staffing realignment, recruitment, retention and remuneration at PHCs to increase the number of PHCs meeting the minimum staffing standards, especially in the rural areas based on the revised Human Resources for Health (HRH) Policy and Strategy Plan by the FCT HHSS.

Type of Contract:

• This is a firm-fixed price deliverable-based contract. The consultant is expected to satisfactorily accomplish the deliverables before he/she gets paid for that deliverable.
• The IHP Chief of Party reserves the right to confirm if a deliverable is delivered adequately or otherwise. No price change is expected after contract is signed. IHP will not pay for cost of any deliverable that is not complete, of quality or on time.

Anticipated Contract Term:

• The anticipated performance period for the consultancy is January 25, 2021 – April 23, 2021. As a firm fixed price consultancy based on deliverables, Palladium will only pay for deliverables that have met the standards and expectations of the program and which is also delivered within assigned timelines.

Project

• The Integrated Health Program (IHP) is a USAID-funded five-year project with a mandate to improve health systems, improve access to and increase quality of primary health care in designated states (Sokoto, Bauchi, Kebbi, Ebonyi and the FCT). IHP aims to improve the enabling environment for equitable and sustainable health services, supplies, and delivery systems through policy development and implementation, with an emphasis on voluntary, rights-based health programs. IHP will help public health and policy leaders attach higher priority to their national and sub-national health needs, secure sustainable financing, advance health equity, and monitor policy implementation to ensure gains stay on track. IHP aims to secure long-term enduring change by working with coalitions both inside and outside of health and showing common cause with neglected populations and other development actors. Central elements of IHP revolve around building in country capacity, institutionalizing achievements of past investments, and promoting country ownership of programs and initiatives.
• The IHP project which aims to partner the State Government and other stakeholders to sustainably improve health outcomes has identified the strengthening of the human resources policy, planning and management as one of the key interventions for increasing access to quality health services and improving financial risk protection for the populace. IHP had supported the FCT to finalize, validate and disseminate the draft HRH Policy and Strategy plan. This activity seeks to in a 2-day technical meeting, develop a template/guideline for the Area Councils (ACs) to develop their specific HRH operational plan with which to address the staffing realignment, recruitment, retention and remuneration at PHCs to increase the number of PHCs meeting the minimum staffing standards, especially in the rural areas.
• Subsequently, using this template/guideline, a 2-day on-the site development workshop to develop operational plans for each of the Area Councils and PHCs to meet staffing standards, and on-site mentoring to each Area Council will be conducted followed by ongoing capacity building for the implementation and mentoring of the plans, including support to PHCs to directly recruit staff for BHCPF using the developed template/guideline.

Timeline:

• Applications are expected to be submitted on or before the due date as shown on the cover page. Bidders are expected to submit both technical and financial bids and in two separate emails to [email protected] stating as part of the subject matter of the email whether “Technical bid” or “Financial bid” and also quoting the RFP number as it appears on the cover page. Applications received will have a validity period of six months.
• Palladium will set up an evaluation committee who will meet to review all applications received within two weeks after the application period has closed. Top candidates may further be invited for an interview by the evaluation committee which will be conducted a week after the first evaluation. Depending on availability of the members of the evaluation committee and the exigences of the program, evaluation may be conducted at times which may be shorter or longer than stated here.
• Palladium will most likely issue the contract to the successful contractor from this process within 30 to 60 days after submission. Palladium’s ability to issue such contracts may be contingent upon USAID approval and when donor approval is required, timelines for contract award may be longer than stated. Palladium hopes that the services to be rendered on this consultancy will commence on January 25, 2021.

Scope of Work and Standards
Background:

• Human Resources (HR) are a strategic capital in any organization, but particularly so in health organizations, which are highly dependent on their workforce. Therefore, human resources for health is a key element in the delivery of quality health services necessitating calls for instituting the HRH management system that would provide an effective response to an HRH crisis.
• FCT HHSS /HRH with support from the IHP project, revised the HRH Policy with a complement HRH Strategy Plan to drive the process of achieving its HRH strategic goal of having in place, the right number, skill mix of competent, motivated, productive and equitably distributed health workforce for optimal and quality health care services provision to the population. IHP is continuing with the support to FCT to redress the human health workforce challenges, to further strengthen their ability to more efficient management of the health workforce towards addressing the existing gaps in HRH planning, production, and distribution identified from the health workforce situation analysis, for the successful delivery of the essential health services by the PHCs, plans to support the HRH unit to mentor ACs and officers-in-charge of PHCs to develop their HRHOP based on the strategy plan.
• Upon finalization, these documents will provide the tool for the Area Councils, to address the staffing realignment, recruitment, retention and remuneration at PHCs to increase the number of PHCs meeting the minimum staffing standards, especially in the rural areas

Roles and Responsibilities

• The consultant is expected to contribute towards the development of the HRH OPs for each of the Area Councils (ACs) by working with the FCT HRH unit/ Technical Working Group(TWG) and IHP HRH/Capacity Development CD Advisor to develop a standard template with which to support the ACs to develop their HRH OPs, support each of the six ACs to develop their HRH OPs

Services Description:
The major products and outcomes of this assignment are:

• Template for the development of the HRHOPs
• HRHOPs for all the six ACs

Tasks and Deliverables:
Tasks:

• Workshop for Area Councils and PHC Officers-in-Charge to develop template/ guidelines for developing operational plans based on the finalized HRH strategy document to address the staffing realignment, recruitment, retention and remuneration at PHCs, especially in rural areas including the guideline for PHCs to directly recruit staff based on the BHCPF requirements
  • Deliverables:
    • Report of workshop (to include the agenda and participants list)
    • Template/Guidelines for developing operational Plans to address the staffing realignment, recruitment, retention and remuneration at PHCs based on the finalized HRH Strategy document
    • Guideline for PHCs to directly recruit staff based on the BHCPF requirements
• Preparation and conduct of On-the site development workshop to develop operational plans for each of the Area Councils and PHCs to meet staffing standards, and on-site mentoring to each Area Council.
  • Deliverables
    • Schedule for the onsite operational plan development in the ACs
    • Finalized template
    • Agenda for the 2 -day workshop
    • HRH OP for the six Area Councils (ACs) namely: (1) Abaji (2) AMAC (3) Bwari (4) Gwagwalada (5) Kwali (6) Kuje
    • Reports for all the six ACs’ 2-day onsite development workshops namely: (1) Abaji (2) AMAC (3) Bwari (4) Gwagwalada (5) Kwali (6) Kuje. All reports should include agenda, attendance and pictures
• Reports
  • Deliverables:
    • Draft comprehensive report of the consultancy submitted to IHP for review
    • Final Consultancy report incorporating input from IHP submitted in word and PDF formats using IHP approved Template

Eligibility Requirements

• A good first degree or its equivalent from a reputable University in Health, Health Economics, Social Sciences and other related fields.
• Postgraduate qualification in Management, Human Resource Management or other related fields Manpower Planning, Employment Planning’, ‘Labour Planning’, Health Systems Strengthening
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in Human Resource for Health
• Experience working in public sector will be an added advantage
• Experience in developing policy, operational plans and strategy documents
• Experience in facilitating workshops
• Good understanding of current health financing reform initiatives in Nigeria
• Experience carrying out similar assignments in Nigeria particularly at the sub-national level.

Required Technical Competencies:

• Expertise in human resources for Health management
• Familiar with Nigerian Health system especially at the area council level
• Knowledgeable about change theories and health system approaches, especially the government health reform agendas such as the Universal Health Coverage

Required Skills:

• Policy and strategy development
• Strong Literary and writing
• Computer
• Facilitation
• Interpersonal
• Operational plan development

Application Closing Date
8th January, 2021 23:59pm (WAT).

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should send their Applications to: [email protected] 

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Important Notice

• Please follow the instructions as contained in the Request for Application (RFP) and submit to the email above
• No late application will be received after the deadline.

Application Requirements
The applicant is expected to provide the following requirements in line with the application guideline:

• A cover letter addressing the requirements and qualification to handle the task
• Complete CV
• Documents- certificates, diplomas and professional certifications
• Detailed plan to accomplish the deliverables with detailed cost per deliverable
• Names and contact details of 3 professional referees with emails and phone numbers
• Any samples of previous work done in a related area which might include policy, strategy documents etc.