Senior National Consultant at Malaria Consortium

Malaria Consortium, established in 2003, is one of the world’s leading non-profit organisations specialising in the prevention, control and treatment of malaria and other communicable diseases among vulnerable populations. Our mission is to save lives and improve health in Africa and Asia, through evidence-based programmes that combat targeted diseases and promote universal health coverage.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Senior National Consultant

Location: Osun
Employment Type: Temporary

Project Background

• Perennial malaria chemoprevention (PMC) formerly intermittent preventive treatment in infants (IPTi) is the administration of preventive antimalarial drugs to children to provide personal protection against malaria where transmission rates are moderate to high and parasite resistance to SP is not high.
• Under current WHO guidelines, the drug sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is delivered to children aged <24 months during routine immunization services and other possible avenues.
• PMC is safe, cost-effective, well accepted by health workers and communities, and has been found to reduce clinical malaria by 30%, and episodes of anaemia by 21% (Cairns et al., 2008).
• Despite the WHO recommendation there has been limited uptake to date. The intervention is not yet adopted as one of the interventions in the Nigerian Malaria Control Policy.
• A rapid assessment of stakeholders’ perspective on barriers to PMC policy uptake in Nigeria revealed that providing evidence on feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of the intervention at field level will be key for policy uptake.
• Malaria Consortium received funding to carry out an effectiveness-implementation hybrid project on feasibility and effectiveness of on PMC in Nigeria. It is aimed at generating the required evidence to inform policy and possible scale up of PMC in Nigeria, and ultimately contribute towards a reduction in under 5 mortalities in the country.
• The project - a four-year commitment became effective on the 1st of November 2020 - will be carried out in Osun State. It is a hybrid design aimed at evaluating the effectiveness as well as feasibility of delivering PMC through the expanded programme on immunization (EPI) platform.
• While SP-PMC has been shown to be efficacious and to provide considerable protection against malaria and anaemia in young children, SP-PMC could have an even greater impact on malaria burden than previously demonstrated.
• Proving the effectiveness of SP-PMC and feasibility by addressing any critical root causes preventing adoption of PMC in Nigeria will catalyse policy adoption and implementation in the country; contributing to a decrease in malaria burden in young children, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable, and ultimately to a reduction in under-5 morbidity and mortality. SP-PMC policy could be implemented sub-nationally to provide increased protection against malaria among young children living in areas which are not eligible for seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC).

Purpose of the Assignment

• Carry out a cost-description of the introduction and roll-out of PMC.
• Conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of the PMC intervention, including a cost-benefit analysis.

Methodology

• The cost analyses will be done from a health systems perspective that entails quantification of what it will cost the Ministry of Health/NMEP to carry out the intervention, and focusing on direct costs (medical and non-medical).
• Costing will involve the quantification of inputs and assignment of appropriate resource values; discounting future costs and assigning appropriate annualized costs to capital inputs; and valuing resources when market prices deviate from the actual value of resources.
• Direct costs will include:
  • Capital costs (e.g. Planning costs, Consensus building and meetings, Initial training, Vehicles, Equipment and furniture), and
  • Recurrent costs (e.g. Personnel (including additional cost for administering drug), Fuel/Maintenance of vehicles, Office/warehouse rental, Supplies/overheads, and Management cost).
  • The data should be used for the cost description, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses.

Scope of Work
Phase 3: February - October 2025:

• Costing analysis will be done for PMC implementation of drug (SP) administration at the health facility during routine immunization and non-immunization visits, while EPI-only cost will be captured from the control arm.
• Also, costs will be aggregated into startup and maintenance cost to provide further information that will be important for policy decision making.
• In addition, interphase with Northwestern University (NWU) for the modelling component of the analysis. Stakeholders’ engagement through Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) to provide additional data not provided from other sources

Specific Tasks for Senior National Consultant (1):

• Indicative schedule for costing data collection and to carry out cost analyses involving cost description, cost-benefit, and cost-effectiveness of PMC:

Phase 3: February - October 2025:

• Train data collectors
• Pre-test data collection tools
• Collect relevant costing data
• Conduct relevant stakeholders’ engagement
• Conduct cost analyses, carry out reviews and updates and produce relevant reports.

Deliverables
Phase 3: February - October 2025:

• All of the underlying calculations used in the cost analyses in Microsoft Excel format, which can be fully modified by PMC team in the future
• Data collected on cost data
• Data transcripts and codes
• First draft of comprehensive report with recommendations 5 days after completion of activities
• Final Consolidated report
• Consultancy report
• A PowerPoint presentation (max 25 slides slides), outlining key findings from cost analyses.

Expertise:

• Senior National Consultant.

Qualifications and experience

• Holds a postgraduate Degree in Health Economics or related field with a minimum of 15 years National and/ or regional consultancy expertise
• At least 10 years of experience in collecting costing data and carrying out budget impact and cost effectiveness analysis, developed costing assumptions and tools for data collection for cost effectiveness analysis, collected routine project implementation costing data, carried out budget impact analysis, and conducted cost effectiveness analysis.
• Demonstrable track record of similar work in the past five years
• Demonstrated experience in liaising with government; and managing relationship with stakeholders and partners at health financing, budgeting, implementation science, and policy levels.
• Familiarity with cost data collection
• Experience in health financing and budgeting
• Demonstrated experience in health economics
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Working knowledge of data analysis software package
• Working knowledge of at least one data capture package
• Excellent organizational and time management skills are required.
• Ability to work both independently and as a member of a team and to handle multiple priorities is required
• Experience as a trainer and/or supervisor for quantitative and qualitative data collection, management, and/or analysis is preferred
• Excellent analytical, writing, synthesis, communication and facilitation skills.
• Experience of working with partners at international, regional and national levels.
• Proven academic experience, including pieces of research, publications and written reports
• Familiarity with the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) and malaria programs
• Proven experience in writing reports for public health programs or projects in Nigeria or similar developing country context.

Desired:

• Access to a qualitative software such as Atlas ti and have excellent capacity in the use of the software for coding and analysis
• Extensive knowledge of the Nigerian public health sector
• A proven ability to work as part of a team
• Experience in setting up and facilitating meetings
• Ability to work with little or no supervision
• Good writing and reporting skills
• Good presentation skills
• Excellent writing and oral communication skills in English

Engagement and Compensations

• Please note that all terms will be discussed and agreed with the project lead. Each contract signed is valid for a phase with possibility of renewal.
• For your expertise and input, you will be paid at the end of each phase. But payments are subject to satisfactory and timely completion of all assigned deliverables and will be according to Malaria Consortium’s finance policies.

Application Closing Date
Sunday, 9th February, 2025 (5:00pm).

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Note

• For this position, previous working experience with MC and in SMC are added advantages.
• Interested and qualified candidates who are passionate and willing to contribute towards the achievement of our goals should kindly fill the application form below before
• Kindly note that applicants who do not follow this specification will be disqualified.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and as a result, the process may conclude before the advertised deadline. Therefore, early applications are highly encouraged.
• Malaria Consortium does not accept or ask for payment during recruitment. We also would not accept hardcopy CVs; all applications should be sent through the above link.