TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR RESPONSIBILITIES OF THET CWPAMS CONSULTANT, MALAWI Introduction to the Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship
Funded by the UK Department for Health and Social Care’s Fleming Fund and managed by THET and the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA), the first round of CwPAMS funded 12 health partnerships to tackle the growing challenge of antimicrobial resistance in Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. These projects focus on strengthening the capacity of health workers in antimicrobial stewardship within individual health institutions. All activities fed into implementing the governments’ AMR National Action Plans.
The THET Malawi Consultant will carry out activities in Malawi for the Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship (CwPAMS) programme, which is being extended until June 2022.
The programme extension will be implemented in four additional countries: Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. A total of £250,000 is available for projects running from October 2021 to May 2022. We expect up to 5 grants to be awarded in Malawi.
THET UK is overall responsible and accountable for the delivery of the programme. The Grants Management team based in the UK will co-ordinate the selection, contracting, payments and reporting of all grant holders. The UK Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team, will provide MEL tools and resources for grant holders and the programme team to use. These teams will ensure a standardised approach, tools and systems for the delivery in each country, adapted as necessary to the local context.
In each country, an in-country THET representative will support grant holders, ensuring they are implementing quality projects efficiently and effectively and will collaborate between health partners and relevant local stakeholders.
This document serves as a Terms of Reference for the type of work the THET Consultant should expect to carry out as part of this.
Workstreams
The activities expected of the Malawi co-ordinator as part of this scheme will fall into the following workstreams:
Developing and strengthening coordination between health partnerships and other key health institutions, including the Ministry of Health (MoH), national AMR co-ordinating bodies and other Fleming Fund actors.
Facilitating learning and collaboration between health partnerships
Supporting health partnerships to improve their operations
Supporting the UK grants team with monitoring of partnerships
We are interested in exploring the possibility to expand THET’s work in-country and would welcome the consultants’ identification of any appropriate opportunities. Where new projects are introduced in the country, this could lead to opportunities to expand the role of the consultant.
WORKSTREAM 1: DEVELOPING AND STRENGTHENING CO-ORDINATION BETWEEN HEALTH PARTNERSHIPS, MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND OTHER KEY HEALTH INSTITUTIONS TO ALIGN WITH STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
OBJECTIVE: To ensure that project activity is in line with country, Fleming Fund and MoH plans, to strengthen and expand stakeholder buy-in to improve the sustainable impact of the projects and to ensure the programme is accountable to national stakeholders.
ACTIVITIES:
• Establish and promote key relationships between partnerships and national stakeholders (e.g. Fleming Fund grantee, MoH departments, AMR and AMS taskforces, etc);
WORKSTREAM 2: FACILITATING LEARNING AND COLLABORATION BETWEEN HEALTH PARTNERSHIPS
OBJECTIVE: To ensure learning, synergies and sustainability, and to avoid duplication.
ACTIVITIES:
• Contribute to planning for, and attend, the grant holder inception workshop (currently anticipated to be held virtually in early October 2021)
• Facilitate introductions, and strengthen relationships, between health partnerships and other relevant programmes and organisations, ensuring maximum effectiveness and minimise duplication.
WORKSTREAM 3: SUPPORTING HEALTH PARTNERSHIPS TO IMPROVE THEIR OPERATIONS AND DELIVER EFFECTIVE AND SUSTAINABLE PROJECTS IN LINE WITH NATIONAL PLANS
OBJECTIVE: To facilitate the effective delivery of projects and support partners, particularly the LMIC partner, to have the capacity to take a leadership role within the partnership. Strengthening project management processes will allow partners to spend time more efficiently on achieving their project outcomes**.
ACTIVITIES: **• Work with the THET Grants Management team to ensure that in-country partners understand what is required of them with regards to project management (including M&E, finances, activity plan and reporting, partnership relations, procurement etc.) and support them where necessary to overcome identified challenges. • Advise grant holders on how activities can be scaled up, and support linkages with the MoH, appropriate regulatory bodies, other donors and programmes etc, ensuring that projects are embedded into the health system. • Provide logistical support around health partnership events/visa processes/ethical approvals, UK volunteers, etc • Attend or present at health partnerships’ events.
WORKSTREAM 4: IN-COUNTRY MONITORING OF PARTNERSHIPS AND RISK MANAGEMENT
OBJECTIVE: To accompany the progress of the projects and to ensure any potential challenges and risks are identified and mitigated as soon as possible. ACTIVITIES:
• Conduct at least one visit to the partner institutions throughout the programme, and hold regular phone calls, to accompany progress, ensure that challenges identified through reports and monitoring visits are being successfully overcome and that any new challenges, concerns, developments or opportunities are identified quickly.
• Contribute to the review of the final grant holder reports (UK-led activity) and provide feedback to the THET Grants Management team
• Identify any changes to the personnel amongst the grant holders
• Maintain country risk registers to monitor the operational, delivery, reputational, safeguarding and fiduciary risks, in conjunction with the London team, alerting the UK team and grant holders to heightened risks as appropriate. Proposed timeframe
10 consulting days from August 2021 to May 2022. The Consultant will be expected to work one day a month, although there will be some flexibility within this (some months will require much more capacity, others less). Contractual Responsibilities
Reports to: THET Head of Grants Management, based in London. The Consultant will be responsible for managing the workload and conducting the activities in a timely and efficient manner as set out in this document. Given the number of activities and the small amount of time, the Consultant will agree with the Head of Grants Management which aspects to prioritise. The Consultant will have regular reporting points with the Head of Grants Management, largely through quarterly reports and meetings, and will be expected to keep them informed on progress and key issues.
The Consultant will also liaise with the Malawi CPA Consultant, who will provide technical support relating to antimicrobial stewardship to the grant holders.
Knowledge Skills and Experience for the Consultancy To successfully undertake this assignment, the Consultant should meet the following minimum requirements:**
• **Recent experience of liaising with the Ministry of Health in Malawi. • Strong project management experience in the health sector in Malawi. • Experience of working in partnership with others to promote capacity building. • Degree level education. [Public health or related discipline preferred.] • Analytical skills and demonstrable ability to think strategically • Excellent representational, written and verbal communication skills in English and other local languages • Proven financial skills (budget preparation and monitoring) • Proven organisational and administrative skills with sound IT skills (Word and Excel) • Flexibility and adaptability in the context of working within a small organisation and in a complex environment. • Well organised with the ability to work independently and take the initiative. • Experience in proposal development • Experience of working in a senior position in an INGO context (desirable) • Knowledge or experience in antimicrobial resistance or stewardship (desirable) • Experience of managing security and risk in an INGO context (desirable)
This vacancy is archived.