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Consultant: Evaluation of the Community Score Card
Scope of Work: Evaluation of the Community Score Card contributed towards improved service utilization, increased accountability and feedback, and enhanced community engagement
Americares is a health-focused relief and development organization that saves lives and improves health for people affected by poverty or disaster. Each year, Americares reaches 85 countries on average, including the United States, with life-changing health programs, medicine, medical supplies, and emergency aid. Americares is one of the world’s leading non-profit providers of donated medicine and medical supplies. For more information, visit www.americares.org.
About the Community Partnerships for Respectful Care (CPRC) Project:
The Americares Community Partnerships for Respectful Care (CPRC) is a 5-year project (2020-2025) funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to contribute to reducing mortality and morbidity among mothers and their children through improved community-based health care. The USAID CPRC project (USAID Uzazi Staha in Swahili) provides strategic technical assistance at the national, regional and council levels to improve the quality and uptake of RMNCAH+FP and nutrition services, as well as strengthen RMC in Tanzania. Americares Tanzania works with Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) in the implementation of the USAID CPRC project in the Mwanza Region. The issue of disrespect and abuse directly and negatively affects the uptake of essential maternal and child health services by women and their families. At the same time, the best evidence-based practices put delivery with a skilled birth attendant (SBA) — a midwife, nurse, or doctor who has undergone specialized training — near the top of the list of interventions that have the greatest impact on maternal mortality. Empowering women by increasing their knowledge of health services they should receive and how healthcare providers should treat them is an important contributor to decision-making which leads to increased healthcare seeking and improved quality of services.
Background of the Activity
The Ministry of Health, Health Promotion Section, through the National Community Based Health Program, encourages implementing partners to engage communities using the Community Score card (CSC) intervention and community advocacy meetings. These efforts foster positive changes in services delivery for both healthcare providers (supply side) and clients (demand side). In 2023, the CPRC supported Regional/Council Health Management Teams (R/CHMT) in conducting community scorecard mechanism in 30 villages and advocacy meeting with influential people including religious leaders, opinion leaders, and community leaders from 30 villages of Buchosa, Ilemela and Nyamagana. The objective of implementing a CSC was to address disrespect and abuse by empowering communities to hold service providers accountable, fostering dialogue between community members and healthcare providers to address underlying issues, and gathering feedback to inform targeted interventions aimed at improving the quality of care and promoting a culture of respect and dignity within the healthcare system.
General Objective of the Activity
While multiple studies have demonstrated that the CSC approach effectively increases service utilization and holds service provider’s accountable[1],[2],[3], additional evidence is required regarding how CSC facilitates the institutionalization and/or implementation at scale of good practices that improve service utilization and accountability, especially in the Tanzania context, where CPRC operates. To address this, the CPRC Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team seeks a consultant to guide research and learning activities and support documentation of the CSC approach. The consultant will focus on assessing the effectiveness of CSC interventions, understanding contextual factors, exploring best practices, documenting lessons learned, and evaluating sustainability. The consultant’s primary task will revolve around the question: How does implementing a community scorecard improve the quality of maternal and newborn health services and promote greater accountability within the healthcare system?
Tasks
– Develop a research agenda around the stated learning question to align research methodology, data, and output.
– Develop a timeline for all research activities, including data collection, analysis, dissemination of results, and report writing.
– Review the project documents to understand the context, objectives, stakeholders involved and propose study methodology, including sampling technique, data collection methods – e.g. focus group discussions, key informant interviews, etc., and data analysis framework.
– Design questionnaires, interview guides, and other data collection instruments, including informed consent that incorporate gender considerations in both English and Swahili versions.
– Manage the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process, which involves compiling required documentation, such as study protocols, consent forms, study materials, in accordance with the IRB guidelines for submission. Additionally, address any further IRB’s requests to secure ethical approval.
– Lead the recruitment process for data enumerators, overseeing selection and training of chosen candidates.
– Implement the approved research methods, in collaboration with the CPRC MEL Specialist, organize the collected data, and apply appropriate statistical techniques and qualitative methods to interpret the data.
– Summarize the primary findings and identify emerging themes from the preliminary data analysis. Present these to the key project leaders, and subsequently to larger audiences following the final analysis.
– Prepare a comprehensive report using an agreed-upon reporting template, emphasizing key findings relevant to the research questions, and providing recommendations.
Deliverables
– Research plan document outlining methodology, data collection tools, ethical considerations, data analysis plan, and timeline by May 15th, 2024.
– Secure IRB approval by June 30th, 2024
– Trained enumerators on the approved research methodology and data collection instruments by July 10, 2024
– Cleaned and coded datasets, along with data analysis, interpretations, insights, and presentation slides by August 15, 2024
– A final comprehensive report and two learning products (such as presentations, white papers, monographs, or peer-reviewed manuscripts) as per the CPRC team’s agreement. – This report will emphasize critical discoveries and offer recommendations by September 30th. 2024
Qualifications and Competencies:
– Master’s in public health, Operational research, Epidemiology, Statistics, or related field will be an added advantage
– Demonstrated experience in conducting evaluation of the health-related community-based interventions, core principles in designing, prototyping, and iterating context-specific solutions for accountability and feedback mechanism.
– Strong knowledge of SBC frameworks and human-centered approaches and experience in the design/implementation of effective SBC interventions
– Experience in assessment of SBCC demand creation and community engagement materials including community score card interventions.
– Demonstrated skills and experience in qualitative and quantitative research, including synthesis, contextualization, and ability to translate formative research to programmatic strategies and goals.
– Strong experience in ethical clearance processes and institutional review board application including NIMR and COSTECH
– Excellent organizational skills and demonstrated ability to manage details.
– Strong verbal and written communication capability
– Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work effectively with a wide range of personalities.
– Demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft Office suite and qualitative/Quantitative software’s.
– Must have excellent communications skills, English and Swahili language
– Experience in SBC in RMNCAH+FP projects is strongly preferred.
– Experience supporting USAID-funded projects is a plus.
Interested consultants must provide information indicating experience for performing similar services. Such information may include evaluation of health-related projects, description of assignments of similar services in the last 5 years etc. For each completed assignment, the Consultant shall provide the name and address of the client, start, and completed dates of the service.
Core Values
– We create global community, treating others as they want to be treated.
– We respond effectively and responsibly, putting plans into practice.
– We embed ethics and equity in our work and workplace.
– We are better together; partnership is at our core.
– We ask and listen, to create sustainable solutions for a healthier tomorrow.
– We commit to quality, growing and improving to ensure individuals and communities thrive.
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