VdE | Consultor de Pesquisa em HIV |Abt Associates
The USAID Local Health System Sustainability Project (LHSS) project helps low- and middle-income countries transition to sustainable, self-financed health systems as a means to support universal health coverage. Led by Abt Associates, the five-year, $209 million project works with partner countries and local stakeholders to reduce financial barriers to care and treatment, ensure equitable access to essential health services for all people, and improve the quality of health services.
USAID’s Office of HIV/AIDS (OHA), with other USAID partners, is spearheading an initiative to elevate people-centered outcome metrics in HIV programming. The partnership has developed six indicators to track these outcomes, which are ready to be tested in an existing HIV program setting. With funding from OHA, LHSS will design and implement an intervention and a study to introduce, test, refine, and validate the people-centered outcome metrics in selected facilities in Mozambique that are supported by the USAID-funded and Abt-led Efficiencies for Clinical Outcomes (ECHO) program. The activity will involve attempting to introduce and then integrate the six people-centered indicators at two ECHO facilities, assessing the indicators’ feasibility and data quality, and then exploring their potential for improving the care experience—from the perspective of program staff, providers, and clients. LHSS is seeking a consultant in Tete province in Mozambique to serve as a co-principal investigator and support the activity, which will be implemented in two facilities (Mpadue and CDS No 2) in Tete province.
Aim of the Consultancy
LHSS is seeking a Mozambique-based consultant with knowledge of HIV clinical care, quantiative and qualitative research to support implementation of the activity. LHSS has prepared and submitted a protocol for the study (including all tools and consent forms) to the National Committee on Bioethics of Health (CNBS), and will also prepare materials and tools required for the orientation and data collection.
The activity comprises an intervention to introduce new indicators, collect data on the indicators, and present them at data review meetings. The concomitant study will assess this intervention, by conducting focus group discussions and interviews at different points in the intervention. The consultant will be expected to support the activity team with local implementation of both the intervention and the study. The consultant will be expected to coordinate closely with program and facility staff in the two facilities to orient staff on the indicators, coordinate with data collectors who will collect data on the indicators and also administer study tools to assess the intervention, and serve as a facilitator for the indicators discussion at data review and other regular meetings. The consultant will coordinate with 2 data collectors who will support with logistics, data collection and entry/transcription and data cleaning. The consultant will support LHSS HO staff to conduct preliminary data analysis and validation as needed.
The consultant will report to a technical team member at LHSS home office and will work closely with the US-based LHSS activity team and will work in-country to minimize burden to ECHO and facility staff, and to ensure smooth coordination between LHSS and ECHO.
The consultant will work with the LHSS technical staff to undertake the following key tasks with the expected level of effort:
- Follow up with CNBS on packet as needed in order to obtain timely approval (1 day)
- Engage with relevant stakeholders such as Ministry of Health quality advisors and HIV program leaders to orient them to activity and indicators as needed (2 days)
- Develop a sound understanding of the six people-centered indicators and conduct orientation on new indicators for facility and program staff at two facilities (3 days)
- Coordinate collection of indicator data by data collectors, and share indicator data at two points in time (13 days total)
- Coordinate with ECHO and facility staff to agree on recruitment of clients and location of interviews (1 day)
- Coordinate data collection for six people-centered indicators (3 days)
- Each time this will include 50 clients per facility so total of 100 clients
- Ensure proper cleaning of data by data collectors (2 days)
- Analyze and package indicator data values and share at 2 to 4 data review meetings and other forums if appropriate, for provider performance and quality improvement (7 days)
- Coordinate/conduct administration of tools, and data cleaning for three study phases (16 days total)
- Coordinate with ECHO and facility staff to determine lists of respondents for study tools in each phase (2 days)
- Phase 1a (3 days)
- Administer qualitative tools for first two phases of study:
- 2-3 focus group discussions (1 per facility)
- Coordinate transcription and translation of findings by data analysts; review to ensure data quality
- Phase 1b (3 days)
- Administer qualitative tools for first two phases of study:
- 2 focus group discussions (1 per facility)
- Coordinate transcription and translation of findings by data collectors; review to ensure data quality
- Phase 2 (8 days)
- Coordinate administration of quantitative and qualitative tools for final phase of study by data collectors (3 days)
- 40 KIIs with clients (20 per facility- 10 from community and 10 from facility based service users)
- 20 KIIs with providers and program staff (10 per facility)
- Coordinate transcription and translation of transcribed KII qualitative data by data collectors; review to ensure data quality (3 days)
- Coordinate data entry and cleaning of quantitative data in Excel; review to ensure data quality (2 days)
- Contribute to analysis and validation of pilot findings as needed (2 days)
- Support in-country coordination and meetings as needed (2 days)
- Provide ad-hoc support to facilitate in-country communication or other tasks as needed (up to 5 days)
Minimum Qualifications:
- Minimum of Masters degree in public health, medicine or related field; medical degree preferred
- Experience working on HIV in a clinical setting preferred, ideally with monitoring of care
- Research skills: adminstering quantitative and qualitative surveys, facilitating focus group discussions, collecting and cleaning data
- Experience in supporting data use for decision making
- Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and concisely both orally and in writing
- Collaborative team player with excellent interpersonal and organizational skills
- Ability to engage remotely (virtual meetings) with LHSS staff (USA)
- Excellent language proficiency in both Portuguese and English required
- Proficiency in Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
Key Deliverables:
- Cleaned data on six indicators from two rounds of data collection (Excel)
- Data on six indicators (aggregated and individual if appropriate) analyzed and presented in PowerPoint for program and provider decision-making at data review meetings
- Recruitment lists for study tools
- Cleaned and translated quantitative and qualitative data files for all phases of study as agreed with activity team (Excel or Word)
- Contribution to analysis and validation of findings (as agreed with LHSS activity lead)
Level of Effort and Period of Performance:
The anticipated period of performance for this assignment is July 2022 – June 2023, with a total LOE of up to 44 days. Allowable expenses incurred while performing this work will be reimbursed.
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