: Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI)

Deadline: 17 September 2021

Background

The Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI) and its Partners, Infection Control Association of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) and The International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in Zimbabwe (IUTLD), through funding from U.S Centre’s for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/Zimbabwe, implemented the Healthcare Associated Tuberculosis Infection Prevention Project in Zimbabwe (HATIPP-ZIM). The program initially supported Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) in preventing healthcare associated tuberculosis infection in Zimbabwe from October 2016 to September 2019. In year 4 and year 5 (October 2019 to September 2021), of the Cooperative Agreement (CoAg) the HATIPP-ZIM program under BRTI transitioned to support the strengthening of laboratory systems to scale up viral load and early infant diagnosis testing in Zimbabwe.

The first three years of the program aimed at developing a policy on TB screening among Heath Care Workers (HCWs) as well as screening of TB among a 17,240 HCWs all central, provincial, district and mission hospitals at least once a year. The last two years of the program aimed to strengthen the testing capacity of 68 MOHCC public health laboratories and increase access to quality testing for people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Zimbabwe. The overall goal of the program was to optimize Viral Load/Early Infant Diagnosis (VL-EID) activities and ongoing monitoring to ensure reductions in morbidity and mortality across age, sex, and risk groups (pregnant women, breast feeding women and paediatrics). BRTI hereby seeks the services of a Consultant to conduct the end of CoAg Program evaluation.

Objectives

The “End of CoAg Evaluation” seeks to provide information on whether the objectives of the program were achieved from 2016 to 2021. The evaluation must assess achievements, effectiveness, and adequacy of the program strategies towards reaching expected targets and results; identify lessons; and make recommendations to inform the next phase of the program.

The overall specific objectives of the evaluation are:

To assess progress of the program from the 1st of October 2016 to date, against the key outputs/milestones as captured in the CoAg and Evaluation Performance Measurement Plan; To assess the effectiveness of strategies and implementation of interventions and provide recommendations to further improve the program; To assess the strengths and weaknesses of the partnership with Implementing Partners (IP); To assess program efficiency focusing on financial, programmatic, planning, implementation, and monitoring and reporting systems and processes; To identify the challenges, opportunities & recommendations to inform the next phase of the program; To assess the sustainability of the project results in contributing to overall health system strengthening in line with MoHCC goals and objectives.

Scope of assignment

The Consultant is expected to conduct on-site validations, interviews, observations, focus group discussions, workshops with primary project implementers, key stakeholders, and partners among others. The following steps are proposed for conducting the evaluation; preparatory planning meetings, documents review, data collection/field exercise, debriefing after first draft of writing and report writing.

Expected outputs / deliverables

Inception Report with detailed methodology and evaluation work plan. Data collection tools. Draft evaluation report. Final evaluation report with a minimum of: Table of contents; Executive summary; Introduction, objectives, and methodology; Findings and Discussion; Conclusion; Lessons Learnt; Recommendations and Action Plan; Appendices. Three (3) full set of hardcopy reports and one (1) soft copy of report, with all appendices

Timeline of evaluation

The evaluation is expected to start in September 2021 and completed by 15 October 2021. The proposal must include a budget and work plan.

Required qualifications, experience and skills of the consultant

The successful Consultant should have demonstrated experience in program evaluation using established research and evaluation methods, M&E and financial management assessments. The following will be the minimum requirements for the program evaluation Consultant: MPH or MSc, PHD in medical laboratory-related sciences; Public health expert with at least 10 years’ experience in TB and HIV program management and/or implementation; Monitoring and evaluation expert with experience in results-based M&E; Excellent analytical and report writing skills.