Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning specialist at African Population and Health Research Center

BACKGROUND AND APPROACH

APHRC is seeking monitoring, evaluation, and learning specialist and/or institution collaborate in the review, evaluation, and documentation of the impact of the policy engagement, knowledge translation, and capacity-strengthening work implemented by the Eastern Africa Health Policy Research Organization (EA-HPRO) Consortium in six countries in East and Southern Africa.

The EA-HPRO, a Consortium of three organizations – APHRC, East, Central, Southern Africa Health Community and Partners in Population and Development – is part of the Innovating for Maternal and Child Health in Africa (IMCHA) Initiative. IMCHA seeks to improve maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes by strengthening equity in health systems and their delivery of services, using primary health care as an entry point. The initiative has paired researchers with policymakers to enhance the use of evidence and the translation of knowledge into policy and practice.

APHRC, as the lead institution for the Consortium, is looking for a consulting firm who will facilitate the review and documentation the approach and impact of the Health Policy Research Organization. The aim is to take stock of what has been achieved through different activities implemented by the EA-HPRO Consortium to enhance the translation of knowledge and evidence use.

The purpose of documenting the activities, processes, learnings, and their impact, directly and indirectly, provides an opportunity for us to demonstrate the value of knowledge translation and policy engagement in enhancing evidence-informed decision-making and scale-up. We want to have a better understanding of the practices and circumstances that have enabled or hindered the achievement of our targets. The analysis will also inform APHRC’s model of knowledge translation and policy engagement.

Figure1: HPRO’s Evidence use approach– informed by the logic model (Langer et al., 2016)

II. PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE CONSULTANCY

The aim will be to assess the value and impact of the HPRO model as part of the IMCHA Initiative in enhancing evidence use by implementing knowledge translation and policy engagement activities in six countries. Using the theory of change articulated above, we want to capture learning in the following aspects:

Objective1: HPRO model of engagement with the 13 research teams. The engagement has been in the form of capacity strengthening, development of national strategies for engagement, development of key messages, development of knowledge translation plans and products, and providing technical inputs on approaches to facilitate evidence use for decision making.

Objective 2: HPRO model of knowledge translation and policy engagement with decision-makers at sub-regional, national, and regional levels. The Eastern Africa HPRO has partners, ECSA and PPD, who convene regional forums, and these platforms where IMCHA research work has been shared. Further the EA-HPRO worked with country research teams to develop a roadmap for national engagement. The policy engagement work has been complemented by knowledge translation training, plans, and outputs.

Objective 3: Measure the different levels of impact and scale-up and how the EA-HPRO and research teams have contributed. We foresee change taking place at institutional, sub-regional, and national levels and hence would like track and document it. This should also capture the expected and unexpected outcomes that stand to contribute to the provision of quality maternal and child health services.

Objective 4: Impact of capacity strengthening courses. The EA-HPRO conducted a series of capacity strengthening courses from 2015-2018. The courses were on various research skills and knowledge translation. We would like to assess the impact of these courses on the research work.

III. DELIVERABLES

The consulting firm will be responsible for producing the following deliverables by documenting the learnings as per the objectives:

• The model of the EA-HPRO consortium showing it’s value as part of the IMCHA Initiative by documenting the best practices as well as what has not worked to inform future programming.
• Document the engagement between the EA-HPRO consortium and the 13 research teams. Further, highlight the value that the Consortium has added to the teams.
• Track and highlight the different levels of impact and scale-up at institutional, sub-regional, and national levels informed by the EA-HPRO Consortium approach highlighted above. Further, highlighting case studies on the engagement with decision-makers at different levels.
• Demonstrate and document the impact of the capacity strengthening courses on research skills and knowledge translation done by the EA-HPRO Consortium, targeting the 13 research teams working in six countries.

Expected outputs

The consulting firm will produce the following outputs:

• Two journal articles that will be submitted for publication.
• Thematic reports on each objective.
• Four policy engagement case studies in the form of articles that can be shared with a wider audience, including donors, partners, and governments.
• One fact sheet.
• Two policy briefs.

IV. TIME PLAN

The duration of the assignment is from January to May 2020. A phased approach will be employed based on the agreed schedule of deliverables.

V. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Consulting firm will:

1. Develop a detailed work plan for completing the objectives of the consultancy, consistent with the timeframe proposed.
2. Maintain communication throughout the consultancy, including being available for review meetings after each stage of the process.

• Adhere to the agreed time plan and achieve all the deliverables.

APHRC will:

1. Provide relevant internal documents.
2. Facilitate contacts with colleagues and explicit management support for the process.

• Set-up a reference group for the work to provide ongoing support to the consulting firm during the process, including feedback on drafts of outputs.

1. Provide a contract to the service provider and pay for the services rendered as per the contractual agreement and on the satisfactory completion of the work.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

This task requires the following expertise, skills, and competencies:

• Demonstrable experience in developing monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) frameworks.
• Proven capacity for analysis of complex, cross-sector programs.
• Practical development program experience and understanding of field realities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• 6+ years demonstrated experience in doing monitoring, evaluation, and learning and knowledge management.
• Master’s degree in communications, monitoring and evaluation or public health preferred.
• Have experience in assessing policy engagement and communications programs.
• Demonstrated experience in strategy development for complex projects.
• Up-to-date knowledge of MEL and an understanding of the constraints and benefits of different approaches.
• Familiarity with the international public health sphere.
• Impeccable interpersonal skills to work with multiple teams and stakeholders.
• Excellent attention to detail and track record of producing high-quality documents.
• Strong planning, management, facilitation, interpersonal, and communications skills.