CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR A CONSULTANCY SERVICE

PROJECT NO:20.2155.8-021.04

COSOFT NO: 83432105

High Level Health Economics and Policy Advisory for Universal Health Coverage in Sierra Leone

1. Context

Sierra Leone is dedicated to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030. To this end, the Government aims to provide its population with a specific package of health services at affordable cost and a progressive expansion of social health protection. The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) has set up a Delivery Team to help achieve the required results as outlined in the National Medium-Term Development Plan 2019–2023. It is the Government’s desire that all Sierra Leoneans—including the poor and vulnerable populations, especially those living in remote and hard-to-reach areas—have accessible and quality health services.

A key support to the delivery team should be provided by a Health Economist who will work together with the other team members to strengthen the internal capacity and provide technical assistance to the key staff of the Sierra Leone Social Health Insurance Scheme (SLeSHI); evaluate costs and funding options for various projects; advise on efficiency gains and the overall health financing strategy of Sierra Leone; participate in series of (online) technical meetings with stakeholders as required; and other related topics. The Health Economist wil work closely with the health financing unit under the Directorate of Policy, Planning and Information, SLeSHI, and all other related and relevant government actors designated to them. 

In this context, GIZ BACKUP Health through its Health Financing – P4H Component seeks a suitable high-level health financing expert to advise the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in Sierra Leone on its most current and critical health financing reforms in 2023.

2    Objectives

The overall purpose of the assignment is to support the MOHS in the smooth implementation of the tasks of the proposed health delivery team to ensure effective implementation of health programs at all levels of the health system.

Specifically, the objectives are to provide:

a. General health and economics policy advisory and capacity building

b. Advisory on domestic resource mobilisation and utilization

c. Support to the coordination of donors/ development partners

d. Provide an institutional diagnostic focusing on the implementation of SLeSHI and highlight strengths and weaknesses to inform the successful operation of the scheme

3.    Tasks of the assignment:

a. General health economics policy advisory and capacity building

• Provide health financing technical assistance to the MOHS, Office of the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Health Financing Unit under the Directorate of Policy, Planning and Information, SLeSHI Secretariat and other directorates and departments as required;
• Advise the Minister on the possible recapitalization/relaunch of the cost recovery program for essential medicines, large essential medicines procurement and infrastructure developments, including via the set-up of public-private partnerships;
• Take a key role in conducting economic evaluations/analysis (cost-benefit, effectiveness and/or utility analysis) to inform decision-making; 
• Build capacity of the health financing unit in carrying out its health financing and policy advisory tasks, including economic evaluation analyses;
• Support policy formulation, training and capacity building of MOHS units, around UHC and health financing policies, contribute to the SLeSHI establishment and implementation plan, the health financing strategy and the implementation of the UHC roadmap;
• Support the implementation of ‘quick wins’ identified as part of the Minister’s agenda, the Medium-Term National Development Plan 2019–2023, the Health Sector Strategic Plan, the Health Financing Strategy, and the UHC roadmap.

b. Domestic resource mobilisation and utilization

• Advocate for political support for the implementation of the National Health Sector Strategic Plan and UHC roadmap among stakeholders such as MOHS, Ministry of Finance (MOF), Parliament, etc;
• Provide technical support (i.e., planning, budgeting/costing, technical and allocative efficiency, evidence briefs and similar analyses) and build the capacity of the MOHS’ budget committee and SLeSHI, advocate for it with MOF, and supervise its implementation;
• Provide planning and costing support to ensure that a comprehensive national program is developed and can be used by the Minister to solicit support from donors based on donors’ comparative advantage; 
• Assess adequacy and efficiency of resource allocations using financial gap analyses. Using expenditure tracking data, undertake donors and MOHS budget execution and effectiveness analyses, working closely with MOHS and the Senior Budget Officer at Budget Bureau, MOF;
• Identify bottlenecks to effective execution of the health budget and advise the Minister on how to address the issues.

C. Donor coordination

• Support the Government in the institutionalization of the resource mapping and expenditure tracking, in coordination with National Health Accounts as needed, to ensure availability of data on fund flows that can be used regularly to inform policy decision making;
• Ensure that resource mapping and expenditure tracking data is used to improve donor coordination, align external resources to government priorities, and improve donor budgets’ execution. This may include active engagement in projects preparation and budget planning;
• Take a coordinating function as P4H country focal person between MOH and donors to better align technical assistance on health financing funded by DPs (specifically, NHA, RMET, Public Expenditure Reviews)
• Participate in the exchange with the GIZ BACKUP Health Financing team, the P4H and Strategic Financing for Health Accelerator global networks to leverage global technical expertise/ comparative experience into the country work (and experiences from SL back to global level)
• Carry out any other activity required and respond to ad hoc requests from internal and external parties related to the above topics

d. Institutional diagnostic to SLeSHI

• Strengthen the internal capacity of the key staff of SLeSHI by regularly organizing trainings and technical meetings;
• Advice on pricing methodologies for the services currently included in the draft benefits package; 
• Support SLeSHI with its institutional development to manage resources efficiently;
• Identify bottlenecks and propose real-time solutions to inform the successful operation of the SLeSHI;
• Respond to ad hoc requests for technical assistance from SLeSHI.

1.          Timelines and Deliverables

This assignment will span from 1 April 2023 to 30 June 2023, be up to 70 expert days, and include the following deliverables:  

• Monthly activity reports clearly documenting tasks undertaken under the four tasks of the assignment;
• A comprehensive final report which vividly documents key achievements and impacts during the consultancy period in the four tasks of the assignment.

 2.     Qualifications

Qualifications of health financing and economics expert 

• –       Education/training: Minimum academic requirements – advanced degree (Masters or PhD) in Health Economics, or related subject (Public Health, Economics) with significant coursework in health economics; 
• Language: Excellent business language skills in English;
• General professional experience: at least 10 years of experience in health system strengthening, public health program management, monitoring and evaluation of health programs;
• Specific professional experience: at least 7 years in health financing, health economics, operations research in health economics, related to developing countries. Work experience in public financial management and public budget cycle is a plus;
• Leadership/management experience: at least 5 years advising high-level leaders and experience in leading large, multi-topic and multi-expert assignments including technical studies based on secondary and primary data collection are an asset;
• Regional experience: 10 years of work experience in low-income country settings, especially the Sub-Saharan Africa Region and work experience in Sierra Leone; 
• Other: experience with coordinating various stakeholders, writing country reports, conducting stakeholder consultations, working with national government decision makers, presenting concepts and ideas in a convincing professional manner and to high expert standards.

Eligible individual experts should submit their “Expression of Interest” ONLY via Email to SL_Quotation@giz.de not later than 28^th February 2023 4:30 PM local time, with subject titled “High Level Health Economics and Policy Advisory for Universal Health Coverage in Sierra Leone Cosoft No: 83432105 ”