UNDP Jobs - 71957- Re-advertisement - Mapping of Civil Society Organi

Re-advertisement - Mapping of Civil Society Organizations on HIV and TB

Location :

Maputo, MOZAMBIQUE

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

18-Aug-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

37 Days

Languages Required :

English Portuguese

Expected Duration of Assignment :

37 Days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

UNDP’s democratic governance practice focuses on fostering inclusive participation, strengthening responsive governing institutions, and promoting democratic principles. UNDP’s commitment to HIV and other major health challenges is based on the principles that health is both a driver and outcome of development and that actions across a wide range of development sectors have a significant impact on health outcomes. UNDP focuses on addressing the social, economic and environmental determinants of health, which are primarily responsible for health inequalities.

The project intends to strengthen the capacity of the Government National AIDS Council in coordination and communication among stakeholders to increase efforts to eliminate the epidemic. This is in line with the Political Declaration adopted by the UN High Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS held in 2011, where the Heads of State agreed “to develop additional measures, where necessary, to strengthen national, regional and global coordination and monitoring mechanisms of HIV and AIDS responses through inclusive and transparent processes with the full involvement of Member States and other relevant stakeholders, with the support of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS”.

The project has 4 specific outputs:
Output 1: The capacity of National AIDS Council at national level, and in selected provinces and districts improved to coordinate planning, implementation and monitoring of the HIV programmes.
Output 2: The HIV law is reviewed, disseminated and implemented.
Output 3: The grant management model is revised.
Output 4: The revised grant management model is adopted and implemented by the Government.

Rationale for activity implementation (mapping of CSO interventions operating on HIV, TB and Malaria)

In Mozambique, HIV and AIDS constitutes a major challenge for the development of the country. The prevalence of HIV among Mozambican adults aged 15-49 is 11.5% (2009 AIDS Indicator Survey). Gaza Province has the highest prevalence rate among adults (25.1%) and Niassa has the lower (3.7%). The INSIDA report also revealed that HIV prevalence is higher in urban areas than in rural areas.

In terms of gender, the INSIDA report reveals an increase in the feminization of HIV with the rate of infection among women higher comparing to men (13.1% and 9.2%, respectively). In Sofala, the prevalence among young women is almost five times higher than men of similar age, and in Gaza it is almost six times higher. Gender inequalities are the basis of both violence against women and increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Unequal power relationships play a role by influencing risky sexual behaviors and help perpetuate violence against women and girls.

The fight against HIV and AIDS will continue to be a priority for the Government of Mozambique, and it is reflected in the 5-year government plan for the period of 2015-2020. The new HIV National Strategic Plan recently approved (NSP- IV) for the period of 2015-2019 and the new the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2016-2020, both reflect the HIV specific country concerns.

Civil Society Organizations have multiple functions in development agenda in general and have role in the HIV/AIDS pandemic and governance at all levels, from the local to the global. The growing importance of civil society actors in the development arena and in health particularly presents a range of challenges in building partnership and alliance with civil society partners. To design and sustain genuine partnerships with civil society actors, it is essential to understand the civil society sector, assess its capacities and weaknesses, and develop appropriate and effective tools and instruments to engage with civil society organizations (CSOs). In the health context CSO are key actors to ensure the engagement of communities in a meaningful manner, partners need to understand the context where they operate as well as to learn from the existent knowledge and experience; it also the role of partners to support on their capacity development aiming at a truly partnership on which CSO are equipped with the necessary and relevant tools and knowledge. Government and partners have much to learn and gain from CSO based on a very strategic engagement at multiple levels.

FOREWOAs non-state actors, whose aims are neither to generate profits nor to seek governing power. CSOs unite people to advance shared goals and interests. Thus, the role of CSO is critical on: Advocacy; Watchdog; Networking; Research; Serve as umbrella CSO and implementer of community interventions.

There is a general agreement that strong community participation in the response to HIV, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria is essential to control these epidemics. In the AIDS response, community-based organizations (CBOs) and other NGOs have played a critical role. They have been key providers of prevention, treatment, care and support services and have worked to create the social, political, legal and financial environment needed to effectively respond to the epidemic. In many countries, CBOs are the only agencies able to reach the most hard-to-reach individuals – especially members of key affected populations such as people who use drugs, men who have sex with men and sex workers. This is especially common where widespread stigma or legal, social and economic obstacles dissuade or prevent members of these groups from seeking appropriate care and support.

The engagement of community at different levels has been weak and affected heavily by their capacity to coordinate and complement the actions at political, programmatic and implementation levels including the mentoring, monitoring and evaluation of their actions.

UNAIDS has been supporting a platform of CSO working on health in a structure and systematic manner, this support is already showing results and have impact on their actions and ability to engage and participate in various process. Some challenges remain on the capacity to act as a group, capacity to joint mobilize resources and implement the agreed priorities one hand and on another hand, is the disjoint information about those organization, location, thematic area and their level of intervention. It also a challenge to support in a more coherent manner as it is not known their classification as NGO, CBO, FBO, Network etc.

With the approval of NSP IV (2015-2019); the High Level Political Declaration signed in 2016; the UNAIDS FAST TRACK to End AIDS it is essential to have an equipped and skilled community based organizations and the intermediate NGOs to deliver on those interventions; for that end it has been identified a gap on information related to those organizations and the areas covered by them; UNAIDS and UNDP are supporting the national authorities to integrate the human rights issues that constitute a barrier to access the services, specifically the stigma and discrimination, legal literacy and treatment literacy and key prevention interventions to increase and improve the access to services.

It has been also identified a challenge to support the design of specific interventions with referral system due to lack of structured information on their area of interventions in the health issues. To improve the capacity of CSO and the communities that them represent it has been identified the need to undertake a mapping exercise that will serve to identify CSOs working in similar areas, within the health context and HIV and TB. This will help the partners and the Government to extend their support and linkages to avoid the limitation of partnership to well-known and established NGOs, overlooking the potential of other civil society actors to contribute to achieving their health goals.

The mapping exercises will allow the identification of many potential partners as possible to build lasting relationships with the appropriate organizations. Further the exercise will support the identification of key priorities to contribute to the NSP IV and Fast-Track the response at community level to reach those hard to reach, by location, community or their status (key Population; PLHIV mobile population, adolescent and young people among others).

A team of consultant from the civil society sector with experience and knowledge of CSOs in the country will be selected to assist in the design and implementation of this mapping and prioritization exercise for CSOs.

Description of the assignment:

Mapping of Civil Society Organizations and their respective interventions on HIV, TB and Malaria for a better response to the National Strategic Plan IV 2015-2019 and the Global Fund.

The deliverable provided by the Consultant Expert(s) will be a detailed Report of National and local CSO’s operating under the areas described above, that can be engaged in the implementation of NSP IV 2015-2019 and/or in the Global Fund. The document should capture the overall HIV, TB and Malaria Health Main Platforms, Umbrella organizations and their affiliate local stakeholders, their respective interventions in response of the three diseases.

Other relevant information is to mention the target group assisted, if women Youth, Adolescents and other key or vulnerable populations. This consultant work is intended to build in the PLASOC-M Strategic plan and as well as facilitate the collaboration with the National M&E plans and as well the government specific sectors and CSO’s M&E plans.

Objective

To undertake a mapping of CSO’s that work in the health sectors with specific focus on HIV, TB and Malaria in line with the NSP IV to improve their coordinated actions that contributes to maximize the impact and sustainability of health results, mapping as a critical step to strengthen the community system to improve the health results and FAST TRACK the response at community level.

Specific Objectives

To undertake a mapping of CSO’s engaged in national HIV and TB response in Mozambique, it´s areas of interventions.
Identification of potential areas of intervention and approach to inform their strategy;
Identification of potential interventions based on the national priorities (NSP IV) and the High-Level Meeting targets and need for capacity building on key technical areas.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Team of experts, will develop the work in two phases:

Part A

Literature Review to take stock of the existent work already done by CSO’s
Conduct a field work data collection.

Specific activities will include:

Analysis of existent documents, data and information collected;
Prepare a data collection tool or data collection questionnaire;
Consult with the relevant stakeholders

Part B

Develop the Report and detailed Excel sheet of information’s.

The Team of Experts will use as main reference documents the Data Base of CNCS on existing CSO’s including at local level and PLASOC-M contact list of the CSO’s, as well as other informative documents to be provided by the relevant stakeholders.

A. Expected Outputs / Deliverables

The consultant team of experts will produce will produce clear measurable deliverables, as follows:

Mapping of CSO undertaken and a directory/compendium of CSO networks, CBO, FBOs and NGOs working in the health sector available.
Undertaken three skills building workshop (one per region) to define the entry points for a coherent strategy for CSO contribution to the NSP IV
Produced a set of recommendations to be considered in the design of the CSO strategy including the communication strategy and monitoring and evaluation approach at community levels; defined the entry point to improve the linkages and referral system at community level.
Consultancy technical report presented.

Deliverable 1: Conduct a desk review of key documents

Deliverable 2: A Data collection tool/ A questionnaire for data collection

Deliverable 3: Conduct a data collection through a deep interview with key Intervenient (CSO’s, selected government institutions, Private sector, UN)

Deliverable 4: Conduct a data analysis

Deliverable 5: Deliver the first draft Report

Deliverable 6: Facilitate the validation session

Deliverable 7: Deliver the final Report and respective annexes of CSO’s mapping.

Competencies

The Expert(s) is expected to have core competencies:

Promoting Ethics and Integrity/Creating Organizational Precedents
Building and promoting effective civil society capacity building
Leveraging PLASOC-M mandate
Fair and transparent language.

Additionally, he/she is expected to have functional competencies:

Contributing to positive outcomes for the national multisector response in a client based approach that:

Support the development of Data-base of information;
Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective;
Keeps the client informed of problems or delays in the provision of services;
Uses discretion and flexibility in interpreting rules in order to meet client needs and achieve organizational goals more effectively;
Solicits feedback on service provision and quality;
Strong interpersonal and written and oral communication skills;
Ability to work well in multi-disciplinary teams.

Required Skills and Experience

For complementarity, a team of 2 consultants is recommended that a mix of skill set be considered for this exercise (knowledge of CSO and HIV and knowledge and facilitation skills of similar process).

The Senior consultant leads all the research and provides guidance to the Junior consultant. The required qualifications for the Senior Consultant are:

Education:

Advanced degree in Sociology, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Development studies, Political Sciences, Public Health, Medicine, Statistics or related fields.

Experience:

Minimum of 10 years of “relevant” work experience in Monitoring and Evaluation of public policies of HIV and AIDS in Mozambique.
Practical experience on writing reports in HIV and AIDS area;
Practical experience in consultations and in the development of M&E Framework;
Extensive experience with CSO’s issues;
Proven facilitation skills (workshops, data collection, etc.).

Language:

Good Knowledge of Portuguese and English.

The Junior consultant works under the total responsibility of the Senior consultant. The required qualifications for the Junior Consultant are:

Degree in Sociology, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Development studies, Political Sciences, Public Health, Medicine, Statistics or related fields;
Minimum of 5 years of “relevant” work experience in such type of exercise
Practical experience on writing reports in HIV and AIDS area;
Practical experience in consultations and in the implementation of mapping exercise;
Extensive experience on civil society issues;
Proven facilitation skills (workshops, data collection, etc.);
Good Knowledge of Portuguese and English.

The terms of Reference can be found at: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/.