UNDP Jobs - 74401- Consultant to Evaluate Impact of BCC Program

Consultant to Evaluate Impact of BCC Program

Location :

Harare, ZIMBABWE

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

22-Sep-2017

Application Deadline :

14-Sep-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

15 days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

15 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

Zimbabwe, through the coordination of the National AIDS Council is implementing the Behaviour Change (BC) programme. The BC program aims at generating demand for HIV services and commodities and promoting safer sexual practices. The program is extensively implemented in all the districts of Zimbabwe.

Currently the BC programme has adopted the use of the door-to-door (home visits) and sista2sista approaches to reach families, couples and individuals. The overall goal of the door to door approach is to change the behaviour of the people reached by the programme to improve their health choices i.e. more people knowing their HIV status, women accessing PMTCT, correct and consistent use of condoms, ART adherence, men going for medical circumcision, reduction of gender based violence and women going for cancer screening. The aim of the sister to sister programme is to enhance the self-efficacy of young women to access and utilise integrated HIV prevention, SRH and GBV services by empowering them to make responsible reproductive health decisions i.e. in terms of delaying sexual debut, standing up against child marriages, and reduction in teen pregnancies, reporting of sexual abuses etc.

Duties and Responsibilities

Purpose of the evaluation

The overall purpose of this work is to assess the impact of the Behaviour Change Communication Programme. This will include:-

Assessing the potential health impact of the programme due to the scale of interventions
Analysing the cost effectiveness of service delivery mechanisms.
Highlighting opportunities, innovations, challenges and lessons learned and, provide recommendations for design of future initiatives and approaches that can be adopted.

Specific Objectives

The impact of the programme

The assessment will clearly evaluate to what extent the programme has managed to achieve its stated objectives, through: -

Ability of the programme to reach target outputs, including geographic scope and scale.
Overall management of the programme.
Contributing to health systems strengthening.

Key questions will include:-

How far has the programme increased access to, and use of, HIV prevention and care products and services?
How far has the programme adopted evidence-based approaches in the scale up of interventions?
What contributions has the programme made to increasing adoption of safer sexual behaviours and to reduce stigma?
How effective is the programme at reaching intended beneficiaries, hard to reach and vulnerable groups?
How far has the programme addressed gender equity and gender specific needs?

Best Practices/Recommendations

The assessment will document specific lessons learned, case studies and specific recommendations: -

How effective were the programme’s information systems and data collection/reporting?
How the programme has supported the national HIV/AIDS strategy?
How has the programme collaborated with the national authorities and other partners?
Which innovative strategies, interventions, models and tools have been developed by the programme and how have these been shared and used in other contexts?

Proposed Methodology

A nationally representative evaluation will be conducted. The consultant will sample and visit four provinces but NAC can facilitate telephone interviews for the outstanding provinces if the consultant highlights the need. Below is a list of the study participants.

Stakeholder list:

National level: NAC officials (Director, BC, Youth, Gender coordinators, M&E); UNFPA, UNDP, PSI, ZNFPC, MoHCC, ZPCS, Ministry of Youth, MoWAGCD, Social Welfare, CSOs and NASCO.
Provincial level: PAC, BCC implementing partner, PMD, prevention forums, PSI, ZNFPC and MoHCC.
District level: DAC, DNO, CSO partner other than BCC IP, University/Polytechnic/Teachers college Focal persons, prevention forums, PSI and ZNFPC.
Ward/Village/Community level: New Start Centres, Victim Friendly Unit(VFU), Community leaders, Sista2sista club members, representatives of organisations of sex workers, Behaviour change facilitators and Condom Distributors.

Sample size:

20 Stakeholders in 4 provinces.

The proposed methodology is a guide and the consultancy team will be expected to give clarity on the methodology and work plan on submission of the inception report.

Key informants with stakeholders (Refer to Stakeholder List)
Focus group discussions with members of sista2sista clubs, general youth’s men. The size of the FGD will range from 7-12 members and will be conducted at the place and time when the mentors usually meet with the girls. The FGD will ride on the scheduled meeting and already provided refreshments. The IP and District Officers will facilitate the clearance
Interviews with community members, service providers, community leaders, community health volunteers, mentors. Meeting of stakeholders at National level will be communicated by NAC in liaison with the Consultant. Interviews at provincial and district level will be coordinated by the respective IP and NAC at those levels. The stakeholders to be interviewed will be guided by the above stakeholders list. No refreshments are needed
General observations of home visits and sista2sista club meetings. The consultant will observe a session and then proceed to do a focus group with the same girls. In the same regard the consultant will observe a home visit session then interview the BCF.
Secondary data analysis.

The Consultants will be requested to include all the provinces and then randomly sample the districts to be covered by the study. The study population will be all the provinces and the consultant will use prevalence, incidence, hot spot mapping and MOTs to sample four provinces and 1 district in each that will participate in the study

Reference Materials available to the disposal of the Consultant include: -

Previous BC Impact study, Home visit manual, Siosta2sista manuals, programme reports HIV Estimates, Epidemiological review, Modes of transmission, ZIMPHIA, ZDHS.

Competencies

Ability to conduct quantitative and qualitative research methods;
Ability to conduct large survey fieldwork;
Ability to exercise sound judgment in gathering and interpreting secondary data;
Highly developed self-management, and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced degree in Public Health or Social Science/ Equivalent.

Experience:

5 years of both quantitative and qualitative survey methods;
5 years conducting evaluations of similar set-up, size and scope;
5 years participatory assessment and development approaches;
5 years conducting large survey fieldwork (data collection, validation, entry and analysis).

Language:

Fluent in English.