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Evaluation Of The Free Maternal Health Care Initiative UNICEF Ghana

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST: EVALUATION OF THE FREE MATERNAL HEALTH CARE INITIATIVE IN GHANA

Subject: Evaluation of free maternal health care initiative in Ghana

Date of the EOI: 7 May, 2012

Closing Date of the EOI: 21 May, 2012

Address EOI by e-mail to: achatterjee@unicef.org


1.0 PURPOSE OF EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)

UNICEF Ghana is seeking Expression of Interest (EOI) from eligible individuals or qualified institutions to provide services to conduct an evaluation of Ministry of Health’s free maternal health care initiative in Ghana.


2.0 GENERAL REQUIREMENT

The proposed evaluation aims at strengthening on-going and future initiatives by systematically generating and disseminating evidence on the free maternal health care initiative in Ghana through the use of both qualitative and quantitative information related to processes, outputs, outcomes (including adherence to global standards and quality of services), and coverage and sustainability options. The lessons and recommendations from the evaluation will be used by national government and development partners for strengthening the existing free maternal health care initiative as well as advocating for leveraging resources and interventions in areas in need.

3.0 SCOPE OF WORK

Free Maternal Health Care Initiative:

Available evidence suggests that increasing women’s access to skilled medical care at child birth, pregnancy and the early postpartum period protects the mother and child from death and or illness at birth. Conscious of this evidence, the Ministry of Health adopted the skilled delivery approach for maternal and child health services. In an effort to further improve skilled delivery coverage (42.2% in 2008) and ensure equitable access to skilled delivery services, the government in 2008 introduced the free maternal health care initiative. The aim of the initiative is to reduce maternal mortality in Ghana. It was designed to increase uptake of antenatal, delivery and post-natal care services through the registration of all pregnant women and exemptions from payment of registration charges and NHIS premium.

The free maternal health care initiative provided for a specific benefit package. Under the package all pregnant women not currently registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) are exempted from payment of NHIS premium and registration charges while the waiting period between registration and accessing services is waived. The initiative also ascribes similar relief to women who present to accredited health facilities with pregnancy related complications as a result of a miscarriage or abortion. Women who deliver at home or in an unaccredited health facility and subsequently present with post-partum complications would enjoy similar relief. The initiative provides for pregnant women to access all the above maternity services under the NHIS benefit package. Family planning is not included under the NHIS benefits package.

Scope of the evaluation:

The overall objective of the evaluation is to understand whether the intended objectives of the free maternal delivery care policy as implemented are being achieved. The evaluation will be guided by OECD/DAC evaluation criteria, with a focus on relevance, effectiveness, efficiency (cost-effectiveness), sustainability and impact.
The evaluation will undertake analytical assessment of the progress achieved in implementing free maternal health care nationally to identify key successes, good practices, and gaps / constraints that need to be addressed. Coverage data and details on the profile of beneficiaries should refer to the entire country. Perspectives of beneficiaries may, however, be relevant only for the location in which they accessed free maternal care. It will ascertain the profile of beneficiaries of the free maternal health care policy and describe the process and challenges in the implementation of the guidelines on free maternal health care policy at all levels of service delivery and within the NHIS and the MOH.
Team composition and professional requirements:

The evaluation is planned to be conducted by a team of freelance consultants or a qualified institution. It is proposed that the evaluation team consist of local and international evaluation experts one of whom must have significant research/evaluation background in health financing and social health insurance. The exact division of work will be decided by the team, but in general, the team leader will have the responsibility for all negotiations, decisions, and deliverables.

The qualifications and experience required are as follows:
Team Leader:
• Extensive evaluation expertise and experience at international level (at least 8 years) and a strong commitment to undertake the evaluation
• Sound knowledge of health financing and social health insurance policy and implementation issues in developing countries either as researcher/evaluator or at senior policy level within government or development agencies.
• Team leadership and management, interpersonal/communication skills
• Familiarity with major development issues concerning maternal, new born and child health

Team Member:
• Experience in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of projects in Maternal, New Born and Child Health/Public Health.
• Demonstrated skill in conducting evaluations of maternal, newborn and child health or other public health programmes
• Team work and inter-personal communication

Team Leader and Member:
• Language proficiency: Excellent written and oral communication skills in English
• Significant experience in working with development agencies (desirable).
• Similar work in the last 3 years (to provide copies of reports).
• A recognised university degree in public health, health economics, international development, medical anthropology or related social science (at a minimum of Masters Level, but preferably at doctorate level).
• Good communication, advocacy and people skills. Ability to communicate with various stakeholders. Ability to express concisely and clearly ideas and concepts in written and oral form.

Period of assignment: The expected period of assignment will be for approximately 80 days per team member over the period June 2012 to October 2012.


4.0 SUBMISSION OF EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)

Qualified individuals or institutions are requested to submit a brief letter of interest (limit to 1 page) indicating the position for which they are applying (Team Leader; Team Member; or Institution) and how their skills and experience meet the technical capabilities associated; a cv for each proposed team member; and an electronic submission of one evaluation the candidate/institution has managed or in which s/he/it has played a critical role.

EOIs should be sent by e-mail to: achatterjee@unicef.org, no later than 5 PM GMT on 21 May, 2012. Following this EOI, short-listed candidates/institutions will be invited to submit a brief proposal. More detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) will be sent to short-listed candidates.

Please note the following:

1. Incomplete responses will not be considered.
2. This EOI does not constitute a solicitation. We seek your expression of interest in undertaking the evaluation, and not proposals or price quotes.
3. A response to this request for EOI does not automatically ensure selection.
4. UNICEF reserves the right to change or cancel the requirement at any time during the EOI, and to require compliance with additional conditions in subsequent stages of the solicitation process.