Consultant: Evaluation of the Community Score Card at Americares

Consultant – Evaluation of the Community Score Card at Americares April 2024
Scope of Work:
Evaluation
of the Community Score Card contributed towards improved service
utilization, increased accountability and feedback, and enhanced
community engagement

Americares is a health-focused relief and
development organization that saves lives and improves health for people
affected by poverty or disaster. Each year, Americares reaches 85
countries on average, including the United States, with life-changing
health programs, medicine, medical supplies, and emergency aid.
Americares is one of the world’s leading non-profit providers of donated
medicine and medical supplies. For more information, visit
www.americares.org.

About the Community Partnerships for Respectful Care (CPRC) Project:
The Americares Community Partnerships for Respectful Care (CPRC) is a
5-year project (2020-2025) funded by the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) to contribute to reducing mortality and morbidity
among mothers and their children through improved community-based health
care. The USAID CPRC project (USAID Uzazi
Staha in Swahili) provides strategic technical assistance at the
national, regional and council levels to improve the quality and uptake
of RMNCAH+FP and nutrition services, as well as strengthen RMC in
Tanzania.

Americares Tanzania works with Christian Social
Services Commission (CSSC) in the implementation of the USAID CPRC
project in the Mwanza Region. The issue of disrespect and abuse directly
and negatively affects the uptake of essential maternal and child
health services by women and their families. At the same time, the best
evidence-based practices put delivery with a skilled birth attendant
(SBA) — a midwife, nurse, or doctor who has undergone specialized
training — near the top of the list of interventions that have the
greatest impact on maternal mortality.

Empowering women by
increasing their knowledge of health services they should receive and
how healthcare providers should treat them is an important contributor
to decision-making which leads to increased healthcare seeking and
improved quality of services.

Background of the Activity
The Ministry of Health, Health Promotion Section, through the National
Community Based Health Program, encourages implementing partners to
engage communities using the Community Score card (CSC) intervention and
community advocacy meetings. These efforts foster positive changes in
services delivery for both healthcare providers (supply side) and
clients (demand side).

In 2023, the CPRC supported
Regional/Council Health Management Teams (R/CHMT) in conducting
community scorecard mechanism in 30 villages and advocacy meeting with
influential people including religious leaders, opinion leaders, and
community leaders from 30 villages of Buchosa, Ilemela and Nyamagana.

The
objective of implementing a CSC was to address disrespect and abuse by
empowering communities to hold service providers accountable, fostering
dialogue between community members and healthcare providers to address
underlying issues, and gathering feedback to inform targeted
interventions aimed at improving the quality of care and promoting a
culture of respect and dignity within the healthcare system.

General Objective of the Activity
While multiple studies have demonstrated that the CSC approach
effectively increases service utilization and holds service provider’s
accountable[1],[2],[3], additional evidence is required regarding how
CSC facilitates the institutionalization and/or implementation at scale
of good practices that improve service utilization and accountability,
especially in the Tanzania context, where CPRC operates. To address
this, the CPRC Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team seeks a
consultant to guide research and learning activities and support
documentation of the CSC approach.

The consultant will focus on
assessing the effectiveness of CSC interventions, understanding
contextual factors, exploring best practices, documenting lessons
learned, and evaluating sustainability. The consultant’s primary task
will revolve around the question: How does implementing a community
scorecard improve the quality of maternal and newborn health services
and promote greater accountability within the healthcare system?

Tasks
– Develop a research agenda around the stated learning question to align research methodology, data, and output.
– Develop a timeline for all research activities, including data
collection, analysis, dissemination of results, and report writing.
–
Review the project documents to understand the context, objectives,
stakeholders involved and propose study methodology, including sampling
technique, data collection methods – e.g. focus group discussions, key
informant interviews, etc., and data analysis framework.
– Design
questionnaires, interview guides, and other data collection instruments,
including informed consent that incorporate gender considerations in
both English and Swahili versions.
– Manage the Institutional Review
Board (IRB) process, which involves compiling required documentation,
such as study protocols, consent forms, study materials, in accordance
with the IRB guidelines for submission. Additionally, address any
further IRB’s requests to secure ethical approval.
– Lead the recruitment process for data enumerators, overseeing selection and training of chosen candidates.
– Implement the approved research methods, in collaboration with the
CPRC MEL Specialist, organize the collected data, and apply appropriate
statistical techniques and qualitative methods to interpret the data.
– Summarize the primary findings and identify emerging themes from the
preliminary data analysis. Present these to the key project leaders, and
subsequently to larger audiences following the final analysis.
–
Prepare a comprehensive report using an agreed-upon reporting template,
emphasizing key findings relevant to the research questions, and
providing recommendations.
Deliverables
– Research plan document
outlining methodology, data collection tools, ethical considerations,
data analysis plan, and timeline by May 15th, 2024.
– Secure IRB approval by June 30th, 2024
– Trained enumerators on the approved research methodology and data collection instruments by July 10, 2024
– Cleaned and coded datasets, along with data analysis, interpretations, insights, and presentation slides by August 15, 2024
– A final comprehensive report and two learning products (such as
presentations, white papers, monographs, or peer-reviewed manuscripts)
as per the CPRC team’s agreement. – This report will emphasize critical
discoveries and offer recommendations by September 30th. 2024

Qualifications and Competencies:
– Master’s in public health, Operational research, Epidemiology, Statistics, or related field will be an added advantage
– Demonstrated experience in conducting evaluation of the
health-related community-based interventions, core principles in
designing, prototyping, and iterating context-specific solutions for
accountability and feedback mechanism.
– Strong knowledge of SBC
frameworks and human-centered approaches and experience in the
design/implementation of effective SBC interventions
– Experience in
assessment of SBCC demand creation and community engagement materials
including community score card interventions.
– Demonstrated skills
and experience in qualitative and quantitative research, including
synthesis, contextualization, and ability to translate formative
research to programmatic strategies and goals.
– Strong experience in ethical clearance processes and institutional review board application including NIMR and COSTECH
– Excellent organizational skills and demonstrated ability to manage details.
– Strong verbal and written communication capability
– Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work effectively with a wide range of personalities.
– Demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft Office suite and qualitative/Quantitative software’s.
– Must have excellent communications skills, English and Swahili language
– Experience in SBC in RMNCAH+FP projects is strongly preferred.
– Experience supporting USAID-funded projects is a plus.

MODE OF APPLICATION
Interested
consultants must provide information indicating experience for
performing similar services. Such information may include evaluation of
health-related projects, description of assignments of similar services
in the last 5 years etc. For each completed assignment, the Consultant
shall provide the name and address of the client, start, and completed
dates of the service.

Core Values
– We create global community, treating others as they want to be treated.
– We respond effectively and responsibly, putting plans into practice.
– We embed ethics and equity in our work and workplace.
– We are better together; partnership is at our core.
– We ask and listen, to create sustainable solutions for a healthier tomorrow.
– We commit to quality, growing and improving to ensure individuals and communities thrive.