Organizational Context

 

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies. The overall aim of the IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.” The IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises.

The IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (the Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of the IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality. At Geneva level, the Health and Care Department’s (HCD) New Strategic Direction 2023 focuses on Health Systems Strengthening and WASH Systems Strengthening through four pillars: Global Health Security, Global Health Protection (UHC), Global WASH Services and Transformative Partnership.

The Global Health Protection (UHC) pillar houses and chairs the Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP), a partnership of government, private sector, faith-based and humanitarian organizations, focused on three main activities: (1) coordination of partners involved in insecticide-treated net (ITN) campaign and continuous distribution activities; (2) development of operational guidance for planning and implementing of ITN distribution based on an iterative process; and (3) providing technical assistance to national malaria programmes and partners based on requests. AMP’s activities support achievement of the WHO Global Technical Strategy (GTS) targets for high coverage and use of ITNs. AMP is a member of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria’s Country Regional Support Partner Committee (CRSPC) Steering Group. Harnessing the global leadership and management systems of IFRC, AMP is uniquely positioned to support and advance country-level efforts to optimize ITN distribution and ensure that the right nets reach the right people at the right time through both campaign and continuous distribution channels.

The use of digital tools in ITN campaigns has grown significantly in the last decade, driven by the need for efficiency, better data quality, and accountability. Digital tools are now used across various stages of campaigns, including planning, household registration, distribution, monitoring, and reporting. One leading tool developed to support digitalization of ITN campaigns is the Digit Health Campaign Management (Digit HCM) developed by eGov Foundation. The Digit HCM tool has already been used to manage campaigns related to Global Fund grants in several countries, and it is expected that other countries will adopt it for campaign digitalization soon.

As countries transition to digital tools, they will require targeted technical assistance to ensure effective implementation, including platform selection, action plan development, geospatial mapping integration, supply chain digitalization, and capacity building for national teams. This includes technical support in selecting appropriate digital platforms, developing a digitalization plan of action, promoting the integration of geospatial mapping for enhanced service delivery, supporting improved supply chain digitalization and use of data and building the capacity of country teams. These efforts aim to enhance data quality, accountability, and the overall effectiveness of ITN campaigns.

 

Job Purpose

 

The overall objective of this consultancy is to support the AMP partnership in ensuring that high-quality, timely information and remote and in-country technical assistance is available for national malaria programmes and implementing partners transitioning to digital tools for data collection for ITN distribution. The consultancy will also support AMP’s broader efforts to track and support national malaria programme progress towards improved efficiency through digitalization, as well as to develop operational guidance to support planning and budgeting for digitalization of different ITN distribution components.

 

Job Duties and Responsibilities

 

• To provide support to national malaria programmes (NMPsP to conduct context and operational needs analysis for the digitalization of the ITN campaign to define aspects of the campaign that will be digitized (macroplanning, microplanning including geo-enabled microplanning, household registration, distribution, logistics and supply chain, supervision and monitoring, social behavior change, etc.).
• To support NMPs to assess the country digitalization ecosystem and key indicators (internet penetration rate, use of social media, nationwide network coverage etc.), identifying opportunities, weaknesses, and gaps for campaign digitalization.
• To support NMPs and partners to define the best platform option(s) based on an assessment of the country context.
• To lead discussions on defining system requirements, customizing platforms to meet country-specific needs, and overseeing deployment, monitoring, and implementation
• To support NMPs to develop digitalization plan of action based on the outcomes from the context analysis and the operational needs and ensure its aligned and consistent with the overall ITN strategy and other campaign plans (logistics, M&E, operations).
• To lead the definition of digitalization campaign workflow and process to collect data from the households using smartphone devices (procured equipment or Bring Your Own Device approach) and apps to the main platform.
• To support NMPs to develop a comprehensive budget based on clear quantifications of personnel (national or international hired) and trainings; hardware and software (smartphones specs and numbers, main digitalization platform and related applications etc.) needed for the digitalization of the campaign.
• To support NMPs to develop digitalization timeline and roles and responsibilities for each of the stakeholders and service providers.
• To support NMPs to develop risk assessment and mitigation measures for the campaign digitalization.
• To support NMPs to develop job descriptions for digitalization staff, terms of references for the sub-digitalization committee, specifications for smartphones and software and related digitalization standard operating procedures (SOPs).
• To support NMPs and partners with the development of training materials (agendas, practical exercises, short videos and simulations, etc.), SOPs and other tools and supports required for successful implementation of the digitalized campaign processes.
• To support NMPs and partners to define the supply chain digitalization, elements that will be fully digitalized vs hybrid and develop associated system and training materials/SOPs that will be used for ITN accountability, including the scanning of barcodes on ITN bales and/or individual nets to ensure that lessons learned.
• To support NMPs and partners in defining a technical support management plan (helpdesk) for incidents and technical assistance during implementation.
• To support the definition of key indicators needed on the campaign dashboard and ensure that the data collected on the digital platform is available on an online dashboard, updated in real-time, and easily accessible by monitors and supervisors.
• To support the development of SOPs for data cleaning and validation, as well as the development of standard templates for analysis and feedback based on the digitalized data during implementation.
• To support NMPs and partners in developing a detailed plan for piloting the campaign digitalization tool and campaign processes before full-scale implementation.
• To support NMPs to define primary metrics for the assessing the campaign digitization pilot and adjustments needed before scaling up.

 

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)

 

• To support the implementation of the pilot phase HHR, ITN distribution, supply chain digitalization, supervision, monitoring and payments; identify critical areas for improvement (platform, operations) and ensure that recommendations for action in advance of the full campaign implementation are identified, including timeline for responding and responsible person or entity.
• To provide NMPs with tools for online collection of information from various actors to inform future development of the digitalization platform.
• To support NMPs with organization of lessons learned workshops to gather feedback for improving the digitalization process and the platform prior to full-scale implementation.
• To support NMPs to organize post-campaign review meetings to identify successes, challenges and lessons learned from countries that implemented their campaigns using digital tools and define concrete recommendations and steps for future improvements, including new modules for optimizing campaign processes.
• To monitor the progress of digitalization efforts, evaluating their impact, and suggesting improvements based on data analysis and feedback from stakeholders.
• To compile the lessons learned from various countries supported for different campaign processes, with a focus on in-country supply chain digitalization and use these to guide processes in future countries to support a continuous improvement process.
• To support an iterative learning process for digitalization, particularly for supply chain end-to-end digitalization, through dissemination of operational guidance and tools.

Alignment to the IFRC’s Strategy 2030

The Alliance for Malaria Prevention’s mandate aligns to the Federation’s Strategy 2030 as it supports the achievement of strategic aims:

• Save lives, protect livelihoods and strengthen recovery from disasters and crises
• Enable healthy and safe living.

Project objectives and outcomes:

Objective #1: Optimizing malaria prevention with ITNs through mass distribution campaigns and continuous distribution channels.

Desired outcomes: To address inefficiencies in planning and implementation of mass ITN distribution campaigns through timely deployment of digital tools for data collection and to better understand best practices for the digital transition for future campaigns.

Support to be provided to the consultant

The consultant will be supported by the Lead – Malaria Programmes, Officer, AMP Country Support and the Senior Officer, OPITACA.

Time allocation, for budget purposes

The consultant will be expected to work for a maximum of 60 days.

The consultancy timeframe will be from 3 March 2025 to 31 December 2025.

 

Education

 

Required

• Advanced degree (master’s level) in public health, ICT, data science, health information systems, international development or related field.

 

Experience

 

Required

• Minimum of five years of increasingly responsible professional experience, especially in the fields of digital health, health information systems, programme management.
• Experience working at the national or international level for convening stakeholders and governance mechanisms, translating policies into action, adapting and implementing digital systems for health system strengthening and addressing programme needs.
• Experience with implementation and country-level support on digital health, data and health information systems, including the appropriate and ethical use of technology for development, as well as with emerging or frontier technologies.
• Experience in budgeting and cost analysis of digital systems.

Preferred

• Field experience in direct implementations of digital health systems a strong asset.

 

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

 

Required

• English and/or French is required.
• Familiarity with health campaign digitalization in malaria, immunization or related field.
• Work independently and coordinate collation of information from multiple stakeholders.
• Expertise in digital campaign strategy and execution.

Preferred

• Lusophone is a strong asset.

 

Competencies, Values and Comments

 

Notes

• The consultant will be contracted by the IFRC and the standard contractual terms will apply.
• This consultancy contract entails some anticipated travels as part of the completion of the assignment if the conditions allow.

Application Instruction

Please submit your application in English only.