Title: Team Leader

Team: USAID/Nigeria MEL Support Activity

Project: USAID/Nigeria Health Population and Nutrition (HPN) Office

Location: Federal Capital Territory – Abuja, Nigeria

Reporting to: Assessment and Evaluation Advisor

Employment Type: Independent Contractor / Short-Term Technical Assistance (STTA)

Period of Performance: July 2023 – September 2023

Number of Positions: 1

Navanti supports a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Support Activity program that assists USAID/Nigeria in advancing its broader organizational learning and development efforts. This program strengthens the Mission’s capacity and performance in programmatic monitoring, evaluation, learning, collaborating, and adapting. The MEL Support Activity closely aligns with USAID/Nigeria’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) and provides a broad range of specialized technical assistance, training, data gathering and analysis, field-based monitoring, evaluations and assessments, facilitation of organizational learning and adaptation initiatives, and short-term technical assistance.

Project Objective:

USAID/Nigeria has engaged the MEL Support Activity to conduct a Political Economic Analysis (PEA) to understand the political and economic contexts and influential actors affecting Nigeria’s health system performance. This knowledge will inform USAID’s new health service delivery and systems strengthening activities. Though this is a broad assessment, the PEA will provide specific insights into the following locations:

• South-South region (Akwa-Ibom state)
• South-East region (Ebonyi state)
• South-West region (Lagos state)
• North-East region (Bauchi state)
• North-West region Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara states)
• North-Central region (FCT)

The primary purpose of the Political Economic Analysis (PEA) is to analyze the political economy of the health sector overall from a problem-based lens under the following four broad themes; (i) Underfunding of the health systems (ii) HRH recruitment, proficiency, and retention (iii) Equitable distribution of health resources (urban/rural, lowest quartile) and (iv) Transparency and Accountability

The estimated start date will be July 24, 2023. The assessment is expected to last until September 2023 and the estimated LOE will be 46 days, maximum.

Candidates are reviewed on a rolling basis; early submission is recommended.

Position Description:

Navanti is seeking an International Team Leader who will be responsible for the overall coordination and management of the assessment team’s effort and ensuring a rigorous and high-quality political economy analysis. Under the guidance of the MEL Support Activity, the Team Leader is expected to work closely with the USAID/Nigeria team and USAID/Washington Health Systems Advisor and Health Governance Lead. The team leader will be supported by other health practitioners and research assistants. The team leader will consult with and facilitate input from all team members throughout the duration of the evaluation.

Locations:

• Akwa-Ibom, Ebonyi, Lagos, Bauchi, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states as well as the FCT

Responsibilities:

The Team Leader will:

• Participate in a PEA kick-off session with USAID/Nigeria.
• Conduct an initial desk study: gather relevant secondary materials to identify key actors and stakeholders, relevant local and oversight institutions, coordination mechanisms and support structures.
• Lead the design and development of workplan including protocols for data collection in selected states and FCT.
• Participate in field work including conducting several KIIs and FGDs with stakeholders from health institutions, states and national health actors, State and federal legislators, civil society organizations (CSOs), implementing partners and others.
• Present preliminary findings on data collected from stakeholders’ engagement and desk review.
• Provide leadership for the team and coordinate activities as necessary.
• Coordinate team's ongoing analysis of qualitative and quantitative data.
• Lead the preparation and presentation of the In-brief and Out-brief to USAID/Nigeria and other stakeholders as requested.
• Write the draft assessment report with support from the team members, taking into consideration feedback from the Out-brief presentation.
• Respond to USAID comments on the draft report, incorporate USAID/Nigeria staff comments into the final version of the report and finalize the report.
• Present political economy analysis results to diverse audiences according to USAID standard reporting
• Work collaboratively with team members throughout design, implementation, analysis, and report writing to complement each other's areas of expertise.

Qualifications:

The candidate is expected to have the following qualifications:

• Possess an advanced university degree in public health, health policy and financing, health systems strengthening public administration, finance, economics, or related field with demonstrated competence in political-economic analysis or similar assessment frameworks.
• Must have been a team leader for a large-scale assessment or an evaluation.
• A minimum of 15 years of experience in conducting assessments, evaluation and must have led a minimum of two PEAs or similar studies and participated in a minimum of three health-focused PEAs.
• The consultants must have a strong understanding of contextual knowledge of the Nigeria political, economic and health spheres.
• Demonstrated experience in both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis with good interview techniques.
• Proven experience of working in the health sector and engagements with state and federal government authorities, civil society organizations in the health sector
• Experience facilitating and providing leadership in collaborative and participatory evaluations with multiple stakeholders.
• Experience working in the health sector with international donor organizations particularly USAID.
• Excellent writing and presentation skills.
• Ability to produce preliminary and final reports on time.

Only selected candidates will be contacted for an interview. Please, no phone calls.