Research Consultant - Baseline Assessment at Sustainable Development Initiative (SDI) - Nasarawa and Plateau

Sustainable Development Initiative (SDI) is a non-governmental organization working to improve the health and economic conditions of women, children and other vulnerable groups in Nigeria, by providing a platform where all stakeholders act in unison for the common good of the people.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Research Consultant - Baseline Assessment

Locations: Lafia, Nasarawa and Jos, Plateau
Employment Type: Contract

Project Description

• SDI was awarded the first Grant under Contract (GUC) by the Management Sciences for Health (MSH) under the US President’s Malaria Initiative for States (PMI-S) project for Task Order 4 to specifically work to improve quality of Malaria Case Management (MCM) in private health facilities and thereby increase access to comprehensive MCM through the private sector in Nasarawa and Plateau States. The strategic objectives of the project include to:
  • Establish sustainable methodologies and tools for regular supervision and site management of targeted health facilities established.
  • Improve quality of malaria case management (MCM) and reporting by targeted health facilities.
  • Promote partnerships and support statutory regulatory agencies as a means to sustain the improved quality of MCM in targeted facilities and
  • Document high-quality knowledge management and external communication products for dissemination. Malaria is a major public health problem in Nigeria accounting for over 50% of hospital consultations, 10% of hospital admission, and one of the top three causes of death in the country.
• The disease prevalence in Nasarawa and Plateau State both stood higher than the national average at 35.9 and 35.8 percent respectively in 2015 but, dropped below the national average in 2018 to 13.6 and 21.4 percent respectively (NDHS, 2018).
• The private, for-profit sector includes private clinics, pharmacies, and patent medicine stores, which provide a range of curative services; almost 60% of health services are sought in private sector facilities.
• The health system in Nigeria, like most developing economies in malaria-endemic regions, still has private-sector health facilities playing a significant role in healthcare services provision for patients with suspected cases of malaria at over 57% (NDHS, 2018). Despite this trend, there is still a huge gap with respect to capacity building of the service providers in this sector to effectively provide quality care in the management of the disease.
• This also implies that huge data on the disease case management still go unreported resulting in a significant gap in health data available for decision making in malaria control programs in the country.
• The baseline assessment seeks to achieve the current status of malaria case management and data management among private health facilities in Nasarawa and Plateau states and adapt tools for assessment.

Specific Tasks
Consultant:

• Training of ad-hoc field data collectors for baseline assessment on malaria service indicators in Nasarawa and Plateau States, in line with the revised national guidelines on malaria
• Collect data of sampled private health facilities in Nasarawa and Plateau States, in order to determine the status quo on malaria case management and data management
• Analyze, produce and submit assessment report to SDI, two (2) days after the completion of the assessment.

Qualifications and Experience
Consultant:

• A Postgraduate Degree in Health Sciences or related discipline
• Above 5 years of experience in coordinating health sector facility assessment
• A good knowledge of malaria programming experience in Nigeria especially in Nasarawa and Plateau States
• A good knowledge of National data collection forms to monitor and report on malaria service indicators
• Demonstrated report writing and facilitation skills for quantitative studies or survey.

Application Closing Date
10th November, 2022.