Lead Consultant at Malaria Consortium

Malaria Consortium (MC) is one of the world's leading non-profit organizations dedicated to the comprehensive control of malaria and other communicable diseases in Africa and Southeast Asia. Malaria Consortium works with communities, government and non-government agencies, academic institutions, and local and international organizations, to ensure good evidence supports delivery of effective services, providing technical support for monitoring and evaluation of programmes and activities for evidence-based decision-making and strategic planning. The organization works to improve not only the health of the individual, but also the capacity of National health systems, which helps to relieve poverty and support improved economic prosperity.

In Nigeria, twenty (20) states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) across the Sahel and non–Sahelian zone have seasonal malaria transmission, with most of the disease burden occurring during a distinct rainy season. Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) is a key approach to prevent malaria among children aged 3 to 59 months in such areas where malaria transmission is highly seasonal. SMC involves the administration of monthly treatment courses of a combination of antimalarial drugs (over 4 or 5 monthly cycles depending on the duration of the malaria transmission season specific to a given geographical area) with the objective of maintaining therapeutic antimalarial drug concentrations in the blood throughout the period of transmission (rainy season) to prevent malaria.

Malaria Consortium (MC) currently implements seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) with support from the Philanthropic Funding (MC/PF) in seven African countries including Nigeria. MC implements SMC in at least 13 states of Nigeria with funding support from the MC/PF and the Global Fund (GF). Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) was first implemented across all six Area Councils (ACs) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in 2022. While most ACs achieved over 80% coverage across four SMC cycles, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) lagged significantly with an average coverage of 45.6%. Despite improvements in subsequent years, AMAC's coverage remained below FCT-wide averages, highlighting the need for a revised implementation model tailored to urban challenges such as high population mobility and informal housing. In response, a revised SMC implementation design will be piloted in AMAC in 2025, following recommendations from the World Health Organization and National Malaria Elimination Programme. The revised design will include strategies including a robust SBCC strategy, innovative delivery mechanisms, digital tools and data driven approaches, strengthened supervisory activities, demand creation and incentivization of positive behaviour. This study aims to assess the current delivery model, identify bottlenecks, and develop evidence-based strategies to improve SMC coverage in urban settings. The outcomes will inform more effective malaria prevention programmes, benefiting not only AMAC but other urban centers facing similar challenges.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Lead Consultant

Location:  Abuja (FCT) 

Purpose/  Scope of assignment

• The purpose of this assignment is to evaluate the effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of modified SMC delivery strategies in complex urban settings from the perspectives of implementers, policymakers, and caregivers/beneficiaries.
• The evaluation will focus on several key areas: the coverage of SMC, including the percentage of children receiving doses through various delivery strategies; the effectiveness of supervision and SMS reminders; access to gated households; the number of refusal households; and the reach through religious centers. Additionally, the study will gather qualitative data on caregiver and Health Facility Workers (CHW) perceptions of the modified delivery strategy.
• Community awareness and acceptance of the modified SMC strategies will also be assessed, including the percentage of caregivers and CHWs who have heard about the strategies and their level of acceptance.
• The operational feasibility of implementing the modified SMC strategies will be evaluated by examining resource requirements and identifying facilitators and barriers to SMC access and acceptance.
• This comprehensive evaluation aims to inform future SMC delivery in urban settings, contributing to the design of targeted and effective malaria controls that reduce the burden of malaria and improve health outcomes in urban populations.
• The evaluation method is segmented into 3 phases with timelines as indicated in Table 1.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the entire research project, ensuring adherence to timelines and ethical guidelines.
• Development of training materials and preparation of data collection tools
• Training of data collectors
• Translation of questionnaires from English to Gbagyi.
• Selection of the participants.
• Arranging for the venue of the FGDs, IDIs and KII and scheduling the interviews etc.
• Supervise data collection, both quantitative and qualitative, ensuring accuracy and completeness.
• Support the preliminary analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data, using appropriate statistical and thematic methods.
• Prepare a preliminary report accompanied with PowerPoint presentation.
• Prepare written final reports, summarizing findings and providing recommendations.

Deliverables:

• Detailed SOP for the data collection processes, outlining objectives, methodology, timelines, and resources.
• Progress written reports highlighting key activities, challenges, and preliminary findings after every 3 activity days.
• Detailed training report
• Comprehensive report summarizing the study's findings, conclusions, and recommendations within 5 working days post endline data collection.
• PowerPoint presentation of results.

Qualifications and Experience.
Lead Consultant:

• A degree in Social, Behavioural or Health Sciences.
• A postgraduate degree in Public Health, Epidemiology, Social Sciences or other related disciplines.
• Demonstrated expertise in rigorous qualitative and quantitative research design and implementation and analytical methods.
• At least 10 years’ experience in conduct and management of similar household level quantitative and qualitative studies in community settings
• Willing to work under pressure.
• Experience in leading evaluations, surveys, and analysis is highly desirable.
• Excellent ability in data analysis, especially qualitative and quantitative data analysis and interpretation.
• Knowledge on use of surveyCTO is essential and qualitative tools such as Dedoose/NVIVO/MAXQDA
• Understanding of the context and setting of interventions in local context
• Gwari and Hausa language is necessary.

Application Closing Date
Monday, 19th August 2025, 5:00 pm.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Note

• For this position, previous working experience with MC and in SMC is an added advantage.
• Interested and qualified candidates who are passionate and willing to contribute towards the achievement of our goals should 
• Kindly note that applicants who do not follow this specification will be disqualified.
• Only Shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
• Kindly note that applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and as a result, the process may conclude before the advertised deadline. Therefore, early applications are highly encouraged.
• Malaria Consortium does not accept or ask for payment during recruitment. We also would not accept hardcopy CVs; all applications should be sent through the above link.