Regional Consultant – Health Economics / VfM at Malaria Consortium

Malaria remains a major public health problem in Nigeria, with approximately 76% of the population living in high transmission areas and 24% in low transmission areas. In 2023, Nigeria accounted for an estimated 27% of global malaria cases and 31% of malaria-related deaths. Kano State, located in the North-West zone, continues to report some of the highest malaria burden indicators nationally. While progress has been made under the National Malaria Strategic Plan (NMSP), significant gaps remain, particularly in the accuracy of parasitological diagnosis and adherence to national treatment guidelines for severe malaria in inpatient settings.

To address these gaps, Malaria Consortium, with support from Malaria Consortium United States, is implementing an integrated approach that links External Quality Assurance (EQA) for malaria diagnosis with Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) for clinical inpatient case management. The intervention is currently being implemented in 18 hospitals across Kano State, aiming to improve test-and-treat practices for severe malaria and generate evidence to inform scale-up. The project adopts a mixed-methods design to assess the effectiveness, feasibility, acceptability, and cost-efficiency of the integrated EQA–CQI model. While the effectiveness component has been completed and a qualitative study is ongoing to assess feasibility and acceptability, there is now a need to conduct a Value for Money (VfM) assessment. This will systematically evaluate the intervention’s cost-effectiveness and efficiency, generating evidence on resource use, and potential cost savings or optimisation to inform scale-up.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Regional Consultant – Health Economics / VfM

Location: Abuja (FCT)

Purpose and objectives
The purpose of this consultancy is to conduct a Value for Money (VfM) assessment of the integrated EQA-CQI evaluation, focusing on cost-effectiveness and efficiency analysis, and to assess affordability, economic access, and scale-up considerations for the intervention.
The specific objectives are to:

• Conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of the EQA–CQI intervention, including ICER estimates (cost per DALY and death averted).
• Assess technical and operational efficiency, focusing on resource use and potential cost savings from integration.
• Estimate the economic costs of accessing services, and assess the affordability of the intervention across public and private settings
• Identify feasible entry points and pathways for scale-up, and apply VfM principles to provide recommendations, including cost and affordability, on the VfM of expanding the EQA–CQI model.

Scope of the assessment:

• The VfM assessment will focus on the integrated EQA–CQI intervention in 18 hospitals in Kano State, assessing programme costs, resource use, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency, with findings interpreted through VfM principles to guide potential scale-up.
• The assessment will also estimate the economic costs of accessing services, examine affordability considerations across public and private settings, and analyse scale-up pathways, including potential efficiency gains and opportunities to improve value for money as the model expands.

Approach and methodology
The consultancy will:

• Apply a costing framework to capture and classify programme costs and resource use from financial records
• Use economic evaluation methods to assess cost-effectiveness and efficiency
• Interpret results using VfM principles (Economy, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Equity) to provide evidence on resource use and implications for scale-up, including affordability considerations and economic costs of accessing services where applicable.

Specific tasks:

• Review the evaluation protocol and relevant project documents.
• Develop a costing framework and data collection plan.
• Collect, clean, and organise financial and resource utilisation data.
• Conduct cost-effectiveness and efficiency analyses, including calculation of economic and efficiency parameters for the project
• Estimate the economic costs of the services
• Assess the affordability of the initiative in both public and private settings
• Identify potential entry points and pathways for scaling the initiative, including options for generating more value as the model scales up across state and national levels.
• Draft a Value for Money (VfM) report, including metrics, findings, and recommendations.
• Present preliminary findings to Malaria Consortium, NMEP, and SMEP for feedback.
• Finalise and submit the VfM assessment report.

Deliverables:

• Inception report outlining the methodology, costing framework, and data collection plan, including approach for calculating economic/efficiency parameters, economic costs of accessing services and affordability considerations.
• VfM database containing cleaned and organised costing and outcome data.
• Draft VfM assessment report summarising analysis, findings, and initial recommendations, including affordability and scale-up considerations.
• Final VfM report incorporating feedback, including application of VfM principles, ICER estimates, efficiency findings, and recommendations on affordability, and scale-up pathways.

Person’s specifications (Regional Consultant – Health Economics / VfM)

• Postgraduate degree in Health Economics, Public Health, Finance, or a related field.
• 7–10 years’ experience in conducting economic evaluations (costing, cost-effectiveness, efficiency analysis) for health programmes.
• Proven ability to analyse financial and programme data and generate practical VfM insights.
• Familiarity with malaria programme costing and the Nigerian health system context/African health system.
• Proficiency in economic/statistical software (e.g. STATA, R, Excel).
• Strong report-writing and presentation skills for technical and policy audiences.
• Demonstrated experience working with government health stakeholders (NMEP, SMEP, FMoH) and international partners is an advantage.

Application Closing Date
1st December, 2025 (5:00pm Monday).