Assessment of patronage nursing system with equity analysis in Azerbaijan
International institutional contract
Terms of Reference
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Title of Assignment |
Assessment of patronage nursing system with equity analysis in Azerbaijan |
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Purpose |
Assessment of patronage nursing system which includes facility-based basic maternal and child health services and antenatal/postnatal home visiting at Primary Health Care level |
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Section |
Health and Nutrition |
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Contracting type |
International institutional contract |
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Location |
Baku, Azerbaijan |
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Duration |
From: 25 May 2020 To: 25 November 2020 |
1. Background
UNICEF Azerbaijan Country Office supports the Government of Azerbaijan in development and delivering best buy interventions for Early Childhood Development through available platforms such as health, education and social protection. One of the most critical interventions addressing health, nutrition and responsive care needs of infants and young children is known to be universal progressive home visiting, underlining antenatal and postnatal home visiting of mothers and babies for provision of counselling, parenting education, assessment of home environment, identification risks for babies and assessment of child’s development – to ensure all components of nurturing care are in place to support child’s health and development.
As a heritage from Soviet period, health system in Azerbaijan has designed and regulated practices of antenatal and postnatal home visiting. However, compliance of primary healthcare workers with this part of their job description is question to many factors, including their own knowledge and skills, lack of proper monitoring and evaluation of these services, lack of motivation, particularly in rural and remote areas where visiting families is limited by far distances, lack of transportation and seasonally restricted access to some villages. Thus, there is need for revisiting this system and practices, to ensure that home visiting is provided in quality and accessible way to all families with small children, and these services have their space in the new health insurance system and financial framework.
UNICEF is seeking an experienced international consultant to conduct an assessment of patronage nursing system which includes facility-based basic maternal and child health services and antenatal/postnatal home visiting at Primary Health Care level in Azerbaijan.
2. Purpose
The overall purpose of the consultancy is to provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health, State Agency on Mandatory Health Insurance and UNICEF Country Office (CO) in conducting an assessment of the Patronage Nursing System, which includes facility-based basic services for mothers and children and antenatal/postnatal visiting with nurses and paediatricians at Primary Health Care (PHC) level.
The assessment will help to identify main strengths and weaknesses of the Patronage Nursing System and to inform concrete actions and changes to strengthen the system’s quality and coverage, in order to address disparities and inequities in basic mother and child health services. The assessment will be conducted in the wider context of the implementation of a State Program on improvement of maternal and child health and ongoing scale-up of mandatory social health insurance system in Azerbaijan starting from January 2020, as well as the re-focus of UNICEF Country Programme on Early Childhood Development interventions.
The assessment will also provide baseline information for evaluation of the universal progressive home visiting model that UNICEF is currently working on and will pilot in 2020-2021 in four pilot areas.
For conduction of such an assessment UNICEF CO decided to engage international consultancy complemented by inputs from national health experts.
3. Description of tasks
Within this assignment the following tasks should be fulfilled:
- Review background information on the Mother and Child Health outcomes of Azerbaijan, National Statistics, on-going healthcare & social programs and policy documents, etc.
- Develop the methodology for the field data collection by research subjects, including sampling, research techniques, and budget estimation.
- Undertake an assessment of patronage nursing system delivered at primary health care level, including analysis of the equity in utilization and quality of these services
- Based on the assessment findings, set out recommendations for the improvement of the existing services, assess the feasibility of implementing a “Universal Progressive Home Visiting” model, and provide recommendations for implementing such a model.
- Present the draft assessment to major in-country stakeholders through a consultative process, in close consultation and coordination with UNICEF CO.
4. Deliverables and time-frame
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Expected deliverable |
Suggested delivery duration |
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1. |
Desk review of existing policy documents, programmes, maternal and child health outcomes |
5 days |
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2. |
Inception report with proposed methodology of assessment, schedule, list of required data and data collection instruments (if necessary) |
1 day |
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2. |
In-country visit for consultation with national health experts from MoH, SAMHI, TABIB; instructions for local data collectors |
6 days |
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3. |
Data analysis and development of draft report |
10 days |
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4. |
Revision of draft report based on government and UNICEF feedback. Finalization of assessment report and recommendations; development of presentation for government stakeholders |
3 days |
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5. |
Second in-country visit with technical workshop for government stakeholders to present findings of assessment and recommendations on strengthening of home visiting practices |
3 days |
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Totally |
28 days |
5. Qualification requirements
An international consultancy institution is required with the team leader and key members with following qualifications:
- At least post-graduate degrees in public health, medicine, health systems or a related field
- At least ten years’ experience (team leader) in public health practice, research, health policy development and assessment of health system performance and health services, management and programming in health sector
- Strong knowledge of the context; experience of work in countries of Caucasus and Central Asia will be an asset
- Ability to work with minimal supervision;
- Evidence of having undertaken similar assignments;
- Demonstrated experience in working with government partners and other stakeholders, especially in supporting public-sector institutions clarify mission and strategic direction.
The consultant is also expected to bring/possess the following skills and competencies:
- Must be result-oriented, a team player, exhibiting high levels of enthusiasm, tact, diplomacy and integrity;
- Demonstrate excellent interpersonal and professional skills in interacting with government and development partners;
- Skills in facilitation of stakeholder engagements/workshops;
- High level written and oral communications skills in English; Knowledge of Russian language is an advantage
6. Supervision
The services will be directly supervised by the Health and Nutrition Officer of UNICEF Azerbaijan with overall supervision of the Deputy Representative.
7. Administrative and travel arrangements:
- The contractor is expected to bring their own computer and will be provided with work space in UNICEF CO when needed
- The contractor will be provided with interpreter (consecutive) throughout the in-country visits; simultaneous translation may be provided for a workshop
- The consultant is expected to travel to the country. For that they are expected to arrange their own visa; a Note Verbal for the visa will be provided by UNICEF Country Office. International tickets should be arranged by contractor and reimbursed based on the actual cost.
- DSA will be provided for all the days of in-country visit based on UN rates, terminals for travel cost to and from the airport will be also covered.
8. Application
Interested organizations must submit the following documents/information to baku_tenders@unicef.org for application:
a) CSO/LLC Identification Profile (please see the link);
b) A full proposal including budget;
c) CV-s of key staff to be involved in the project;
Incomplete application missing any of the key components above will not be considered.
Payment conditions
Budget is to be proposed by potential applicants and agreed with UNICEF in line with UN rules and regulations and based on optimal cost of services. UNICEF does not provide or arrange health insurance coverage. Payments will be processed based on satisfactory completion of the tasks and submission of narrative and financial reports.
Deadline is 19 April 2020, 18:00 local time.