Maternal Health and Family Planning Technical Consultant, Palladium

September 23, 2022

Project Overview and Role:

In Kenya, NPI EXPAND will support locally driven solutions to increase access to and use of health services in Narok County. Specifically, the program will provide grants and tailored assistance to local organizations to implement context-specific approaches aimed at removing barriers to family planning access and use and improving maternal health outcomes. The activities will also promote continuity of services and mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on routine health services. The primary beneficiaries of the program include adolescents and youth (girls and boys) who are in- and out-of-school, women, men, and couples. While the NPI EXPAND program focuses on the health sector, this activity forms part of an integrated program that also advances livelihoods, food security, sustainable livestock raising, and conservation in the Mara Landscape. Grantees will be required to coordinate closely with county government representatives and other organizations working in health, conservation, and development spaces in Narok County.

Goal and objectives

The overall goal of this project is to enhance the capacity of the local partners to increase demand and deliver high quality maternal and family planning services to the underserved populations in Narok County – Kenya, while ensuring sustainability of the environment in which they depend on. The following are the objectives:

Improve availability of integrated maternal health and family planning information and services through integration with environment and while addressing gender barriers
Increase awareness, demand and acceptance of maternal health and family planning services by addressing socio-cultural barriers including Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and through integration with environment.
Strengthen the community health and environment platforms, systems, and structures to support uptake of maternal health and family planning services
Strengthen the capacity of the Narok County Health department to plan, finance and implement cross sectoral integrated health and environment programs/projects.

NPI EXPAND is looking for an individual consultant to provide technical expertise to the sub-grantees in maternal health and family planning (MH/FP). The consultant will work closely with the Gender Advisor to ensure that planned activities integrate gender.

The MH/FP Specialist is a health expert who has managed maternal health and family planning programs and integration of MH/FP with other health and development activities. The MH/FP technical specialist will work under the overall direction of the Country Team Lead, NPI EXPAND Kenya. This position will play a significant role in providing MH/FP technical standards, direction, guidance, and measurement related activities (FP/MH and maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response as well as capacity strengthening. They will be responsible for technical quality assurance of the MH/FP components of the project.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Establish and implement a system to ensure technical quality of MH/FP project activities and ensure integration with interventions in other reproductive health activities.
Provide mentoring and capacity strengthening at the individual and organizational levels to the sub-grantees on MH/FP and quality of care through rollout of FP standards and any other government quality documents/guidelines.
Work with the subgrantees on innovative approaches for scale-up of targeted MH/FP services.
Provide technical assistance in the rollout of Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) and long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) mentorship approach in line with the national guidelines. Ensure that the process is completed, and the mentored health care workers (HCW) are certified as competent.
Provide technical assistance in the rollout of maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response reporting guidelines from county to community levels, including verbal autopsies.
Conduct dissemination of key policy documents in MH and FP to the subgrantees so that they can cascade the same to the sub-counties (i.e., gender, anti-female genital mutilation (FGM), child protection, menstrual hygiene management related to MH/FP.
Support the different partners in reporting of family planning and related reproductive and maternal health services in accordance with national guidelines and standards.
Provide technical assistance and coordinate the different partners to ensure that the Community Based Distributors are trained according to the recommended Government of Kenya Standards, are graduated, and are fully certified.
Provide mentorship to the different partners to implement, monitor, and report on facility and community-based family planning and related maternal health services.
Work with the partners to ensure that in all the sub-counties the Commodity Security Technical Working Groups are revitalized and active

Required Qualifications:

Advanced university degree in any of the following – public health, medicine, social sciences, or other related discipline. The degree must be directly related to the substantive area identified in the job description of the post.
7 years of relevant and increasingly responsible experience in managing reproductive health or health programs, of which at least 5 years of experience at the national and/or county and community advising on reproductive, maternal, and newborn health, family planning, and adolescent sexual and reproductive health.
General knowledge of the principles and operational aspects of integrated MH/FP care.
Experience in quality improvement in one or more of these areas: maternal, newborn and child health, immunization, family planning, and/or reproductive health.
In-depth knowledge of government of Kenya family planning and maternal health standards.
Experience in training and coaching facility and community-based health personnel on family planning and maternal health.
Familiarity with USAID’s administrative, management, and compliance around family planning and maternal health.
Ability to work independently and with team members and partners at all levels.
Good communication and interpersonal skills.
Professional experience strengthening the capacity of local organizations in Kenya and working with international partners.
Fluency in written and spoken English and Kiswahili.
Ability to travel within Narok county up to 60% of the duration of the assignment.

Eligibility Requirements

To be considered for this assignment, the applicants must meet the following minimum eligibility requirements:

Must be a Kenyan national legally registered with government of Kenya and compliant with government tax laws; (Existing Tax Identification Number, copy of current tax compliance certificate).
Should have the demonstrated experience to fully execute the proposed activities within the proposed timeline.
Must have a legal bank account in operation (Provide correct bank account details).
Must have experience of undertaking Family planning and Maternal Health assignments in Kenya.
Previous work in Narok county or similar settings will be an added advantage.
Must demonstrate ability to work with multiple stakeholders in executing similar assignments

Expected Outputs

Monthly reports detailing:

The number of service providers supported, mentorship activities, updates on training and recommend areas of improvement.
Progress of training of Community Based Distributors.
Updates on overall mentorship and technical support offered.
Recommendations on areas of improvement to enable quality delivery of services.
Progress on process for revitalizing the sub-county Commodity Security Technical Working Groups.

Submission and Application Information

Application Date and Time: September 30, 2022.
Anticipated Period of Performance and Level of Effort – 20 days.
This engagement is anticipated to be part-time September 2022 to February 2023.

Company Overview:

About Palladium – Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. With a team of more than 3,000 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of over 35,000 experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, people’s lives.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion – Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.

Safeguarding – We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.

Application: https://palladium.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/2/home/requisition/15141?c=palladium