Fresh Vacancy for Research Consultant at Pact West Africa (Nigeria)

Pact is an International NGO with offices throughout the world with a mission to enable systematic solutions that allow those who are poor and marginalized to earn a dignified living, be healthy and take part in the benefits that nature provides. Pact accomplishes this by strengthening local capacity, forging effective governance systems and transforming markets into a force for development. We are recruiting to fill the position below: Job Title: Research Consultant Location: Gombe Duration: To be communicated Period of Performance: 10 December, 2019 – 31 December, 2019 Supervisor: Director of Programs, Pact West Africa, Nigeria Brief

• Pact is seeking an independent research consultant to conduct one public health researches over State Accountability and Quality Improvement Project (SAQIP), a MNCH project in Gombe, northeast Nigeria implemented between 2015 and 2019. The research outcomes are expected to be published on reputable peer-reviewed journals.

• Maternal and neonatal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa remains relatively high, even though substantial headway has been made to reduce it globally. In 2013, 576 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births were reported in Nigeria (NDHS 2013).

• To mitigate these negative maternal newborn and child health (MNCH) outcomes, Pact conducted a six-month pilot in Adamawa and Gombe States, which was funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The learnings from this pilot gave birth to the SAQIP in 2014. SAQIP is a five-year project. The overall goal of the project is reduction of maternal, neonatal and child mortalities in Gombe State. The project is designed to develop and strengthen the capacity of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA) and its associated Local Government Authority (LGA) structures to carry out their mandate to provide quality maternal neonatal and child health services through Public Primary Health Centers (PHCs), while empowering community structures such as Ward Development Committees (WDCs) to provide the oversight needed to ensure delivery of quality health services at PHCs. The project has three primary outcomes and set of interventions conducted, these are:
• Improved governance, capacity, and performance of the public health system
• Improved accountability and community participation in the public health system
• Increased utilization of public MNCH service
• SAQIP is strengthening public health systems, improving quality of care, building community engagement, increasing MNCH knowledge of and empowering women economically with Pact's WORTH model so they can better provide for their own health and that of their children. Specifically, the project is building the capacity of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency and its Local Government Authority structures to carry out their mandate to provide quality maternal, neonatal and child health services through the community primary health centers.

• The consultant will conduct one public health researches independently.
• It will include activities such as the design and vetting of the research protocol and tools, work planning, obtaining data, analyzing the data, writing research papers and sharing results.
• In addition, the consultant will be work on getting approval from the institutional review board and publication of the final research work.
• Activities will follow a pre-defined and developed concept note, but with flexibility to adapt the approach as needed.

• The main users of the proposed researches papers will be stakeholders working or interested in MNCH in Nigeria, such as donors, NGOS, the Nigerian Federal government, the state governments of Gombe (and potentially others).  It is expected that the research findings will deliver insights on SAQIP achievements and limitations.

• The consultant will collaborate with the Pact team to select one topics from the four potential topics below:
• Use of institutional strengthening interventions to improve government agency capacity
• Use of community scorecard interventions to improve service satisfaction in primary healthcare facilities
• Use of clinical training and mentoring to improve quality of care in primary healthcare facilities
• Use of mother’s groups interventions at community level to increase health knowledge and MNCH service uptake.

• Interested consultants should spell out in detail the research designs and methodologies they propose to use, the potential risks and challenges for the research works and how these will be managed. Pact does not endorse a particular methodology for the research. Therefore, consultants are invited to propose approaches and methods that they believe will most effectively and efficiently answer the priority question and meet the purpose of the study within the time available and while representing good value for money.
• The methods and assessment framework employed for these researches should facilitate the collection and analysis of data relevant to the research topics and make optimal use of existing data. The consultant will have access to SAQIP project monitoring database, there’s no existing qualitative data under this project.

• At least an MSc in Public Health or an equivalent degree
• At least one peer-reviewed publication in a reputable national or above level journal in the last 5 years
• Experience leading and coordinating public health studies, or in relevant subject areas in the Nigeria context
• Experience conducting researches using both quantitative and qualitative methods independently
• Knowledge in practices or researches in maternal, neonatal and child health and in health system
• Excellent in verbal and written English.

• Assist Pact team in selecting study topics
• Develop research plans for the selected studies
• Obtain needed quantitative data from Pact database collaborating with Pact team
• Conduct analysis for the studies
• Synthesize research findings and develop research papers
• Revise research papers collaborating with Pact team
• Search for and assist in selecting journals of submission
• Submit research papers and monitor publication progress.

• All applications Must be submitted as a single file in either Word format or PDF.
• Applicants Must indicate the position applied for on the Subject of the mail (i.e Research Consultant).
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.