Terms of Reference

PRE AND POST ASSESSMENT OF

THE “AG RDT – BASED COVID-19 TESTING SCALING – UP” PROJECT

I. OVERVIEW ABOUT HPA

Health Poverty Action (HPA) is an international NGO (UK Registered Charity Number 290535), founded in 1984, with its head office based in London, UK. HPA currently implements programmes in 15 countries throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America.

HPA has been operational in Viet Nam since 2016 and is currently implementing projects related to malaria control and elimination funded by the Global Fund to Fight Tuberculosis, AIDS and Malaria (GFTAM). The new 3-year GFTAM project is being implemented in two target provinces in collaboration with the National Lung Hospital, provincial lung hospitals, academic and local NGO partners.

II. PROJECT BACKGROUND

In many developed countries, Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests (Ag RDTs) are the cornerstone of decentralized screening and triaging in public health and ensure the appropriate next step to more complex confirmatory tests, treatment initiation and/or referral, contact tracing, and self-isolation. As it is not widely used in developing countries, many countries are not aware of the effectiveness of Ag RDTs and continue to rely on a few PCR testing facilities in-country. There are also numerous bottlenecks to scale-up, including conservative interpretation of WHO guidelines and price of Ag RDTs. Health Poverty Action (HPA) plans to speed up the process of access and use Ag RDT in 8 countries in Asia and Africa by addressing the policies and market constraints that limit the scaled utilization of Ag RDTs, including low accessibility of Ag RDTs, lack of awareness of their accessibility and lack of clarity of their appropriateness for use in clinical or non-clinical settings. Tailored activities were designed in each country based on the national and sub-national COVID-19 control and prevention context, including assisting national and sub-national health authorities to develop testing scale-up strategies using Ag RDT. The HPA will integrate Ag RDT testing into existing health services programs, train health workers and other people to use Ag RDT for COVID-19 testing and use the result to advocate for scaling up Ag RDT in the national and sub-national screening and testing strategies, both in clinical and non-clinical settings.

III. PURPOSE OF THE ASSESSMENT

• Round 1 – Pre-assessment: (i) all current situations (intended and unintended) of local capacities and strategy for COVID-19 testing and ; (ii) all training needs on project-related activities of health care workers.
• Round 2 – Post-assessment: (i) identify the effectiveness of Ag RDT in controlling the pandemic, (ii) identify lesion-learned during project implementation to provide recommendation for adaptation of current systems; (iii) to contribute to learnings by identifying potential good practices for scaling.

IV. EVALUATION QUESTIONS

The assessments will focus on answering the following key issues:

Assessment round 1:

• What are the key current situations of local capacity and strategy for COVID-19 testing;
• What are the needs of health workers and stakeholders for training;
• Leadership and coordination challenges.

Assessment round 2:

• What was the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of the project’s approach and strategies;
• What activities and/or approaches contributed or led to the identified situations;
• What are the gaps that need to be adapted;
• Identifying potential good practices for scaling

V. EXPECTATION OF THE ASSESSMENT

This is an internally led evaluation with the participation of the consultant(s), HPA staff and in coordination with local project staff. For each assessment round, the consultant’s responsibilities and deliverables are described as below:

 

Round	Consultant’s responsibilities	Expected deliverables	Timeframe
Assessment round 1 (20 working days/person-day)
1.1	Desk review, work plan, and methodology	Work plan (in Vietnamese) for data collection, analysis, and report writing subject to approval by the HPA	Not later than one week after the contract signed
1.2	Develop evaluation tools	Data collection tools (in Vietnamese) approved by the HPA	10 days after the approval of work plan
1.3	Conduct data collection and entry: qualitative and quantitative (if needed)	KII/FGD notes (Vietnamese) and audio records (if any) - Qualitative data matrix	15 days after the approval of data collection tools
1.4	Formulate and finalize outcome descriptions	A summary of outcome descriptions is formulated to circulate for review	7 days after data collection
1.5	Draft evaluation	A draft evaluation report as per outline approved by the HPA	10 days after approval of outline report
1.6	Facilitate a validation workshop (if required)	Final PowerPoint presentation of the evaluation to be shared with related stakeholders (in Vietnamese)
1.7	Finalize the report	A final evaluation report in Vietnamese, considering suggestions and changes recommended during the review/validation process approved by the HPA (in Vietnamese)	3 days after the validation workshop
Assessment round 2 (40 working days/person-day)
2.1	Desk review, workplan and methodology	Work plan (in Vietnamese) for data collection, analysis, and report writing subject to approval by the HPA	No later than 15th  Jun 2022
2.2	Develop evaluation tools	Data collection tools (in Vietnamese) approved by the HPA	10 days after the approval of work plan
2.3	Conduct data collection and entry: qualitative and quantitative (if needed)	KII/FGD notes (Vietnamese) and audio records (if any) - Qualitative data matrix	20 days after the approval of data collection tools
2.4	Formulate and finalize outcome descriptions	A summary of outcome descriptions is formulated to circulate for review	7 days after data collection
2.5	Draft evaluation	A draft evaluation report as per outline approved by the HPA	10 days after approval of outline report
2.6	Facilitate a validation workshop (if required)	Final PowerPoint presentation of the evaluation to be shared with related stakeholders (in Vietnamese)
2.7	Finalize the report	A final evaluation report in Vietnamese, considering suggestions and changes recommended during the review/validation process approved by the HPA (in Vietnamese)	3 days after validation workshop

 

VI. REQUIREMENTS FOR CONSULTANT

1. Qualifications and Experience Required of External Consultant

• University graduate in related fields;
• Strong knowledge and experiences in the relevant field in Vietnam;
• Demonstrable expertise in designing and conducting qualitative and quantitative program evaluation, impact assessment, to provide strategic recommendations for program sustainability and future programming;
• Strong experiences in qualitative data analysis;
• Excellent report writing skills, in English and in Vietnamese;
• Excellent critical thinking and interpersonal communication skills;
• Ability to work under pressure, as an individual, and in a team.

2. Period of Performance

The period performance for the assessment is expected to be from 15^th November 2021 to 31 July 2022.

In the event that fieldwork and face-to-face meetings are not possible due to COVID-19 conditions and travel restrictions, HPA Vietnam and the consultant/consultants will organize alternative methods of information gathering (such as online meetings). In the event that there are no practical alternative methods of information gathering, and this is likely to cause delays in implementing the consultancy then HPA Vietnam and the consultant/consultants will discuss and agree on revised deliverable dates.

3. The fee for the consultant will be negotiated and applied following HPA regulations.

Interested applicants are requested to submit a CV that should clearly demonstrate how their experience meets the Qualifications and Experience detailed in the above descriptions. Please send applications by 19^th January 2022 to: [email protected]

The suitably qualified candidates will be invited for interview.

Health Poverty Action is an Equal Opportunities Employer
Qualified female candidates are encouraged to apply for the position
HPA is committed to the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA)

 

Organization: HPA
Location: Hanoi
Application deadline: 2022-01-19
Send application to: [email protected]