Terms of Reference for a consultation International for the development of an investment case in Gabon

1. Context and justification

The world, in general and Gabon in particular will not achieve transformative results by 2030 without accelerating progress towards these results and the acceleration will not happen without filling the resource gaps and stepping-up political commitment at all levels. Indeed, the morbidity and maternal, neonatal and infant-juvenile mortality remain a major public health problem in Gabon. Admittedly, progress has been made in Reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health, but remains insufficient for the fulfillment of Gabon's commitments from Nairobi summit on ICPD, FP2020 initiative and other partnerships and flagship intiatives.  Developing an investment case in Gabon will help the country to present a compelling case for a prioritized set of investments needed to put the country on the path to achieve the transformative result by 2030. It can be a key advocacy tool to showcase the process by which priority interventions were identified, determine the cost of these priority interventions and make the case for investing in them, as well as documents complementary financing (through domestic and external financiers) and gaps to achieve the transformative result(s). In particular having an investment case in support of achieving the transformative result can: feed into the sustainable development agenda, including the development of integrated national financing frameworks (INFF), which are planning and delivery tools to finance sustainable development at the country level and can be tools for the government to operationalize the Addis Ababa Action Agenda that provides a framework for financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; support prioritization of interventions within the country by determining the cost of the priority interventions needed to achieve the transformative result by 2030, including identification of the available resources and gaps in support of these priority interventions; articulate the returns on investment by making a compelling case for investment in priority interventions to achieve the transformative result(s); and identify fragmentation and duplication of financing of health priorities in a country. Analyzing the cost required to achieve the transformative result, and identifying complementary financing available and the resource gap can help the country to come together behind a defined set of priorities to be implemented to achieve the transformative result.

2. Objective and Scope of the consultation

• The investment case will help better understand the needs, funding flows and gaps pertaining to transformative results in Gabon and provide a clear and up-to-date maternal health, family planning, and gender based-violence, including harmful practices services needs and gaps, in-country plans and options of how-to step-up efforts to meet needs in a sustainable manner.
• The output document will be used as a robust advocacy and financing tool to engage with the government of Gabon and other stakeholders. It will bolster progress to the achievement of maternal health, family planning and gender-based-violence objectives in the country, beyond to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Agenda 2030.

The specific objectives are to:

• Summarize aggregate country-level data related to current financing and commitments to maternal health, family planning and gender-based violence:
  
  • Identify options of how to fill the gaps for essential maternal health services, modern contraception and gender based-violence services (for 10 years)
  • Develop options for increased national investment in maternal health, family planning / reproductive health commodities security, and gender-based violence
• Develop an implementation plan of maternal health/Family planning/gender-based violence business case towards financial sustainability along with its monitoring and evaluation framework

3. Expected Outcomes and Deliverables

• An inception report, which clearly illustrates how the consultancy will be carried out
• A situation analysis of presenting the landscape in Burkina Faso with regards to the 3 Transformative Results including on ending preventable maternal mortality, ending unmet needs for family planning, and ending gender-based violence
• A mapping of partnerships and existing funding and financial commitments to maternal health, family planning, gender-based violence, together with an analysis of critical funding gaps (required investments)
• A Business case that clarifies the economic benefits of investing maternal health, family planning and gender-based violence in mid and long term; estimate the return on investment for the specific case of Gabon, on areas of maternal health, family planning, gender-based violence, present scenarios
• An analysis of innovative financing approaches that would facilitate tapping into domestic/household finance as contribution to meeting overall needs together with options to reduce the funding gap, including suggestion for required funding, innovative financing strategies and expected results
• An implementation plan of the Investment Case towards financial sustainability of maternal health, family planning and gender-based violence along with the monitoring and evaluation framework developed

4. Methodology

The prospective team of consultants will be composed of the lead consultant (international) supported by the national consultant throughout the whole process. They will outline methodologies to achieve the mentioned deliverables (situation analysis, current funding commitments versus projected gaps and scenarios for return on investment in the specific case of Country). The methodology should at a minimum contain:

• A desk review of available documentation on national data (reports from Ministries of health and social affairs, policies and strategies related to health financing, maternal health, family planning, gender-based violence, Human Resource Tracking Tool, National Health Accounts, National Institute for Statistics and Demographic Surveys, GFF investment case, family planning investment case, etc.)
• Primary qualitative data collection through key stakeholders’ interviews
• An in-depth analysis of maternal health, family planning and gender-based violence funding trends including current and projected funding requirements

It is expected that the development of the investment case should not take longer than 24 weeks (6 months).

5. Activities

To reach the above objectives, the consultants will undertake a set of activities including among others:

• Conduct an analysis of the maternal health, family planning and gender-based violence landscapes in Gabon, including major (ongoing) policy shifts (global and national) and their implications
• Analyze the current funding situation of maternal health, family planning and gender-based violence through analysis of in-country funding flows indicating overall need; current support/availability of reproductive health commodities; and the gap between overall need and current availability (define the current resource gaps until 2030 years)
• Develop tools of which key study questions may include (without being exhaustive): How preventing maternal death, family planning and women’s empowerment are contributing to economic growth? How failure to invest in maternal health, family planning and gender-based violence could increase social demand and fail development initiatives? What are the financial resources going to maternal health, family planning and gender based violence in the country? What will happen if donors stop today funding for reproductive health commodities in the country?
• Design projected scenarios at the national and subnational level to address the inequalities in accessing and utilizing maternal health, family planning and gender based services across the country and to increase and to sustain funding for maternal health, family planning and gender based violence in the country.
• Develop a roadmap for financing maternal health, family planning and, gender equality and women empowerment at the national level taking into account the fiscal space in the country, identifying who, when, how and what affects the decision making of domestic resources allocation for maternal health, family planning and gender-based violence services and commodities.

6. Required technical assistance

The objective of the Technical Assistance is to help the government to develop the “Investment Case for the 3 Transformative Results in Gabon”.

From UNFPA HQ:

• Quality assurance on conceptualization and design of approach, prioritization, costing priority investments using a valid approach/tool, as well as the modelling and/or analytical tools used to compare between possible priorities and investment scenarios.;
• Provide tools and guidance

From UNFPA WCARO:

• Quality assurance on conceptualization and design of approach, prioritization, costing priority investments using a valid approach/tool, as well as the modelling and/or analytical tools used to compare between possible priorities and investment scenarios.;
• Monitor impact of the country investment cases

From Consultants:

Reporting to the UNFPA Resident Representative in Gabon, the team of consultants (national and an international) will work under the joint leadership of the UNFPA Resident Representative, the Ministry of health and  social affairs and , the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic and the Ministry of budget.

The team of consultants will establish close collaboration with groups of main stakeholders involved in maternal health, family planning and gender-based violence. Officials from the ministries of health and social affairs , the Ministry of justice in charge of family planning, maternal health and gender-based violence will set up partner groups for the consultation. UNFPA will manage the interaction between the consultants and these groups. There will be several consultative meetings to ensure inclusion of all key players.

Skills/knowledge necessary in the team of consultants to carry out this work

• Health economics
• Financial development engineering
• Thematic on the 3 transformative results
• Dynamics of national development processes and government institutions

Qualification of International consultant

• Advanced university degree in health economics, health financing and other related field;
• At least 10 years- of progressive professional experience in development, design of health financing and health economics related documents in developing countries;
• Analytical skills in sector-based and/or development programme dimensions
• Demonstrated successful experience in developing of evidence-based publications, investment case, financial sustainability plans, policy briefs, strategies, guidelines, reports;
• Proficiency in the use of standard costing tools (One Health Tool, LiST, WHO Choice, etc.)
• Experience of working in Africa especially with Governments or UN systems will be an asset
• Fluency in French with excellent writing, analytical and communication skills.

Qualification of national consultant:

• Advanced university degree in public health, medicine and other related field;
• Having experience in health economics will be an asset
• Analytical skills in sector-based and/or development programme dimensions
• At least 10 years- of progressive professional experience in development, design of public health strategies, policies and related documents in developing countries;
• Demonstrated successful experience in completing consultancy assignments with the health sector of Gabon and developing of evidence based publications, survey reports, strategic plan, policy briefs, strategies, guidelines, reports;
• Fluency in French with excellent writing, analytical and communication skills.

-The application includes a handwritten request addressed to the UNFPA Resident Representative, a letter of motivation, a CV dated within the last month, a completed P11 form (attached), a copy of the national identity card or passport, three references with contact information. A copy of diplomas and a technical and financial proposal.

Applications should be sent to the following address

 recrutement-gabon@unfpa.org

Office contact : 07 99 90 54/011738882 .

7. Roadmap