80 days consultancy to develop tools and guides for Vitamin A Supplementation programs

Introduction

Helen Keller International (Helen Keller Intl) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving and improving the sight and lives of the world’s vulnerable by combatting the causes and consequences of blindness, poor health and malnutrition.

Helen Keller Intl invites consultants to submit applications to support Helen Keller to develop a kit of tools and guides to support staff in implementing vitamin A supplementation (VAS) programs.

Program Background

For several decades, Helen Keller International has been supporting governments in multiple countries to provide vitamin A supplements (VAS) every 6 months to children between aged 6 to 59 months. In Sub Saharan Africa, Helen Keller International supports VAS services in 13 countries through two approaches:

• Vitamin A supplementation provided to children 6-59 months through mass campaigns organised twice a year. Teams of distributors visit all households in the country over a five-day period to supplement children. In some cases, caregivers are asked to bring their children to the nearest distribution post for supplementation.
• The integration of Vitamin A supplementation into the routine health system. This approach uses various opportunities for reaching children as they are brought to health facilities, such as the expanded program of immunization vaccination contact points. Vitamin A supplements are distributed to all eligible children attending the facilities.

Typical support provided by Helen Keller includes the following components:

• Situational assessment / analysis
• Planning for distribution
• Training of distributors and health workers
• Sensitization / mobilization of communities
• Logistics and supply chain management for vitamin A supplements and other items
• Implementation of the delivery models
• Monitoring, evaluation and learning

As Helen Keller continues to expand its support to VAS services to more countries and regions, it is essential that technical teams be equipped with standardized guides and tools that will provide a framework for action to existing country teams and will help train and onboard new teams and countries. Each of these components requires a set of tools and guides that will constitute minimum program standards for VAS. These standards also ensure that VAS services are provided consistently across countries and that they are designed and implemented with the highest level of quality.

Helen Keller International is seeking consultants to lead the development of the VAS Minimum Program Standards between July 2022 and December 2022.

Scope of Work, Key Objectives and Activities

To develop the VAS Minimum Program Standards, consultants will be expected to:

1. Collaborate with the VAS team to identify learning objectives and create a preliminary list of the tools, guides, and knowledge products that are necessary for country teams to ensure quality standardised approaches to the design, implementation and monitoring of VAS services in countries
2. From the comprehensive list of products needed and the proposed design, identify which ones already exist and propose a timeline for updating the ones which need adjustments, and developing the ones which need to be created.
3. Develop all missing guides, tools for each component of the VAS program.

Sample of products expected:

• Situational assessment / analysis
  • Guide on how to conduct a situation and needs assessment specific to VAS and to the local context
  • Specific components should include health system building blocks assessment
• Planning for distribution
  • Micro online training on planning tools: how to conduct quality planning for VAS at national and sub-national levels, identifying minimum contents of quality planning tools
• Training of distributors and health workers
  • Training videos and toolkits for all types of actors involved in VAS
  • Supportive supervision checklists and guides
• Sensitization / mobilization of communities
  • Social mobilization guides for various types of delivery models
  • Examples of mobilization materials
• Logistics and supplies chains for vitamin A supplements and other items
  • Guidance on how to organise supply chain for VAS
  • List of essential items required for VAS
• Implementation of the delivery models
  • Guidance on the various delivery models for VAS, how to design and implement them
  • Guidance on transition from campaign approaches to routine delivery
  • Guidance on how to integrate health system strengthening approaches to VAS
• Monitoring & Evaluation
  • List of indicators to consider in VAS services and how to collect them and analyze them
  • Guidance on strengthening of health information systems for VAS

Deliverables and Illustrative Timeline

• Preliminary list of the tools, guides, and knowledge products that are necessary for country teams to ensure quality standardized approaches to the design, implementation and monitoring of VAS services in countries
  • 20 days
  • September 2022
• Development of all missing guides, tools, for each component of the VAS program. Materials should be delivered in standard file formats so they can be migrated across different platforms.
  • 60 days
  • December 2022

The number of days proposed may be subject to adjustments and only consists in an initial estimation to guide bidders in pricing. It represents the number of days for one person.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS and EXPERIENCE

• Demonstrated experience in developing guides and tools for public health programs
• Experience in Vitamin A Supplementation programs will be considered as a plus.
• Experience working with INGOs a plus.
• Demonstrated high level writing skills is required. English is required, and French will be considered a plus.
• Ability to work independently