FHM Engage: Stewardship for Youth-Driven demand for FP in Sierra Leone

The key objective of this scope of work is to ‘describe market solutions for strengthening youth-driven demand for family planning through stakeholder engagement, dialogue, and consensus, leading to improved accessibility of FP information, products, and services. The consultant or firm will achieve this objective through the key activities outlined below.
Key Activities
There are two key activities, with sub-activities that the organization, firm, or consultant will complete under the scope of work for the objective described above.
Activity 1: Establish a private sector-driven public-private engagement platform
The consultant/firm will work with FHM Engage to establish a private sector-driven public-private engagement platform to improve FP service accessibility, with a specific focus on youth. The consultant or firm will identify and enlist civil society and private sector organizations as members, to also lead equity and inclusion efforts in the private sector’s engagement (PSE) unit. This unit will include key private sector stakeholders active in Sierra Leone’s Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and FP ecosystem, including youth-led organizations (YLOs). It will encompass development sector stakeholders, implementing partners, social aggregators, healthcare professional bodies, and for-profit commercial market players like the pharmaceutical industry, distributors, and media. This dynamic unit will comprehensively examine Sierra Leone’s FP and SRH landscape, avail market intelligence and generate diverse solutions through a consultative and co-design process amongst the public-private stakeholders. The Government of Sierra Leone acknowledges the importance of FP in promoting economic growth and improving health and supports collaborative efforts and stakeholder engagement at all levels. The SL Government, as part of its FP 2030 commitments, mandates the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) for widespread access to family planning services. MoHS oversees this initiative, emphasizing stewardship and leadership, and actively mobilizes support and resources from domestic sources, partners, and the private sector to fulfill these commitments.
To align with the Sierra Leone Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan (2022) and leverage its FP 2030 commitments, FHM Engage, through the consultant/firm, will integrate/embed the PSE unit within the Reproductive Health and Family Planning Program Division of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. The PSE unit will consist of thematic working groups aligned with the Costed Implementation Plan Strategic Advisory Groups and Reproductive Health Commodity Security Working Group, among others, including the creation of a Youth Focus Working Group. These thematic working groups will collaborate on public-private dialogue (PPD), advocacy, and co-design of interventions to secure public sector buy-in.
The output from this activity is a Stewardship platform/ Private Sector Engagement Unit established in Sierra Leone. FHM facilitates the stewardship market actors to develop an agenda with priority solutions for youth-driven demand for FP in Sierra Leone. This output will have three deliverables: 1a, 1b, and 1c.
Deliverable 1a: Stewardship platform established, including:
i. Governance structure of the Stewardship Platform/PSE unit.
ii. Membership criteria and Terms of Reference of the members.
iii. Constitution of Thematic groups.
iv. Description of stakeholders’ potential roles in stewarding market interventions for youth FP/SRH market, and potential to contribute to the consultation in terms of interest, availability, and resources (e.g., authority, representation, data, funds, etc.).
v. Integration of platform into the MOHS, including a public announcement.
Deliverable 1b: Annual Implementation Plan developed in consultation with the PSE steering committee, with key deliverables, milestones, and budgets, of market priorities identified as per the consultative workshop recommendations, e.g., development of a youth-friendly medical scheme or improving import regulations to reduce commodity stockouts.
Deliverable 1c: Learning brief detailing the establishment of the stewardship platform/ PSE unit which details the cross-sectoral platforms and partnerships that were put in place and what approaches and priority areas were identified for establishment for the stewardship platform and key learnings in the process.
Activity 2: Coordinate Thematic Working Groups in Public-Private Dialogue (PPD), Advocacy, and Co-Design Interventions for Youth Markets
The consultant/firm in consultation with the governing body of the PSE unit, creates thematic working groups including a youth-led working group. The objective is to plan, organize, and conduct consultative PPD, fostering collaboration and co-designing interventions to enhance the market functions of FP, encompassing supply and demand dynamics. This effort will support functions related to stewardship, financing, skills, technology, and regulations governing information and communication, through social media and youth-led platforms, improved supply chain to reduce stock-outs and wider method choice in the private sector, and advocacy interventions for affordable access by youth. The consultant/firm will also identify a civil society/private sector organization to lead the private sector within this platform. The consultant will aid the lead group in developing Terms of Reference and a mandate for the platform, including establishing thematic groups by the third quarter of Year 3 (April -June 2024).
a) Review the current root cause of underperformance and prioritize needs.
b) Identify and prioritize solutions. The dialogue will be aimed at facilitating a review of key findings from the market description, youth insights, and consultative workshop, building consensus on:
i. Priority constraints identified by the market analysis for youth,
ii. Relevant solutions to prioritize for addressing these constraints,
iii. How to measure success related to strengthened youth FP markets
The final outputs for this scope of work will be Deliverables 2a and 2b:
Deliverable 2a: Two (2) thematic working groups (TWGs) established with specified purpose and objectives, membership criteria, TORs, and signed MOUs with key market actors.
Deliverable 2b: Each of the two established TWGs will actively participate in PPD and co-design market solution prototypes for: 1) Supply Chain and reducing stock-outs and improving availability of a range of contraceptive products in the private sector and 2) Health Financing and the youth-friendly health scheme. The consultant, firm, or organization will prepare a learning brief for each of the established TWGs, which will detail the TWGs’ active participation in PPD and their co-design of market solution prototypes:
1) A learning brief on strategies to reduce stock-outs and supply of contraceptives to the last mile for end users’ access, for an improved FP market performance.
2) A learning brief on advocacy efforts for a youth-friendly health scheme.