Information System Specialist: Liberia Health System Capacity

POSITION: INFORMATION SYSTEM SPECIALIST

Social Impact supports International Business Initiatives (IBI) to implement the USAID-funded Liberia Data, Evaluation, Learning and Technical Assistance (DELTA) with the goal to provide an innovative degree of analytical and advisory services to USAID/Liberia’s Office of Program and Project Development (PPD) and Development Objective (DO) teams in support of the Mission’s project design, performance monitoring and evaluation, and operational learning and adapting.

Project Objective:

USAID/Liberia has engaged DELTA to support the conduct of a nationwide health system capacity assessment in Liberia 15 counties including the central Ministry of Health units and the private health services. This assessment is intended to measure Liberia health system management, readiness, response capacities and level of coordination and collaboration with the private sector. This follow-on assessment of the 2019 CHT assessment is being broadened in coverage and scope to include the simultaneous assessment of the CHT, Central Ministry and private health services which aims to comprehensively inform health system issues and resulting capacity improvement interventions. The focus of this assessment is to:

• Provide the Ministry of Health and all stakeholders objective information on whether the health system has the basic competencies and management capacity (systems) necessary for proper and transparent management of public sector funds and health services and understanding of capacities in the private health services.
• Determine the extent to which these systems functions are fully operational as it is directly tied to the capacity of the Ministry of Health (MoH) to deliver effective health services, increase the quality of care, and harmonize data through transparent public health management practices.
• Document challenges and lesson learned on implementation of the Capacity Building Action Plans implemented by counties
• Support the Government of Liberia (GoL) de-concentration/decentralization efforts in the health sector which includes monitoring CHT performance in a standardized manner across Liberia’s 15 counties, identifying capacity-building needs of individual CHTs and Central MoH , and providing publicly accessible and transparent health system data on the use of GoL /donor funding for the Liberia health system .

DELTA is supporting the MoH to conduct a health system capacity assessment using an automated set of standardized tools. The tool will consist of modules; each assessing specific aspect of health system management capacity and function and shall be automated using a mHealth platform such as the DHIS2 mobile app or Kobo Collect Platform and subsequently deployed to mobile devices for data collection and real time reporting.

DELTA will support the MoH realize each phase of the assessment namely the: (1) preparation for the assessment, (2) field work (data collection) and (3) data analysis and completion of the reports, and (4) dissemination of the findings.

DELTA technical support to the Ministry includes the hiring of consultancy services for key functions related to this assessment

Delta therefore seeks to recruit an Information Systems Specialist for the automation of the health system capacity assessment tools. The Information system specialist shall facilitate co-development workshops, build competencies within MoH on the administration, management and use of the tools and support related capacity building initiatives.

In addition to theInformation System Specialist**,** the assessment team will include a Team Leader, and area specific specialist.

The estimated start date will be August 15, 2022, through October 31, 2023. The estimated LOE for the Information Systems Specialist will be 45 days.

Candidates are reviewed on a rolling basis; early submission is recommended

Position Description:

The Information System Specialist is responsible to automate the survey questionnaire to a web based mHealth platform; preferably the DHIS2 mobile Application or Kobo-collect and shall contribute to the development of guidelines or SOP for data collection and reporting as well as training materials related to the use of the automated platform for reporting. S/he shall support questionnaire and tool development activities, providing technical guidance on questionnaire design, sequencing, and structural flow of questions, S/he shall be required to adopt a collaborative design, user-centric, cost effective and result oriented approach to the task and shall solicit user requirements, feedback, and appraisal throughout the design process. The tool shall be user friendly, adaptable, and scalable; must satisfy basic requirement for a CAPI and CATI data collection and must be able to synchronize data to the server either on-the-fly or scheduled intervals via network connectivity. The Information System specialist shall be required to deploy and publish the automated tool to handheld devices such a tablets or mobile phones for use by data collectors and shall design and facilitate training on the use of the tools. Specifically, the Information System Specialist shall have the following responsibilities

While DELTA provides coordination and logistical leadership and technical support, the Information System Specialist shall work with the Ministry of Health technical Lead, the technical working group (TWG), and the core team comprising of representation of MoH and its partner institutions, providing technical guidance throughout design, implementation, analysis, and report writing of the assessment.

Responsibilities:

• Review paper, Word and or Excel-based questionnaires and provide technical guidance on structure and sequencing of questions in an automated format on the CAPI/CATI tools.
• Organize co-development sessions to inform tool automation workflow and design.
• Automate all assessment tools including mock present or expose the automated tool to DELTA and (TWG for feedback and adapt tools to reflect, where necessary, preliminary feedback from TWG.
• Prepare user manual / standard operating procedure (SOP) on the data capture.
• Train MoH identified focal person on form management and administrations
• Train the assessors and support pre-testing of the data capture.
• Provide evolutionary maintenances and technical support to MoH during data collection and reporting.
• Automated tool deployed to MoH designated server and mobile interfaces (tablets, Phone, etc.) and designated server.
• User credentials developed based on roles and responsibilities on platform and handed over to DELTA and MoH.
• Report highlighting evolutionary maintenances and technical support provided to MoH during data collection and reporting.
• Training report including a list of MoH system administrators trained on essential system administration and evolutionary maintenances roles and tasks and that of assessors trained to develop essential competencies and skills in the administration of the automated tools
• Handing over of the data capture to DELTA and MoH

Expected Deliverables:

The Information System Specialist will complete the assignment using agreed, approved, and specified in the consultant’s detailed Scope of Work and shall be expected to fulfill the following deliverables based upon agreed upon timeline.

1. Technical inception report for this assignment detailing approaches, planned activities that incorporates prior feedback from inception meetings.
2. Approved automated tool, training manual, SOP and guideline for tool applications based on specifications and established workflow
3. Handover document including SOPs, Guidelines, Server credentials including SSH key, Outputs produced including reports, complete set of meta data and codebook and update on status of work.
4. Final Technical report for this assignment and debrief presentations to DELTA and MoH.

Qualifications:

• At least a master’s degree in information technology, research, related studies or any relevant disciplines.
• At least five years of progressive work experience in M&E or Information System Management/technology and working with electronic data collection tools.
• At least five years of active experience in the designing of survey questionnaires and Information System of data software platform such as ODK, Survey CTO, etc.
• Have a minimum of five-years work experience in designing, implementing, managing and/or web-based data inputting, collection, retrieval, analysis and dashboard information sharing.
• Knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, STATA, R Programing, and other relevant web design Information System languages an added advantage
• Must have significant experience planning or implementing research or field assessment using Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) or Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) Approaches.
• Prior experience participating in a health sector assessment.
• Write and speak English, and experience writing technical reports
• Work within diverse group and in multicultural setting, and on tight deadlines.

Come join our energetic and innovative team! We offer you the opportunity to play a leading role in the growth of our company, work as part of a creative and committed team, and make a difference in the well-being of our world. To learn more about Social Impact, please visit our website: http://www.socialimpact.com

SI is an EEO/AA/ADA Veterans Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. Only selected candidates will be contacted for an interview. Please, no phone calls.