Support to Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP) with planning of 2023 Annual partners meeting and Technical Assistance tracking

Overall objective

Working in close collaboration with the Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP) staff and technical assistance team, the objective of the proposed work is to coordinate the administrative and logistics planning of the 2023 AMP annual partners meeting that will be taking place in May 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya. The second area of focus of this consultancy assignment will be on support to the technical assistance movement and tracking in relation with ITN campaigns.

Background:

The 2022 World Malaria Report indicates that malaria-endemic countries demonstrated great efforts and resilience to maintain services to prevent, detect and treat malaria during the COVID19 pandemic. A total of 171 million ITNs were planned for distribution in 2021; 70 million of these ITNs were carried over from 2020. In total, 128 million (75%) ITNs were distributed in 2021.

Despite these efforts, progress against malaria remains uneven globally. According to the 2022 World Malaria Report, there were an estimated 247 million malaria cases in 2021 in 84 malaria endemic countries, an increase from 245 million in 2020, with most of this increase coming from countries in the WHO African Region. Malaria case incidence (i.e. cases per 1000 population at risk) reduced from 82 in 2000 to 57 in 2019, before increasing to 59 in 2020. There was no change in case incidence between 2020 and 2021. The increase in 2020 was associated with disruption to services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the report, more than 600 000 people still die of malaria every year – most of them children.

The report also shows that malaria-affected countries continue to face broader challenges that affect their efforts to prevent malaria, including long-running humanitarian crises, limited donor funding, and the potential effect of climate change on the spread of the disease.

In terms of prevention, the 2022 World Malaria Report highlights that in sub-Saharan Africa, where most ITNs are distributed, about 590 million ITNs were delivered to communities in the period 2019–2021. However, in 2021, the estimated percentage of the population with access to an ITN within their household and the percentage of the population sleeping under an ITN was 54% and 47%, respectively, owing to several factors. In 2021, there were 43 countries that had ITN campaigns planned, including 14 countries that had planned to distribute only ITNs carried over from 2020 campaigns. There were 171 million ITNs planned for distribution in 2021, and 70 million of these ITNs were carried over from 2020. Overall, 128 million ITNs (75%) were distributed in 2021.

Coverage gaps are an important contributor to non-achievement of the WHO Global Technical Strategy targets, particularly in hard-to-reach, conflict-affected and marginalized communities. While expanded access to WHO-recommended malaria control interventions has played a critical role in reducing the global burden of the disease since 2000, a large proportion of the population at risk of malaria – particularly in the WHO African region – continues to lack access to prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

The Alliance for Malaria Prevention is a workstream within the RBM Partnership to End Malaria and is an integral part of RBM’s Country and Regional Support Partner Committee (CRSPC). AMP is a global partnership of more than 40 organizations, including government, private sector, faith-based and humanitarian organizations. Housed and chaired by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), AMP is focused on three main activities: (1) coordination of partners involved in ITN campaign and continuous distribution activities; (2) development of operational guidance for planning and implementation of ITN distributions; and (3) supporting national malaria programmes and partners to identify, address and document operational successes and challenges to meeting the WHO GTS targets for high coverage and use of ITNs.

In 2020, AMP was awarded a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to implement the ITN Campaign Efficiency Project. This consultancy will be funded through this grant to support the different workstreams under the project (https://allianceformalariaprevention.com/about/itn-campaign-efficiency-project/).

Specific objectives

AMP 2023 annual partners meeting – Administrative and logistics support

• Work in close coordination with the IFRC office in Nairobi to identify a venue for the AMP 2023 partners meeting and act as the focal point with the hotel to establish a contract to host the event, including meeting room, catering and booking of rooms for participants.
• Work with partners and IFRC colleagues to establish a registration platform including payment portal for the event and act as the focal point with IFRC finance colleagues to produce invoices and reconcile the expenses after the event.
• Develop a briefing note for registered participants (security, meeting venue, things to do, etc.)
• Drafting and getting signature on invitation letters to support visa applications of participants to the AMP 2023 partners meeting
• Support the AMP team in linking with the Kenya Ministry of Health and the Kenya Red Cross to ensure representation and engagement from both institutions at the partners meeting
• Provide on-site logistical and administrative support to coordinate venue and meeting rooms settings, report on potential issues and support the organising team with the communication with the venue and selected service providers, including for French interpretation
• Respond to questions from registered participants about hotels, airport transfer, etc.
• Provide support as needed with payment of per diem for selected participants, as well as with on-site payment of the participation fee if needed.
• Create a shared space for the AMP partners meeting where all people involved in the organization can easily access key information (status of registration, status of confirmations from presenters, status of presentations, etc.)
• Support to the AMP team on communication with selected partners and national malaria programs around submission of presentations at the AMP partners meeting.
• Support quality control of submitted presentations and follow up with presenters on technical aspects of the submitted documents following technical review (where needed)
• Ensure that all final presentations have been received and uploaded to the meeting storage space by TBD
• Support to the AMP team on raising visibility of the event through mailchimp and regular communication to partners, communication with all registered participants regarding logistical and administrative aspects of the meeting, and targeted communication with national malaria programs, technical and funding partners to ensure high in-person and virtual participation to the event.
• Support in solving administrative and logistics issues as needed in relation with registration and payment in coordination with MYT or other issues as needed. Availability to answer questions from participants and raise issues to the organising group.

Technical assistance tracking

• Support planning for TA, including mapping out TA needs and TA provider availability
• Support development of TORs and TA requests with national malaria programmes
• Work with RBM to ensure timely deployment of TA providers based on requests received
• Track TA deployment, as well as completion of deliverables, upload of documents to Google Drive, TA evaluations, etc.
• Centralize all TA deployment information in a single place for simplified tracking and reporting
• Update RBM every two weeks about TA provided under non-RBM funding (based on tracking)
• Advertise for consultants when gaps are identified / funding is available
• Support reporting (USAID, BMGF) on TA provided, as well as challenges experienced each quarter
• Support with knowledge management and organization in terms of TA deliverables and filing / availability

Alignment to the IFRC’s Strategy 2030

The Alliance for Malaria Prevention’s mandate aligns to the Federation’s Strategy 2030 as it supports the achievement of strategic aims:

1. Save lives, protect livelihoods and strengthen recovery from disasters and crises
2. Enable healthy and safe living.

Project objectives and outcomes:

Objective #1: Scaling up and maintaining universal coverage targets of malaria prevention with ITNs through all available channels including mass distribution campaigns and continuous distribution channels.

Desired outcomes: To address inefficiencies in planning and implementation of mass ITN distribution campaigns and continuous ITN distribution.

Support to be provided to the consultant:

The consultant will be supported by the Manager – Malaria Programmes, Officer – Information Systems and M&E and AMP Coordinator.