Baseline Evaluation Terms of Reference USAID Msingi Imara Project

Project Objectives and purpose
The overarching purpose of the Msingi Imara project is to strengthen the Human Resources for Health, Quality Management and Community Health Systems. It aims to build on existing interventions, identify gaps, and enhance maturity of the supported systems towards sustainability and in the journey to self-reliance. To achieve this purpose, it focuses on three sub-purposes:

• Sub-purpose 1: Strengthen Human Resources for Health management systems.
• Sub-purpose 2: Improve quality management systems, and
• Sub-purpose 3: Strengthen Community Health Systems at National and County levels.

Project Theory of Change

• USAID Msingi Imara’s theory of change is premised on the strong conviction that if our partnership collaboratively uses innovative and highly proven strategies to address systems and contextual gaps in Human Resources for Health system, quality of health service and community health systems and empower focus counties to increasingly take up these innovations, then it will ultimately contribute to improved sustainable health outcomes in the focus counties.

Needs based training, rational deployment, appropriate utilization and supervision, and cordial employer-employee relations are critical in addressing the human resources for health constraints. The project will focus on building the capacity of national and sub-national (county) human resources for health (HRH) management systems to address issues pertaining to health worker productivity, retention, and quality of services delivered. This project will be in line with the following guiding principles: a system thinking and systems practice approach; respect of the country's devolved system of health governance; local capacity development, building on and strengthening the capacity of local entities in the public and private sector; promoting system change and sustenance of results. The principles have been mainstreamed in the technical approaches highlighted below:

Strengthen Human Resources for Health management systems.

• Strengthen Health Workforce Performance Management
• Improve Workplace Environment
• Strengthen HRH management deployment and retention.

Improve Quality management systems.

• Strengthen Quality Planning
• Strengthened Quality Assurance
• Strengthening Quality Improvement

Strengthen Community Health Systems at National and Community Levels

• Strengthen health systems for improved quality of community health services.
• Strengthen community health systems to enhance equitable distribution of services.
• Strengthened community health systems for enhanced optimization of resources.

The baseline objectives
The baseline evaluation will contribute towards:

• Establishing a baseline as points of comparison to support measurement of project impact as part of future project evaluation activities.
• Guiding realistic and feasible target setting for performance indicators where needed
• Informing the planning and implementation process including MEAL systems
• Understanding of the operational environment and existing priorities in the target counties

The general responsibilities are:

• Review of program documents and preparation of inception report and data collection tools
• Review of secondary literature to inform the development of data collection tools.
• Develop the baseline data collection schedule and select respondents to participate in interviews.
• Select and Lead training of data enumerators/research assistants.
• Conduct baseline data collection.
• Perform data quality checks to ensure accuracy, validity and integrity of data collected.
• Conduct data cleaning, processing and analysis.
• Prepare and submit a draft baseline report and other products.
• Validate findings with the project team and project partners i.e., preliminary Presentation of Report
• Submit final baseline report and annexes.
• Participate in validation/dissemination event.

Roles and Responsibilities of consortium partners

• Seeking of requisite approvals, including IRB approval as appropriate
• Onboarding meeting to explain scope and align expectations, agree on logistics etc. Another touch point after data collection and at presentation of draft report (to include technical officers in the project)
• Provide the required project information to the consultant, these include project proposals and log frames and any type of research already performed on the target groups.
• Provide technical review of inception reports, data collection tools and quantitative data.
• Approval of inception report, tools, quantitative data formats and data collection schedule
• Mobilization of relevant stakeholders to participate in interviews or FGDs.
• Participation in the data collection as informants where applicable
• Technical review and providing comments on draft report.
• Mobilization of stakeholders to participate in validation/dissemination event.
• Approval of final report and annexes

Qualifications of the proposed consultants
Proposed consultants should meet the following requirements at a minimum:

• Lead consultant should have at least a master’s degree in epidemiology, public health, biostatistics or related field. Other team members should have qualifications in Human Resources for Health, health systems, Primary Health Care (Community Health), data analysis and quality improvement.
• At least 7 years of experience in research, and monitoring & evaluation of which a minimum of 5 years of related research experience, including both academic and project-oriented research.
• Experience in developing sampling plans and tools for and undertaking Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, and Surveys
• Experience of working in the humanitarian sector preferably in health system strengthening
• Experience conducting evaluations/baselines for USAID and other relevant donor projects.
• Previous experience evaluating government capacity building and policy reform initiatives.
• Strong qualitative and quantitative research and analytical skills.
• Experience of working with multicultural teams
• Experience of working in the region or counties of the project.
• Language skills – Proficiency in English and Kiswahili.
• High level of professionalism and an ability to work independently and in high-pressure situations under tight deadlines.
• The lead consultant must have strong analytical skills and ability to clearly synthesize and present findings, draw practical conclusions, make recommendations and to prepare well-written reports in a timely manner.
• Availability for the period indicated and ready to carry out the assignment and deliver results within the specified period/time.