Consultancy Pool – Support transformative primary health care (PHC) for universal health coverage (UHC) in the Region of the Western Pacific (WPR)

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Qualifications

Consultancy Pool – Support transformative primary health care (PHC) for universal health coverage (UHC) in the Region of the Western Pacific (WPR)

Purpose of consultancy   

WHO will pre-qualify experienced professionals to be included in a Consultancy Pool, with the purpose to support the regional office in activities related to the regional priority of Transformative PHC for UHC and its acceleration points. This roster will be used to fill potential consultancies related to supporting Member States in the overall strengthening of their primary health care approach; traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine (TCIM); health workforce; affordable access to medicines; and others within the health policy and service design unit (HPS). This may include work carried remotely or through deployment in short-term assignments to Regional office or Member States. 

The consultants will work under the supervision of the Coordinator of HPS, supported by the relevant Technical Officer(s), in the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPR) and in close coordination with other relevant technical colleagues at regional and country levels. 

Successful applicants will be added to the Consultancy Pool and will be contacted and offered opportunities to quote for consultancies (length of consultancies may vary) when appropriate opportunities arise. This pre-qualification process will be valid for a period of two years.

Background 

Primary health care (PHC) is essential to addressing evolving health challenges, reducing health inequities, and ensuring universal health coverage (UHC) in countries across the Western Pacific. Despite progress in expanding access to essential health services, gaps persist in service quality, equity, and integration, particularly for underserved and vulnerable populations. Health systems are facing increasing demands from a growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), ongoing infectious disease threats, an ageing population and the impacts of climate change on health. By reorienting the health system toward comprehensive, locally tailored, and integrated PHC, countries can improve health outcomes, enhance social and financial protection, and build a more resilient health system capable of addressing current and future challenges.

To do this, over the next five years, WHO will support countries in the region focused on enhancing their PHC approaches and achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The support will be tailored to each country's context and capacity, emphasizing integrated service delivery, community empowerment, and multisectoral collaboration. The approach will develop and test effective, people-centered primary health care models and mechanisms to ensure that local insights and experiences from successful programs inform and shape national health policies. 

In this context, TCIM, which is widely used across the Western Pacific, plays an important role in each Member State, especially in PHC settings in resource-limited communities. Families often rely on TCIM to manage a broad range of conditions from minor ailments to serious illnesses. Facilitating evidence-informed and quality assured TCIM into national health systems may enable countries to better address these challenges and advance progress towards the shared goal of transformative PHC. 

Member States of the WPR adopted the new Regional Framework to shape a health workforce for the Future of the Western Pacific in 2023. WPRO along with the Country Offices is providing technical support to Member States to make progress on implementation of the Regional framework through multiple actions aimed at better national policies and stronger stewardship on health workforce. The support WPRO continues to provide includes - evidence generation and synthesis, developing policy briefs and other knowledge products, preparation and review of national policies on health workforce, capacity building and cross-learning initiatives, facilitating national and regional consultations and policy dialogues to address health workforce issues.

Deliverables

The consultant(s) will directly support the Regional Office, Country Offices, and selected WPR Member State in their work on Transformative PHC, based on needs that occur during the period of time covered by the roster.  The expected specific deliverables will differ depending on the specific consultancy and may include one or more of the following:

1. 1. 1. Providing project coordination of the regional office work on Transformative Primary Health Care (PHC), including work focused on health workforce, affordable access to medicines, and TCIM;
      2. Integrating and documenting lessons learned through the work in Member States for both in-country and cross-country learning on PHC, health workforce, affordable access to medicines, and TCIM;
      3. Creating policy/practice briefs and technical products to inform ongoing work on PHC, health workforce, affordable access to medicines, and TCIM; and
      4. Providing technical support to Regional and Country Offices as needed on PHC, health workforce and TCIM 

         Method(s) to carry out the activity

         Output/s

         Output 1:

         📚 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯! 🌍🤝 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗨𝗡𝗛𝗖𝗥, 𝗪𝗙𝗣, 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗙, 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗦𝗦, 𝗨𝗡𝗙𝗣𝗔, 𝗜𝗢𝗠 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀! 🌐

         ⚠️ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐰: 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐍𝐎𝐖!

         Providing project coordination of the regional office work on Transformative Primary Health Care (PHC), including work focused on health workforce, affordable access to medicines, and TCIM.

         • • • Deliverable 1.1: Facilitate cross-programme discussions to develop and implement the regional support for transformative PHC and document decisions made
             • Deliverable 1.2 (Band level C): Develop and coordinate comprehensive technical project plans, including objectives, timeline, budget, risk management, resource allocation, and project evaluation, and developing a mechanism for regular review of the projects and updating of project planning. Activities in this band level have a high perceived value-add as they represent a significant shift in how the organization and countries work to strengthen PHC and have high levels of technical complexity and, therefore, require expert technical knowledge and skills to coordinate.  Additionally, the consultant will need to work with stakeholders across multiple programme areas; multiple country ministries; and multiple country and regional level partner organizations. Due to the complexity of these relationships, successful candidates must show examples of recognized expertise in the area of health systems strengthening and/or primary health care. 

               Output 2:

               Integrating and documenting lessons learned through the work in Member States for both in-country and cross-country learning on PHC, health workforce, affordable access to medicines, and TCIM

               • • • Deliverable 2.1: Facilitate consultative meetings with key stakeholders for collective inputs of the lessons learned from in-country work
                   • Deliverable 2.2: Draft brief based on lessons learned for use as in-country and cross-country learning
                   • Deliverable 2.3: Facilitate workshops (virtual and/or in-person) to share lessons-learned and their application to future support of Member States
                   • Deliverable 2.4 (Band level C): Develop and implement comprehensive education and training programs and/or expert collaboration platforms, including modules and toolkits incorporating evidence-based best practices to enhance learning outcomes, facilitate knowledge sharing, and build technical capacities. The consultant will be expected to create key concepts, theories or principles and to establish guidelines of major importance to enhance the sustainability of the programs and platforms. The consultant is expected to create a wide-ranging learning platform for both in-country learning (to ensure that the lessons learned from the demonstration sites (a) influence national/provincial policies that affect what can be done at the demonstration site level; (b) positive (and negative) changes can be repeated (or avoided) in other districts and provinces; and (c) lessons can be expanded to other countries. 

                     Output 3:

                     Creating policy/practice briefs and technical products to inform ongoing work on PHC, health workforce, affordable access to medicines, and TCIM

                     • • • Deliverable 3.1: Review international experience to identify success factors and barriers to sustained transformative PHC, through the lens of themes identified jointly with the regional and country offices
                         • Deliverable 3.2: Support in evidence-generation and developing briefs based on above to synthesize lessons in supporting transformative PHC in Member States
                         • Deliverable 3.3 (Band level C): Conduct regional analytics, country profiling, and/or comprehensive country situation analysis (CSA) for the specified topics of public health, incorporating landscape analyses as appropriate. Components may include but are not limited to: governance and public awareness; efforts on documentation, research, and technical innovation; education and training for the workforce; health service delivery; quality of care; trends in drivers of financial hardship (e.g., medicines) utilizing innovative sources such as private sector data; topics related to the protection of biodiversity (focusing on medicinal plants) and its impacts on climate resilience; and the protection of public-health related intellectual property rights (IPRs).
                         • Deliverable 3.4 (Band level C): Develop technical products and/or publications, incorporating feedback from WHO, collaborators, and other key stakeholders on outputs derived from the above activities. 

                           Output 4:

                           Providing technical support to Regional and Country Offices as needed on PHC, health workforce and TCIM.

                           • • • Deliverable 4.1 (Band level B or C depending on complexity of technical issues): In coordination with WHO technical teams at regional and/or country offices and other key stakeholders, develop and implement regional and/or country-specific programme/s of work to meet country demand and expand support in key technical areas in PHC and TCIM (e.g. service delivery models and national policies or plans), health workforce, and ensuring affordable access to medicines from a health financing and economics perspective (e.g., medicines pricing policy, country-specific or cross-country procurement mechanisms, evidence generation and health technology assessment for pharmaceutical benefits packages, integration into care in the context of purchasing mechanisms, etc.).
                               • Deliverable 4.2 (Band level C): In coordination with WHO technical teams at regional and/or country offices and other key stakeholders, develop and manage electronic dashboards or databases on specific topics. This may require expertise in digital health in LMIC settings. 

                                 Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

                                 Please note that specific requirements will depend on specific consultancies, the requirements below are the minimum requirements to be included in the consultant pool.

                                 Educational Qualifications:

                                 Essential:

                                 Band level B: University degree in health policy, health systems, health services management, health economics, health workforce management, traditional medicine, pharmacy, social sciences or other public health-related sciences. 

                                 Band level C: Advanced university degree in health policy, health systems, health services management, health economics, health workforce management, traditional medicine, pharmacy, social sciences or other public health-related sciences. 

                                 Experience: 

                                 Essential:

                                 Band level B: Five to ten years of relevant experience in one or more of the areas below: