ThaiNGO

Short-term consultancy for review of mid-term progress against a pre-award assessment

Statement of Work (SOW)

Requesting applicants residing in: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Thailand

Background: The Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus Afghanistan is a five year (January 2016 – June 2020) project to strengthen the impact and sustainability of the Afghan Social Marketing Organization (ASMO). ASMO is a local social marketing organization established with support from USAID. ASMO promotes family planning (FP), diarrhea prevention and management and nutrition by distributing associated products at an affordable price nationally, and by motivating Afghans to use these products through social and behavior change communications (SBCC).

ASMO’s contribution to health in Afghanistan is significant. More than 22 percent of women using modern contraceptives used products marketed by ASMO. Similarly, between five and 20 percent of users purchased ASMO’s oral rehydration salts (ORS), water treatment solutions and iron supplement products. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Afghanistan recognizes ASMO’s contribution to health in Afghanistan, and the potential benefits from applying social marketing techniques to additional priority health areas.

At the beginning of the project, SHOPS Plus hired an external audit firm to conduct a pre-award assessment that looked at previous assessment findings and identified areas where ASMO’s capacity needed to be strengthened. This included assessing ASMO’s organizational, governance and management structures including, the role of the Board of Directors, accounting and financial management and other internal controls, and quality assurance capabilities. Since 2016, the project has focused on addressing these findings by strengthening ASMO’s capacity in the following areas: marketing, governance, internal controls, financial performance and cost efficiencies. The project has been tracking ASMO’s progress against the pre-award findings and wants to hire a third-party consultant to conduct a mid-term review. The project aims to address all 25 findings by the end of the project in June 2020. This review will inform the project’s efforts to address the outstanding findings during this and next year.

The work will be a mix of desk review and one trip to Kabul, Afghanistan. The trip will be one week in May. The project will make security, ground transport and accommodation arrangements for the selected consultant in Afghanistan (if s/he is not an Afghan national).

 Tasks and Outputs: The selected consultant will conduct the following tasks and submit the respective deliverables. The project will provide the consultant with relevant documents (e.g. pre-award assessment) to carry out this SOW. The project will also provide the consultant with an evaluation rubric to assess ASMO’s progress against the pre-award findings.

Time Estimate: The consultant will be expected to complete the assignment and submit the report in no more than 10 days over a period of 20 days of starting work including, travel to Kabul.

Desired Consultant Profile

• Substantive USAID knowledge
• Audit experience, preferably with USAID-funded health projects
• Social marketing experience preferred
• Excellent writing and oral presentation skills

For consideration please submit the following to shopsplus1@gmail.com by April 12, 2019 12:00 PM US EST.

• Curriculum Vitae
• 1-2 page cover letter with information on the most pertinent experiences of the individual that will allow for a successful completion of the outlined statement of work