Program Cost & Financing Consultant

Summary

VillageReach is seeking to engage a Consultant skilled in Program Costing & Financingto support our health financing and costing work during a maternity leave period. This role combines the responsibilities of generating evidence through economic evaluations and supporting cost management for VillageReach’s health solutions. The ideal candidate will have experience in economic evaluations, and cost management, particularly in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Description

One of VillageReach’s pillars is transitioning our solutions to governments or partners. To enable successful transition, we have a body of work dedicated to costing and financial sustainability for our programs and solutions. The Consultant will 1) lead our solution costing work and support programs and solution owners to develop and implement processes and tools for costing design and develop frameworks that VillageReach, governments, and private sector partners can use to understand and estimate costs. The consultant will support VillageReach’s solution costing work closely linked to cost management and determining actual and estimated costs of implementing VillageReach’s solutions. 2) support economic evaluations driven by VillageReach. Alongside his/her primary role of solution costing, the consultant will support some of VillageReach’s sustainable financing work, especially related to economic evaluations to generate evidence on value for money for VillageReach’s projects and programs.

The Consultant will work closely with the Global Technical Team (GTT) and Health Systems Team Lead. Cross-team collaboration on technical projects will be required with country teams, GTT members, and other program managers.

Scope of work for the six months include solution costing for Economic Child Registry (ECR), Data Collection and Analysis for Zero-dose Costing and Economic Evaluation in DRC, Costing for Health Center by Phone.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include:

1. Solutions Costing and Management:

Work with country teams to execute the cost analysis of the Electronic Child Registry Solution being implemented in Mozambique. Develop and manage a cost model with cost estimates, direct and actual costs incurred in the implementation of the solution and document findings through high quality reports and presentations.

Costing frameworks: For each solution

• Identify standard cost elements (capital expenditure and on-going annual operating expenses) and associated cost structures for VillageReach solutions.
• define cost allocation rules.
• develop associated cost analysis tools that can be used by solution owners and program managers

Cost estimating: For each solution, develop solution cost estimates for solution design, scale-up, replication and transition based on key volume and coverage assumptions provided by solution owners, program managers and government; define and agree target key cost ratios

Cost management tools and processes:

• For each solution, develop cost management processes and reporting tools that can be used by VillageReach program teams and government employees to visualize costs
• Provide training on processes and tools to internal and external stakeholders.
• Support solution owners and program managers to track cost evolution and variance to targets.
• Cost improvement: For each solution, work with solution owners and program managers to identify the key cost drivers, model the cost impact of implementing changes to the solution or to the enabling environment, and support development of a cost improvement plan for execution by VillageReach and government teams.

2. Economic Evaluation Support:

Support the design of methodologies for economic evaluations.

Execute data collection, analysis, interpretation, and communication of evaluation outputs for an ongoing economic evaluation of zero-dose interventions in the DRC.

Prepare detailed reports and presentations based on data analysis and findings.

Lead data collection and analysis for an economic evaluation of telehealth models as part of a Telehealth implementation research in Nigeria.

Ensure compliance with evaluation protocols and standards in all work.

3. Support business development, including desk research, technical input, and proposal and concept note writing pertaining to sustainable financing for solutions, health financing and economic evaluations.

4. Drive the community of practice meetings twice a month.

5. Support with any other ad-hoc duties related to the subject matter space.

Requirements

Education & Experience:

• BA/BS or equivalent degree with at least five (5) years of relevant work experience in health economics, economics, or an equivalent combination of education and work experience is required.
• Experience supporting research projects or different types of evaluation. Experience with economic evaluations is an advantage.
• Experience with costing public health programs or solutions.
• Knowledge of the Immunization space is an advantage.
• Certification from a professional association (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants or Institute of Management Accountants), Management accounting qualification or work experience in Management Consulting is an advantage.
• Proven experience in identifying opportunities to improve costs of goods and services without reducing performance or quality
• Project management experience working across time zones and multiple offices preferred

Other Qualifications:

• Candidates eligible to work in DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, or South Africa are eligible to apply, with preference for those based in countries with a VillageReach office (Mozambique, DRC, Malawi, Kenya)
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel, Teams), more specifically Excel (pivot tables, power query, etc.) and comfortable in a fast-paced technical environment. proficiency in statistical analysis packages (e.g. STATA/R) preferred.
• Strong analytical thinking, excellent math skills and ability to communicate and present analysis is essential
• Experience in developing and managing a cost database
• Experience in applying cost analysis skills to public health is a plus
• Skillful written and verbal communication with ability to synthesize and deliver information to diverse audiences in a clear and concise way.
• Established cultural competency in partnering with racial, cultural, and linguistically diverse groups.
• Demonstrated understanding of challenges with working under-served, and low-income context; experience living in and/or working in a low- and middle- income country (LMIC) a plus.
• Experience or ability working with diverse stakeholders and collate information from multiple sources
• Ability to leverage other technical teams to support the work, such as data analytics and research, evidence and learning teams
• Self-motivated; independent worker able to set and meet deadlines. Proactive about reaching out to colleagues to complete responsibilities or asking for direction when needed
• Previous experience working with LMIC governments preferred.
• Full professional proficiency in written and spoken English. Fluency in French or Portuguese is an advantage.