TERMS OF REFERENCE

FOR MID-TERM EVALUATION

Consultancy service for a project “Leveraging human resource management for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control to achieve 90-90-90 target”

Estimated Duration:      80 working days for National Consultant-Team leader, and international Consultant-Team member (all working days for two consultants are Hanoi based, over the period from 11^th October, 2021 to 31^st January, 2022).

Status:                            Part-time

Duty Station:                  Home based

1. Introduction

Hanoi University of Public Health (HUPH) is a training, research and consultancy institution dedicated to the mission of contributing to strengthening health systems, improving population health especially the vulnerable groups, and enhancing our unknowledge of public health among Vietnamese population throughout research, training and consultancy. The HUPH is established to a need for public health training, research and create better linkages between research and health policy in Vietnam. The HUPH has been successful in developing a number of certified public health and other health-relevant courses including health human resource (HHR) management, and high-quality academic curriculums and degree programs. HUPH currently offers Master of Public Health, Bachelor of Public Health, Master of Hospital Management, and doctoral degree. Many members of HUPH faculties completing advanced graduate programs overseas with strong research requirement at internationally recognized universities in Australia, the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. It is recognized that HUPH be of strong capabilities in providing research and consultation services such as: public health interventions, program evaluation, policy analysis, research design and management, data analyses, and professional development.

Since 2016, HUPH has become the strategic partner on the implementation research in Vietnam with the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (AHPSR)/World Health Organization. HUPH provided technical supports to other institutes and medical universities and provincial health departments to conduct a number of implementation research. In addition, HUPH has rich experience on research and teaching on health human resource planning. HUPH funded the faculty members of health human resource management department to conduct the research with application of HRH planning in hospitals and communal health centers. Besides, these faculty members have also provided consultancy work to assist Ministry of Health (MOH) and HUPH’s management board in Human recourse planning. As an assignment of MOH, the HUPH has been providing in-service training short courses for health workers at national and local levels of Vietnam health systems on health management (e.g., leadership and management, health planning, health economics, health investigation, hospital management, and health human resources management), research foundation, and biostatistics.

1. The project to be evaluated

In 2015, Vietnam committed and implemented activities to achieve the 90-90-90 targets which translate to 90% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90% of people who know their HIV-positive status are accessing treatment and 90% of people on treatment have suppressed viral loads. However, Vietnam is now facing challenges in achieving of those targets in the context of donors’ phasing out, especially in terms of sustaining human resources (HR). Effective planning for adequate and qualified medium-long term human resources is thus an increasingly urgent challenge that needs to be addressed.

In this context, the overall objective of this project is to “Effectively manage human resource for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control to achieve the 90-90-90 targets” to ensure sufficient health staff during the transition phase in 2020 and for a sustainable AIDS response beyond. To reach this objective, the project will pilot human resource management tools for provincial health facilities namely HIV/AIDS service providing facilities (Out-Patient Clinics (OPCs), Methadone Maintenance Therapy (MMT) clinics, and HIV Testing and Counselling (HTC) centers), and administrative facilities at PACs/Departments for HIV/AIDS, Centers for Disease Control (CDCs), and assess the needs for and identify responsibilities and workload of peer educators (PEs) to ensure an efficient and sustainable HIV and AIDS response. The selected HR tool(s) should meet the following criteria (1) Quick and easy implementation (2) Easily customize to fit provincial HIV/AIDS prevention and control needs (3) Provides complete government reporting and compliance capabilities (4) Scalability to accommodate future health systems growth (5) No barriers for genders and have to take into account the number of gender characteristics policies. The piloted tools and other lessons learned from this pilot will be useful to inform human resources planning and management in other parts of the country as well as beyond the AIDS sector.

The project will be conducted in 4 main stages including: 1) exploration, 2) prepare for implementation, 3) full implementation, and 4) Advocacy for Expansion/Scale-up and national HR planning and management policies for HIV/AIDS prevention and control. Each stage has specific steps and associated activities.

The partners with direct responsibility for the implementation of main project activities are researchers from the HUPH, Viet Nam Authority of HIV/AIDS Control (VAAC) - MOH which have been working in the field of human resource for years and involved in many research in human resource for health, advocacy and health system, especially in HIV/AIDS control system in Viet Nam. Besides, the project includes associate partners namely, Organization and Personnel Management Department (OPMD), Ministry of Health; Provincial AIDS Centers and Provincial Centers for Disease Control at 7 provinces.

For implementing this project, the HUPH team are responsible for overall project coordination, including the budget management. Researchers from VAAC and OPMD are responsible for providing specific training and facilitating activities at provinces, developing guidelines and implementing dissemination and advocacy activities.

The overall objective of project is reinforcing human resource management for effective HIV/AIDS prevention and control in the framework of the 90-90-90 targets in the transition phase by 2020 and beyond in Vietnam. With five specific objectives:

1) Design and establish human resource (HR) information tool(s) for the HIV/AIDS prevention and control departments, CDCs and facilities at 7 provinces.

2) Strengthen the capacity of the CDCs and health facilities to operate and maintain a HR information tool(s) for HIV/AIDS prevention and control area.

3) Demonstrate the role and contribution of peer educators in HIV/AIDS prevention and control system,

4) Show evidence on benefits, lessons learned of applying the HR information tool(s) for scaling-up its use in other areas in CDCs and health system.

5) Enable a secured transition to accelerate scale-up of the HR information tool(s).

The project has been implemented in 36 months from 01/12/2019 to 30/11/2022. The approved Detailed Project Outline attached to this TOR.

This TOR is developed to procure the services of two consultants - one national consultant and one international consultant to carry out a mid-term project evaluation with the following specific requirements.

1. The mid-term evaluation

1. Context of the consultancy

The mid-term evaluation (MTE) is one of to the key milestones of the project. The main purpose of this evaluation is to review the implementation of the project since its inception. The mid-term evaluation is geared towards promoting project performance improvement, accountability, learning and evidence-based decision making and management. In particular, the evaluation will assess results achieved to date in comparison with the performance indicators outlined in the project Monitoring and Evaluation framework. It will also draw lessons and make recommendations for enhancing project implementation and performance, especially in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. The consultants should explore any delays and provide suggestions for improved implementation to avoid further delays going forward and to ensure achievement of the project objectives. This activity is implemented later than planned due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

2. Objectives

The purpose of this MTE is to provide an independent assessment of the project to improve project implementation and making necessary course corrections. The evaluation will assess progress, coverage, appropriate of the project within the country context. More specifically, the objectives of the MTE will be to assess:

- Effectiveness, efficiency, appropriateness, gender perspective, and sustainability of the project activities in the period of 21 months of implementation (from December 2019 to date) in the context of changing HIV/AIDS epidemics, healthcare system and management, COVID 19 pandemic and realities in Viet Nam.

-Scalability of the results produced by the project (human resource tools, computerized HR tools).

- Implementation and management arrangements of the project

- Difficulties and challenges in the process of implementing the project activities

- Adjustment recommendations, if any, to the project directions, activities, and suggestions to overcome identified difficulties and challenges for the remainder of the
project

3. Areas to look at and evaluation questions

The MTE will look at the following questions for each objective:

• Effectiveness: What is the project status with respect to target outputs in terms of quantity, quality and timeliness? What factors impede or facilitate the production of such outputs?
• Efficiency: How well has the project used its resources (human resource, financial resource, expertise, equipment, technology, time) to produce target outputs?
• Appropriateness: Is the project designed and implemented in accordance with local needs, context, as well as the development framework?
• Gender perspective: Extent to which the project accounts for gender differences when developing and applying project activities. How are gender considerations mainstreamed into project activities? Suggest measures to strengthen the project’s gender approach.
• Sustainability: How is the sustainability of the project activities demonstrated during the design and implementation of the intervention?
• Scalability: what extent is the project likely to allow the scaling up of the produced HR information tools? what means are implemented in this objective?
• Implementation and management arrangements: How appropriate are the execution and implementation modalities? How well is the project managed? How adequate are monitoring and reporting mechanisms? Do stakeholders, particularly the direct beneficiaries, participate in the management of the project? If yes, what are the nature and extent of their participation, by gender?
• Difficulties and challenges: What problems in project implementation need to be resolved? What are the flaws, if any, in design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation?
• Recommendation: What are the recommendations of the evaluation to improve further programming?

The Mid-Term Evaluation will cover the following aspects of project design and implementation as the following table:

1. Evaluation methods:

The consultant should propose the methodology to be used to carry out the review. The proposed methodology should address sufficiently the preliminary issues and questions outlined within the TOR, specifying the specific review issues, questions, methods of data collection and analysis that will be undertaken. It should encompass a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. It should also allow for wide consultation with all interested partners and stakeholders. It is suggested that the methodology should include, but not be limited to the following, but consultants must propose their own methodology and justify and explain that proposal. The mid-term review will consist of three activities:

1. Document review: The consultant will review of relevant project documents including:

· Project proposal

· The Project Financing Agreement

· Work plans

· Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

· Project activity reports or deliverables including strategy documents, toolkits, operational manuals etc.

· Project Semester and Annual reports (both narrative and financial)

· Implementing Partner agreements

· Minutes of meetings including project management meeting, provincial leadership team meetings, and Political Steering Committee meetings etc.

1. Key informant interviews with project staff and key stakeholders at center level (including representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Political Steering Committee).
2. Field visits: The field work shall focus on the project activities that have been undertaken in seven provinces of the project (Hanoi, Thai Nguyen, Son La, Hue, Lam Dong, Khanh Hoa and Kien Giang). In-deep interviews/Focus group discussion and quantitative will be carried out during this activity. Consultants and the project management team will discuss about the selection of which provinces will be onsite or remotely evaluated depend on actual situation at the time data collected.

Appropriate questionnaires shall be developed by the consultant and discussed with Project Management Team for approval.

1. Deliverables/expected outputs

It is envisaged that the mid-term review will be conducted through 5 key activities:
development of research proposal and tools, data collection, analysis/interpretation, report
writing and presentation to key stakeholders. The key deliverable of the review will be:

i.) Inception report: The consultant is expected to produce an inception report detailing the following:

a) A comprehensive description of the consultant’s understanding of the Terms of Reference and indicating any major inconsistency or deficiency in the Terms of Reference and proposed amendments

b) A detailed methodology for the review including the tools to be used in the review

c) The proposed team members and a description of their respective roles

d) A complete work plan for the entire review period

e) A proposal for the final report layout.

ii.) Draft report

The consultant is expected to generate the first draft report by the end of November 2021. This draft report will be presented and discussed with key stakeholders including
the Project Management Teams, the Political Steering Committee and the Expertise France. Inputs from this discussion will be incorporated into the final report.

iii.) Final Report

The final report shall be submitted within two weeks of receiving comments on the draft report. This report will be the detailed mid-term review report covering objectives in the scope of this TOR with special attention to main findings and conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations. Issues requiring management response should be clearly outlined. The reports shall be written in both English and Vietnamese.

D. Management Arrangements and workplan

1. Estimated time: From 11^th October, 2021 to 31^st January, 2022
2. Intermediate evaluation procedure:

3. Finances

- Allowance for two consultants: maximum 12.000€.

Payment schedule: The consultant’s consortium shall be paid the consultancy fees upon completion of the following milestones:

· 30% after submission and presentation of the inception report;

· 30% after submission and presentation of the draft report;

· 40% after the approval of the final report

- Expenses for travel and organization in the field: covered by the project

- Printing, liaison, postage: maximum 150€

E. Consultant qualification

1. Human resources

- Including two consultants, one is national and one international consultant;

- Estimated duration: maximum 80 working days for two consultants, all working days for two consultants are Hanoi based and 7 provinces within the project scope.

     2. For the national consultant-team leader:

• Master Degree (PhD preferred) in public health, medicine, pharmacy, sociology or equivalent;
• Good knowledge of human resource management policies and mechanisms in the health system; 
• Experience in working with local departments;  
• Minimum 5 years of working experiences in the field of medical data collection, collection and analysis. Preference will be given to those with experience related to monitoring and supervision in HIV/AIDS projects;  
• Strong skills in conducting evaluation research, in-depth interviews, group discussions; good skills in making analysis;
• Good command of writing and making presentations in English and Vietnamese.

3. For international consultant – team member:

• The international consultant who has a foreign nationality, is living and working in Vietnam, and has professional experience with international projects or projects with international organizations. Master Degree in public health, medicine, pharmacy, sociology or equivalent;
• Good knowledge of human resource management policies and mechanisms in the health system; 
• Good knowledge about available studies/assessments on related topics and data needed for conducting the study.
• Minimum 3 years of working experiences in in the field of medical data collection, collection and analysis. Preference will be given to those with experience related to monitoring and supervision in HIV/AIDS projects;
• Strong skills in conducting evaluation research; good skills in making analysis and,
• Good command of writing and making presentations in English.

F. Application procedure and deadline

Send a short Expression of Interest (3-8 pages) including:

• Technical review methodology
• Proposed total budget including daily rate for consultant and costs for fieldwork research
• CV of consultant (or consultant team)
• Two samples of previous evaluation reports that are relevant to this consultancy.

Interested applicants should submit their CV and proposal via email to nth13@huph.edu.vn, no later than 5.00pm on 10^th October 2021. Only short-listed applicants will be contacted.