Consultant Scope of Work: Costing and Support to Côte d’Ivoire’s Universal Health Coverage Efforts

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In recent years, Côte d’Ivoire has made considerable progress towards achieving universal health coverage (UHC). In 2014, the country passed a law (Loi 2014-131) to provide all citizens and residents access to affordable care. The Couverture Maladie Universelle (CMU) program, a national health insurance scheme, resulted from the law and is managed through the social welfare institution, the Caisse Nationale d’Assurance Maladie (National Health Insurance Fund, CNAM). To further the country’s progress toward UHC, a new directorate, within the Ministry of Health (MOH), overseeing the national health insurance scheme (DGCMU) was created in 2023.

In 2023, R4D, with the financial support of the World Bank (WB), finalized an evaluation of the CMU program after its first years of implementation and provided recommendations to improve the program. Through the USAID Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator, R4D additionally took forward some of the activities that emerged from the CMU evaluation, such as costing of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (RMNCH), Community Health and HIV/AIDS services, and initiated advocacy efforts to integrate key programs within the UHC strategy. USAID is interested in continuing its support for UHC-related activities in Côte d’Ivoire, such as supporting costing exercises and using the findings from costing studies to inform the Government of Côte d’Ivoire (GOCI) in possibly revising the CMU benefits package and providing capacity-building to the newly created DGCMU and to the Directorate of Health Economics (DHE). Under the Momentum Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity project (M-RITE) program led by JSI, R4D will collaborate with national stakeholders to align on their priorities in health financing, in particular commodity financing, primary care services, and immunization coverage, and continue USAID’s support for progress towards UHC.

Key Objectives:

The overall aim of the project is to support Côte d’Ivoire’s efforts to strengthen UHC through improved health financing. This project will include the following UHC-related activities over a 12-month period:

1. Technical assistance to the DGCMU in policy definition and implementation;
2. Promote sustainable commodity financing, including vaccines;
3. Technical assistance to strengthen the MOH’s DHE and provide cost estimates of an integrated package of priority primary care services with disaggregated interventions;
4. Support the National Platform for the Coordination of Health Financing (PNCFS) to develop and implement activities to monitor the progress of national health indicators;
5. Support exercise to estimate cost of expanding free immunization coverage for children aged 24-59 months.

Consultant Role and Scope of Services

The consultant will operate as an in-country team leader, supporting the implementation of the project’s areas of work by guiding the technical and managerial requirements of these assignments and serving as a primary point of contact with all government and non-government stakeholders and partners.

This consultant role will include:

• Organization of workshop to present previous findings from R4D’s work and introduction of new health financing activities to the DGCMU;
• Support the DGCMU in the identification of priority areas for policies under the CMU;
• Provide support, as needed, alongside additional consultant on desk review of landscape of availability of funding for pharmaceutical commodities and vaccines;
• Organize and support interviews with key stakeholders, where appropriate;
• Support exercise to estimate cost of integrated package of priority PHC services;
• Support identification of key stakeholders to engage in costing exercise;
• Support additional consultant in organizing training workshop with DHE and DGCMU on the OneHealth costing tool;
• Support analysis and dissemination of findings from the costing exercise;
• Support the PNCFS in monitoring national health indicators;
• Conduct stakeholder consultations with PNCFS members to determine areas of support, successes, and areas of improvement for monitoring the progress of national health indicators;
• Support analysis and dissemination of findings from stakeholder consultations;
• Support additional consultant in conducting exercise to estimate cost of expanding free immunization coverage for children aged 24-59 months.

Reimbursable expenses

The consultant will be expected to travel within Côte d’Ivoire. The consultant may seek reimbursement for travel and logistical expenses.

Period of Performance

Anticipated start date for this consultancy is December 2024. The expected level of effort for this work is 60 days, but the exact duration of the consultancy will be based on the technical scope and schedule of performance negotiated with the selected applicant and specified in the contract.

How to apply

Consultants who are interested in this position and who meet the criteria for the activities and expected deliverables can submit their CV, a cover letter, and a financial proposal (this can include a daily rate). Applications must be submitted no later than November 27, 2024.

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