Consulting Opportunity: Digitizing Community Health Worker Payments in Tanzania Scoping and Proposal Design

Description

SCOPE OF WORK

Digitizing Community Health Worker Payments in Tanzania

Scoping and Proposal Design

Background and Objectives of the Consultancy

IntraHealth is seeking to hire a consultant to assist with in-country scoping exercise to inform the development of a proposal for the Digitizing Community Health Worker Payments in Tanzania project, which seeks to create a unified national payroll and payouts system to Community Health Workers (CHW) to advance the Ministry of Health’s Integrated and Coordinated Community Health Workers program (ICCHW). The project will focus on developing and scaling a government-supported digitized payout system to CHWs, in order to improve payroll management, human resource management, CHW retention, and ultimately improve efficiency and effectiveness in health service delivery. The proposed project is jointly funded by the CEO Roundtable for Global Health (CEORT) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) which brings CEOs from health-related sectors together to collaborate on addressing global health and development challenges.

IntraHealth is seeking a consultant in Tanzania to rapidly assess the current efforts and future state needed to develop a successful MOH-implemented digitized CHW payroll payout system. Based on the results of the in-country information gathering, the consultant will propose ideas on technical activities and performance indicators to inform the design of the Digitizing CHW Payments in Tanzania proposal. The consultant will represent IntraHealth in stakeholder meetings and will demonstrate strong diplomacy, communication, and interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities of the Consultant 

The consultant will support in-country scoping, co-creation sessions and proposal development efforts for the Digitizing Community Health Worker Payments in Tanzania project, as requested by IntraHealth and detailed below.  The Consultant will collaborate closely with the IntraHealth team in conducting the following activities.

1. Rapidly Scope Existing CHW Payment Systems: Scope the current operational processes for CHW payouts in Tanzania conducted by health sector partners who engage and pay CHWs. Assess the extent of digital banking access and mobile payment options for CHWs. Assess the penetration of rural agents/merchants for different mobile network providers, their liquidity to cashout and costs that are incurred by payee and receiver (CHWs) in processing payment. Conduct a preliminary review of the challenges and opportunities for unbanked CHWs, and current interventions to expand access.
2. Conduct Rapid Assessment of MOH (Ministries of Health) and President’s office Regional Administration and Local Government (PORALG) at central and local level operational preparedness, Requirements and Change Management Strategies: Identify and prioritize the needs, goals, and timelines of stakeholders within the MOH and PORALG regarding the design, development, and deployment of a payout and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) system for CHWs. Identify the learning needs of users, including a preliminary scoping of mechanisms for staff training and the current change management processes for new technology introduction within the MOH and PORALG to introduce and roll out new systems and processes.
3. Map Payout-Related Systems: Conduct a preliminary mapping of existing health facility financing and payment-related systems within the MOH and Government of Tanzania, such as human resource management information (HRMIS) systems, CHW registries, payroll systems, Tanzania Instant Payments System (TIPS), Direct Health Facility Financing (DHFF) mechanism, data science operational dashboards, and KYC processes.
4. Rapidly Assess System Interoperability and Performance Monitoring Requirements: Scope the interoperability requirements between MOH systems related to CHW payouts (e.g., HRM, payroll, banking, KYC, health worker registries) and scope the requirements for oversight and quality assurance of the payout system.
5. Identify Potential Local Digital Payout Solutions: Conduct a preliminary identification of potential digital payout solutions providers in Tanzania to understand potential market solutions that meet the MOH’s payout system and KYC needs and identify potential payout that best suite this initiative and KYC partners to inform proposal design.
6. Gather CHWs Payment Experiences: Assess the experiences of CHWs currently receiving payments from various health sector partners and recommend key user-features to be considered or prioritized in developing a Digitized Community Health Worker Payments System in Tanzania.
7. Participate in other activities to inform design of proposal as needed.

Tasks 

• Carry out desk research, including review of relevant reports, government and donor strategy documents, and technical briefs, to build a solid understanding of project context and the CHW systems and digital payment landscape in Tanzania.
• Conduct in-country data collection and information gathering, capturing regional specificities by meeting with MOH, Ministry of Finance and PORALG at central and selected local levels, stakeholders, partners and local digital payouts providers.
• Gather system requirements, user needs, and stakeholder needs to inform proposal co-creation.
• Develop tools for conducting in-country data collection and gathering system requirements.
• Conduct data collection and information gathering from CHWs especially in rural areas regarding their experiences and challenges with digital payments
• Participate in strategy sessions with IntraHealth, MOH and PORALG staff and provide technical, country, and region-specific inputs to help guide proposal development.
• Facilitate co-creation workshop with the MOH, Ministry of Finance, PORALG and other stakeholders to develop: 1) a theory of change; 2) program goals and timeline; 3) key program approaches, activities, and methodologies for testing, learning, adaption; 4) key metrics to inform monitoring, evaluation, and learning of program interventions.
• Complete required deliverables and reports described in Section 4 of this SOW.