VHT Revitalization Strategy job at Living Goods | Apply Now

Earlier this year, Living Goods through Africa Frontline First (AFF) received funding from the Global Fund (GF) to support the Ministry of Health (MoH) to address key gaps and bottlenecks, lay strong foundations, and build the readiness of community health systems towards scale, institutionalization, and sustainability through Project BIRCH (Building Integrated Readiness for Community Health). The proposed technical assistance (TA) approach is designed to provide comprehensive support tailored to meet the specific needs and objectives of the project, including the MoH priority needs to be addressed. Through a collaborative partnership with the Department of Health promotion and various key stakeholders (including donors and implementing partners), Overall, LG will employ a multi-faceted methodology aimed at enhancing capacity, fostering innovation, and facilitating sustainable solutions.
These will involve: thorough assessments to identify gaps, challenges, and opportunities within the project scope; wide key stakeholder engagement at all levels to ensure alignment of objectives, promote ownership, and foster collaboration; capacity building; provide dedicated technical support through ongoing guidance to address challenges and facilitate effective implementation; enhance capacity at MoH to provide dedicated leadership of the project and timely, effective coordination with other MoH departments and strengthening the skills and competencies of these personnel; establish robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and ensure accountability; documentation and facilitate knowledge sharing sessions and workshops to promote learning, exchange best practices, and foster innovation; assist in the development of sustainability plans to ensure project outcomes are maintained beyond the TA period and employ adaptive management strategies to respond to emerging challenges and adapt interventions as needed.
After BIRCH support, the goal is for Uganda to have achieved strong policies, strategies, and operational plans to advance the community health agenda within wider primary health care, human resources for health, health sector and the country; monitoring and regular assessments of systems that support community health to identify areas of improvement; functional coordination platforms to turn data into evidence-based decisions and performance; increased resource mobilization for community health; integrated financial planning with broader HRH and efficient resource allocation in community health; and long term financing and sustainability plans to ensure lasting impact.
VHT Revitalization strategy
Since 2010, the VHT strategy and operational guidelines have been used to guide community health implementation throughout the country. However, after 14 years, significant changes have taken place in the community health landscape, necessitating a revision of the current strategy to better align with current community health needs. For example, the range of services provided by Community Health Workers (CHWs) has gradually expanded. Factors such as population growth, changes in performance management, the introduction of technology through digitization and CHEWs, and the recent introduction of the national community health strategy have all required changes in the selection, training, equipment, and compensation of CHWs. Furthermore, the desire to harmonize and standardize CHW operations emphasizes the need for revision to optimize the community health program.
Purpose of the consultancy
The consultant will lead the process of revising the outdated VHT revitalization strategy. The goal of this consultancy is to update the strategy and involve key stakeholders and the Ministry of Health in a collaborative process to ensure their ownership of the updated VHT revitalization strategy.
Scope of Work
The VHT revitalization strategy shall encompass a range of issues, including defining the VHTs, their qualification, selection/recruitment, retirement the roles and responsibilities. It will also define the scope of work they do, their supervision, compensation and remuneration, tooling and training, implementation arrangements among others. The consultant can draw from any best practices within similar strategies for other non-governmental organizations and stakeholders with similar modus operandi.