Project Background and Objectives
The DFID ‘Delivering Accelerated Family Planning in Pakistan (DAFPAK): Lot 2 Public Sector Service
Delivery’ is a part of the DAFPAK programme funded by the Department of International Development
(DFID). The 3.5-year programme aims to increase access to family planning services; and improve quality of
client-centred services such that more women, including adolescents are able to safely plan their
pregnancies and improve their sexual reproductive health. The expected outcome for the programme is 11.9
million CYPs generated by expanded access to FP services; 55,000 additional users of family planning and
an increase in modern CPR from 26.1 at the baseline to 33.9.
Palladium and its consortium partners, Pathfinder, the Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP), IPAS
and Aahung will strengthen the quality of service provision in the public sector (across 30+ districts in three
provinces Punjab, Sindh and KPK) by:
Increasing access to FP services:
- Building capacities of government health/FP facility staff on integration of services, improving clinical quality and expanding the range of contraceptives offered.
- Training community workers (LHWs) to expand the FP services that they offer.
- Establishing new procedures in health facilities to better integrate services.
Improved quality of client-centered FP services:
- Building capacities of the government health/FP facility staff on client-centered/unbiased counselling.
- Building capacities of community workers on better, client-centered/unbiased counselling.
- Building capacities of government health/FP facility staff on improving clinical quality.
- Improving quality assurance systems involving district health management teams, including clinical waste management.
Beyond building capacities of district health teams, health facility staff and community-based workers. The
project will focus on sustainably changing behaviours of providers, systemic changes and commitments
through engagement with and TA to district and provincial level governments, health management teams,
providers and communities.
Assignment Background
DAFPAK will be working to improve the quality and access of Family planning service delivery by engaging communities in the target district in three provinces (KP, Punjab and Sindh) , inform them of their rights including right to services etc , provide them a forum to register their feedback and escalate it to the decision makers. In this regard the programme will develop a community engagement strategy that will serve as a guide to engage and work with the communities.
Specific Tasks and Deliverables
The expert will lead the development of community engagement strategy for target districts in three provinces of KP, Sindh and Punjab. The specific task may include the following
- Conduct desk review of best practices globally and in Pakistan for Community engagement of citizens within the health sector
- Consult with key Health/Population staff in provinces as required
- Map partner's existing community engagement and outreach approaches
- Develop approaches for collecting citizen feedback through Lady health workers and using it for informed decision making by the district key officials
- Inform about the status of Village health committee in the three provinces and guide on approaches to revive and strengthen the village health committees in the context of each province
- Align the Community engagement strategy within the three streams of DAPPAK including integrated Service Delivery, Quality improvement of Facility services and Engage with three streams of DAFPAK -Public service Delivery including PSD component to align approaches and sink the activities of the CE strategy with them
- Review health policies and of the three provinces to align the CE strategy with the provincial mandate
Reporting
The community engagement expert will report to the Community Engagement advisor and will work closely with the Advisors of other streams
Working Days
The working days for this assignment will be 12 days
Qualifications and Experience
- The candidate should have minimum master’s degree in Public Health, social sciences or other relevant materials
- Demonstrated experience of at least 10 years in the field of engaging communities in the field of Health and Family planning
- Demonstrated experience of undertaking relative assignments
- Ability to work effectively under tight deadlines
- Willing to travel to Lahore, Peshawar and KP as required
- Fluency in English