Social Marketing Specialist Consultant

The scope of Work for a Short-Term Social Marketing Specialist Consultant:

Evaluation of the Nepal CRS Company and the Ghar Ghar Maa Swaasthya (GGMS) Project

1. Background

Since its inception as a project in 1976, the Nepal CRS Company (CRS) has been the key social marketing partner to the Ministry of Health (MOH) and a leading supplier of family planning (FP) products in Nepal. In addition, CRS has been implementing the USAID-funded Ghar Ghar Maa Swaasthya (GGMS) project since it was originally launched in 2010 and when USAID extended it for five years in 2015. The GGMS project is intended to improve the health of disadvantaged populations in Nepal by improving accessibility, availability, and use of health goods and services through the use of social marketing and social franchising techniques. Within the GGMS project, the Remote Area Initiative (RAI) targets districts targets particularly hard-to-reach rural areas. The 2015-2020 GGMS project is also intended to improve CRS’s own institutional strength and independence. During the period of implementation, CRS has been supported by technical assistance organizations. FHI360 provided support from 2010 through 2015 and SHOPS Plus has provided support from 2015 through 2020.

The USAID-funded Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus project (2016-2020) is helping CRS strengthen its institutional capacity. In addition, SHOPS Plus is organizing an evaluation of the GGMS project. The purpose of the evaluation is to assess CRS’s performance in implementing the GGMS project and to inform USAID/Nepal about possible future directions for programming of social marketing in Nepal. Specifically, the evaluation will assess three areas:

1. CRS’s performance in reaching GGMS project objectives and CRS’s overall contribution to FP provision in Nepal and to national strategies.
2. The impact of GGMS and CRS activities in the private health sector, including the level of private sector engagement under GGMS, how CRS may have contributed to growing the total market for health products and services, and whether there are opportunities for more public-private partnerships.
3. Future opportunities for developing the private health sector in general and integrating social marketing in a private health sector strategy.

Given SHOPS Plus’s close involvement with CRS in implementing GGMS, SHOPS Plus is seeking three short-term external consultants to conduct each of the three components of the evaluation listed above. This scope of work details the purpose, tasks, deliverables, timeline, and qualifications for a Social Marketing Specialist to conduct the first component.

2. Purpose and Tasks

Under this short-term consultancy, the Social Marketing Specialist will assess the first area of the GGMS evaluation. This area is intended to assess CRS’s performance in implementing the GGMS project and achieving its own objectives as a lead private supplier of health care products in Nepal. Sample questions the Social Marketing Specialist will answer include:

Evaluation of the GGMS project

• How well has CRS achieved the objectives set out for the GGMS project? Specifically, in GGMS project districts:
  • What progress has CRS made in improving access to health products?
  • What progress has CRS made in increasing knowledge, improving attitudes, and increasing use of health products?
  • What progress has CRS made in becoming a stronger, more sustainable and efficient organization?
• What are the GGMS project’s major achievements?
• What are the GGMS project’s major implementation gaps, challenges, or missed opportunities?
• How effectively has CRS used best practices in social marketing and social franchising to implement the project?
• How well has CRS worked with its technical assistance partners (FHI360 and SHOPS Plus) during the project? Did CRS make the best use of the support offered by the technical assistance partners?
• How well has CRS documented project achievements, successes, challenges, and lessons learned?

Evaluation of CRS within Nepal’s health system

• How effectively has CRS made use of data and evidence in establishing and revising project strategies?
• How cost effective are CRS’s strategies and approaches?
• How well has CRS shared lessons learned and contributed to the general knowledge of the community of implementing partners? What are CRS’s partnerships or collaborations with other development organizations?
• How well has CRS collaborated with the government and supported government strategies and priorities?

In order to answer evaluation questions, the Social Marketing Specialist will complete the following tasks in collaboration with two other consultants:

1. Prepare an evaluation plan, including specific methodological approaches (e.g. key informant interviews, data analysis) and documentation protocol;
2. Conduct evaluation in alignment with approved evaluation plan;
3. Prepare a draft evaluation report;
4. Respond to SHOPS Plus comments and submit a final report;
5. Participate in bi-weekly calls with SHOPS Plus to discuss the implementation of the evaluation.

3. Deliverables and Timeline

The consultant is expected to use 30 days of labor between January 24 and April 5, 2019 to complete the above tasks and produce the deliverables outlined below.

4. Qualifications

Preferred qualifications for the Social Marketing Specialist include the following:

• Proven expertise in social marketing, social franchising, and behavior change communications with a broad knowledge of global best practices and previous experience with national social marketing organizations
• At least five years of direct experience in implementing product social marketing programs
• Understanding of social marketing research and monitoring methods highly desirable
• Fluent in written and verbal English

The CV and a cover letter should be sent to Gopal_Bhujel@abtassoc.com by January 4, 2019 .