Costing and Health Financing Projects Consultants – Job Vacancy at VillageReach – Dec 2024 Full Time NEW

Description 

One of VillageReach’s pillars is transitioning our solutions to governments or partners. To enable successful transition, we have a body of work dedicated to costing and financial sustainability for our programs and solutions. The Consultant will 1) lead our solution costing work and support programs and solution owners to develop and implement processes and tools for costing design and develop frameworks that VillageReach, governments, and private sector partners can use to understand and estimate costs. The consultant will support VillageReach’s solution costing work closely linked to cost management and determining actual and estimated costs of implementing VillageReach’s solutions. 2) support economic evaluations driven by VillageReach. Alongside his/her primary role of solution costing, the consultant will support some of VillageReach’s sustainable financing work, especially related to economic evaluations to generate evidence on value for money for VillageReach’s projects and programs.

The Consultant will work closely with Programs and Global Technical Health Systems Team Lead.

Scopes of Work 

Selected consultants will contribute to VillageReach’s program costing and health financing initiatives, which include but are not limited to the following key areas:

Program and Solution Costing 

• Conduct cost analyses for health solutions such as but not limited to telehealth models, zero-dose interventions.
• Develop and apply standardized costing methodologies, including:
  • Activity-Based Costing (ABC): Analyzing the costs associated with specific program activities and services.
  • Cost-Benefit and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CBA/CEA): Comparing program costs with measurable health outcomes or benefits.
  • Incremental Cost Analysis: Evaluating additional costs associated with scaling or enhancing health solutions.
• Create cost models that estimate capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX) for solution design, implementation, scaling, and transition.
• Establish cost allocation frameworks, including rules for assigning shared costs across programs or activities.
• Develop costing tools to support decision-making for VillageReach and its government and private-sector partners.

Cost Management and Improvement

• Design and implement cost tracking and reporting tools for use by VillageReach program teams and government stakeholders.
• Train stakeholders in cost management practices, including monitoring cost evolution and variance analysis.
• Identify key cost drivers and propose actionable cost improvement plans to enhance efficiency while maintaining program quality.

Health Financing and Transition Planning

• Support the development of financing strategies for transitioning health solutions to government ownership or local partners, ensuring financial sustainability.
• Conduct financial flow mapping to understand resource allocation and bottlenecks within health financing systems, including government and donor flows.
• Provide technical support to governments and partners in strengthening public financial management (PFM) systems, with a focus on integrating transitioned health solutions into national health budgets.
• Develop transition financing frameworks tailored to LMIC contexts, identifying sustainable funding sources and mechanisms.
• Conduct financial gap analyses to identify funding needs for transitioning health solutions.
• Prepare financing advocacy materials, including cost-effectiveness evidence, to support sustainable government investment.

Economic Evaluation

• Design and execute economic evaluations to assess value for money of public health interventions, including telehealth models and immunization programs.
• Conduct data collection, statistical analysis, and interpretation to inform programmatic decisions.
• Prepare detailed reports and presentations that synthesize economic evaluation findings for diverse stakeholders.

Business Development Support

• Provide technical input for grant applications, proposals, and concept notes related to program costing, health financing, and economic evaluations.
• Conduct desk research and stakeholder consultations to inform project designs and funding applications.

Requirements

Selection Criteria 

Qualified consultants will be selected based on their ability to demonstrate the following:

Educational Background 

• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in health economics, public health, economics, finance, or related field.

Professional Experience 

• Minimum of five (5) years of relevant work experience in program costing, health financing, or economic evaluations.
• Demonstrated expertise in costing health programs or interventions, with a preference for experience in LMIC settings.
• Familiarity with health system transition planning, including public-private partnerships and government financing mechanisms.
• Project management experience working across time zones and multiple offices preferred

Technical Skills 

• Proficiency in advanced costing methodologies (e.g., ABC, CEA, incremental costing).
• Skilled in data analysis tools such as Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, power query), STATA, or R.
• Ability to develop and manage cost databases and tools for program monitoring.
• Experience supporting research projects or different types of evaluation. Experience with economic evaluations is an advantage.
• Experience in developing and managing a cost database
• Certification from a professional association (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants or Institute of Management Accountants), Management accounting qualification or work experience in Management Consulting is an advantage.

Communication and Analytical Skills 

• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, with a track record of synthesizing complex data into actionable insights.
• Proven ability to present technical findings to diverse audiences, including government officials, donors, and program teams.

Language Proficiency 

• Full professional proficiency in English required; fluency in French or Portuguese is an advantage.