National Consultant, Measles & Rubella Country Platform, in Support of Vaccination Campaigns in Madagascar

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian network, with 191 member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. IFRC uses the Triple R – response, resilience and respect – to deliver on Strategy 2030. IFRC responds to disasters and crises, ensuring timely, coordinated and locally led humanitarian action. IFRC supports its members in building community resilience in the areas of climate and environment, health and wellbeing, and migration and displacement. IFRC promotes respect for our fundamental principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality, including in our work on values, power and inclusion. The IFRC focuses throughout on our core mandate – our raison d’être – of strategic and operational coordination, humanitarian diplomacy, National Society development, and accountability.

IFRC is led by its Secretary General and has its Headquarters in Geneva and five regional offices in Africa (Nairobi); the Americas (Panama); Asia Pacific (Kuala Lumpur); Europe (Budapest); and MENA (Beirut) as well as representation offices, service centres and delegations across the globe.

The IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles.

Due to the recent global financial cutbacks in public health and immunization activities, technical support to many country Ministries of Health in the African region has been withdrawn thereby seriously threatening the planning and implementation of vaccination campaigns in 2025 and 2026. As a consequence, a partnership between the IFRC and the Measles and Rubella Partnership (M&RP) seeks to establish a Measles & Rubella Country Platform (M&R Country Platform) to overcome this gap in technical support requested by Ministries of Health. The M&R Country Platform serves to advance the goals of the Immunization Agenda 2030 and is committed to reducing measles and rubella morbidity and mortality by supporting countries to implement the Measles and Rubella Strategic Framework 2021- 2030.

Alignment to the IFRC’s objectives and strategy

The M&R Country Platform aligns to the Federation’s Strategy 2030 as it supports the achievement of Global Aims:

Global Aim 1: People anticipate, respond to and quickly recover from crisis.

Global Aim 2: People lead safe, health and dignified lives and have opportunities to thrive.

The main project objective is to respond to Ministry of Health requests for high-quality technical assistance in planning and implementing measles or measles/rubella vaccination campaigns. To meet these Ministry of Health needs, IFRC is recruiting national consultants who are nationals of Madagascar. The IFRC consultant will provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and other relevant in-country partners to ensure the planning and implementation of high-quality measles/rubella vaccination campaigns.

Desired outcomes

Vaccination campaign application, planning and implementation as supported by national consultants will engage key local/district partners and will be timely, high-quality, and well monitored.

Working with the Ministry of Health and under the overall guidance and supervision of the IFRC project lead, the consultant for the Measles and Rubella Country Platform will be engaged prior to and during measles or measle/rubella vaccination campaigns and will provide technical assistance in the planning and implementation of the following tasks:

1. Nationwide Measles/Rubella campaign planning and coordination

• As needed work directly with in-country partners, especially at the sub-national levels, to provide hands on technical support for trainings, microplan development, assessments, and supervision.
• Assist in the coordination and preparations for the implementation of the nationwide measles/rubella vaccination campaign.
• Take part in providing technical guidance and inputs into the regular National Coordination Committee meetings.
• Ensure focus on hard-to-reach geographic areas and populations, and in efforts to reach unreached children during the campaign preparations.

2. Application preparation

Assist with the drafting of applications for funding to support measles or measles/rubella vaccination activities including MR/MCV2 Introduction, M/MR Follow Up SIAs, and Outbreak Response activities.

3. Planning

• Assist in the development of a timeline and milestones structure for the upcoming vaccination campaign utilizing the SIA readiness assessment tool at the national and subnational including district levels.
• Assist with the analysis of all provided data to enhance and support the planning and implementation phases of the campaign.
• Ensure that the best practices for SIA preparations, and the lessons from previous SIAs are reflected and addressed in the upcoming campaign.
• Ensure focus on hard-to-reach geographic areas and resistant populations to ensure high vaccination coverage particularly among previously missed children.
• At national and subnational including district levels, ensure microplans are fully developed, updated and submitted in a timely manner.

4. Coordination:

• Take part in and provide technical guidance and inputs into the regular national and subnational including district levels including district coordination committee meetings.
• Support the integration of the Red Cross/Red Crescent national society into the planning and coordination of vaccination activities to build capacity for future support. Specifically, facilitate Red Cross/Red Crescent participation in Ministry of Health social mobilization related committees to share Red Cross/Red Crescent knowledge of local community barriers, and if requested, support Red Cross/Red Crescent resource mobilization activities.
• Develop good working relationships with all relevant parties and provide the appropriate support.
• With the guidance of the Measles & Rubella Country Platform and where countries have more one consultant supporting the vaccination campaign, ensure strong coordination to avoid duplication of efforts.

5. Development of monitoring tools and supporting training

• Support finalization of tally sheets and summary sheets for different interventions, Intra and post SIA/ORI monitoring methodology, tools and timeline for the activities are agreed upon.
• Support the development of updated training materials for different cadres of health workers who are engaged in vaccination activities.
• Support the preparations for the conduct of intra SIA monitoring and a post SIA rapid convenience monitoring.
• Support the coordination and implementation of the training of supervisors and health workers/vaccinators at national and subnational including district levels.

6. Vaccination campaign monitoring and supervision:

• Ensure implementation status is monitored at national/subnational levels (using the preSIAs assessment checklist for provinces, districts and health facilities, etc.)
• Support the monitoring of the readiness of the campaign preparations at national and subnational levels using the appropriate WHO tools, and ensure that the readiness scores are used for management discussions and decisions within the national and/or subnational coordination committee meetings.

7. Reporting

• Prepare weekly summary updates on the status of preparations for the measles or measles/rubella campaign and share with the Ministry of Health, IFRC (including the M&R Country Platform Officer in Geneva), Red Cross/Red Crescent National Society, UNICEF, WHO country office team, and other relevant in-country partners.
• Participate in a virtual mid-term meeting with IFRC Geneva and relevant Measles & Rubella Partners.
• At the vaccination campaign’s conclusion, support the aggregation of campaign data and reports into a national report for onward submission to the Ministry of Health, IFRC, WHO, Red Cross Red Crescent National Society and other partners.

Method of delivery and reasons for selecting that method

Deployment in Madagascar to provide direct support to the Ministry of Health and in-country partners.

Support to be provided to the consultant

The consultant will be provided with support from the IFRC for travel, logistics, program management through the M&R Country Platform Office and Administrative Lead. Informal technical support from will be provided through colleagues at the WHO Africa Regional Office.

Time Allocation

40 hours per week over a 3-month period.

Management of consultants

The consultant will be directly managed by the IFRC M&R Country Platform Officer with overall coordination from the IFRC Immunization Senior Officer based in Geneva.

Required

• Strong knowledge with at least 5 years of experience in immunization programs, especially in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of vaccine preventable disease control activities.
• Proven experience working in Madagascar and diverse, low-resource settings.
• Proven experience conducting technical support to international public health programs.
• Experience working with international, national, and local partners.

Required

• Ability to lead and supervise project staff at country level.
• Strong diplomatic and interpersonal skills with experience working effectively as a team member in diverse, multidisciplinary environments.
• Ability to work well in a fast-paced environment and manage multiple priorities that are subject to change.
• Ability to foster collaboration among diverse external and internal stakeholders and partners to achieve program goals.
• Excellent time and project management skills.

LANGUAGES

Required

• Excellent English and French written and oral communication skills.

OTHERS

Required

• The selected candidate must be a national of Madagascar. The consultancy will be based in Madagascar for its entire duration.

Application Instructions

• Please submit your application in English only.
• Please include the below in your application
• Curriculum Vitae
• A cover letter summarizing your experience and suggested approach to the consultancy

Notes

• The consultant will be contracted by the IFRC Geneva and the standard contractual terms will apply.
• Agreed travel expenses will be reimbursed at cost in accordance with in the IFRC’s relevant regulations.