DRF Finance Specialist - Drug Revolving Fund Activity Evaluation

Team: USAID/Nigeria MEL Support Activity
Project: USAID/Nigeria Health Population and Nutrition (HPN) Office
Location: Federal Capital Territory – Abuja, Nigeria
Reporting to: Assessment and Evaluation Advisor
Employment Type: Independent Contractor / Short-Term Technical Assistance (STTA)
Period of Performance: November 2024 – May 2025
Number of Positions: 1

Navanti supports a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Support Activity program that assists USAID/Nigeria in advancing its broader organizational learning and development efforts. This program strengthens the Mission’s capacity and performance in programmatic monitoring, evaluation, learning, collaborating, and adapting. The MEL Support Activity closely aligns with USAID/Nigeria’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS). It provides a broad range of specialized technical assistance, training, data gathering and analysis, field-based monitoring, evaluations and assessments, facilitation of organizational learning and adaptation initiatives, and short-term technical assistance.

Overview and Evaluation Purpose:
USAID/Nigeria has engaged the MEL Support Activity to evaluate the Drug Revolving Fund (DRF) Activity to determine whether it meets its stated objectives. The evaluation will ascertain if the assistance provided by USAID/Nigeria through the Global Health Supply Chain Program-Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) project on DRF Activity achieved the stated development objectives (DO). The evaluation also seeks to understand the lessons from this Activity in Nigeria.

The purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness, promote accountability, inform decision-making, ensure the program's sustainability and impact on improving access to essential medicines and healthcare services, and inform USAID/Nigeria’s potential future support for drug revolving funds. The study will provide specific insights into the following proposed states:

• North-West: Zamfara, Sokoto
• North-East: Bauchi
• North-Central: Nasarawa

About DRF:
The drug revolving fund (DRF) is a financing mechanism used in healthcare to improve access to essential drugs and medicines. The primary goal of a DRF is to ensure a steady supply of quality medications and to prevent stockouts or shortages in public health facilities, such as hospitals and health centers.
The purpose of the DRF is as follows:

• Ensure the availability and sustainability of quality health commodities.
• Ensure accessibility and affordability of health commodities.
• Contribute to the attainment of universal health coverage.
• Support health care for the vulnerable.

USAID expected the DRF support to achieve the following high-level results:

• Improved access to essential medicines particularly in underserved areas at an affordable rate
• Strengthened health systems through improved capacity, governance, and coordination of supply chain management, procurement processes, and monitoring systems.
• Curtail dependence on external funding.
• Streamline the procurement and distribution of medicines, leading to more efficient health service delivery. This can result in shorter waiting times, improved patient satisfaction, and improved overall quality of care in health facilities.
• Improve revenue generation and sustainability through revolving/recycling funds from the sale of medicines and pharmaceutical products.

The primary users of the evaluation findings will be the USAID Health Population and Nutrition (HPN) Office, other U.S. Government (USG) officials, non-USG donor organizations, GON, and private sector firms, all of whom can use the findings to improve and build knowledge. The result of this evaluation will be used by the Mission, GON, implementing partners, and other stakeholders to enhance accountability and learning and to inform decisions on further investment and whether or not the DRF is being re-capitalized.
The estimated start date will be November 11, 2024. The evaluation is expected to last until May 2025.
Candidates are reviewed on a rolling basis; early submission is recommended.

Position Description:
Navanti is seeking a DRF Finance Specialist to support the team lead in developing context-specific tools for engaging various stakeholders, providing context to the evaluation, and supporting the development of the report. The subject matter expert will work with the team leader to conduct interviews, analyze the data, and develop the evaluation report responsible for the overall coordination and management of the evaluation team’s effort and for ensuring a rigorous and high-quality evaluation in the locations stated above. Under the guidance of the MEL Support Activity, the subject matter expert is expected to work closely with the USAID/Nigeria-HPN team.
The team will use a combination of literature review, secondary analysis of population-based surveys, and quantitative/qualitative data collection through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews to gather insights to answer the study questions, with a special focus on data from the four states listed above. The team is also expected to propose based evaluation methodology/approach as required.

Locations:

• Zamfara, Bauchi, Nasarawa and Sokoto States

Responsibilities:
The DRF Finance Specialist will be responsible for providing direct technical assistance to the team leader on key strategies to engage targeted stakeholders in conducting the evaluation. The subject matter expert will:

• Participate in the evaluation kick-off session with USAID/Nigeria.
• Support in conducting an initial desk study: gather relevant secondary materials to identify key actors and stakeholders. A summary of these findings will help to better understand the context, identify key stakeholders to be interviewed, and guide the finalization of the design for the evaluation including the questions to be explored further during the qualitative evaluation.
• Provides substantive technical input into the development of data collection tools, including survey and interview tools, and methodology for covering target states
• Support the data collection process, including conducting several KIIs and FGDs with stakeholders including women, health care providers, etc
• Support in the presentation of preliminary findings on data collected from stakeholders' engagement and desk review
• Coordinates closely with other evaluation team members to ensure quality evaluation
• Support the team lead in writing the draft evaluation report with support from the team members, taking into consideration feedback from the Out-brief presentation.
• Respond to USAID comments on the draft report, incorporate USAID/Nigeria staff comments into the final version of the report, and finalize the report.
• Present the evaluation results to diverse audiences according to USAID standard reporting
• Work collaboratively with team members throughout design, implementation, analysis, and report writing to complement each other's areas of expertise.

Qualifications:
The candidate is expected to have the following qualifications:

• Education: A bachelor's degree in accounting, business administration, economics, or a related field is preferable. A chartered accountant who has worked in public service or evaluated a drug revolving fund activity and has proven experience with economic analysis, public finance, and investments will be advantageous.

Working experience:

• Minimum of seven years of progressive working experience in accounting and financial management systems in the public sector /healthcare domain.
• Experience in maintaining and keeping proper books of accounting recounting records
• Ability to review the DRF financial management system
• Experience in preparation and review of monthly bank reconciliation and financial statements
• Ability to review DRF fund valuation statements
• Conduct and evaluate independent review of vouchers, internal control systems, and financial reporting documents
• Review contract documents, vouchers, and payment records.
• Experience with commodities pricing policy and application of DRF mark-up elements.
• Review funding gap assessments
• Carry out a detailed DRF financial risk assessment

The consultant should adhere to ethical guidelines, obtain informed consent, and protect the confidentiality and anonymity of participants.

Only selected candidates will be contacted for an interview. Please, no phone calls.