Kingdom of Lesotho

Ministry of Health

LNHSSP-P170278

Request for expression of interest for

Grants Contracting Expert to Support Development of Guiding documents for Strategic Purchasing of Health Services.

 (Individual consultant Selection)

TERMS OF REFERENCE 

LS-MOH-309176-CS-INDV-LNHSS-2022                                                              Issue Date 06-03-2025

  BACKGROUND   

The Government of Lesotho (GOL) is implementing the Lesotho Nutrition and Health System Strengthening Project (LNHSSP) with the International Development Association’s (IDA) financial and technical support.  The project aims to support the GOL in implementing a multi-sectoral approach to improve health and nutrition outcomes over five years. The project development objective is to increase utilization and quality of key nutrition and health services. Component three of the project also covers Ministry of Health (MOH) Stewardship and M&E Capacities through which the Ministry is developing guidelines for strategic purchasing of health services to define the services to be purchased and which criteria is to be used and for how long.  

The MOH’s vision is that all people living in Lesotho shall have productive life, access to affordable and sustainable quality health services with the aim of ensuring Universal Health Coverage. To ensure this, the MOH is committed to promote, prevent, cure, rehabilitate and control diseases at all levels with special focus on the primary health level; through well-developed health systems by competent health workers and therefore, contributing to the attainment of improved health status and quality of life with all partners to ensure responsiveness to the health sector clientele’ needs.   

  

Strategic purchasing of health services must be targeted in order to realize progress towards universal health coverage. Strategic purchasing of health services should be an active system rather than the current passive system where resources are allocated without consideration of the provider’s performance, the intended outcomes and for a package that is not clearly defined. Strategic purchasing of these services must be evidence based, should define which specific health services must be bought and from which providers, how the services should be paid for and at what rate in order to maximize health objectives.   

  

For the past 5 years the MOH has been allocated a budget of around 14 percent of the total GOL budget. A substantial amount of MOH budget is allocated for operations which are recurrent in nature. Approximately 20 percent of the MOH budget is for the purchases of health services from various organizations in the country. The subvented institutions under the MOH include:   

• Lesotho Red Cross Society (LRCS)   
• Baylor Pediatric Center of Excellence   
• Lesotho-Boston Health Alliance   
• Lesotho Nursing Council   
• Christian Health Association of Lesotho (CHAL)   
• Riders for Health  
• Lesotho Planned Parenthood Association 

  

Each of these providers fills a niche that the MOH finds it more advantageous for a partner to provide rather than the Ministry.  The relationship between the GOL and the mentioned institutions is currently governed by Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) specifically designed for each institution depending on the health services they provide to the public. There are no defined guidelines on how to allocate funding and to monitor some of the deliverables for some of the agreements.   

It is against this background that the MOH seeks to develop Guidelines, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for strategic purchasing and to move away from using MOUs to allocate funding to subvented organizations.  To efficiently carry out the assignment, the services of a suitably qualified Grants Contracting Expert will be engaged through World Bank (WB) support under Lesotho Nutrition and Health System Strengthening Project.  

  

OBJECTIVES OF THIS CONSULTANCY   

  

The GOL aims to engage a grant contracting expert that will provide technical support to the MOH to review and clearly define the health services purchasing function of the MOH to maximize value for money from purchasing of health services and improve the health system delivery and nutrition services by subvented partners.  

  

Specific Objective:  

  

Develop the guidelines and standard operating procedures, including templates, that the MOH can use to regularize its relationship with subvented partners in the country.

SCOPE OF WORK  

  Working with the PPP unit:

• Assess the current state of strategic purchasing in the Health Sector.
• Develop Guidelines, Standard Operating Procedures, templates for Strategic Purchasing of Health Services in the Ministry of Health.   
• Build Capacity and/or guidance for the relevant staff on use of the Guiding documents, and monitoring and evaluation of strategic purchasing of Health Services.  

  

  SPECIFIC ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE CONSULTANT  

  

• To assess the current subvention process and define its objectives to be more coherent and strategic in nature for maximum health benefits to Basotho in relation to efficiency and quality of services;  
• To clearly define which services to buy depending on the MOH priorities, MOH capabilities and the gaps targeted at appropriate levels of care; 
• To develop and pilot assessment tools that can be used by MOH staff to review the systems and capabilities of subvented organizations and identify risks.
• To support the MOH technical staff to develop clear, evidence-based scopes of work for subvented organizations, with proposed indicators and a grant application process and timeline.  
• To develop granting guidelines to promote quality, efficiency in promoting the health needs of the population and ensure equity in resource distribution
• Develop grant agreement templates with clear obligations between the MOH as the purchaser and all the health services providers depending on the services they provide;  
• To design standard operating procedures and tools to monitor provider’s performance and provision of oversight by the relevant MOH department. 

DURATION  

  

The assignment is for a period of 48 days.   

  

DATA, SERVICES, AND FACILITIES TO BE PROVIDED BY THE CLIENT:

The client will provide the service provider with documents that will assist in executing the assignment. The client will also provide office space for the service provider when needed and during meetings that take place at the premises of the client. Furthermore, the client will not provide transport for the service provider.

DELIVERABLES  

  

No	Activities	Timelines	Payment
1	Inception report	5 days	5%
2	Analytical Report on services purchased by the Ministry of Health	10 days	20%
3	Draft Guidelines, SOPs, Monitoring tool and grant agreement templates for Strategic Purchasing of Health Services	25 days	50%
4	Final Guidelines, SOPs, Monitoring tool and grant agreement templates for Strategic Purchasing of Health Services	5 days
5	Validation Meeting	2 days	20%
6	Dissemination Meeting	1 days	5%

The consultant will be paid upon presentation of invoices and contingent upon timely submission of agreed deliverables as approved by the Director Health Planning and Statistics department.   

  

QUALIFICATION, PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCIES REQUIRED

  

The Grants Expert should possess the following qualifications:

    

• At minimum, a master’s degree in a relevant discipline. A PhD will be an added advantage.  
• 10 years working experience in granting, contracting or contract management.   
• 10 years’ experience in developing guidelines and standard operating procedures.  
• 8 years’ experience in drafting Scope of Works for health sector services in a collaborative manner and contracting strategy/practice would be an added value. 
• Experience of having undertaken similar work would be an added advantage.
• Excellent public speaking, presentation, report writing and facilitation skills.  
• Excellent leadership, motivational skills and Teamwork.  
• Competence in the use of computers application software such as Word, Excel and Power Point.    
• Familiarity with the health sector in Lesotho will be an added advantage

CLIENT’S ASSIGNMENT MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENT AND REPORTING  

  

The consultant shall report to and receive technical guidance from the Chief PPP Officer in the Ministry of Health. The Project Coordinator will be responsible for managing the contract.  

  

CONTRACT TYPE

Lump sum contract, meaning that payments will be paid based on completed deliverables.

SELECTION OF CONSULTANTS

The selection of Individual Consultants is governed by the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers,” Fifth Edition September 2023.

SUBMISSION OF THE PROPOSAL

Qualified and interested individual consultants are invited to submit their Expressions of Interest (EOI) via email to lnhssproject@gmail.com, with a copy to mokhoabomoeketsi@gmail.com, or deliver a hard copy to the address below no later than 21^ST March, 2025 1200hour:

Procurement Officer’s Office, Procurement Unit Ground Floor, Ministry of Health, Corner constitution & Linare Roads, Kingdom of Lesotho, Telephone: (+266) (+266) 27323277.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted within two weeks of the submission deadline. If you do not receive any communication within this period, please consider your application unsuccessful.