Consultant, Support to the Alliance for Malaria Prevention Partnership Core Group

Organizational Context

Background AMP:

The Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP) is a unique multi-sectorial global partnership of more than 40 organizations, including governments, ministries of health, donor agencies, normative agencies, private sector (including net manufacturers), faith-based and humanitarian organizations. AMP was established in 2004 initially to support the distribution of 900,000 ITNs integrated with measles vaccination in Togo. Since then, AMP has provided internationally recognized technical and operational support to national malaria programmes and their partners to achieve universal coverage[1] and use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). AMP promotes distributing ITNs through both mass campaign and continuous distribution channels to reach malaria prevention and control targets, and in turn saving millions of lives in malaria endemic countries. AMP’s country support has expanded annually since 2004. In 2022 AMP supported 21 countries to distributed 190 million ITNs.

Housed and chaired by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, AMP is positioned within the Country/Regional Support Partner Committee (CRSPC) of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria (RBM). AMP’s staff team consists of technical and management staff to advise on global, regional and country-level ITN distribution policies and strategies and respond to country requests for AMP’s technical support. Working groups staffed by volunteers among the Core Groups and others in the larger partnership support the AMP staff team in designing, implementing, and evaluating those activities.

AMP’s areas of focus

AMP focuses on three main activities:

1. Coordination of partners involved in ITN campaign and continuous distribution activities.
2. Development of operational guidance for planning and implementation of ITN distributions based on iterative learning and identified needs.
3. Providing support to national malaria programmes and partners through technical assistance, mentoring and capacity-building to reach the WHO GTS targets for high coverage and use of ITNs. AMP strives for equitable universal access to ITNs for vector control leading to a malaria free future.

AMP’s Coordination with Partners

In providing a multilateral platform for coordinating partners within the malaria vector control community, AMP tracks ITN mass campaigns globally and advocates for resolving ITN distribution challenges and resource mobilization in support of members’ shared priorities. AMP facilitates trainings aimed at strengthening the skills of national malaria programme and partner organization staff, focusing on ITN campaign planning, logistics, digitalisation, social and behaviour change (SBC), and monitoring and evaluation. AMP also provides operational guidance through a comprehensive toolkit focused on universal coverage ITN campaigns. Finally, based on requests from national malaria programmes, AMP provides globally recognized expert technical assistance (TA) through distance and in-country missions to support national malaria programmes and partners to successfully plan and execute complex ITN distribution campaigns, in line with national ITN policies and strategies from planning and implementation to post-distribution. AMP also facilitates direct exchanges and learning experiences from NMCPs to ensure lessons are adequately shared amongst partners with similarities in their strategies or burden profile.

AMP Staffing:

From 2004 to 2008 AMP operated without dedicated staff yet was able to assist the transition from supporting a single mass ITN distribution in Togo to backing multiple countries that were distributing millions of ITNs by 2008.

From 2009 to 2020, with funding support from USAID’s President Malaria Initiative, AMP operated with 1.5 full time staff:

1. Senior Officer, Malaria 100% position
2. Officer, AMP Coordination 50% position

In late 2020 with funding support from USAID’s Presidents Malaria Initiative, Innovative Vector Control Consortium and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, AMP expanded to 5 full time staff:

1. Manager – Malaria Programmes
2. Officer, AMP Coordination
3. Senior Officer, New Nets Project
4. Senior Officer, Malaria Technical Advisor.
5. Officer, Information Systems and Monitoring and Evaluation

As we enter 2024 the AMP staff team consisted of 4 full time staff:

1. Lead, Malaria Programmes
2. Senior Officer, Optimizing ITN Access Project
3. Officer, AMP Coordination
4. Officer, AMP Country Support

The Core Group anticipates that AMP will continue to grow in terms of country level request for support, the number of technical, operational and funding partners supporting the work of AMP, the amount of funding AMP accesses annually. In developing recommendations for the Core Group, they should be developed with a view that AMP’s work will continue to expand for the coming years.

Complete information on AMP’s goals, activities, structure, and achievements are available online at www.allianceformalariaprevention.com. Once the consultancy commences the Core Group and AMP staff team will guide the consultant to the core AMP documents which can support this consultancy.

AMP Core Group:

The AMP Core Group was established in 2004 as an expert team to provide vision, help identify, prioritize and advise on technical strategies and operational best practices to scale up ITN distribution in malaria-endemic countries. Core Group members chair or actively participate in AMP’s workstreams, serve as trainers for AMP regional trainings, facilitate annual meetings, attend and contribute to twice-yearly Core Group meetings, review and edit documents, participate in weekly AMP calls and generate special topics for those calls.

The structure and membership of the AMP Core Group has changed very little since it was established in 2004. It has operated and expanded organically based on the level of interest, energy, and commitment of its members, but without formal by-laws and transparent procedures to recruit members or to establish and disseminate its technical and operational guidance. Over time, the Core Group has attempted to recruit country representation with little sustained success, due to lack of funding to support their participation. With the exception of one individual no longer involved, the Core Group has not had representation from the private sector to avoid any optics of preferential treatment. Since its beginning it has voted only once to remove a Core Group member due to lack of participation.

In 2020 AMP staff and Core Group members began to question the roles and responsibilities of the AMP Core Group. These questions arose due to multiple factors: the growth of the AMP portfolio, including the number of countries and types of partners involved with ITN distribution; the dramatic expansion of the amount and type of technical support that countries and partners demand from AMP; the increase in its longer-term staff team members and annual budget; and the request of AMP partners for more transparency in the way AMP is governed.

In January 2024 the AMP Core Group updated the Core Group criteria. During this revision responsibilities of Core Group members included:

• Participate in annual AMP Partners meetings, including supporting with follow up with country presenters and review of presentations in advance of the meeting.
• Participate in annual AMP Core Group face-to-face and scheduled core group conference calls.
• Provide feedback on key AMP documents (partners meeting agenda, core group criteria, annual AMP proposal/workplan, budget, etc.).
• On request, support with resolution of critical bottlenecks, resource mobilization including identification of opportunities, identification of new challenges and opportunities, support collaboration with partner agencies to AMP.
• The expected minimum level of participation in AMP weekly conference calls is 25% annually or a minimum of one call per month.
• AMP Core Group members agree to monitor AMP Core Group criteria and self-identify when they do not meet the requirements and should come off the AMP Core Group.

During the September 2022 Core Group Meeting, Core Group members listed the following activities as part of their contribution to the Core Group:

• Attending AMP’s meetings and support the delivery of AMPs agenda and annual workplan.
• Connecting the AMP partnership to different organizations who can cover identified gaps.
• Reviewing, providing input and approving AMP guidance documents
• Coordinating AMPs work with PMI country missions
• Providing targeted programmatic and strategic advice
• Chairing an AMP working group
• Supporting the AMP Net Mapping Project and AMP Tracker
• Resolving bottlenecks with partner agencies
• Coordinate / advocate with international partners
• Supporting the development of the agenda and delivery of the AMP annual partners meeting
• Provide financial support to AMP.
• Advising on strategic communications
• Advising on technical aspects of AMP’s work
• Linking and advocating for AMP with GF and RBM

During the September 2022 Core Group meeting AMP staff requested the following support for the AMP Core Group:

• Review and advise the AMP staff team on workplan and when activities can be dropped / removed from the workplan.
• Recognize when the AMP staff team is overwhelmed and support the staff team to prioritize and say no to requests for support.
• Resolve operational bottlenecks.
• Mobilize resources for AMP staffing and operations.

The Core Group and AMP staff team have discussed the ‘type’ of support the Core Group provides, based on members’ involvement in different organizational boards and public health partnerships. They have raised fundamental questions as to whether the Core Group should operate in an;

1) Advisory Capacity

2) Management Capacity

3) Resource Mobilization capacity

or a combination of capacities based on the technical and operational needs of AMP.

Job Purpose

The overall objective of this consultancy is to support the AMP Core Group to define its roles and responsibilities vis a vis the AMP staff team, its partners, its donors, and most importantly, the countries that it serves. In reviewing examples of how other public health partnerships are governed, the Core Group wishes to ensure that AMP’s governance structure is fit for purpose in terms of the size and scope of AMP’s work, and to adopt better practices for managing a global public health partnerships.

To achieve this objective, the consultant will:

• Document in more detail the evolution of the structure and responsibilities of the Core Group
• Document the current roles and responsibilities of the Core Group.
• Review and share the governance structure of comparable global health partnerships.
• Make recommendations to the AMP Core Group on possible changes to the partnership’s governance structure based on what other global health partnerships are doing in terms of ‘best practice’; including ways to avoid conflicts-of-interests or clearly state conditions if / when Core Group members can also work in a consultant capacity for AMP / receive payments from AMP.
• Develop a decision-making matrix with various governance structure scenarios to support the Core Group to take decisions on possible changes to its composition, roles and responsibilities based on the outcome of the steps above.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Consultancy outputs:

1. A decision matrix with recommendations to support the AMP Core Group to take decisions on the Core Group’s composition, roles and responsibilities and most appropriate governance structure.
2. A supporting document to illustrate different government structures that could result based on the decision matrix, along with clearly defined pro’s and con’s for each scenario.

Required activities to achieve these outputs:

• Desk review of AMP’s core documents
• Individual and/or group interviews with AMP Core Group members
• Individual and/or group interviews with AMP staff
• Interviews with key AMP stakeholders, including representatives of national malaria programmes.
• Review of documents and/or interviews with representatives of similar global public health partnerships to learn about their governance structures.

It is envisaged the decision matrix and recommendations will be supported by a written report which summarizes the outcome of the actions above and proposes other decision points the AMP Core Group may consider.

Management of consultancy

The consultant will report to the AMP Core Group. The day-to-day management of the consultancy will be done by the AMP Core Group Chair.

Location

There will be no travel associated with this consultancy.

All work can be done from the consultant’s home location.

Support documents

The following support documents will be provided at the start of the consultancy:

• Final AMP Core Group Criteria
• AMP Annual Reports
• AMP Annual Workplans

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Required

• Fluently spoken and written English.

[1] The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends full coverage with long-lasting ITNs (LLINs) of all people at risk of malaria in areas targeted for malaria prevention termed “universal coverage”.