Scorecard Management Tools support countries in optimizing the use of existing data to drive action, accountability, advocacy, and resource mobilization across a wide set of stakeholders at all levels of the health system. The Consultant will work alongside Kenya’s Ministry of Health to document the achievements of Kenya’s Reproductive Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH), Nutrition, and the Community Scorecard, as well as the malaria scorecard (where applicable), through online surveys, interviews with key stakeholders, and an analysis of scorecard data.

This consultancy will require approximately 30 days of work with approximately 10 days of disseminating, analyzing and synthesizing data from online surveys, and 20 days of field work for additional data collection and drafting of the report.

ALMA will hire a consultant to work with the government, and potentially with members of the Kenya Malaria Yourh Corps, to document how the scorecards are being used. This will include generating a list of scorecard actions, how much those actions cost to implement, their impact as shown in the data, as well as other examples of resource mobilization achieved through advocacy, and other best practices. The results will provide the Ministry of Health with a valuable opportunity to take stock of best practices in scorecard use and highlight their achievements so they can be celebrated, disseminated, and replicated.

In addition, ALMA aims to disseminate these best practices to a global community through the ALMA scorecard hub (www.scorecardhub.org) so that other countries may learn from Kenya’s experience. The consultant is encouraged to review the scorecard hub’s material for background on scorecards and other documentation.

The consultant will work with a videographer to identify the best stories to capture through short videos and to document the voices of the communities that have benefitted from the use of scorecards.

Deliverables

1. Costing excel spreadsheet: complete an excel table (described in a later section) with details on each action captured during interviews, including cost estimates.
2. Report: The consultant is expected to produce a report synthesizing the following elements from the field research:
   • Summary of progress of the RMNCAH, Nutrition, Malaria, and Community scorecards including any updates on activities, trainings, scale up, any expanded stakeholder use etc.
   • Examples of actions, their cost and impact
   • Examples of resource mobilization activities
   • Examples of partner support
   • Experiences and best practices
   • Challenges
   • Recommendations for further institutionalization
   • Conclusions and next steps in implementation
3. Videos documenting:
   • How the RMNCAH, Nutrition and Community scorecards work
   • Resolving health bottlenecks and increasing resource mobilisation with Kenya’s scorecard tools
   • Key success factors of Kenya’s scorecard tools

Scope and Methodology

Under the guidance and direction of Kenya’s Ministry of Health, the reports’ development will be guided by the following methodology:

Online survey

Review and send an online survey (https://forms.gle/Shdp5eTcmfG2ubbx6) to as many scorecard users as possible, including government and partners. If necessary, coordinate with the country to have the Ministry send the online survey directly. ALMA will work with the consultant to modify existing online survey questions, if desired. It is ideal to send the online survey to as many people and levels as possible, including staff from national, County, Subcounty, and facility levels.

Identify best stories and locations

Be guided by the national scorecard team and ALMA’s knowledge of the best actions, the actions tracker, as well as the results of the online survey to identify the Counties with the best scorecard stories, requiring further interviews to get details on their scorecard use. Select interviewees at each level, including national, county, sub-county, and facility levels. The interviews should capture additional actions that may not be documented in the action tracker.

Interviews

Conduct in-person, telephone, or zoom interviews with the key scorecard users to identify areas of active use of the scorecard and stories of actions, experiences, best practices and resource mobilization. Where necessary, the interviews may be conducted by members of the Kenya Malaria Youth Corps. The interviews should try to capture additional actions as well as other best practices (see annex for proposed interview questions). Be as specific as possible with the following details:

• The problem the scorecard helped identify (indicator not doing well), with a corresponding data value if possible.
• The root cause/s of the problem
• The action taken to solve the problem, including but not limited to resource mobilization (ie. How much it cost to implement the action).
• The subsequent impact of the action taken, with a corresponding data value if possible. (ie. Were there improvements in the performance of the indicator. By how much?)

Data analysis

If the interviewees are not able to provide a data value, the consultant should try to find improvements in the scorecard data to gain an understanding of the outcomes related to the action. Working with Ministry of Health officials, the consultant should try to identify what the performance was when the interviewee discovered the problem, and the resulting improvement after the action was taken.

Costing Excel Spreadsheet

The consultant will use a costing excel template to capture as much details on each action documented, including an estimated cost for the action and, where possible, describe the impact of the action as shown by the data. Download template.

Videography

Videography will be done to complement documentation of the use of the scorecards. The consultant will help to identify a videography team to develop short videos about the scorecard.

Video 1: How the RMNCAH, Malaria, Nutrition and Community scorecards work (3 to 5 minutes each or combined?)

• Brief description of the scorecards and what makes them unique
• How the scorecards are used across the country and in specific counties
• How institutionalised the scorecards are (such as how the scorecards are linked to county government policy, strategies and programming)
• Brief examples of how scorecards have resolved one or two health bottlenecks

Video 2: Resolving health bottlenecks and increasing resource mobilisation with Kenya’s scorecard tools (3 to 5 minutes)

Examples of improvements that were as a result of the RMNCAH, Malaria, Nutrition, and Community scorecard use, such as:

• actions and challenges identified and addressed
• financial and in-kind resource mobilisation
• changes requested by community members that were addressed by health facilities

Video 3: Key success factors of Kenya scorecard tools (3 to 5 minutes)

• Examples of key success factors that would help other countries when rolling out their own scorecard tools (such as active community engagement, partner support etc).
• These factors would be identified during the documentation exercise.

Expected profile of consultant(s)

• Experience in conducting health sector surveys and reports
• In-depth knowledge of Kenya’s health system
• Familiarity with the scorecard tools and ALMA’s work in Kenya is an advantage
• The consultant should hold a masters degree in health, social sciences, communications or a related field.

Timeframe

The consultant/s must be ready to start work immediately upon appointment. The maximum number of days allowable for the consultancy work shall not exceed thirty (30) working days/man days and the consultancy must be finalized on or before 15^th December 2024. Operational issues related to this consultancy will be managed by ALMA.

Application

Interested and qualified consultant should submit their application to dduque@alma2030.org by 7 November 2024 with their CV and a cover letter expressing interest in the consultancy.

Evaluation and award of consultancy

ALMA will evaluate the proposals and award the contract based on technical and financial feasibility. ALMA reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal received without offering an explanation and is not bound to accept the lowest or the highest bidder.

Appendix

The table below shows examples of the types of action desired for this documentation.

Proposed deeper interview questions

1. Where do you work?
2. Do you work at the national, County, sub-country, facility or community level? 
3. How do you use the scorecard?
4. Is the scorecard discussed in management meetings? Which ones and how is it used?
5. With whom is the scorecard shared?
6. Are partners using the scorecard? Which ones and how do they support the activities?
7. You told us about a very interesting example on the online survey or Your County has very interesting example/s on scorecard use. Can you tell us more details about how this happened and what you were able to achieve?
   • Probe to understand the improvements and subsequent impact.
   • Probe to understand approximately how much was invested on this action in USD.
8. Have you used the scorecard for advocacy and resource mobilization?
9. Are there any links you have seen across the scorecards, including the malaria scorecard? Are the scorecards used in an integrated way?
10. Does the scorecard help with data quality?
11. Are there any best practices that you would like to highlight in scorecard use?
12. Do you have any recommendations for improving the implementation of the scorecard?
13. What plans do you have to strengthen scorecard use?