With over 45 years of experience, working in over 60 countries, Population Services International (PSI) is the world’s leading non-profit social marketing organization. PSI is reimagining healthcare, by putting the consumer at the center, and wherever possible – bringing care to the front door. We are working to fix market failures, shape future health markets and shift policy and funding to better support consumer empowered healthcare.
There are over 8,000 “PSI’ers” around the world. We are a diverse group of entrepreneurial development professionals with a wide range of backgrounds and experience. All with unique skills that we bring to the critically important work that we do.
The Project Startup Consultant (Consultant), will work under direct supervision of the Country Representative and with close collaboration with all departments. During this specific project, the consultant will focus on laying the foundation for a successful project aiming at increasing demand for family planning services amongst rural adolescent girls.
The Consultant will be responsible for coordinating with the consortium, PSI team, donor, and external partners to lead the startup phase. He/She will play a key role in ensuring a coordinated startup phase,
Mozambique’s modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) remains low at 25.3%, and only 14.1% among 15-19 year olds. Injectables are the most common method among 15-19 year olds (6.1%), followed by oral contraceptives (OCs) (4.5%) and male condoms (1.2%). Long-term methods are practically unused by 15-19 year olds, with intrauterine devices (IUDs) use at 0.5% and Implants at 0.2% among 15-19 year olds.1 The unmet need for FP is 29.9% in urban areas and 27.9% in rural areas. Unmet need remains lower in rural areas partially due to the lack of knowledge, as well as strong cultural factors.2
Often, SRH programs in Mozambique ignore or do not fully incorporate the social and cultural factors that prevent women and adolescent girls from making healthy decisions, thus making them vulnerable to undesired pregnancy, sexual violence, and debilitating health conditions. In rural areas, cultural practices such as initiation rites and early marriage (one in two girls are married before she reaches the age of 18) have a negative impact on SRH, including early pregnancy, HIV, and STIs. While the strength of cultural beliefs varies by region, fertility remains an important aspect, promoting a young wife’s status within her family circle and community.
Transactional sex and child-bearing with an older man or adolescent boy from a wealthier family is also seen as a way to escape poverty. Overall, one-quarter of females and males aged 15-24 surveyed had sex before age 15. Additionally, teen pregnancy rate is high – 167 out of every 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19 get pregnant and give birth; by comparison, the rate for the East and Southern Africa region is 109 out of every 1,000 girls.
The project team aims to catalyze national solutions through which Mozambican adolescents are enabled to use family planning (FP) and make healthy decisions about their lives. The Team will implement a user centered design (UCD) approach to design and implement social and behavior change communication (SBCC) and service delivery solutions that effectively respond to the knowledge, beliefs, and needs of adolescent girls and their influencers. This will be done through a five-stage process: foundation, inspiration, ideation, application, and replication. Through its targeted interventions, the Team will achieve the project’s goal of creating at least 24,000 additional FP users, particularly among rural adolescent girls
To achieve this goal, the Team will build on their existing networks of FP providers and communication agents, implementing transformative changes for adolescents within their networks through the UCD approach and scaling what works. Key to the Team’s approach is co-creation and continuous engagement with adolescents and their influencers, allowing the Team to gain a deep understanding of the project’s beneficiaries and unlocking creativity during project design and implementation that would not occur through traditional FP project approaches. The UCD approach will also support the Team to develop holistic approaches that move the needle on FP use among the diverse segments of the adolescent girl population, engaging a range of actors and influencers and developing multiple channels for SBCC and service delivery. Further, the Team will build a strong evidence base for the interventions it designs through operational research and coordinate with the government and other implementing organizations to use these learnings across the health system.
Sound like you? Read on.
The consultant should have strong quantitative, qualitative and analytical abilities with a passion for efficient project design. We’d like to see someone with experience planning complex projects/engagements equally as comfortable aligning national level stakeholders, as well as, field implementation, preferably within Mozambique or Africa. Demonstrated ability to engage with a diverse team, while delivering well thought though, detailed plans. A strong communicator, verbally, in writing and visually, that can simplify complex ideas into compelling summaries. Fluency in Portuguese and English is a requirement.
Work is expected to start 15 April 2018, with the startup phase expected to be completed by 30 May 2018. Additional support may be required beyond the inception phase at a lower level of effort.
PSI is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages applications from qualified individuals regardless of actual or perceived race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, personal appearance, matriculation, political affiliation, family status or responsibilities, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions or breastfeeding, genetic information, amnesty, veteran, special disabled veteran or uniform service member status or employment status.