Rehabilitation Consultant (for Philippines National) At Handicap International – Humanity & Inclusion

Program-Philippines

Areas of intervention-Zamboanga Del Norte, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato City, Valenzuela City, Makati, BARMM

Consultancy cost-300,000 PHP

Mission duration-October 25 to December 15, 2021 equivalent to around 40 working days

1. CONTEXT

The Philippine Legislature passed in 1992 Republic Act (RA) No. 7277 otherwise known as the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons which provided for the rehabilitation, self-development, and self-reliance of persons with disabilities and their integration in the mainstream of society. In the same provision, the Department of Health (DOH) was tasked to establish rehabilitation centers in government provincial hospitals. In 2011 at present, almost 20 years after the law was passed, the DOH established its Health and Wellness Program for persons with disabilities with the strengthening of rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities as one of its core actions points. The World Health Organization (WHO) on the other hand developed and advocated the adoption of the 2014-2021 Global Disability Action Plan, one of its core objectives is to strengthen the rehabilitation services, assistive technology, assistance, and support services, and community-based rehabilitation. The DOH recognizes that much still needs to be done to ensure that rehabilitation and health services for persons with disabilities are made available and accessible. For this purpose, a National Plan of Action to strengthen the rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities must be laid out for the next 5 years based on a comprehensive assessment of the current capacity of the country’s health care and delivery system in providing said services for persons with disabilities^[1]. Health services can be accessed through the public health system or private health facilities. With devolved funding for public services and limited national funding, current public health facilities are lacking at all levels of health care. Construction and development of the physical infrastructure of health facilities and hiring of health personnel at the community level are dependent on the priority of the local chief executive. At the community level, there are only 18,366 primary health care facilities in the country serving 42,029 barangays. Health care is more available within the private sector as there are only 730 public hospitals versus 1,082 private hospitals (PSA, 2010). Only 70 of the government tertiary hospitals are funded by the DOH National budget, the rest of the public hospitals are funded by local governments or have partnerships with the private sector to sustain health services^[2].

Humanity & Inclusion (HI) is an independent and impartial aid organization working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict, and disaster. We work alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable populations, taking action and bearing witness in order to respond to their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights.

HI in the Philippines has been operational since 1985 and is one of the key organizations in the disability sector in the country. An operational strategy for the Philippines and Indonesia was developed from 2020-2023 which aims to foster meaningful participation of people at risk of exclusion towards the improvement of their safety, resilience, and quality of life and will focus on the following frameworks:

● Pillar 1: Employment & Livelihood – support vulnerable peoples’ access to sustainable and resilient livelihoods;

● Pillar 2: Protection & Risk Reduction – save lives, reduce risks, and boost the resilience of vulnerable people and communities;

● Pillar 3: Health & Prevention – Promote health and well-being of vulnerable people of all ages, and prevent disabilities, Functional and functional Rehabilitation, including the availability of technical aides (Enhanced access to rehabilitation care), Environmental Health (Pandemic response via Health system strengthening for a resilient and sustainable future).

Rehabilitation is historically a service sector composed by two intervention sectors: Physical and functional rehabilitation services, and technical aids related to mobility (wheelchairs, orthoses, prostheses, etc.). In order to promote a global and quality approach for the users, Humanity & Inclusion (HI) has decided that a sole service and intervention sector ‒ “Physical and Functional Rehabilitation” ‒ will now be effective, and will integrate technical aids.

HI envisions that this physical and functional rehabilitation sector will reshape the approach of its support from traditional Emergency-Chronic Crisis-Development Context to a strategic Nexus intervention. With this aim, the division proposes to focus its strategic response depending on four (4) main context criteria, which are in line with the level of the health pyramid and in direct relation with the rehabilitation indicators to be analyzed by the programs.

To strengthen the Pillar 3 strategy of HI Philippines, a technical consultant will be hired to support the development of the rehabilitation strategy. The consultant is expected to review the current HI technical strategy on functional and physical rehabilitation, including technical aides, and provide strategic advice/guidance related to Pillar 3.

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY

Main objective: Is to define a strategy of intervention of HI Philippines in the coming year in the physical and functional rehabilitation sector

Expected Results:

● Conduct in-depth analysis of the physical and functional rehabilitation sector in Philippines (focus on the following: professional channels in physiotherapy or occupational therapy and Prosthetics and Orthotics (P&O) and the coverage at field level, organization of the rehabilitation sector from tertiary to primary level and assessment of the sector performance at national and local levels, policy framework, assistive technology services coverage and access for people in particular with the COVID restriction, existence of services according to 4D rehabilitation model of HI technical strategy) sector in the Philippines, with focus on HI’s areas of intervention.

● Prepare a strategy paper on physical and functional Rehabilitation that will orient HI program in the Philippines on priority interventions in the Philippines in its current areas of intervention.

3. DURATION, PLACE OF PERFORMANCE OF THE SERVICE and WORKPLAN

● Start date: October 25, 2021. End date: December 20, 2021 (around 40 working days)

● Place of performance: Makati, Metro Manila with field missions

● Based on the proposed schedule included in these Terms of Reference, the consultant should establish a work plan for the completion of the service;

● The work plan should give a clear description of how the consultant intends to approach the activities necessary to the service’s completion

Consultancy Timeline

Date

Activity

October 25-27-Inception: Team meeting for introduction, exchange of contracts, and expectation setting with the team

October 28-29-Development of detailed action plan and briefing

November 2-30-Desk review, Interview key actors, meeting with rehab (HI team) and professionals.

December 3-Submission of the mission completion report

December 6-10-Review and feedback

December 13-16-Validation of the report

December 17-Presentation of report

December 20-Last payment of the consultant

4. DELIVERABLES

The deliverables are as follows:

● A work plan for the consultancy period including the submission dates of the key deliverables. This plan will be submitted at the inception of the consultancy

● Submit rehabilitation strategy and implementation plan

● Sample logframe based on recommendations and needs that emerged during the study, could be part of a workshop with HI Philippines technical unit team (to include activities, indicators, partners in focus areas)

● A PowerPoint of the first key findings

● The consultant is expected to deliver a final report, written in simple English including key main findings, a rehab needs analysis with clear recommendations and action plan. A mapping of rehabilitation stakeholders and services, including possible partners of the rehabilitation sector, should be included, in line with the region to be evaluated. Any additional information should be provided in Annexes in an accessible format

● This evaluation should be in line with the 4D Evolution rehabilitation model of HI’s technical strategy on rehabilitation: an analysis of the rehab sector at all 3 levels of the health pyramid, including the service level, the political level (existence of a policy framework, etc.), including an analysis of the availability and quality of workforce of the rehab sector.

^[1] DOH health wellness of persons with disabilities

^[2] Needs Assessment Report on Wheelchair Service Provision in the Philippines