RE-ADVERTISEMENT: CONSULTANCY TO FACILITATE THE ENGAGEMENT OF PEOPLE WITH MENTAL HEALTH LIVED EXPERIENCE IN THE MENTAL HEALTH DATA PRIZE – AFRICA 2024 At African Population and Health Research Center

The African Population and Health Research Center

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is a leading Africa-based, international research and policy institution headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, with a regional office in Dakar, Senegal. Our work contributes to the body of evidence about the critical issues in population health and wellbeing affecting Africa’s development to provide strong direction and recommendations to policy and decision-makers at different levels. Our program priorities are organized under four thematic areas: Human Development, Health and Well-being, Data Science and Evaluation and Population Dynamics and Urbanization in Africa. Our research is implemented within these thematic areas. In addition, the Center has other programmatic areas in Research and Related Capacity Strengthening, and Policy Engagement and Communications, also aligned to the priority program areas.

The Mental Health Data Prize – Africa Project

The Mental Health Data Prize – Africa (MHDP-Africa) Project aims to attract a critical mass of diverse African participants, working with multidisciplinary teams to use existing data to develop solutions for anxiety, depression, and psychosis. The objective is to develop new solutions that can address anxiety, depression, and psychosis within the African context. The project aims to enhance our understanding of what works in preventing, treating and managing anxiety, depression, and psychosis and to drive a transformative change in the African context in ways prioritized by the people who experience these problems. The primary goal of the MHDP-Africa is to produce tangible and scalable outputs or solutions that support mental health research and generate data-driven insights/evidence tailored to the needs and priorities of the African population.

The MHDP-Africa Project is led by a team of APHRC staff specialized in areas of grants management, finance, data science, public health, epidemiology, statistics, communication and public relations.

The MHDP-Africa Project is seeking services for a consultant to lead the development of a conceptual framework and strategy on how to engage people with lived experiences at different levels of project implementation.

Definition of lived experience

Lived experience is a unique form of knowledge, insight, and expertise, that comes from having experience of mental health challenges. By using the term ‘people with lived

experience’ or ‘lived experience experts’, we are referring to people who self-identify as having experienced anxiety, depression, and/or psychosis (broadly defined), either in the past or currently, and they do not need to have received a diagnosis from a professional medical practitioner.”

Objective of the consultancy

The consultant will lead the development of a conceptual framework and strategy on how to engage people with lived experience in the MHDP-Africa at different levels of project implementation. This will include detailed guidelines on effective involvement, ensuring meaningful participation, and leveraging their insights to enhance the impact and relevance. The Consultant will work closely with MHDP-Africa Project team and will be responsible to the MHDP-Africa Project Lead at APHRC.

Scope of Work

1. In collaboration with APHRC’s MHDP-Africa project team, the consultant is expected to develop a strategy and conceptual framework for engaging people with lived experience (PLE) in the MHDP – Africa project.
2. Identify the mental health lived experience expertise required for assessing applications and report on needs assessment.
3. In collaboration with APHRC MHDP-Africa project team, prepare a training manual and facilitate workshops with lived experience team members to generate insights and perspectives to inform project development and implementation.
4. Support mental health lived experience team members of the MHDP-Africa project grantees to deliver presentations focusing on their unique perspectives that complement data-driven analyses.
5. Collaborate with the MHDP-Africa project team to develop a Monitoring and Evaluation (M &E) logical frameworks (e.g use OECD, WHO, USAID and Measure Evaluation resources) to monitor and evaluate the engagement of PLE in MHDP – Africa. The framework should clearly define key indicators and metrics to measure the effectiveness and impact of PLE involvement throughout the project lifecycle.
6. Prepare a write-up or whitepaper on good practices for engaging PLE based on available global evidence or APHRC MHDP-Africa project experiences that can be made publicly available through APHRC or related blog platforms (in French/English/Arabic).
7. In collaboration with APHRC MHDP-Africa project team, conduct at least two media interviews through national and international media/platforms on engaging PLEs. The purpose of media engagements is to highlight the successes/impact and challenges of PLE involvement in the MHDP-Africa project to inspire broader engagement and support.
8. Engage each prize participant to position expectations around PLE including their involvement.
9. Participate in regular project meetings and update progress and inform the mechanisms to monitor ongoing feedback from PLE throughout the project lifecycle; to address cultural nuances for a more inclusive and responsive process.
10. Collaborating with country-specific researchers to increase LE community engagement and participation in the study.
11. In collaboration with APHRC MHDP-Africa project team, design ways to develop a community of practices and or a peer support group or network for the PWLEs to facilitate connections within the PLE group for sharing learnings amongst themselves.
12. Facilitate data use and evidence generation from LE perspectives with the goals of improving mental health interventions, policy formulation, and service delivery in the African region. These include promotion of inclusion of LE perspectives, monitoring how their views and perspectives are included among selected prize winners and etc.
13. Ensure involvement and inclusion of PLE within projects team diversity/composition.
14. Outline and ensure ethical consideration for engaging PLE in the prize applications.
15. Submit bi-weekly project progress report to the project manager.

Deliverables

• Develop a strategic plan and conceptual framework.
• Framing of lived experience involvement in mental health data prize – Africa application process.
• Identifying the expertise required for assessing applications.
• Develop a monitoring and evaluation framework for PLE involvement.
• Conduct and prepare a report on the need’s assessment for PLEs.

  * Developing criteria for assessing LE expectations.

• Prepare the training manual and cascade training.

  * Create training to support LE team members

  * Upskilling LE team members

• Prepare and submit a report
• Lead communication around LE involvement.
• Final pitch event.
• Support LE team members to deliver presentations focusing on their unique perspective that complements data-driven analyses; insights gained, and the impact of those experiences on the project or product being showcased at the final conference.

Timeframe

This will be a 12-month’s contract which will commence in January, 2025 and conclude by December, 2025.

Responsibilities of the APHRC MHDP – Project Team

• Provide relevant project background documents.
• Liaise and assist in communicating with and mobilizing key stakeholders.
• Handle all logistical arrangements.
• Closely work with the consultant on the development, implementation, and evaluation of the LE engagement.

Qualifications and Experience

This is an individual consultancy assignment requiring a person with experience in the design, facilitation and documentation of strategic plans on engaging mental health lived experiences or community empowerment models. The successful applicant should submit relevant work experiences working in such an environment and developing lived experience frameworks. The consultant must be available to do the work between January and December, 2025.