National Eye Health Policy Consultancy At Sightsavers

Call for expression of interest

Consultancy to Develop Liberia National Eye Health Policy

Background

Sightsavers is Non-Governmental Development Organisation and has been working in Liberia for more than 20 years. Over the years, our programmes in Liberia have focused on providing eye health services to eliminate avoidable causes of blindness and supporting inclusive education for children with visual impairment.

The estimated prevalence of blindness in Liberia is 0.5% in all ages with an estimated magnitude of over 25,000 Liberians blind and approximately 637,165 (12.3%) with visual impairment. The following are the main causes of blindness in Liberia: cataract (60.4%), visual impairment (12.3%), and posterior segment pathologies including glaucoma 27.8%. Blindness is a key constraint to economic development and an obstacle to the achievement of the SDGs.

In Liberia, the previous eye health policy developed in 2007 expired in 2011 and with the change in the landscape of eye care delivery in the country for the past ten years, there is a need for the development of a newer policy. Therefore, this policy will replace the 2007-2011 National Eye Health Policy and it will provide the national strategic direction for the development of eye health in the country. Additionally, it will guide development partners working in the eye health sector ascribing to regional and international best practices.

Purpose of the Assignment

The consultant will provide technical support to the Ministry of Health (MoH) to develop a ten years National Eye Health Policy and a five-year strategic plan. The Consultant will work with the National Eye Health Program Manager and the policy technical working group already constituted by the MoH to produce the final policy document.

Scope of Work

Sightsavers in collaboration with the MoH requires the consultant to perform the following tasks:

· Review relevant policy documents (see list of reference materials for review)

· Develop and share zero draft of policy document

· Work with policy technical working group to plan and develop agenda for stakeholders’ workshop

· Lead to conduct workshop to discuss and receive input on zero draft of the policy document

· Develop 1^st draft of policy document in line with discussions and inputs from the workshop

· Work with the MoH to circulate the 1^st draft of the policy document to the counties and relevant stakeholders for their input.

· Collate all inputs from the counties and stakeholders to develop 2^nd draft of the policy document

· Convene a meeting with the policy technical working group to review and finalize the 2^nd draft of the policy document

· Submit final draft of the national eye health policy to MoH for approval.

Reference Material

The policy development process will consider the following documents:

· National Health Policy and Plan (2011-2021)

· National Policy and Strategic Plan on Health Promotion (2016)

· National Health Financing Policy and Plan (2011-2021)

· National Eye Health Policy (2006-2011)

· WHO Global Action Plan: Towards Universal Eye Health 2014-2019

· National Investment Plan for Building a Resilient Health System in Liberia (2015-2021)

· WHO, UN etc policy documents, reports and guidelines on health systems, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Universal Health Coverage (UHC)

· Relevant articles on UHC, SDGs and healthcare financing

· Essential Package of Health Service

· UNCRPD document

· IEH documents

· Other relevant documents for the promotion of eye health

Outputs/ Deliverables

Expected outputs will be:

· The zero draft document, which will be shared within the agreed period of time following the commencement of the consultant’s work. This will highlight the proposed structure of the policy document and relevant background and details resulting from literature review.

· A 2-day workshop with key stakeholders is conducted to discuss and agree inputs for eye health policy document

• First draft of the eye health policy document is developed
• Second draft is produced and reviewed by the policy working group
• Final policy document is produced and submitted to MoH

Document Format

Detailed guidelines on how to structure the policy document is spelt out in the ToR of the Consultant and suggested modifications to the structure by the consultants are to be agreed with the policy TWG prior to implementation in the document.