Health Behavior And Education Consultant

Summary and Background: International Medical Corps (IMC) is seeking to build a harmonized, comprehensive approach to Health Behavior and Education that can improve quality and monitoring of programming.  An experienced Consultant is sought to design a package of training materials and tools that will outline the standard procedure for conducting outreach health behavior and education interventions. The tool shall accompany each stage of the knowledge and behavior change intervention process from identification and assessment to intervention and referral and, finally, exit.  The consultancy is expected to last two months with possibility of extension. Consultant shall be paid upon completion of the deliverables, as verified by the Health Coordinator, which shall include: Thorough review of IMC’s current materials and approaches for the purpose of identifying strengths and gaps and finding ways to create an integrated package; Production of an easily understandable tools to cover assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of health behavior and education interventions; and Creation of a structure for an integrated learning curriculum so as to ensure targeted quality knowledge and behavior change interventions across all areas.  This overarching framework of tools and training materials shall allow for logical progression of learning and intervention and shall also easily accommodate additional modules for future learning.  Specifically, the tool should enable the Health Education (HE) Team to become effective practitioners who engage in needs/capacity assessments, plan comprehensive health behavior change initiatives and assess program impacts, all while involving the community members in this process. Place in the Organization This technical consultant will report to Health Education Program Manager. Technical guidance and oversight will be managed by the Health Coordinator. This position is a part-time, time-limited consultancy with the possibility of renewal pending funding availability and performance.   Functions and responsibilities The Research Consultant shall provide technical guidance in survey design, implementation and analysis.   Attend preparatory meeting with HE Department to gain an understanding IMC’s Community Health Educators and Workers model (structure, roles, functions, implementation, etc); Desk review of existing tools and field visit to see HE in practice including pilot nutrition tools already in use. Brief literature review of Health behavior and education theories, training curricula and tools from other countries and/or organizations in the region. Outline the structure of an integrated IMC curriculum that: Links directly in format and subject matter to daily user manual, described below. Defines the intended learning outcomes and/or learning objectives, including clear health-related goals and behavioral outcomes that are directly related to these goals. Includes planned progression of HE sessions that lead to achieving these objectives; including follow up sessions with reinforcement of  the key messages, and  monitoring and evaluation  tools to determine if beneficiaries have  met the learning objectives and desired health behavior. Measures knowledge levels, changes in learning and behavior change and Establishes standards for the average amount of time allotted to each session, teaching methods used, etc to enable additional topics to be incorporated for future learning. Outline a structured, step-by-step, easy to use field manual (guide) for HE workers to use during outreach and awareness efforts both at Primary Health Care Centers and in the field.  The manual: Should be based on sound evidence and existing good practice adapted to local context Should cover a range of public health and WASH priorities (as defined by IMC and the literature); Must be easily adapted for PHC or community outreach interventions; Shall be built upon IMC’s existing approach as well as relevant theoretical approaches that effectively influence health-related behaviors; and Should enable easy monitoring by supervisors. Hold a consultative technical meeting with HE staff (HEOs, HEAs, etc) to review proposed tools. Submission of final document.