USAID Health Services Quality Accelerator Activity (HSQA)

Nature of consultancy: Promote innovative grant applications and support the grant
selection process.
Dates of assignment (start / end date): December 10, 2023, to January 30, 2024
Number of working days (equivalent to 8 hours/day): 15 days
 

Background:
The USAID Health Services Quality Accelerator (HSQA) Activity aims to accelerate and
sustain improvements in Jordan's reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health
(RMNCH) outcomes by improving access to quality health services and strengthening
leadership and governance capacity in the health sector.

Introduction:
The Activity’s Innovation Grants program aims to improve accessibility to and quality of
RMNCH services in the public and private sectors. It is designed to facilitate partnerships with
the public and/or private sectors to design, test, and evaluate impactful and financially
sustainable models to improve RMNCH outcomes. For FY24, the priority areas are the
following:
• Promote mothers' mental health to improve overall maternal and early childhood
health.
• Reduce the exposure of pregnant and postpartum women and their children to
tobacco smoke, which will reduce the incidence of low birth weight (LBW) newborns.
Consultancy objectives:
The overall objective of the consultancy is to promote innovation. Specifically, this includes
the following:
• Help generate innovative thinking for prospective applicants by conducting a one-day
workshop with interested parties within a week of the RFA announcement. This will
be designed to help applicants think innovatively within the context of the mandate
and objectives of the HSQA Activity.
• Provide guidance for the grant writing process by conducting a two-day “bootcamp”
workshop in the early days of the full proposal-writing phase. This will aim to help
applicants ensure innovation in their planning and improve their proposals' quality.
• Assist the Activity “grant selection committee” with assessing submitted proposals,
keeping innovation at the forefront of consideration.
 

Specific tasks:
1. Review the HSQA Activity FY24 work plan and the Innovation Grant opportunity request
for applications (RFA) in order to have an in-depth understanding of the mandate of the
Activity and the purpose of the grants program.
2. Prepare and conduct a one-day “innovation workshop” to help trigger innovative thinking
for prospective applicants.
3. Review the shortlisted concept papers.
4. Prepare and conduct a two-day “bootcamp” workshop to provide tips and
recommendations to applicants on refining these to ensure their innovations are
effectively translated into high-quality proposals.
5. Review proposals and advise the Activity grant selection committee on selection.
 

Reports and deliverables required:
• Innovation workshop materials
• Innovation workshop report
• Proposal preparation training materials
• Proposal preparation workshop report
 

Skills or background qualifications:
1. Experience working as a trainer in innovative thinking, with a demonstrated track record
of successfully helping teams of people think and plan innovatively.
2. Experience preparing or customizing innovation training materials for specific audiences.
3. Fluency in English and Arabic (written and spoken).
4. Ability to write high-quality reports in English.
5. Experience in proposal writing, preferably for submission to USAID or its funded activity.
6. Experience consulting for USAID projects is preferred.

Qualified candidates should send their CVs to email address: Jobs-HSQA@urc-chs.com  no later than November 26, 2023. Please include your proposed consultancy rate within your application and/or cover letter.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.  Unless otherwise directed we will retain your CV in our database for future consultancy opportunities.