Consultant – Public Financial Management / IFMIS and Health Expenditure Tracking Expert

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1. Background • The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) supports Member States in strengthening health systems to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) and other health-related Sustainable Development Goals. Within AFRO, the Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) Department provides strategic and technical leadership to improve the performance, equity, and resilience of health systems across the Region. The Health Financing and Governance (HFG) unit, under the HSS Department, leads to work in areas including health financing policy, public financial management for health, health governance, accountability, economic analysis and system-wide health financing reforms.
• The WHO Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO), with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), is implementing a three-year initiative entitled “Financing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Africa: Spending Data, Financial Accountability, and Regional Learning.” The initiative aims to strengthen the availability, quality, and use of SRHR expenditure data to support policy dialogue, accountability, and sustainable financing for SRHR in the African Region.
• Under Objective 2 of the project, WHO seeks to strengthen cross-sectoral tracking of health and SRHR expenditures by leveraging Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) and public financial management (PFM) systems. The project will develop and pilot a mechanism to identify, extract, and map health- and SRHR-related expenditures across sectors into the System of Health Accounts (SHA 2011) framework. This work requires specialized expertise in public financial management systems, IFMIS structures, budget classifications, and health expenditure tracking methodologies.
• The purpose of this consultancy is to provide technical leadership and conceptual guidance to develop a framework linking IFMIS and SRHR expenditure-tracking systems in selected countries in the WHO African Region. Objectives The specific objectives of the consultancy are to:
• Analyze national public financial management and IFMIS structures in selected pilot countries to identify opportunities for tracking health- and SRHR-related expenditures across sectors.
• Develop a conceptual and methodological framework for mapping public expenditure data from IFMIS systems to the System of Health Accounts (SHA 2011) classifications.
• Design a practical expenditure tagging framework that enables the identification and classification of health and SRHR expenditures within government budget and expenditure systems.
• Support the development and piloting of an automated expenditure extraction and mapping tool in collaboration with the IT consultant and country stakeholders.
• Develop technical guidance and documentation that can support future scale-up and institutionalization of cross-sectoral SRHR expenditure tracking in the African Region.

Scope of Work

• Under the overall guidance of the team leader, and the technical supervision of the technical officer in charge of resource tracking, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:
• Conduct analytical review and conceptualization
• Review the structure and functioning of IFMIS and public financial management systems in selected pilot countries.
• Analyze national charts of accounts, budget classifications, programme classifications, and relevant accounting guidance.
• Identify opportunities and constraints for tracking SRHR expenditure across sectors.
• Develop a conceptual framework for linking IFMIS data to SHA 2011 classifications.
• Lead development of expenditure tagging framework
• Design a practical multi-level tagging system to identify health- and SRHR-related expenditures across sectors.
• Ensure the tagging structure balances operational feasibility and analytical usefulness.
• Define major SRHR expenditure categories and mapping logic to SHA classifications.

Support tool design and piloting
• Work closely with the IT consultant to define functional specifications for the extraction tool.
• Support the design of workflows for automated extraction and classification of expenditures.
• Participate in pilot testing in selected countries.
• Document institutional arrangements and data governance considerations required for implementation.

Documentation and technical guidance
• Lead the drafting of the technical guidance paper on estimating health and SRHR expenditures across sectors.
• Prepare technical notes, presentations, and recommendations emerging from pilot implementation.
• Support dissemination and technical discussions with countries and partners

2. Deliverables

• Inception report and workplan.
• Analytical review of IFMIS and charts of accounts in pilot countries.
• Conceptual framework for IFMIS–SHA linkage.
• Practical tagging framework for SRHR expenditures.
• Functional specifications for the extraction tool.
• Technical inputs to pilot implementation and testing reports.
• Technical guidance paper on estimating cross-sectoral health and SRHR expenditures

3. Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications

Essential:
• Advanced university degree (Master’s level or above) in public finance, health economics, economics, accounting, public administration, development studies, information systems, or another relevant field.

Desirable:
• Specialized training or certification in public financial management, IFMIS administration, government accounting, or health financing.
• Additional training in National Health Accounts or SHA 2011 methodologies is an asset.

Experience
Essential:

• Minimum of 10 years of professional experience in public financial management, budgeting systems, government accounting, IFMIS, or expenditure tracking.
• Demonstrated experience working with ministries of finance and/or ministries of health on budget analysis, expenditure tracking, or financial reporting systems.
• Experience conducting analytical reviews of charts of accounts, programme classifications, or public expenditure systems.
• Proven experience working in low- and middle-income countries, preferably in Africa.

Desirable:
• Experience with National Health Accounts (NHA) and/or System of Health Accounts (SHA 2011).
• Experience linking public financial management systems to sectoral expenditure analysis.
• Previous experience working with WHO, UN agencies, development banks, or international development partners.
• Experience supporting multi-country technical initiatives and piloting innovative tools or methodologies.

Skills/Knowledge

• Strong understanding of public financial management systems and government budgeting processes.
• Excellent analytical and conceptual skills.
• Ability to translate technical financial information into operational guidance and practical tools.
• Strong coordination and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Excellent writing and presentation skills.
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple priorities under tight timelines.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in multicultural and multidisciplinary teams

Languages and level required

Excellent command of English is required, with demonstrated ability to write reports. Working knowledge of French is required for effective collaboration and understanding of technical materials in pilot countries. Bilingual French English is preferred.

4. Technical Supervision

The consultant will report to the team lead, Health Financing and Governance unit, HSS Department. Day-to-day technical supervision will be undertaken by the technical officer in charge of resource tracking.

5. Location

Off-site (Home-based)

6. Travel

The consultant is not expected to travel

7. Remuneration and budget (travel costs excluded)

Band B (USD 8,500 per month) for 6 months

8. Additional Information:

• This vacancy notice may be used to identify candidates for other similar consultancies at the same level.
• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
• A written test may be used as a form of screening.
• If your candidature is retained for interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.
• For information on WHO's operations please visit: http://www.who.int.
• WHO is committed to workforce diversity.
• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.
• Applications from women and from nationals of non and underrepresented Member States are particularly encouraged.
• WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter into practice.
• WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of final candidates.
• Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority. The execution of the work under a consultant contract does not create an employer/employee relationship between WHO and the Consultant.
• WHO shall have no responsibility whatsoever for any taxes, duties, social security contributions or other contributions payable by the Consultant. The Consultant shall be solely responsible for withholding and paying any taxes, duties, social security contributions and any other contributions which are applicable to the Consultant in in each location/jurisdiction in which the work hereunder is performed, and the Consultant shall not be entitled to any reimbursement thereof by WHO.
• Consultants working in Switzerland must register with the applicable Swiss cantonal tax authorities and social security authorities, within the prescribed timeframes (Guidelines issued by the Swiss Mission are available at: https://www.eda.admin.ch/missions/mission-onu-geneve/en/home/manual-regime-privileges-and-immunities/introduction/Manuel-personnes-sans-privileges-et-immunites-carte-H/Non fonctionnaires et stagiaires.html

For roster VNs:

The purpose of this vacancy is to develop a list of qualified candidates for inclusion in this advertised roster. All applicants will be notified in writing of the outcome of their application (whether successful or unsuccessful) upon conclusion of the selection process. Successful candidates will be placed on the roster and subsequently may be selected for consultancy assignments falling in this area of work or for similar requirements/tasks/deliverables. Inclusion in the Roster does not guarantee selection to a consultant contract. There is no commitment on either side.