Study Consultant (IMPAACT4HIV Project)

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Study Consultant to Conduct a Desk Review for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Severe Bacterial Infections in Advanced HIV Disease: A Situational Analysis of Guidelines and Practices (IMPAACT4HIV)

Location: Nigeria

Background

• The IMPAACT4HIV Project is a three-and-a-half-year multi-country implementation research initiative funded by UNITAID through the Aurum Institute, focused on improving access to comprehensive care for children living with advanced HIV disease (AHD) across six (6) African countries: South Africa, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.
• The Project is thus conducting a situational assessment study to identify gaps and opportunities for improving the diagnosis and treatment of SBIs among people with AHD in Nigeria.
• The desk review component will assess relevant policies, guidelines, programme documents, and scientific literature to determine existing recommendations, evidence gaps, and alignment with global frameworks, including the WHO Access, Watch and Reserve (AWaRe) classification.
• The project aims to develop and evaluate context-specific, cost-effective interventions that are co-designed with communities and policy actors to improve the uptake of, and strengthen AHD service delivery models; ensure a more diversified, responsive, and sustainable AHD commodity supply; and generate evidence to inform sustainable country-wide scale-up and transition, as well as support global advocacy to facilitate donor prioritization and inclusion of the pediatric care package in country health strategies.
• The assessment will combine desk review and qualitative interviews to explore factors influencing SBI management, including guideline development, clinical practices, antibiotic stewardship, and opportunities for improvement.
• The Implementing Partner is therefore seeking a qualified consultant to conduct the desk review component of the assessment.
• The Implementing Partner leads the consortium implementation in Nigeria, in collaboration with global and local partners.
• Advanced HIV Disease (AHD) remains a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality among people living with HIV, particularly due to increased vulnerability to opportunistic infections and severe bacterial infections (SBIs). Despite the availability of global guidance for AHD management, gaps remain in specific guidance for SBI diagnosis and treatment, particularly regarding empiric antibiotic use, availability of diagnostic tools, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance, and alignment with antimicrobial stewardship principles.

Purpose of the Consultancy

• The purpose of this consultancy is to conduct a comprehensive desk review of existing evidence, guidelines, policies, and programme documents related to the diagnosis and treatment of SBIs among people with AHD in Nigeria, covering both adult and pediatric frameworks, with a prioritized emphasis on pediatric and adolescent populations and, in conjunction with qualitative data, generate findings that will inform recommendations for improving SBI management practices.

Specifically, the Consultant will:

• Assess alignment of existing guidance with:
  • WHO AWaRe antibiotic classification framework;
  • Current antimicrobial stewardship principles.
  • WHO AHD management recommendations;
• Review published and grey literature on SBI burden, pathogens, resistance patterns, and treatment practices among people with HIV/AHD in Nigeria.
• Identify and review relevant national and subnational HIV, AHD, infectious disease, antimicrobial resistance, and treatment guidelines.
• Examine how bacterial epidemiology and AMR data are incorporated into SBI treatment recommendations.
• Assess the extent to which existing guidelines provide recommendations for:
  • Empiric antibiotic treatment approaches;
  • Referral and management pathways;
  • Use of microbiological and diagnostic tools;
  • Diagnosis of SBIs among people with AHD;
  • Antimicrobial stewardship.
• Identify gaps, inconsistencies, and opportunities for strengthening SBI diagnosis and treatment policies and practices.

Scope of Work
The Consultant will conduct a structured desk review covering:

• Policy and Guidelines Reviews

Documents may include:

• Infection prevention and control guidance;
• Advanced HIV Disease guidelines;
• Essential medicines lists;
• National antimicrobial resistance strategy documents;
• Program and Implementation Documents Reviews Including:
  • Monitoring and evaluation reports;
  • AHD implementation reports;
  • Partner program reports;
  • Literature Review Including:
    • Research studies;
    • Peer-reviewed publications;
    • Surveillance reports;
    • AMR studies;
    • Relevant systematic reviews.
  • HIV program reports;
  • Facility assessment reports;
  • Relevant technical briefs.
• Opportunistic infection management guidelines;
• Laboratory guidelines;
• Relevant state-level policies and implementation guidance.
• Standard treatment guidelines;
• National HIV treatment guidelines;

Methodology
The consultant shall:

• Search strategy;
• Inclusion/exclusion criteria;
• Conduct document identification and retrieval through:
• International agency resources;
• Analysis framework.
• Develop an inception report detailing:
• Academic databases;
• Review methodology;
• Extract information using an agreed data extraction template covering:
• Apply a systematic document review framework.
• Partner documentation.
• Government repositories;
• Data extraction approach;

• Synthesize findings and develop recommendations.
• Validate findings with the study team and relevant stakeholders.

Institutional Inputs and Support from the Implementing Partner
To facilitate the execution of this assignment, the Implementing Partner will provide the consultant with:

• Standard feedback loops and structured data-extraction review sessions with the IMPAACT4HIV technical team.
• Formal introductory channels to the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), NASCP, and facility-level leads to simplify the collection of unpublished "grey literature" and state-specific implementation reports.
• Initial program implementation records, project briefs, and core stakeholder mapping.

Key Deliverables and Timeline
The consultant is expected to complete the deliverables within 4 to 6 weeks from contract signing. Deliverables are structured around key verification milestones:

Consultant Qualifications and Experience
Education:

• Advanced Degree (Master’s or higher) in: Public Health; Epidemiology; Infectious Diseases; Health Systems; Global Health; related fields.

Experience:

• Experience producing high-quality technical reports for donors/government stakeholders.
• Experience reviewing health policies, guidelines, and technical documents.
• Demonstrated experience conducting systematic/desk reviews.
• Experience working in Nigeria’s HIV programme environment preferred.
• Strong knowledge of HIV programming, AHD, opportunistic infections, and antimicrobial stewardship.
• At least 10 years of experience in public health research, programme evaluation, or evidence synthesis.

Reporting and Supervision:

• The Consultant will report directly to the Implementing Partner's I4HIV Project Lead / Principal Investigator and collaborate closely with the Implementing Partner technical team, NASCP representatives, and IMPAACT4HIV consortium partners.

Confidentiality, Data Ownership, and Publication Rights:

• The Consultant shall not publish, present, disseminate, submit for publication, or otherwise make public any findings, analyses, reports, data, or other materials derived from or related to this consultancy, including through academic, professional, or other channels, without the prior written authorization of the Implementing Partner.
• The Consultant acknowledges that all intellectual property rights in the deliverables and outputs arising from this consultancy shall vest exclusively in the Implementing Partner.
• All documents, data, information, materials, analyses, reports, and other outputs generated, collected, accessed, or produced under this consultancy, whether in draft or final form, shall remain the sole property of the Implementing Partner.
• The Consultant shall maintain strict confidentiality of all non-public information obtained during the course of the assignment and shall not disclose, share, reproduce, or use such information for any purpose other than the performance of the consultancy without the prior written consent of the Implementing Partner.

Proposal Requirements
Interested consultants should submit:

• Examples/Samples of similar desk review or research reports completed.
• Technical proposal including:
• Updated CV highlighting relevant experience.
• Proposed methodology;
• Detailed Workplan.
• Understanding of assignment;
• Financial proposal broken down against milestones

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their Current CV & Suitability statement not more than 200 words, indicating the position and location, in Microsoft Word or PDF format to: [email protected] using the Job Title, Location, and Applicant's Full Name (e.g., "COM01 Abuja, ADESUWA NWACHUKWU") as the subject of the email.
And
Click here to apply online

Note

• We believe in Equal Employment Opportunity and strongly encourage qualified Locals and women to apply.
• Grant duration: Subject to availability of funds and exceptional grant performance.
• It is important to apply via the link and the mail, as applications sent to ONLY the email address will be considered invalid.
• This organization does not charge any fees for submission of job applications and interviews.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted to advance to the next stage of the selection process.
• Applications are reviewed in the order of arrival, and we reserve the right to close the advert before the term initially indicated if suitable applications are received.