Consultancy to Develop a Web-Based Electronic Longitudinal PMTCT Register

Objective: Millennium Villages Project / CGC-A through support from UNAIDS seeks to recruit a consultant to develop an electronic longitudinal PMTCT register. The incumbent will develop and support a web-based application to register and track HIV infected pregnant women and their exposed infants based on an existing manual longitudinal register.   The application will be used by site teams working within the MVP clusters in the region with the aim of improving the tracking of mother-infant pairs along the PMTCT cascade.

Background: The MTCT Free Zones Initiative started in September 2009, and is a partnership between UNAIDS and its co-sponsors, and the Millennium Villages Project (MVP). The goal of the project is to deliver MTCT-Free zones, i.e. regions where mother-to-child transmission of HIV had been present but would then be eliminated as a direct result of the project’s concerted efforts. The MTCT free zone initiative covers ten (10) so called “millennium villages” clusters spread in ten (10) countries across Africa. In East and Southern Africa (ESA) region, the project covers five (6) villages in five (6) countries, namely, Mayange (Rwanda), Sauri (Kenya), Ruhiira (Uganda), Mbola (Tanzania), Koraro (Ethiopia) as well as Mwandama (Malawi), were targeted. In the West and Central Africa region, the project is implemented in four (4) sites located in Nigeria (Pampaida), Ghana (Bonsaaso), Senegal (Potou), and Mali (Tiby).

The MTCT free zones initiative has made tremendous effort, with the generous support of UNAIDS and the government of Luxembourg, and is on track to achieving ‘HIV-1 mother-to-child transmission-free zones’ across sub-Saharan Africa. With less than 2 years left to the conclusion of the project, there is a need to ensure that bottlenecks that may decelerate progress are identified and resolved. Key to this has been standardization of data collection processes, data validity and accuracy. This challenge is not unique to MVP, rather one that is faced across most PMTCT programs globally, owing to the longitudinal nature of the program with multiple interventions rendered during the approximately 24 months of follow up from the 1st antenatal care (ANC) to 18 months post-partum.  Mid 2013, site teams agreed to roll out the use of the manual longitudinal register to address, in part, the data challenges as well as the issue of attrition along the PMTCT cascade. The manual longitudinal register is maintained by the MVP HIV facilitator and tracks the HIV infected pregnant women through ANC to delivery and thereafter the infants from birth to 18 months. The tool, however, has its inherent shortcomings such as its inability to give prompts for missed/delayed visits; the system cannot be queried for certain data points, thus would require manual counting. Additionally, owing to its late roll out, the registers do not yet retrospectively contain all the clients since 2010.

Thus, the project seeks to engage the services of a qualified consultant to develop and support the roll out of a web-based electronic longitudinal register in 5 priority sites.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop a web application back-end using an agreed Python application framework, and develop the user interface in accordance with the agreed schema
• Develop a prototype, web and mobile phone version of the application
• Develop indicator reports for display of captured data
• Provide support, carry out modifications, debugging and troubleshooting during the piloting phase

Code, application and the design will be owned by Columbia Global Centres-Africa, and cannot be shared or reproduced for modification by the programmer during or after the conclusion of the contract. 

Measurable Outputs
Week 1: Gather and review application specifications and come up with final schema
Week 2 - 3: Come up with functional prototype
Week 4: Showcase prototype and make modification based on inputs from advisors
Week 5: Test the application and start developing training material
Week 6: Start piloting the application with one site
Week 7: Debugging and troubleshooting for final rollout and collecting feedback on training material Week 8-9: Final rollout and handover

Minimum Qualifications and Experience

1. Consultant must demonstrate a clear understanding of the above expected outputs with evidence of experience in building modern web software systems in Python
2. Consultant must have a minimum of 3 years related experience in research or industry, experience in public health or in health IT systems will be an added advantage
3. Consultant needs to have experience with Django, Pylons, Ruby on Rails, and Javascript. HTML5, CSS3 and OpenLayers highly preferred along with strong Linux and database administration skills with concrete knowledge of GIT.
4. Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in computer science.
5. Proven attention to detail and the ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects while functioning in a team simultaneously is a must.
6. Excellent oral and written communication skills are essential.
7. Excellent training skills required.

Work Setting

• Duration of consultancy: 2 months
• Reporting:  The consultant will report directly to the Regional e-Health Specialist and Regional HIV/AIDS Advisor whilst working alongside other relevant CGC staff and off-site team members.
• The consultant will primarily be based at the CGCA offices in Nairobi and will be required to provide face to face consultation sessions as well as through other channels of communication [emails, teleconference, net meetings, and phone calls].

How to Apply

Please send your (i) Proposal/Concept indicating your lump sum fee to meet the expected deliverables in this TOR, and (ii) CV with contacts of references to HIV/TB Advisor ESA, Columbia Global Centers – Africa at info@cgcafrica.org and recruitment@cgcafrica.org with Att.: Consultancy for Electronic Longitudinal Register, to reach us no later than COB 06th June 2015.

Columbia Global Centers Africa is an equal opportunity employer.

To learn more about us visit http://globalcenters.columbia.edu/content/columbia-global-centers-africa.