Health Financing Consultant, Belgrade, Serbia 216 views

Health Financing Consultant

Job no: 533452

Position type: Consultancy

Location: Serbia Division/Equivalent: CEE/CIS

School/Unit: Republic of Serbia

Department/Office: Belgrade, Serbia

Categories: Health, Consultancy

The World Bank (WB) and UNICEF will conduct a Public Expenditure Review (PER) in the Human Development sectors in Serbia, namely health, education and social protection. The purpose of this PER is to help Serbian authorities and broader stakeholders to understand challenges in these three sectors and to provide advice on reforms that could help to either allocate more public resources for these functions, or to use the available resources more efficiently.

Regarding the PER for the health sector, there will be two main outputs: (1) an overall health system public expenditure review and (2) the deep-dive analysis into public primary health care (PHC) capacity in Serbia. The work will also include special consideration related to the public expenditures for maternal and child health, especially at the PHC level. The work will, to the extent possible, investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the overall health system.

Work Assignment Overview:

The consultant will be responsible for data identification and collection from different sources and stakeholders in the Serbian health sector, such as the Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Finance (MOF), Health Insurance Fund (HIF), Institute of Public Health (IPH), local self-governments and other stakeholders.

The key time period to be covered by data collection will be 2015-2019. In addition, to serve the purpose of assessing the impact of COVID-19 on health sector’s revenue and spending, all data for the first six months of the calendar year 2020 need to be collected as much as possible. For comparison purpose, similar data for 2015-2019 should be broken down by 6 months intervals.

Duration of the assignment: August – December 2020, up to 40 workdays

Detailed task description:

Data to be identified and collected are related to (the list is not exhaustive):

• Data on revenue for the health sector by main sources, most importantly from the general budget, from Pension and Disability Fund, from National Employment Service, collection of health insurance contributions, contributions provided by the budget for categories of population who are exempted from premium contribution, official co-payment, etc.
• Expenditure and utilization data on all three levels of health care and each level in particular.
• Expenditure and utilization data on preventive and curative services provided.
• Regional level in public expenditure and utilization data.
• Health expenditure and utilization data per facility and department.
• Public expenditure and utilization data related to national vertical programs, particularly for mothers and children and immunization.
• (Administrative) data on inputs into service delivery, overall and at PHC level, for example on health workforce, drugs, and equipment where possible.

If data obtained would be in local language, the consultant should translate the headings and titles into English.

The consultant is also expected to:

• Provide support to the task team in analysing the structure/composition of public spending on health care and in providing recommendations how to improve the efficiency and equity of current public spending on health.
• Provide support to the task team in describing legislative framework related to the health sector and especially health financing, including recent legal developments and their implications on the quality and efficiency of provision of health care in the period of interest (2015-2019).
• Provide support to the task team in analysing national vertical health programs, particularly ones on maternal and child health and immunisation, including their coverage and performance.
• Provide support to the task team in analysing how effective health system was during the COVID-19 crisis and in evaluating and providing options on how the system could be redesigned to allow more efficient and effective health protection and service provision in case of COVID-19 re-emergence or some other public health crisis.

• Tags

  child health

  data collection

  health economics

  health financing

  human development

  immunization

  oral communication

  primary health care

  public expenditures

• Address any comments that may arise by the Government and its institutions, UNICEF and the WB teams.

Deliverables and Timeline:

• A list of data sources and relevant data collected on public spending on health care, performance of national vertical health programs, efficiency and effectiveness of the system in COVID -19 crisis; (up to 25 workdays, until 15^th November)
• A report on relevant legislation analyses related to the health sector and especially health financing (7 to 10 pages); (up to 5 workdays, until 15^th September)
• Inputs to the analyses of public spending on health care, on performance of national vertical health programs, on effectiveness of the health system during the COVID-19 crisis and list of recommendations on how the system could perform with higher quality, be more effective and efficient. (up to 10 workdays, until 15^th December)

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• A university graduate specialized in Economics or Health Sciences;
• Master’s degree in Health Economics or Health Management will be an advantage;
• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in the area of health financing in Serbia;
• Excellent knowledge of data availability and sources related to health expenditure and utilization;
• Experience of working in/with Serbian Health Insurance Fund is an advantage;
• Excellent written and oral communications skills in both English and Serbian;
• Proven teamwork abilities;
• Proven ability to produce results within tight deadlines.

How to apply:

The application must include a financial proposal in RSD as a separate document, providing the following information:

• Daily rate (all costs included e.g. health insurance, pension, usage of mobile phone).

Important notes:

Incomplete applications will not be taken into consideration.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

For every child, you must demonstrate UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect. Integrity, Trust and Accountability.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, and on any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will therefore undergo reference and background checks.

Advertised: Aug 03 2020 Central Europe Daylight Time Application close: Aug 17 2020 Central Europe Daylight Time