Job Description

Job Title:Consultancy Intern (12 months)

Responsible to:Head of Africa Programmes

Location: Ideally in our office in London Vauxhall, but applicants who are able to work from home in any other country are also eligible

Responsible for:The post holder does not line manage any staff

Job purpose:The post will build Health Poverty Action’s work on consultancy globally. The Intern will research consultancy opportunities, write bids, identify and liaise with consultants, update our consultant database, manage information about our consultancies conducted and market our consultancy services.

Background

Health Poverty Action is a UK based NGO focusing on the links between health and poverty. We take a holistic approach, focusing not just on the health sector but being prepared to do anything we can to help make the biggest possible difference to health. Our programmes attach a high priority to strengthening health systems, supporting safe birthing, prevention of life-threatening diseases such as malaria, TB, HIV, and other dangerous infections and improving communities’ health-seeking behaviour. We also attach great importance to other factors such as nutrition, water and sanitation, income generation, and other social, economic and environmental determinants of health. Our programmes take a rights-based approach, strengthening poor and marginalised communities to advocate on their own behalf. Health Poverty Action also has a Policy and Campaigns unit which advocates on health rights issues.

The Health Poverty Action Evaluation Team has over the years conducted numerous mid-term evaluations for its own projects, including DFID projects, by sending its own staff members to take part in mid-term evaluations in other country offices. The organisation has developed its own set of evaluation tools, participatory methodologies, and adaptable processes for conducting evaluations that can be tailored to the specific TOR and context. Because of this expertise, Health Poverty Action has in the past five years started performing mid-term and final evaluations on consultancy basis for donors, governments and for other NGOs.

Health Poverty Action has now conducted several evaluations of other NGO programmes on consultancy basis. Our clients have appreciated the Health Poverty Action approach to evaluation as well as the strength of our evaluation team members who understand the local context and who have practical knowledge of community capacity development and project implementation rather than a purely academic approach. In addition to using our own staff, we also draw from Health Poverty Action’s large database of geographic and thematic specialist external consultants from all over the world. The fact that Health Poverty Action has offices, staff, partnerships, and close relationships with governments in countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America can be an important advantage for consultancies.

Main Functions of the Post

Selling Health Poverty Action consultancy services in Africa by looking for opportunities, networking, bid writing, and maintaining a database of consultants
  • Review websites and email lists to learn about potential consultancy opportunities
  • Attend networkingmeetings to share information about our consultancy work
  • Meet with organisations likely to be interested in Health Poverty Action consultancy services
  • Prepare consultancy Expressions of Interest and bids including budgets and schedules
  • Identify and liaise with internal and external consultants to involve them in consultancy bids
  • Liaise with potential clients and negotiate contracts with them

Support Health Poverty Action consultancies in coordination with relevant Country Offices and consultants
  • Help with the coordination of consultancies, particularly those that involve more than one country
  • Manage contracts and payment of external consultants
  • Monitor work plans and budgets for consultancy work. Track progress of consultancy work and flag up any delays or issues to the Head of Africa Programmes
  • Provide advice and support to consultants on visas, flights, itineraries in coordination with relevant Country Offices
  • Support quality control of consultancy products, for example proofreading reports and improving PowerPoint presentations of main findings

Develop and implement systems, templates, and marketing for Health Poverty Action’s consultancy work
  • Maintain a database of UK abased and international consultants and interview and check references and quality of work of potential consultants
  • Map the skills / experience of Health Poverty Action staff
  • Standardise the formatting of staff and consultant’s CVs for inclusion in bids
  • Develop bid, invoice, reference, and report templates for Health Poverty Action consultancies
  • Track information about consultancy bids submitted, reports produced, client feedback
  • Collect and promote testimonials, references, and examples of HPA consultancy work for our promotional website, brochures, etc.

Person Specification

Essential requirements

  • A degree related to development or other relevant discipline
  • Proven interest in development and the work of international NGOs
  • Excellent writing and editing skills in English
  • Excellent spoken English
  • Positive team-worker, supportive and helpful towards colleagues
  • Ability to communicate with people from other cultures at a distance

Desirable requirements

  • A Master’s level degree
  • Skills using databases like Access

Terms and conditions

Salary

Salary of £11,959 per annumregardless of location

Closing date for applications:September 10, 2012 midnight

Interviews: September 17, 2012

Expected start date: October, negotiable

Thank you for considering working for Health Poverty Action