BACKGROUND
Pathfinder International seeks a consultant (individual or firm) to conduct a baseline landscape and political economy assessment of routine immunization (RI) and HPV vaccination financing, governance, and demand in Katsina, Kaduna, and Jigawa States, Nigeria.
Nigeria has about 2.25 million zero-dose children and records more than 12,000 new cervical cancer cases each year. The single-dose HPV vaccine is now in the national RI schedule, but sustaining coverage requires a shift from campaign-led delivery to routine, state-led primary health care (PHC).
The three states share structural gaps: high zero-dose burdens, delayed release of approved RI budget lines, slow Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) Decentralized Facility Financing (DFF) disbursements, eLMIS and last-mile stockouts, and vaccine hesitancy driven by safety and fertility rumours. Each state also differs:
- Katsina: insecurity in frontline LGAs such as Batsari, Safana and Kankara disrupts fixed and outreach services.
- Kaduna: a sharp urban-rural divide, with security-compromised rural LGAs such as Igabi.
- Jigawa: dispersed agrarian communities face long distances to health posts.
The Project is an 18-month advocacy and health financing technical assistance investment. It works through four pillars: Evidence-to-Policy Translation, High-Level Political Engagement, Domestic Financing and Accountability, and Demand Generation and Risk Communication. It routes its work through existing SWAp, MAMII, SERRIC and ALGON platforms and complements C-WINs, Sydani Group and BRIDGE investments.
The project design starts with a baseline assessment of each state's immunization of financing and political economy landscape.
Purpose and objectives
The assessment will give Pathfinder and the three state governments a validated, state-by-state baseline of how RI and HPV vaccination are governed, financed and demanded, and where the gaps are
Specific objectives:
- Map the policy, governance and coordination landscape for RI and HPV in each state, including SERRIC, State Task Forces on PHC, SWAp and MAMII platforms, and Health Financing TWGs.
- Analyze the political economy: key decision-makers, their interests and influence, the budget calendar, and risks from the coming election cycle.
- Establish status of coverage specifically for Penta, MCV and HPVvaccine , including a financing baseline across the five-stage pathway (commitment, allocation, release, expenditure, delivery outcome) for RI and HPV, including BHCPF DFF absorption and Gavi co-financing obligations/commitments
- Assess how far HPV vaccination is integrated into routine PHC, school health, supply chain and monitoring systems.
- Document demand-side barriers, misinformation and hesitancy narratives, and the community structures (WDCs, traditional and religious leaders, CSOs) that can act on them.
- Map partners and investments working on RI and HPV in each state to avoid duplication.
Please download the full RFP document through the following link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QpCmti8KMCSIJTY1--RCBL2U6C8NE7ws/view?usp=drive_link