REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS TO HOST THE OSLO CHILD HEALTH RESEARCH CENTER (OCHRC) SECRETARIAT
Deadline for submission of proposals: October 1 2008
About OCHRC
Founded in 2001 OSLO CHILD HEALTH RESEARCH CENTER is an independent international foundation registered in Switzerland. OCHRC’s goal is to improve the health and nutrition of all children in low- and middle- income countries through research that informs policy and practice. In recognition of the inequity in research funding of conditions affecting child health and nutrition in low and middle-income countries, the mission of OCHRC is to use evidence-informed advocacy to influence governments and funding agencies to prioritize child health and nutrition-related research and to strengthen research capacity in these countries.
The overall objectives of OCHRC are:
- Review, synthesize, generate and disseminate evidence to inform advocacy on research affecting child health and nutrition in low and middle income countries
- Advocate with governments and key funding agencies to increase funding for research on conditions affecting child health and nutrition in low and middle income countries that will be relevant for policy and effective programmes to overcome barriers to reach poor children and their mothers
- Advocate with governments and key funding agencies to strengthen child health and nutrition research capacity in low and middle income countries through achieving a critical mass of researchers and institutions that can encompass the entire spectrum of research required (from innovation to implementation).
Context for our work
The contribution of health research to early detection, treatment and prevention of diseases has been remarkable. But still one of the larger questions surrounding health research is whether or not recent advances are being successfully translated into better health care. Multi-level strategies are required to ensure the best available evidence is transformed into policies and practices that can most effectively address complex health problems facing children from low and middle income countries. OCHRC aims to address this issue by critically analyzing all available evidence and advocating with government and policy makers.
Although research has a very important role in the fight against global health challenges but when resources are limited, guidelines are needed to assist decisions on defining the priorities for health research investments. Current practices in which funding priorities are being set in global child health research have not been very successful in identifying context specific research agenda. The reason for failure lies in the fact that there is considerably less interest in research on how to implement effective interventions in the context of health services in countries with limited resources. Implementation research is not ranked highly by the scientific community or by most funding agencies. As it is rarely considered a research priority, research on new interventions far exceeds that on delivery. OCHRC has been at the forefront of developing a methodology to allow a more transparent and fairer approach towards setting health research priorities. OCHRC is helping to set research priorities in child health, development and nutrition through a systematic and transparent, rational and fair approach, and resolve related methodological issues. OCHRC has worked with 300 experts world-wide in applying this methodology in different diseases and conditions in different contexts. OCHRC is now collaborating with the World Health Organization’s Child and Adolescent Health Department and has organized eight working groups who are presently in the process of defining research priorities for eight major causes of child deaths globally using the OCHRC methodology. OCHRC has also worked with the Medical Research Council, South Africa in successfully applying the methodology in defining child health research priorities in that country.
OCHRC also sponsors research into priority child health and nutrition problems, especially in low- and middle-income countries, with a focus on research to inform policies for scaling up effective interventions. OCHRC has supported research projects in Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Philippine, Madagascar, Bolivia, Gambia, PNG, Mali, Pakistan and Bangladesh. OCHRC aims at increasing the level of communication and discussion amongst players working on research on child health and nutrition, such as nutritionists, child health specialists, and child development specialists. It provides a platform to initiate and maintain debate on the importance and direction of the research, bringing together scientists and implementing bodies to discuss issues relevant to the current status of knowledge and the requirements for the future. For more information related to the OCHRC objectives and thematic areas, please refer to our website: OCHRC.org.
Governance of OCHRC
An international board governs OCHRC. The highly esteemed board of directors is comprised of individuals internationally renowned for their scientific, medical and public health expertise in child health and nutrition research. Board members represent CHRNI partner constituencies, including non-governmental sector, academia, public sector, unilateral and international organizations, donors and foundations. The Board is currently chaired by Dr. Robert E Black, Professor and Chair, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Partners” are defined in the broadest and most inclusive sense of the word; all actors working to reduce the 10/90 gap in child health and nutrition are already partners in the process.
Secretariat
The management of OCHRC is carried out by a Secretariat. The Secretariat provides cohesion between the OCHRC activities and ensures coordination through frequent exchange of information between various parts of OCHRC. The OCHRC Secretariat could also be regarded as the operational arm of the network.
When OCHRC was initiated, the view on its governance was that the Secretariat would rotate among developing country partners at regular intervals in order to represent all OCHRC partners. Global forum for Health Research hosted the Secretariat for first 2 years which was then shifted to ICDDR,B in Bangladesh. ICDDR,B has been the host institution from June 2004 to the present. This current tenure of the OCHRC Secretariat at ICDDR,B will come to an end on December 2009.
The Secretariat is to be accommodated in a scientific environment that allows rich professional interactions and relationships with ongoing informatics and child health and nutrition research efforts. The Secretariat is composed of an Executive Director and other members as may be necessary.
The Executive Director is designated by the Board from the hosting institution. Other members of the secretariat, e.g., Coordinator, Communication Specialist, Finance Manager, are appointed by the hosting institution in consultation with the Chair and the Executive Director under policies and procedures approved by the Foundation Board through the agreement with the hosting institution. Consultants or specialist organizations or companies may be engaged to perform certain Secretariat functions as agreed by the Board.
Functions of Secretariat
The Executive Director and the Secretariat execute various management functions and duties as delegated by the Board. These functions and activities are set out in the Secretariat hosting Agreement signed between the Foundation and the hosting Institution. They include:
Strategic
§ Elaborate on and make proposals to the Board regarding strategies and policies of the Foundation
§ Analyze policy issues of the Foundation and recommend Foundation positions to the Board
Operational
§ Establish operational guidelines and procedures for the Secretariat.
§ Manage the personnel, assets and financial resources.
§ Keep Foundation publications and maintain its website
§ Recruit and supervise consultants' work according to formal rules and procedures
§ Prepare the annual Work-plan and Budget and submit it to the Board for approval
§ Implement the approved Work-plan within the adopted Budget.
§ Provide the Board with an Annual Report of Activities being a technically substantive report on the Work-plan, including detailed financial accounts, tasks achieved, tasks not achieved and appropriate explanations.
§ Perform the Compliance and Reporting activities as set out in Section 6 of these Operational Guidelines.
§ Ensure the monitoring of activities and the evaluation of programme and project outcomes.
§ Receive, review and provide comments to the Board on reports from recipients of Funds.
Financial
§ Establish financial guidelines and procedures
§ Maintain the financial accounts
§ Manage the financial resources
§ Oversee the expenditures of the budget
§ Manage the financing of research projects
Support
§ Support the work of the Chair and the Board, in particular with respect to
§ advocacy with regard to the Foundation’s objectives
§ fund raising
§ administrative assistance for Board and Committee meetings
§ preparing agendas
§ preparing summaries of Board meetings
§ submit the summaries to the Chair for approval
§ distribute the summaries to the Board Members
§ Communicate the decisions of the Board to stakeholders
General
§ Execute all decisions of the Board
§ Perform all such other tasks as assigned by the Board
Executive Director
The Executive Director is responsible for managing the activities of the Secretariat as set out above. His duties and responsibilities are set out in the Secretariat Hosting Agreement. The Executive Director is to act as the head of the OCHRC Secretariat and responsible to the Governing Board for the execution of all scientific and administrative activities of the OCHRC Secretariat. The Executive Director will also lead the OCHRC fund raising activities
Support for the Secretariat
The support for the Secretariat will come from several sources:
· host organization
· seed support for core functions from the budget of OCHRC
· other partners or fund raising efforts
Review Criteria
Applications will be independently reviewed by two technical experts using the criteria described below. A small committee composed of members of the OCHRC Board other technical experts will make the final selection of grant recipients. Organizations from low- or middle-income countries will be considered for hosting OCHRC Secretariat that can demonstrate their capacity to:
· support the secretariat
· maintain international communication, including easy e-mail access
· organize and manage international health programmes and projects
· manage international health research, preferably in the fields of child health and nutrition
· develop a work-plan for proposed activities to be carried out by the Secretariat over a 2 year period
· develop and manage a budget for the Secretariat and its activities
· support workshops, meetings and symposia to promote research and networking of OCHRC
· maintain the infrastructure necessary for providing support to the Board.
The institution should have a public health mandate from any public, private or academic sector in a low- or middle-income country.
The Executive Director will lead the secretariat and should
§ be a national of a developing country
§ be a recognized health researcher and manager
§ have international experience in networking.
Application process
The Proposals must, at a minimum, address the follows
1. Qualifications for hosting the Secretariat (capacity of organization, previous experience in similar position, its national and international roles, etc)
2. Description of the organization where the OCHRC Secretariat would be physically housed. (e.g. building, work-space, furniture, equipment, communications facilities etc)
3. Description of internal management processes (e. g. governing bodies or processes, financial control, reporting and approval requirements)
4. Proposed method of work
5. A draft operating budget
6. Institutional/government fund that is currently available or would be made available to support the secretariat
7. Resume of the proposed Executive Director. Please indicate the percentage of time he/she will give to the OCHRC Secretariat
The applications must be submitted to the OCHRC, by email ( and ), and must be received by 1 October 2008.In the header of the email please put "Proposal to host OCHRC Secretariat”. OCHRC will notify all applicants of receipt of their application. Successful (and unsuccessful) applicants will be notified towards the end of December 2008.
