Name of Client:
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Country:
Myanmar
Length of Consultancy Assignment:
Start Date: 10 September 2019
Completion Date: 30 April 2020
Detailed Narrative Description of Project:
The TRTA prepared the design of a project that will enhance the capacity of the Myanmar Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS) in the prevention and treatment services for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), particularly cancers. The ensuing project will address the existing bottlenecks in NCD response and contribute to promoting Myanmar’s economic and social inclusion, closing disparities in income and non-income poverty, and achieving progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The project will have three outputs: (i) strategy planning and coordinated implementation for NCDs response strengthened; (ii) health promotion and prevention of NCDs improved; and (iii) NCDs diagnosis and treatment capacity enhanced.
PRIMEX fielded the services of international consultants responsible for the conduct of: (i) financial management assessment (FMA) and the financial analysis of the proposed project; (ii) poverty, social, and gender analysis; and (iii) social safeguards (involuntary resettlement [IR] and indigenous peoples [IP]). More specifically, the international Finance Specialist was responsible for: (i) performing a FMA to ensure that MOHS and the selected hospital IAs have adequate financial management capacity to implement the proposed project and preparing the FMA Report; and (ii) conduct of project financial analysis including: (a) preparation of project cost estimates and project cost summary and development of project financing plan; (b) design of fund flow mechanism and identification of appropriate disbursement procedures; (c) design of financial reporting mechanisms, requirements, timetable, and appropriate procurement, disbursement, and auditing arrangements according to ADB guidelines; (d) identification of financial risks and suggested countermeasures; (e) assessment of the financial sustainability of the project; and (f) preparation of the financial analysis section of RRP and linked document (LD).
The international Gender and Social Development Specialist was tasked to: (i) prepare socioeconomic profiles of the project sites in terms of household size, demographic trends, income sources and levels, occupations, socioeconomic conditions; (ii) assess willingness to pay (WTP) and affordability of proposed health services; (iii) assess gender issues and poverty incidence in the project area; (iii) identify key stakeholders (national and subnational policy/decision-makers, advocates, champions, opinion leaders, project implementers) and their interests; (iv) identify disadvantaged groups in the project area as beneficiaries; (v) prepare the project’s summary poverty reduction and social strategy (SPRSS); (vi) develop the project’s gender action plan (GAP); (vii) design of a stakeholder consultation and participation (C&P) strategy; and (viii) preparation of the following LDs for the RRP and chapters in the PAM: (a) SPRSS; (b) GAP); and (c) C&P strategy. The International Social Safeguards Specialist was responsible for the: (i) conduct of focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KIIs) to identify IR and IP issues, if any; (ii) prepare checklists for IR and IP and resettlement framework and resettlement plan (RF/RP) and IP/Ethnic Minority Development Plan (IPDP/EMDP), as needed; and (iii) preparation of the relevant sections of the RRP and LDs.