Consultant – Digital Family Planning Register/Application
PATH is a global nonprofit dedicated to achieving health equity. With more than 40 years of experience forging multisector partnerships and with expertise in science, economics, technology, advocacy, and dozens of other specialties, PATH develops and scales up innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing health challenges.
Background
PATH is a global nonprofit dedicated to achieving health equity. With nearly 50 years of experience building multisector partnerships and expertise spanning science, economics, technology, advocacy, and many other disciplines, PATH develops and scales innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing health challenges.
Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, PATH works in more than 70 countries across a range of health areas, including health technologies, maternal and child health, reproductive health, vaccines and immunization, and emerging and epidemic diseases. For more information, please visit www.path.org.
One area of PATH’s longstanding focus is expanding access to voluntary family planning and reproductive health services. A key innovation in this space is subcutaneous DMPA (DMPA-SC), a lower-dose, easy-to-use injectable contraceptive that provides three months of pregnancy protection. DMPA-SC combines the drug and needle in the prefilled BD Uniject™ injection system, which was originally developed by PATH.
Today, DMPA-SC is approved for use in more than 75 countries worldwide and for self-injection in more than 55 countries, including nations across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe. Building on its role in the product’s development, PATH has worked for more than 15 years with ministries of health, global partners, manufacturers, and implementers to support DMPA-SC introduction and scale-up. Through this work, PATH has provided technical assistance to countries developing and implementing total market approaches that expand access while strengthening sustainable contraceptive markets.
This experience serves as the foundation for PATH’s work in Uganda. In collaboration with the Uganda Ministry of Health, PATH is leading the Uganda Private Sector Market Facilitation for Family Planning in Uganda project (2023–2027), which aims to expand access to contraceptive methods through commercial outlets. As the lead training partner supporting Phillips Pharmaceuticals Uganda’s introduction of DMPA-SC in pharmacies, drug shops and private clinics. PATH is training pharmacy and drug shop operators in six of Uganda’s largest cities and has reached more than 650 providers to date, with the potential to support more than 4,000 private health facilities nationwide.
Key challenge
Despite significant progress in expanding access to family planning (FP) services in Uganda, the private sector remains an increasingly important source of contraceptive services, particularly through private clinics, pharmacies, and licensed drug shops. However, the availability, quality, and timely use of private-sector family planning service data remain a major challenge.
Currently, Uganda’s national health information system, including the District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2), primarily relies on reporting mechanisms that are more established within the public sector. While efforts have been made to strengthen private-sector engagement and reporting, many private providers continue to face challenges in capturing, managing, and routinely reporting family planning service data in a standardized and efficient manner.
As a result, critical information on FP service provision, contraceptive method uptake, client trends, and commodity needs from private-sector.
It is therefore, against this background that PATH is seeking to hire a consultant to enhance, deploy, and support the Digital Family Planning Register/Application to create a secure, scalable, interoperable, and user-friendly digital platform that enables effective family planning data capture, reporting, and integration.
Consultant’s Scope of Work
The consultant will be responsible for enhancing, deploying, and supporting the Digital Family Planning Register/Application to make it a secure, scalable, and interoperable digital platform for private-sector family planning service providers. The key areas of work include:
System Enhancement and Cross-Platform Development
- Upgrade the application to operate seamlessly on Android, iOS, Windows, and modern web browsers through a responsive, cross-platform solution.
Offline Functionality
- Implement offline data entry, secure local storage, and synchronization capabilities to support units operating in low-connectivity environments.
Centralized Deployment and Administration
- Establish a centrally hosted system with secure user authentication, role-based access control, centralized administration, monitoring, backups, and audit trails.
Facility Onboarding and Geographic Configuration
- Configure the system to support onboarding and management of private clinics, pharmacies, licensed drug shops, and other accredited providers across all administrative levels, with the ability to add new facilities without system redevelopment.
Form and Workflow Improvements
- Modify the electronic family planning register by:
- Replacing individual age entry with HMIS 105-compliant age bands.
- Making the client name field optional.
- Reviewing and improving skip logic, validation rules, and overall data-entry workflows.
Reporting and Notifications
- Develop configurable reminder mechanisms for monthly reporting using in-app notifications, email, push notifications, and SMS (where applicable), including escalation workflows for overdue reports.
Interoperability
- Configure secure integration with DHIS2 through data mapping, validation, automated or approved data transmission, reconciliation, and prevention of duplicate submissions.
Data Security and Compliance
- Strengthen data security by implementing role-based access controls, encryption, audit logging, and secure authentication.
Testing and Pilot Implementation
- Conduct system testing, user acceptance testing, and pilot implementation in selected units, incorporating user feedback before wider rollout.
Documentation, Training, and Knowledge Transfer
- Prepare technical and user documentation, develop training materials, train system administrators and users, and provide knowledge transfer to ensure sustainable system management.
Required Expertise, Qualifications, And Competencies For The Consultant
This assignment will be best delivered by a consultant or a company with experience in software development and programming. Additionally, working with a team of experienced individuals with knowledge in Reproductive Child Health and Rights, Family planning, and contraceptive supply chain.
- A minimum of master’s degree in the field of software development.
- At least 8 years’ experience in health systems and developing digital/eHealth systems and innovations.
- Comprehensive knowledge of Uganda’s reproductive health and supply chain context.
- Comprehensive knowledge of quality-of-care dimensions in sexual and reproductive health.
- Knowledge of functionality of digital platforms and ability to develop digital content.
- Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality deliverables with aspect of System Integration.
- A good understanding of the current digital health transformation and health data platforms will be an added advantage.