Consultant- Infectious Diseases and Pathogens Prioritization Exercise

Project HOPE is an international NGO of more than 1,000 engaged employees and hundreds of volunteers who work in more than 25 countries, responding to the world’s most pressing global health challenges. Throughout our 60‑year legacy, Project HOPE has treated millions of patients and provided more than $3 billion worth of medicines to local health care organizations around the world.

Project HOPE seeks a consultant to provide targeted technical support for the finalization and documentation of Project HOPE’s infectious diseases and pathogens prioritization process, ensuring the final outputs are rigorous, transparent, and fit‑for‑purpose for strategic and programmatic use.

Historically, Project HOPE’s infectious disease portfolio has focused primarily on HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and, more recently, global health security—reflecting prevailing global funding priorities. However, the epidemiological profiles, health system capacities, and social determinants of health vary substantially across Project HOPE’s countries and regions of operation. As a result, reliance on global disease priorities alone does not fully capture local and regional public health realities or strategic opportunities.

To address this gap, Project HOPE seeks to implement a systematic, transparent, and inclusive infectious diseases and pathogens prioritization process that integrates global comparability with regional and country‑specific context. This process is intended not only to generate technical rankings but to inform country strategy discussions, guide technical and programmatic investment decisions, and strengthen business development positioning.

A structured prioritization exercise at country and regional levels will enhance understanding of disease burden, risk, and threat dynamics, while strengthening evidence‑informed decision‑making across the organization. Ultimately, grounding program design and business development efforts in locally relevant priorities is expected to improve responsiveness, accelerate implementation, and increase programmatic impact.

Project HOPE is undertaking a structured infectious diseases and pathogens prioritization exercise across countries where it actively implements programs. The objective is to identify high‑priority infectious diseases and pathogens to inform program design, business development, country strategy conversations, and investment decisions.

Under the guidance of the Technical Working Group (TWG), the consultant will provide end‑to‑end technical support for the final step of the infectious diseases and pathogens prioritization exercise. Key responsibilities will include:

• Methodological Design and Planning: Refine the prioritization criteria and sub‑criteria. Define scoring levels and thresholds for each criterion and sub‑criterion. Develop detailed guidance materials to ensure consistent interpretation across users and levels.
• Sample Size, Criteria Weighting, and Survey Tool: Determine appropriate sample sizes and participant profiles. Design and implement criteria‑weighting approaches. Conduct or support statistical analysis to derive final criteria weights. Refine existing survey tools or develop an alternative scoring instrument.
• Data Analysis and Ranking: Aggregate and analyze scoring data using standardized quantitative methods. Generate ranked lists of infectious diseases and pathogens. Support interpretation of results for programmatic and strategic use.
• Reporting and Knowledge Products: Develop a comprehensive final report documenting methodology, criteria weighting, results, and key insights. Produce summary outputs suitable for internal decision‑making.

The assignment is expected to span 1 month, with an estimated level of effort of 10 working days, focused on the final stage of the prioritization process.

The consultant should demonstrate the following:

• Advanced academic training (Master’s degree or higher) in epidemiology, public health, biostatistics, or a related field.
• At least 8–10 years of experience in infectious disease epidemiology, health security, or public health priority‑setting.
• Demonstrated experience designing or implementing multi‑criteria decision analysis (MCDA), risk‑ranking, or disease prioritization exercises.
• Strong quantitative and statistical analysis skills.
• Proven experience working across multiple countries and regions, preferably in low‑ and middle‑income settings.
• Excellent facilitation, communication, and technical writing skills.

As part of the recruitment process, shortlisted candidates may be asked to submit additional documentation and examples of relevant work.