Consultant- Infectious Diseases and Pathogens Prioritization

Consultant
- Infectious Diseases and Pathogens Prioritization, Global Health

Location:

United States

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. We have helped build hundreds of health programs from the ground up and responded to humanitarian crises worldwide.

It is our shared responsibility and obligation to treat each other with respect, take affirmative steps to prevent matters involving Sexual Exploitation & Abuse and Trafficking in Persons, and to disclose all potential and actual violations of our Code of Conduct, which may include Conflicts of Interest, Fraud, Corruption, Discrimination or harassment. Together we can reinforce a culture of respect, integrity, accountability, and transparency.

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—often shaped by international expert consensus and donor agendas—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 (BD) positioning, particularly as the organization continues to expand its work in health security and preparedness.

Establishing a shared, mutually defined understanding of priority endemic infectious diseases and pathogens aligns with Project HOPE's commitment to people-centered, country-owned, partnership-based, and data-driven approaches. 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. While rankings may differ across global, regional, and country levels, the framework is intentionally designed to support both comparability and context-specific decision-making, recognizing that alignment will not always be exact but can still meaningfully inform strategic dialogue and planning.

Ultimately, grounding program design and BD efforts in locally relevant priorities is expected to improve responsiveness, accelerate implementation, and increase programmatic impact.

Project HOPE is undertaking 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 across global, regional, and country levels, as aligned with PH's 5-year strategic plan.

This effort is led by a Technical Working Group (TWG) comprising representatives from Project HOPE's regional teams and relevant home office units, divisions, and departments. The TWG is supported, as needed, by a multidisciplinary group of technical advisors drawn from Project HOPE's implementation countries.

To date, the TWG has:

• Developed an overarching prioritization process.
• Compiled a comprehensive long list of infectious diseases and pathogens.
• Applied a two-step process, including literature review and expert input, to generate a refined short list.
• Drafted prioritization criteria, disease factsheets, and a preliminary survey tool in preparation for the final prioritization phase.

The Consultant will: