Technical Support Consultant – Rapporteur, Documentation and Publication of CPHIA 2026 Outputs

Background

FHI 360 is a non-profit human development organization dedicated to improving lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions. Our staff includes experts in Health, Education, Nutrition, Economic Development, Youth, Research and Technology, creating a unique mix of capabilities to address today’s interrelated development challenges. FHI 360 serves more than 60 countries, all 50 U.S. states and all U.S. territories. Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC) is a global project funded by the U.S. Government to provide strategic technical assistance and service delivery across HIV, tuberculosis, global health security, maternal and child health, malaria, and health systems strengthening.

The International Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA) is Africa CDC’s flagship gathering of the continent’s public health community, now in its fifth edition. CPHIA 2026 will convene in Addis Ababa from 23 to 27 November 2026, hosted by Africa CDC in partnership with the Government of Ethiopia, under the theme “Africa’s Health Security and Sovereignty: Transformation from health dependency and vulnerability to ownership and resilience.” The program spans seven tracks —

1. global health architecture leadership;
2. pandemic prevention,
3. preparedness and response;
4. innovative health financing;
5. primary health care and AI-enabled systems;
6. local manufacturing; and
7. climate, health security and resilience — across more than 100 sessions and an expected 30,000-plus participants, including heads of state, ministers, scientists and private-sector leaders.

A conference of this scale generates an enormous volume of evidence, commitments and dialogue in a compressed five-day window. Left uncaptured, that record fragments. CPHIA 2025 in Durban demonstrated what deliberate documentation can instead produce: five days of proceedings were synthesized into The Durban Promise, a single outcome document built around seven continental commitments that has since anchored follow-up accountability for the conference’s agenda. Africa CDC is establishing a coordinated rapporteur, documentation and publication framework for CPHIA 2026, and requires a Technical Support Consultant to support the Lead Rapporteur in coordinating and delivering this workstream — treating documentation as a designed deliverable resourced with the same rigor as the scientific program itself.

Scope of Work

The Technical Support Consultant will provide day-to-day coordination, quality-assurance and production support to the Lead Rapporteur / Head, Documentation and Publication, across the full lifecycle of the CPHIA 2026 documentation workstream — from pre-conference preparation, through live conference coverage, to the publication of the official post-conference outcome and technical report. The role is central to ensuring that the conference’s proceedings, evidence and commitments are captured accurately, synthesized promptly, and published on schedule.

Specific Experience and Skills

The consultant will provide the following technical assistance:

Pre-Conference (October 2026)

• Support recruitment, vetting and onboarding of the session rapporteur pool (indicatively 40–50) and the six Track Rapporteur Leads, drawing on Africa CDC staff, JPHIA editorial team members, partner-institution secondees and early-career public health professionals.
• Build and continuously update the session-to-rapporteur mapping against the evolving and final conference program, ensuring every confirmed session across all seven tracks has a named rapporteur or rapporteur pair.
• Support finalization of the standardized structured note-taking template and the shared digital workspace for real-time note filing, template management and version control.
• Help prepare and deliver briefing materials, standard operating procedures and rehearsal sessions for track leads and rapporteurs, including same-day filing deadlines and escalation routes for high-level or sensitive sessions.
• Coordinate access credentials and session clearances for rapporteurs with the Organizing Committee, including for high-level sessions cleared for documentation.

During the Conference (23–27 November 2026)

• Provide real-time operational support to the Lead Rapporteur and Track Rapporteur Leads: monitor filing of structured notes against the agreed same-day window, follow up on late submissions, and flag coverage gaps arising from parallel sessions.
• Support the daily editorial huddle by compiling track-level inputs, helping reconcile cross-cutting themes across tracks, and assisting in drafting and formatting that evening’s digest for same-day publication.
• Maintain and continuously update the live commitments and pledges tracker as commitments are made across all sessions.

• Support dual-coverage logistics for plenaries, high-level dialogues and other sessions designated as high sensitivity, and assist track leads in reconciling discrepancies between independent rapporteurs.
• Support verification of commitments, figures and direct quotations against speaker slides, official statements or session recordings prior to publication, and apply the agreed attribution standard (including Chatham House Rule content) consistently.

Post-Conference (November 2026 – February 2027)

• Support drafting of the rapid outcome statement for release within 48–72 hours of the conference closing, capturing headline commitments while the conference remains newsworthy.
• Compile track and thematic summaries — mapped to the relevant pillar(s) of the Africa Health and Sovereignty agenda — within one week of the conference closing.
• Support drafting of the official CPHIA 2026 outcome document (the successor to The Durban Promise), coordinate stakeholder and Africa CDC leadership review, and track comments and signoffs against agreed turnaround times, for publication within four to six weeks.
• Contribute to compiling the full conference proceedings and technical report within three months of closing, checking completeness and consistency across all tracks and sessions, and supporting scoping of a peer-reviewed journal supplement where warranted.
• Support production of the public-facing summary brief and liaise with the Publications and Design Team and translation providers on layout, translation and the publication schedule.
• Support coordination with the JPHIA editorial team on the publication of selected conference abstracts in the Journal of Public Health in Africa.

Cross-Cutting

• Maintain document version control and a clear audit trail of the sign-off sequence (track lead, Lead Rapporteur, Africa CDC leadership) for all published outputs.
• Act as standing liaison points with Africa CDC’s Communications Directorate and the AHSS monitoring and evaluation function, ensuring digests and the outcome document align with official conference messaging and that captured commitments feed into continental tracking.
• Track workstream progress against the indicative timeline and risk register, flagging delays, coverage gaps or quality concerns to the Lead Rapporteur promptly.
• Perform any other duties reasonably assigned by the Lead Rapporteur / Head, Documentation and Publication in support of the workstream’s objectives.

Key Deliverables

The Technical Support Consultant contributes directly to the following workstream deliverables:

The deliverables indicated above are illustrative. Final deliverables, timelines, and level of effort will be defined in coordination with FHI 360 project leadership.

 The Technical Support Consultant, while overseen by FHI 360, will report directly to the Lead Rapporteur / Head, Documentation and Publication, who holds overall accountability for the workstream and is the principal liaison to the CPHIA 2026 Organizing Committee and Africa CDC’s Science and Innovation leadership. The Technical Support Consultant will work closely with the six Track Rapporteur Leads, the Session Rapporteur pool, the Editorial and Synthesis Team, and the Publications and Design Team, and will maintain standing liaison with Africa CDC’s Communications Directorate and the AHSS monitoring and evaluation function.

Period of Performance

The assignment runs for approximately five months, from October 2026 to February 2027 (approximately 95 days), aligned to the pre-conference, conference-week and post-conference phases of the workstream.

Performance will be assessed against the quality-assurance standards set for the workstream as a whole: consistent use of the structured template across all sessions; timely filing and escalation in line with agreed deadlines; accurate verification of commitments, figures and quotations prior to publication; adherence to the defined sign-off sequence and agreed review turnaround times; and consistent application of the attribution and Chatham House Rule protocol. The Technical Support Consultant will be evaluated on the timeliness and completeness of the deliverables listed in Section 4 and on the overall smooth functioning of the documentation workstream.

Location of Work

The Technical Support Consultant must either be based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia or in Washington, DC (note that if the selected candidate is based in Washington, DC, they will be required to travel to Addis Ababa for 2-4 weeks during the CPHIA Conference).

Qualifications

Candidates must demonstrate the following:

Education

• An advanced degree (Master’s or above) in public health, health sciences, knowledge management, or a related field

Experience

• A minimum of three to five years of relevant professional experience in conference documentation, rapporteuring, technical or scientific writing, knowledge management, or public health program support.
• Prior experience supporting large international conferences or multi-track events — as a rapporteur, editorial coordinator, or documentation officer — is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated excellent writing, editing and synthesis skills in English, with the ability to distil complex, technical discussion into clear, accurate written outputs under tight deadlines; working French is an advantage given the conference’s multilingual outputs.
• Experience using shared digital workspaces and version-control tools for distributed teams.
• Familiarity with the African public health landscape and Africa CDC’s mandate, including the Africa Health Security and Sovereignty agenda, is an advantage.
• Minimum ten years’ experience of working with USG programs with two years specifically in Africa.

Skills and Competencies

• Strong organizational and coordination skills, with the ability to manage multiple parallel workstreams, teams and deadlines simultaneously.
• Meticulous attention to detail and accuracy, particularly in fact-checking commitments, figures and attributed quotations.
• Sound judgment and discretion in handling sensitive or off-the-record content, and consistent application of agreed attribution standards.
• Ability to work effectively within a large, distributed and partly seconded team under significant time pressure, including extended hours during the conference week.
• Strong interpersonal and diplomatic skills for liaising with track leads, senior Africa CDC leadership, and external partners.
• Flexibility and sound problem-solving skills to reprioritize coverage and resolve issues in real time as the live program evolves.

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the following criteria:

• Award will be based upon best value (a combination of qualifications and proposed daily rate).
• Payment will be based upon Level of Effort (LOE) with reimbursement for approved related budgeted expenses.

Required Documentation

Proposals must include the following components:

• CV with relevant experience listed and updated to no less than 3 months prior to submission of proposal with consultant daily rate information
• Cover letter (letter shall summarize the consultant’s qualifications, experience and

proposed daily consultant rate information).

• 1–2-page summary of qualifications and accomplishments that address the “Specific Experience and Skills” section above.

Applicants are also welcome to submit their CV into FHI 360’s global consultant database for future consideration outside of this RFP: Consult@FHI360

FHI 360 Disclaimers

• FHI 360 may perform a background check on any selected Consultant candidates.
• FHI 360 may cancel the solicitation and not award
• FHI 360 may reject any or all responses received
• Issuance of the solicitation does not constitute an award commitment by FHI 360
• FHI 360 reserves the right to disqualify any offer based on failure of the offeror to follow solicitation instructions
• FHI 360 will not compensate any offeror for responding to solicitation
• FHI 360 reserves the right to issue award based on initial evaluation of offers without further discussion
• FHI 360 may choose to award only part of the activities in the solicitation, or issue multiple awards based on the solicitation activities
• FHI 360 reserves the right to waive minor proposal deficiencies that can be corrected prior to award determination to promote competition
• FHI 360’s consultant terms and conditions can be found here