Following the P4H-SG meeting, Expertise France received the Agence française de développement (AFD) and the P4H-CD on its premises at 40, boulevard de Port-Royal 75005 Paris. The objectives of the meeting were to get to know each other in person and discuss the challenges and opportunities of P4H-CFP deployment.
“Colleagues from Expertise France’s human capital and social development department, Elodie Montetagaud, head of the social protection and decent work unit, and Clara Leymonie, social protection coordinator, and Matthieu Favre, Sahel portfolio manager at L’Initiative’s health department, hosted the meeting. On the AFD side, Agnès Soucat, head of the health and social protection division, and Pascale Le Roy, task team leader in the health and social protection division and P4H Technical Exchange Group (P4H-TEG) cochair, participated. Claude Meyer and Alexis Bigeard attended on behalf of the P4H-CD.”
Expertise France’s contracting of P4H-CFPs includes different sources of funds and mechanisms. The first was Virgile Pace, deployed in Madagascar from September 2019 through September 2021. This position was funded by the French MEFA; Bouchaib Mourjane was a P4H-CFP in Niger from September 2019 through July 2021. The position was funded by L’Initiative through an AFD grant. Jean-François Caremel, who has been working as P4H-CFP in Niger since August 2021 and remotely since August 2023, has been contracted by Expertise France health division since January 2023.
In general these examples have been very useful for the countries. Nonetheless, some questions have arisen regarding the P4H-CFP terms of reference and the P4H-CFP accountability lines. Indeed, the specificity of these P4H Network positions does not give straightforward answers to questions such as these: to what extent are or should P4H-CFPs’ terms of reference be standard or specific? How to mitigate the confusion that can be experienced by consultants and/or their management, coming from multiple accountability lines? Sharing different experiences and communicating among stakeholders certainly are the best ways to disaggregate these questions and to improve the practice.
Moving to new operations and practical set-ups, the participants investigated the opportunities for AFD and Expertise France to provide even more solutions when needs and opportunities for the deployment of P4H-CFPs are confirmed. Several options are under consideration for the coming months.
