Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Specialist

The WHO Office in the occupied Palestinian territory is the principal technical adviser to the Palestinian Ministry of Health providing advice and support to strengthen health services, ad-dress public health issues and promote research for health. WHO is also lead
of the humanitarian Health and Nutrition Cluster, coordinating the assistance provided by international and local partners to the health sector.

WHO employs approximately 45 staff at its offices in West Bank and Gaza, including international and local professionals with expertise in medicine, public health nursing and other specialties. As the lead health agency, WHO works with many partners, including United Nations agencies, donors, nongovernmental organizations, universities and the private sector to sup-port the Palestinian Authority to reach their national health development
goals and to ensure that efforts of all these organizations are coordinated.

The health system in Gaza faces significant challenges due to prolonged conflict, resource constraints and disruptions to health service delivery. Maternal and newborn health services remain a critical priority to reduce preventable maternal and neonatal deaths and complications. Strengthening the quality and accessibility of maternal and newborn care services requires coordinated technical support to health authorities, health facilities and partners.
Under the supervision of the Head of Sub-Office Gaza and in close collaboration with WHO technical teams and relevant partners, the UN Volunteer will support activities aimed at strengthening maternal and newborn health services, supporting health system capacity, and improving quality of care in health facilities.
The assignment will also involve collaboration with the Ministry of Health, UN agencies including UNICEF, UNFPA and UNRWA, and relevant NGOs to support coordinated RMNCAH interventions.

Under the direct supervision of the Service Delivery Officer, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

Technical support for maternal and newborn health services

• Draft situation analyses on health system capacity and response for maternal and newborn care services, including nutrition services.
• Provide professional input for the development and updating of national strategies and action plans to improve maternal and newborn health services.
• Follow up with MoH and relevant authorities and support them throughout the process of reviewing and finalizing policies, guidelines and standards related to maternal and newborn care.

Health system strengthening and quality improvement

• Provide technical support to strengthen the capacity of health facility teams through clinical coaching, supervision and promotion of facility-level self-assessment mechanisms.
• Prepare quality improvement initiatives in support to maternal and newborn care services at both hospital and primary health care levels.
• Collect health data and prepare reporting materials related to capacity building activities.

Coordination and partnership support

• Support the team lead in the coordination with focal points of UN agencies including UNICEF, UNFPA and UNRWA and other partners to strengthen maternal and newborn health interventions.
• Participate in the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) committees and technical working groups led by the Ministry of Health and health authorities to provide technical support and collect feedback.

Data management and reporting

• Provide guidance and support to health facilities on data collection, analysis and reporting related to maternal and newborn health indicators
• Effectively engage and collaborate with health facilities to ensure validity, reliability and timely reporting of routine facility data.

Programme implementation support

• Assess needs for procurement to support activities, perform technical analysis of items requested and develop distribution plans
Implement activities under maternal and newborn health programmes and awards,
• Perform monitoring and reporting on programme implementation and results.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:

• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and taking active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;
• Provide annual and end of assignment self- reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities.
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible;