Health and Nutrition Specialist, NOC, Fixed Term, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, #13273

The NOC Health and Nutrition Specialist is based in Bishkek and responsible for leading the office work on mother and child health, nutrition, immunization and environmental health. This position will have responsibility to ensure high quality technical support is provided to support health reforms and support provided for improved public financing for children – with more efficient and effective spending to support preventive health priorities. The Health and Nutrition Specialist provides strong management and leadership to the health team to deliver timely and quality results against the annual workplan and in line with the CPD. S/he will also be responsible for effective budget management, as well as ensuring compliance with donor conditionalities and effective coordination with development partners in the areas of responsibility.

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, the right to health

The long-term vision for change in health is that, by 2027, all children, adolescents and women, including the most vulnerable, have equitable access to integrated quality primary healthcare services and supplies, and live in a safe and climate-resilient environment. This result will directly contribute to UNSDCF Priority One.

To achieve this, UNICEF will support the Government and CSO partners to:

• Strengthen the primary health care system. This will include institutionalization and ongoing roll out of telemedicine to reach children in remote and mountainous areas; capacity building of primary health care workers – especially home visiting nurses – including on immunization, breastfeeding and healthy eating including through the use of the WHO-UNICEF pocket guide for PHCs; following up on recommendations of Ministry of Health led audits such as on perinatal deaths. Lead work, in collaboration, with WHO and the World Bank on tax policy related to sugar sweetened beverages, support the finalization of key nutrition strategies and policies and support their popularization for PHC; support roll out of community-based nutrition interventions to address anaemia and micronutrient deficiencies, promote breastfeeding, address childhood obesity. Ongoing support to reach zero-dose and under-vaccinated children and support strengthening of cold chain and vaccine management. Strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Health to address child environmental health.
• Provide high quality analysis and dissemination of evidence, including lessons learned and best global practice and offer policy options for enhancing the primary health care system for the Kyrgyz Republic that is able to address mother and child health, nutrition, immunization and environmental health through the preparation of analytical briefs, policy notes, and forward-looking recommendations.
• Provide high quality analysis and dissemination of evidence to ensure informed planning and budgeting within the health sector and particularly to prevention and primary health care that is efficient and effective in achieving the Government’s goals in human capital formation,
• Build strong partnerships with the Ministry of Health and all its agencies and departments and IFIs and development partners and provide quality technical support and advice to strategic level dialogue on health systems strengthening.  

How can you make a difference? 

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

• Build strong partnership with the Ministry of Health to support the strengthening of the health system especially at the preventive primary health care level.
• Lead advocacy on effective implementation of planning and budgeting that supports strengthened preventive health care at the primary health level .
• Excellent coordination and collaboration with other health team members to ensure timely and efficient programme implementation.
• Strong problem solving / strategic thinking abilities and agility to address programmatic and/or implementation challenges.
• Build and leverage partnerships with IFIs and other key global players in health and health financing  in the country to influence strategic decisions.
• Effective team and budget management to ensure timely and quality delivery of results.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: HN NOC ToR.doc

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

• Education:
• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: public health/nutrition, pediatric health, family health, health research, global/international health, health policy and/or management, environmental health sciences, biostatistics, socio-medical, health education, epidemiology, or another relevant technical field.
• Work Experience:
• A minimum of 5 years of proven professional experience in planning, implementation and management in health systems strengthening and reforms in Middle Income Country contexts. 
• Evidence of proactive leadership, agility and strategic thinking to ensure timely and effective programme delivery, including in complex policy and donor coordination contexts.
• Proven experience in partnership building with government, IFIs, other UN agencies.
• Developing country work experience is considered an asset.
• Language Requirements: 
• Fluency in English and Russian is required. Fluency in Kyrgyz is an asset. 

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others 

(8) Nurtures, leads and manages people. 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

This position has been assessed as an elevated risk role for Child Safeguarding purposes as it is either a role with direct contact with children, a role that works directly with identifiable children’s data, a safeguarding response role, or an assessed risk role. Additional vetting and assessment for elevated risk roles in child safeguarding (potentially including additional criminal background checks) apply.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce. For this position, eligible and suitable male candidates are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF’s Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.