Consultancy: Research and Analysis on HIV Program

The HIV/AIDS section, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office is seeking an individual consultant to provide support on research and analysis in two key areas of the UNICEF HIV program for East Asia-Pacific including Adolescent All-In interventions and the Elimination of Parent-to-Child Transmission (ePTCT)/Health System Strengthening.

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For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Background:

“All In to end adolescent AIDS”

All In is a global adolescent –inspired platform launched by UNICEF and UNAIDS for collaboration to amplify and accelerate the work being done by governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector to fast track results with and for adolescents. The platform is aligned to the “90/90/90” and the “Fast-Track” for adolescents, with the following targets:

• 75% reduction of new HIV infections among adolescents by 2020
• 65% reduction of AIDS related mortality among adolescents by 2020
• End the AIDS epidemic among adolescents by 2030

All In is organized around 4 work areas of action to drive results:  1) mobilize and support adolescents themselves as agents of social change; 2) improve data collection, analysis and utilization to sharpen adolescent focus of national programmes; 3) foster innovation in reaching adolescents to reduce new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths; and 4) advocate and communicate globally and within countries for increased resources and attention to adolescents as a population that has been left behind in the progress on HIV/AIDS. 

An Adolescent Assessment and Decision Makers’ (AADM) guidance document and tool was developed to support the All In adolescent platform primarily to improve data collection, analysis and utilization to sharpen adolescent focus of national programmes.   The country assessment process is comprised of three overlapping phases as described below. Countries will differ in their current progress along these phases:

Phase 1: Rapid assessment of adolescent programme context at the national and sub-national levels to define who is most affected, where they are located and what interventions have the largest coverage gap and are most critical to accelerate HIV results in adolescents.

Phase 2: In-depth analysis of bottlenecks affecting coverage of priority HIV interventions in priority geographic locations identified in Phase 1.

Phase 3: Evidence-informed planning to accelerate corrective actions to address bottlenecks, data gaps and improve intervention coverage, quality and impact.

In support of All In, the regional office has already completed Phase 1 and currently supporting countries on Phase 2 through in-depth assessments and analysis of bottlenecks and barriers to increase the impact of prevention, treatment and care programmes. The consultant will support:

• Review of questionnaires/protocols and reviewing national strategic plans/policies and guidelines to identify gaps and bottlenecks that disrupt the supply of quality services.
• Conduct secondary literature survey and compile available evidence on high impact interventions for adolescents at risk of HIV.
• Document existing promising practices in the priority countries (China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam) in East Asia Pacific and other regions.

Asia-Pacific UN Elimination of Parent to Child Transmission (ePTCT) website

UNICEF and WHO jointly serve as Secretariat of the UN PPTCT Task Force, which was set up in 1998. The Task Force acts as a technical forum supporting national efforts to eliminate new HIV infections and syphilis in children. It aims to help scale up HIV prevention among parents, enhance access to quality care, treatment and support of children and families living with HIV. The ePTCT website is a platform that provides the latest data and resources to support the efforts of the task force.

There is a need to collate, synthesize and prepare visual representation of the data such as graphs, charts, tables and upload them on the online database in the UN PPTCT Task Force’s ePTCT website, http//: www. eptctasiapacific.org with the latest data and resources on HIV epidemiology, maternal, neonatal and child health, PPTCT and Congenital syphilis to strengthen strategic information and build the evidence base for elimination of parent to child transmission of HIV and Congenital Syphilis in the region.

Countries in the region are moving towards triple elimination (HIV, Syphilis and Viral Hepatitis). The regional office already has and will continue to support countries to put into place necessary structure and processes for seamless quality care for women, newborns, children and their families. The consultant will support the mapping and analysis of where and how the Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (EMTCT) interventions are currently being provided within existing programmes and systems.

Other HIV related section tasks:

In preparation for regional conferences/meetings and country related events, there is need to collect, collate and synthesize data and prepare written, tabular and visual presentations (infographics, power points, tables/charts) for advocacy. Also, assistance is required in gathering and collating HIV related information from HIV and Health System Strengthening related literature and presenting them as important inputs/reference for further analysis and reporting.                                                                                                                                                                         

Work Assignment:

1. Collect and collate national studies and reports related to adolescent demography, HIV epidemiology and adolescent sexual and reproductive health related issues.
2. Conduct a desk review of available data on:

• HIV epidemic among adolescents (including adolescent key population groups), risks, and vulnerabilities, including analysis by age (10-14 years; and 15-19 years), gender and geography.
• Availability, access and utilization of combination prevention interventions for adolescents at risk.
• Review existing national or provincial strategic plans, policies and/or guidelines on HIV and adolescent sexual and reproductive health. 
• Review of the programme enabling environment related to policy, the coordination system and stigma.

1. Collate, synthesize, develop visual representations (graphs, charts and tables) and update data for the online database in the PPTCT Task Force’s ePTCT website including mapping and analysis of eMTCT programmes at national and sub-national levels.
2. Gather and collate HIV/HSS related information from relevant literature and submit to HIV focal points for further analysis and reporting.

End Product(s) (Deliverables):

1. Summary of available evidence on high impact combination prevention approaches to increase the impact on prevention, treatment and care programmes for adolescents at risk.
2. Infographics and other visual materials (graphs, charts and tables) based on synthesis of existing Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission/Health Sector Strengthening (PMTCT/HSS) and adolescent and HIV/Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) data.
3. Summary report with synthesis and analysis of country programme experiences and lessons learned from the implementation of PPTCT and adolescent and HIV programmes.
4. Updated country factsheets, information and resources on the Asia-Pacific UN ePTCT website.
5. Monthly Status reports.

Estimated Duration of Contract: 6 months, starting from 2 October 2017.

Qualifications or Specialized Knowledge/Experience Required:

• Advanced degree in public health, epidemiology, demography, social science, health, economics or health financing or related field.
• Strong understanding of the following standardized surveys that collect adolescent data; e.g. Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), etc.), second generation surveillance surveys in key populations; e.g. Integrated Biological and Behavioral Surveillance (IBBS), Biological and Behavioral Survey (BBS), etc..
• Strong communication skills with fluency in English.
• Excellent organization and collaboration skills.
• Strong ability to take initiative, and work independently.

Interested candidates are requested to submit CV or P-11, full contact information of minimum 2 references, availability, proposed monthly professional fee and all-inclusive travel costs to/from Bangkok in USD by 20 August 2017. Please note the air tickets under UNICEF contract shall be re-routable, refundable type (economy class and most direct route). The consultant will be responsible for own travel insurance, visa fee and terminal expenses.

 FORM P11.doc

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