By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies. Read our privacy policy

Roster of Consultants (Adolescent and HIV Programming), HIV/AIDS Section, PD, NYHQ - Requisition #511670

New York City

  • Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
  • Location: New York City
  • Grade: Consultancy - International Consultant - Internationally recruited Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Logistics
    • HIV and AIDS
    • Information Technology and Computer Science
    • Children's rights (health and protection)
    • Sexual and reproductive health
    • Supply Chain
  • Closing Date: Closed

The purpose of this call is to build a roster of consultants from which to draw candidates for selections planned in the next six to 24 months by the Adolescent and HIV Unit. Selected candidates will be recruited as long-term consultants to help carry out this ambitious agenda around multi-sectoral programming for adolescents made vulnerable by HIV.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

BACKGROUND

For the last three decades, UNICEF has played a leading role in ensuring that the interests and needs of children and adolescents are central to the Global HIV Response. Under the Strategic Plan for 2018–2021, UNICEF will continue to align its HIV-related commitments to global goals and targets detailed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; the Political Declaration agreed to at the June 2016 United Nations High Level Meeting on Ending AIDS; the Fast Track Strategy to End AIDS developed and championed by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS); the United Nations Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health 2016–2030; the ‘Start Free, Stay Free, AIDS Free’ Framework for Ending AIDS in Children, Adolescent Girls; and the All In Framework to end AIDS in Adolescents and Young Women by 2020 that emerged following the success of the Global Plan Towards the Elimination of New Infections Among Children by 2015 and Keeping their Mothers Alive (Global Plan). 

UNICEF’s Adolescent and HIV programming consists of a dynamic and rapidly emerging portfolio, covering the entire continuum of prevention, care, treatment and support, focused on four key populations:

  1. Adolescent Girls and Young Women in all their diversities, particularly those living in Sub-Saharan Africa, where girls and women aged 15 – 24 bear the disproportionate burden on new HIV infections, accounting for 67% of new infections;
  2. Adolescent and Young Key Populations, including young males who have sex with other males, sex workers, people who inject drugs, transgenders, and young migrants between the ages of 15 and 24, who account for a growing proportion of new infections in concentrated epidemics, and experience acute stigma, discrimination, marginalization, and even criminalization in all settings;
  3. Adolescents Living with HIV, adolescents 10 – 19 being the only age group across the entire spectrum of people living with HIV that have not experienced significant declines in morbidity and mortality.  This includes adolescents acquiring HIV during the perinatal period of life (regardless of when they were identified as living with HIV), and adolescents who acquired HIV during the second decade of life as a result of distinct behavioral risks;
  4. Pregnant Adolescents at high risk of HIV, particularly those who live in high burden settings or are likely to have a partner living with HIV, have poor social and family support, and are socially marginalized and excluded during and after the perinatal period (up to two years’ post-partum)

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this call is to build a roster of consultants from which to draw candidates for selections planned in the next six to 24 months by the Adolescent and HIV Unit. Selected candidates will be recruited as long-term consultants to help carry out this ambitious agenda around multi-sectoral programming for adolescents made vulnerable by HIV. 

Specifically, consultants will work with the Adolescent and HIV unit, and senior members of the larger HIV/AIDS Section to generate, disseminate, and institutionalize/implement varied knowledge products based on existing programmes and implementation experience across UNICEF’s geographic regions. Consultants will contribute to all the products described above. Where necessary, consultants will travel to UNICEF country offices to provide technical assistance in strategy design, analysis and field work. The purpose of this call is to solicit applications from individuals who are interested in working for the HIV/AIDS Section as a short- and long-term consultants in this capacity (maximum 11.5 months per year).

SCOPE OF WORK/SPECIFIC AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

We envision recruiting short- and long-term consultants to be selected from the roster for eight key programme streams.

Stream 1 - Epidemiological and demographic analyses, geospatial analyses, econometric modelling, evaluations, data analysis, and data visualization. 

Consultants will provide support to HQ, Regional Offices, and Country Offices, with ongoing efforts to avail complex analyses for improved geographic targeting, individual targeting, and to tailor intervention packages. This will include work to refine or generate size estimations, model correlations between elements of risk and vulnerability, and HIV prevalence and/or incidence, map vulnerability, generate risk profiles, develop risk prediction models, evaluate and cost intervention packages. The consultants will conduct desk reviews to document appropriate and cutting-edge methodologies, identify and secure key datasets, deliver workshops for capacity building, generate and assess analytical plans, and conduct analyses. The consultants will subsequently work with senior staff in developing several background papers, writing up of results and preparing tables, and other relevant syntheses for the key analytical priorities. For a secondary component of this work, the Adolescent and HIV section intends to continue analyses on existing large datasets. Consultants will work with members of the HIV Section to leverage multiple datasets from the private and public domains, triangulate data, conduct analyses, and develop various visualizations (infographics, dashboards, plots, charts, heatmaps, chloropleth maps, etc.) that convey complex information in a format that is accessible across diverse audiences.

Stream 2 – Adolescent Friendly Health Services

Numerous limitations of health services, including perceived harsh, unwelcoming and judgmental care, lack of privacy, inconvenient hours, lack of affordability, poor client flow, long waiting times, and inadequate counselling, have been reported as barriers on the part of adolescents. Yet, numerous assessments of adolescent perspectives do indicate that adolescents trust credentialed formal service providers for their primary care needs.  Building on the experience of UNICEF flagship models, consultants will contribute to guidelines, technical briefs, instructional media, and implementation tools that contextualize the programmatic and operational issues for health service providers and health administrators that provide services to ALHIV, and at-risk adolescents. 

Stream 3 – Sexual and Reproductive Health, including Comprehensive Sexuality Education

In partnership with other UN agencies, particularly UNESCO, WHO, and UNFPA, UNICEF supports strengthened sexual and reproductive health services, including comprehensive sexuality education.  This includes, but is not limited to efforts to avail adolescents with information on how to prevent pregnancies, access to condoms, GBV prevention and response. Under this area, the consultant will provide a range of technical support activities to UNICEF HQ, regional offices, and country offices, including synthesis and reviews of programs and models that have been successful at pilot phase and could be scaled, bottleneck analysis, rapid analysis of supply chain issues, forecasting of condom and other supplies, total market approaches, and strategies to develop and/or refine implementation models.  

Stream 4 – ALHIV care and support, including psychosocial support services

As part of the All In! initiative, country assessments identified key areas for programme improvement relevant to ALHIV, including a need to strengthen mental health/psychosocial services, strengthened program models to address the key transitions across pediatric-adolescent-adult care interfaces, self-management, disclosure support, and interventions to address stigma and discrimination.  These programme components have been insufficiently tested and evaluated, limiting the evidence base for implementation and scale up.  To address these gaps, consultants will work on desk reviews, best practices documentation, program designs, evaluation protocols, guidance notes, instructional materials, and other knowledge products to support improve quality of care in the second decade for ALHIV. 

Stream 5 – Structural interventions

There is clear evidence of the correlation between key structural factors and health and HIV outcomes across the prevention to care continuum.  The influence of myriad structural factors on prevention and treatment outcomes has been extensively documented, including factors such as gender inequality; poverty and deprivation; HIV stigma and discrimination; educational inequities, and inconsistent legal frameworks.  There is promising evidence that the integration of structural interventions with clinical prevention, care, and treatment (for instance, the concept of Cash+Care), could dramatically improve prevention and treatment outcomes for adolescents, and there is copious rigorous evidence of the protective effects of education for adolescent girls and young women. Working with the senior staff in the HIV Section, consultants will contribute to guidance notes, operational guidelines, and capacity building to improve the integration of biomedical prevention, clinical care, and structural interventions, building on UNICEF’s vast experience in multi-sectoral programming.

Stream 6 – Biomedical HIV prevention programming

UNICEF promotes prioritization of at-risk adolescents for biomedical HIV prevention services as part of a robust combination HIV prevention mix with strong structural and behavioral components.  This includes PrEP for at risk adolescents and young women, and a combination of HIV testing, ART and medical male circumcision, and strategic communications for their male sexual partners.  Consultants will work with UNICEF to identify, design, deploy, and document a variety of innovative mechanisms and models to reach adolescents with novel and traditional biomedical prevention models. 

Stream 7 – Adolescent participation based on Human-Centered Design Principles

Through its U-Report social media platform, which has over 4 million registered users in xx countries, UNICEF has been able to crowd-source insights into the preferences, perceptions, needs and desires of diverse adolescent populations.  UNICEF has also partners with adolescent coalitions and networks, including coalitions of adolescents living with HIV, supporting adolescent participation in the co-design and co-delivery of care and support services at health facility and community level.  A key element of adolescent participation has focused on policy and strategic advocacy. In 2018 UNICEF intends to develop operational guidance based on its experience in adolescent participation, leadership development, girl-centered programming.  Finally, the HIV Section envisions ICT4D and new media key frontiers in reaching adolescent and young populations, including hidden and invisible at-risk populations.  Working with HQ staff, Regional Advisors, Country Specialists, and adolescents themselves, consultants will contribute to guidance notes, instructional media, application development/adaptation. and capacity building to mainstream and operationalize ICT4D and design thinking principles within key facets of our Adolescent Participation workstream.

Stream 8 – Policy Advocacy and Engagement

Key policy bottlenecks of relevance to HIV prevention and care include Age of Consent policies, and regulations pertaining to SRH, HIV testing, and HIV treatment access; reconciling the divergence between constitutional laws and harmful customary and religious laws on early marriage and GBV, and criminalization of transmission and risk behaviors.  UNICEF in concert with other UN agencies, has invested in policy analyses on Age of Consent issues, and plays an integral role in early marriage prevention through a joint program with UNFPA.  Consultants will work with HQ-based HIV Section and Child Protection staff to advance strategic and inter-agency dialogues on Age of Consent; facilitate triangular cooperation (country to country dialogues, peer assists) to disseminate approaches that have worked to address policy bottlenecks; document approaches and programmatic tools that have been successful; and support discussion papers and other knowledge products to galvanize momentum on these issues


DURATION OF ROSTER-BASED CONSULTANCIES: 

Consultants who are selected from the roster will work an average of between 12 - 20 days per month and will be issued a contract which is subject to UNICEF General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants /Individual Contractors. The length of the contract will depend on funding availability. 

DUTY STATION: The location of this assignment will be Remote

 

Payment Schedule

Payments by UNICEF are delivery-based. A schedule of deliverables and payments will be negotiated independently for prior to each assignment.  Any deliverable not meeting the required specifications will be reworked and resubmitted at no additional cost to UNICEF. In general, the proposed payment schedule for assignments will be monthly payment upon submission of progress reports on completed tasks, outlined against planned outputs. Based on the report and satisfactory performance, payments will be certified by the supervisor.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE:

Interested candidates are instructed to send a recent CV and a detailed cover letter to (specify) with the subject line “Adolescent and HIV Roster” by March 28, 2018. The cover letter should indicate the work streams (if any) the applicant would like to work in, preferred start date and contract duration (no more than 11.5 months), daily fees in USD, a description of previous experience relevant to the position, languages, country/regional experience, willingness to travel, and professional references.

QUALIFICATIONS AND/OR SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE REQUIRED AND DESIRABLE FOR BEING INCLUDED IN THE ROSTER:

  • Advanced university degree (Master or PhD-level) training in public health, health administration. Community psychology, psychology, social work, nutrition, public policy, or related field;
  • For programmatic work streams, six to eight years’ experience with planning, implementing, documenting, and/or evaluating adolescent HIV prevention, care, treatment, and/or support programs in UNICEF’s major geographic regions;
  • For analytical work streams, eight to twelve years’ demonstrated experience at analyzing large-scale household survey data, preferably in regard to poverty and human development with a focus on children; experience with longitudinal data and big data an asset;
  • Substantive knowledge of key global guidance and guidelines on Adolescent HIV, Sexual and Reproductive/Maternal Neonatal Child & Adolescent Health, HIV testing, and related issues;
  • Strong conceptualization and critical thinking skills;
  • Ability to organize own work and to execute assigned duties with limited supervision;
  • Strong drive for results and an ability to manage deadlines; 
  • Ability to speak and write fluently in English; good working knowledge of French, Spanish, or languages specific to priority regions would be an asset 

Desirable:

  • Expertise in analytical packages including Stata, R, SOFA, Minitab, Cornerstone, Tableau for data analysis and visualization. Competence in D3, Python, and Javascript would be a formidable asset.
  • Current knowledge of key and emerging issues in biomedical prevention
  • Current knowledge and experience with human-centered design, applied for adolescents
  • Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships both within and outside the organization.

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable). Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.

Remarks

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.  

At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization

This vacancy is now closed.
However, we have found similar vacancies for you: