International Consultant (Nutrition Information System Technology Specialist to manage operationalization of Integrated Nutrition Information System-P3-10 months); Dhaka, Bangladesh

To address undernutrition systematically and at scale, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) launched the National Nutrition Service (NNS), comprising of a set of child and maternal nutrition interventions. Efforts have been made to mainstream nutrition within the existing health and family planning delivery systems. However, poor management and planning capacity at districts/ sub-district levels and inadequate technical skills of health workers to provide nutrition services and counselling were identified as two critical bottlenecks in the effective implementation of NNS. Duration: 10 months

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Purpose of Assignment:

To address undernutrition systematically and at scale, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) launched the National Nutrition Service (NNS), comprising of a set of child and maternal nutrition interventions. Efforts have been made to mainstream nutrition within the existing health and family planning delivery systems. However, poor management and planning capacity at districts/ sub-district levels and inadequate technical skills of health workers to provide nutrition services and counselling were identified as two critical bottlenecks in the effective implementation of NNS.

To address these, the “Accelerating implementation of NNS (AINSS)” project was conceived with objectives to strengthen evidence based planning at districts and sub-district levels and enhance capacity of health workers to deliver nutrition at the facility level.  Through the deployment trained District Nutrition Officer in 43 districts out 64 districts, several positive changes has resulted: gradual increase in coverage of nutrition services, use data for decision making and address bottlenecks and reporting of service utilization through Health Information Management System has increased.

However, several gaps remain; especially related to the quality and reliability of the data, the consistency across the different health facilities, and the capacity within government to use the data to its full potential. At present there is lack of comprehensive Information System (IMS) for NNS and even within two wings of the MOH (DG Health Services, DGHS and DG Family Planning, DGFP) nutrition data collection is not harmonized. 

At the national level, the Institute of Public Health Nutrition Institute (IPHN) has started collecting and reporting nutrition indicators reporting through DHIS2 system and there is a need to build the capacity of the Nutrition Information and Planning Unit (NIPU) within IPHN on data analytics and data visualization so that districts can be effectively supported to use the data to further improve the implementation of nutrition services.

The Government has recently launched the new NNS-Operation Plan (OP) and strengthening of Information Management System (IMS) for NNS is a key and immediate priority. The Government, nutrition partners and donors have collectively agreed for the need to design and operationalize comprehensive IMS system for Nutrition and the following programmatic objectives have been identified

1: Design and operationalize nutrition M&E framework into DGHS and DGFP systems for the collection/ analysis and dissemination of harmonized nutrition indicators.

2: Strengthen institutional framework and capacity within IPHN and different divisions of the Ministry of Health (IPHN, Planning Division, DGHS and DGFP) to effectively, efficiently and collaboratively assess, analyze and disseminate nutrition indicators for enhanced accountability and facilitate responsive service delivery in the districts. 

3: Enhance districts and health facilities’ technical knowledge and skills for timely and quality reporting of the nutrition indictors and effective use of data to identify bottlenecks and address them to improve the performance of nutrition services.

UNICEF is providing lead support to the Government to achieve the following stated objectives. There is also need to support IPHN to engage with the districts in two Divisions (Chittagong and Sylhet) to achieve the targets for 2 new nutrition Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLI) for $ 64 million Pay for Performance (P4P) financing by the World Bank in the Health Sector programme. 

With UNICEF support, following months of stakeholders engagement, the Government organized a meeting in July on National Nutrition Information System (NIS) and disseminated the Priority Nutrition Results and Indicators (PNRI) for tracking the Nutrition Plan.  The meeting, attended by over 80 participants from government, partners and donors, forged consensus for integrated information system and to operationalize the PNRI framework throughout Bangladesh. 

During the meeting, prototype of the multifunctional nutrition Information visualization platform for tracking PNRI was also launched.  It has national and district performance dashboards which brings together information from different data portals (including DHIS2), which needs to be further expanded to community facility level with performance mapping, automated report sharing and alerts for data quality etc  .  It also includes visual portal on real time monitoring and reporting (RTMR) of provision of nutrition services and bottlenecks in health facilities. The system also has #Unite4Nutrition website, which is a social media forum to enhance social awareness about nutrition and accountability to improve financing.  In the meeting it was also decided that the NIS will be expanded to collect and track data on Urban and Emergency nutrition activities, later further expanding to collect multisector information beyond health.

There is also urgent need to operationalise standard monitoring and reporting framework for emergency response in the Cox Bazar Rohingyas Crisis. The following key priorities were agreed in the meeting and the Government has requested UNICEF to provide support to move the NIS initiative forward :

• Operationalize data- information platform and expand the system to track real-time data upto level of community clinics with performance mapping and reporting automation.  
• Design and implement automated system of data compilation, reporting of DLI results
• Support in enhancing institutional capacity and technical skills of on health workers data utilisation for evidence based planning and data for decision making using Mukto System
• Expand current NIS to start collecting key emergency and urban nutrition indicators.

Nutrition Section, UNICEF Bangladesh is seeking to recruit an Information System Technology Specialist to design and manage the project.

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

Specific Expertise/Skills required:

Education:

Master's degree in Computer Science or Information Technology or any other relevant field.

Experiences:

• Minimum 5 years of professional work experience  on developing, designing and administering Database Systems and visualization platforms.

• Extensive work experience on developing data systems linking various sources through interoperability

• Expertise on designing automated data analytics process to summaries data systems and link it with online data visualization platform
• Ability to generates real-time updates using different source data
• Technical knowledge of latest programming for data visualization and platforms 
• Experience working with DHIS2 System
• Experience in working with mapping projects and designing web based mapping systems
• Experience working with Government or UN development projects
• Experience in linking data system with SMS technology to send notification and alerts
• Capacity to engage/manage team with internal and external organizations with different skills
• Ability design process to identify data reporting errors and provide prescriptive corrective responses through data systems
• Knowledge of AI and Big data also added advantage

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

Remarks:

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