Roster for Digital Health Planning and Deployment Specialist , Health Section, PD - NYHQ, Requisition#520293

UNICEF’s Health Section, Programme Division is seeking an expressions of interest (EOI) from qualified Individual consultants for the provision of services related to planning, coordination, strategy design, documentation and deployment of digital health solutions in/for low- and middle-income countries, health information system strengthening, and costing of digital health investments, with a specific focus on solutions to address bottlenecks to health service delivery for women and children. The EOI is to build a pool of expertise around those areas to strengthen country capacity to support governments with activities in the health sector. Individual consultants that meet the requirements of this EOI will be placed on a roster and may be invited to submit proposals related to digital health planning, design and deployment for which specific Terms of Reference would be provided.

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BACKGROUND

UNICEF is committed to focusing on Primary Health Care (PHC) for the current Strategic Plan 2018-2021 period and has acknowledged that it is an effective approach to contribute to the global SDG target (3.8.1) on Universal Health Coverage. Functional PHC, especially at community level, in turn depends on robust health systems, and UNICEF must prioritize Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) as a core area of programming.

Country offices are encouraged to operationalize PHC as per the joint WHO-UNICEF Vision for PHC through:

1. Tandem delivery of quality primary care and essential public health functions that are accessible by all;
2. Multisectoral actions (e.g. education, water, sanitation, financing) that address the determinants of health outcomes, and
3. Empowering people and engaging communities in service delivery and uptake, and self-care.

Advances in digital, mobile and wireless technologies offer a unique opportunity to accelerate improved efficiency of PHC, especially at community level and to reach underserved population. UNICEF’s Approach to Digital Health outlines a common vision for digital health at UNICEF, identify strategic priorities for investments in digital health that align with the organization’s Strategy for Health 2016–2030, Health Systems Strengthening Approach , UNICEF Strategic Plan (2018-2021) and the Data for Children Strategic Framework, and describe UNICEF’s comparative advantage in supporting governments and coordinating and aligning with other organizations, civil society, private sector and communities to leverage digital technologies to accelerate achievement of health sector and strategic plan priorities. It outlines approaches that UNICEF can use to support countries to establish digitally-enabled health systems where technology solutions are effectively and efficiently adopted so that the most marginalized and vulnerable children, adolescents and families are reached with health information and services, while at the same time the health system is strengthened to collect, analyze, and use health data to continually improve the reach and quality of services at all levels.

The term "digital health”, which includes both mHealth and eHealth, describes the general use of information and communication technologies (digital, mobile and wireless) to support the achievement of health objectives. Some successful examples include stock management tracking, electronic decision support tools for health workers, health worker communication and performance feedback, targeted messages and service delivery to clients, citizen based reporting for increased accountability, and data storage, aggregation, and visualization to drive action/response.

While most countries now have some level of digitalization of their health system functions, countries struggle with the implementation of a large number of pilots which often are not designed for scale, using systems architecture that lacks interoperability, sometimes using non-validated solutions and solutions that are not designed with the users in mind, and which often do not have a sustainable financial or technical support model to allow for scale-up. This has resulted in highly fragmented and uncoordinated implementation of small scale pilots with many types of tools and software solutions (often targeting the same health workers), not feeding data into health management information systems (HMIS) and not addressing the system problems or Ministry of Health needs.

PURPOSE OF EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)

UNICEF’s Health Section, Programme Division is seeking an expressions of interest (EOI) from qualified Individual consultants for the provision of services related to planning, coordination, strategy design, documentation and deployment of digital health solutions in/for low- and middle-income countries, health information system strengthening, and costing of digital health investments, with a specific focus on solutions to address bottlenecks to health service delivery for women and children. The EOI is to build a pool of expertise around those areas to strengthen country capacity to support governments with activities in the health sector. Individual consultants that meet the requirements of this EOI will be placed on a roster and may be invited to submit proposals related to digital health planning, design and deployment for which specific Terms of Reference would be provided.

SCOPE OF WORK

UNICEF is seeking qualified individual consultants with experience in providing technical assistance and thought leadership on the deployment of health information systems and digital health solutions, including digital interventions for clients, health care providers, health system managers and data services, to be placed on the UNICEF Digital Health roster, managed by the Health section. UNICEF is seeking the services of individuals who would be available to support digital health work on a short- or longer-term basis from their home base, in-house or at our offices in any area that contributes to the achievement of results for UNICEF’s Strategic Plan 2018-2021 Goal Area 1 (All children survive and thrive). Assignments may be at global, subnational, national, multi-country, or regional levels and may be commissioned by UNICEF or undertaken with partners. Depending on the individual country contexts, consultants can be seconded to the Ministries of Health or work directly with UNICEF teams. The roster will be used by UNICEF Headquarters, Regional Offices and Country Offices. The period, type, deliverables and accountabilities of each assignment will be determined by a set of specific Terms of Reference.

Specifically, the EOI is looking for sound expertise and experience in the following domains:

1. Advisory services to help in assessing, designing and developing the digital/eHealth/mHealth Strategy and collaborating with different stakeholders, achieving consensus on digital health governance structures, and establishing strong in-country partnerships.
2. Advisory and analytical assessments of the health system, including the contextual environment, health information system, and health system bottlenecks, and identify appropriate digital health solutions to address identified health system bottlenecks.
3. Providing analysis around prioritizing / rationalizing health system platforms, taking into consideration alignment with best practices for Health Information System architectures (ie OpenHIE) and standards (including for EMRs, registries, data transfer protocols, etc) and in context with national eHealth Strategies / Policies / Regulations as well as existing digital health ecosystems / national investments.
4. Advisory and analytical services to help assessing and gathering technical and functional requirements of selected digital health solutions, designing digital health solutions, developing training materials and documentation.
5. Product and project management support to deployment of digital health solutions, e.g. RapidPro for health, DHIS2, CommCare, LMIS, OpenMRS, telemedicine, data visualization/data analytics etc. 
6. Producing costed implementation plans, project charters and sustainable financing models for countries’ digital health strategies, including financial cost assessments, operationalization and monitoring, scalability and sustainability (technical and financial), implementation research and evaluation, and design/adaptation/configuration needs
7. Strengthening capacity within UNICEF around digital health deployment, including the production of guides and checklists to support UNICEF staff at the country, regional and headquarters levels when making decisions on whether to adopt a new system or software to support health programmes.

PERIOD OF ASSIGNMENT

As this call for applications is related to developing a roster of individuals, there is no particular assignment that is being advertised at this time. EOIs will be screened against the credentials specified below for potential inclusion in the roster for a period of two years. Individuals who are placed on the roster may be contacted to submit proposals based on Terms of Reference for specific assignments. The period, type, deliverables and accountabilities of each assignment will be determined by the Terms of Reference.

DESIRED PROFILE

Qualified individual consultants who meet the following requirements are invited to submit an EOI.

• Advanced university degree (Master's) or equivalent professional experience in health informatics, computer science, public health/medicine, development studies, economics or related field
• Minimum 5 years of work experience at the international and/or national level in the mHealth field, especially on the deployment of information systems and mHealth solutions
• Experience in providing technical assistance and thought leadership surrounding the design and implementation of digital solutions for health system strengthening, including application of recommended Health Information System architectures and standards
• Experience with project management and proven ability to translate complex ideas from various areas into unified, clear guidance
• Experience designing and supporting digital health projects with Governments (esp. Ministries of Health)
• Knowledge and experience in health care programmes is essential
• Knowledge and experience working with Global Digital Goods such as DHIS2, OpenMRS, OpenSRP iHRIS, OpenHIE, MoTECH, CommCare, RapidPro etc
• Excellent written communication skills in English or French. Knowledge of additional UN languages is an asset.

SUBMISSION OF EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)

Interested individuals should complete the upload the  Questionnaire – EOI digital health.docx together with your cover letter by 31st of March 2019.

This EOI does not constitute a solicitation. We do not require bids or proposals at this stage; we merely seek your expression of interest in being on a roster of individuals related to resource mobilization. A response to this Call for Expression of Interest does not automatically ensure that you will be selected to participate in a tender.

UNICEF reserves the right to change or cancel requirements at any time during the EOI and/or solicitation process. UNICEF also reserves the right to require compliance with additional conditions as and when issuing a final tender document. Responses received without a duly completed form or an incomplete form will not be considered. 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