Local Consultant to Develop home visiting guideline for mothers and children health and wellbeing

Pristina

Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
Location: Pristina
Grade: Consultancy - Consultant - Contractors Agreement
Occupational Groups:
- Public Health and Health Service
- Children's rights (health and protection)
Closing Date: Closed

Local consultant

Title: Development of the home visiting guideline for mothers and children health and wellbeing Individual Contractor to Develop home visiting guideline for mothers and children health and wellbeing

Location: UNICEF Pristina, Kosovo

Expected starting date: 22 April 2019

Duration: 4 weeks (April - May 2019)

Context

Kosovo is a lower middle-income country with some of the lowest maternal and child health and wellbeing indicators in the European region, with significant urban-rural and ethnic inequities. Neonatal and infant mortality rates are about twice as high in the poorest quintiles (9 and 13 per 1,000 respectively) than in the richest (4 and 7 per 1,000). The infant mortality rate among Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children is 41 per 1,000 live births which is over three times higher than the average infant mortality rate for general population. Only 33% children under the age of 5 receive adequate early learning: this percentage reached 59% in minority communities. The rate of exclusive breastfeeding under 6th month is estimated at 40%.

As part of its response to equity gaps, UNICEF is supporting the Ministry of Health through the implementation of home visiting services, embedded in the family medicine system for mother and child care. The home visiting package includes a standard number of visits provided to families, specific activities during services, recording forms, and work processes that involve counselling on health-related issues, including immunization, breastfeeding, education and early stimulation, injury prevention, responsive and sensitive parenting and maternal health, including mental health.

Based on a roadmap agreed with the Ministry of Health, UNICEF is implementing the home visiting programme in 16 municipalities to date (April 2019). The Ministry of Health has established a working group that includes representatives of central and local authorities, sectorial entities and civil society organization to manage the home visiting programme.

Purpose of the consultancy

Local consultant will support the working group under the Ministry of Health in development of the home visiting programme guideline. The guideline will detail instructions, organised in different chapters, on the planning, implementation and monitoring of the home visiting programme. The aim of the guideline will be to improve the quality of programmatic implementation with the specific objectives to:

* improve child health and development outcomes including immunization status, excusive breastfeeding and– early childhood development, including early learning;
* improve neonatal care and pregnancy outcomes by reaching pregnant women and providing at least two visits during the pregnancy;
* reach out families that are most in need, particularly families from remote and disadvantaged areas and population groups where infant and child outcomes may be worse;
* link families with health care services, social protection and other services in the community in accordance with the needs of the family;
* provide health monitoring and adequate interventions for children with disabilities or developmental difficulties.

The guideline will provide practical advice and tools to health professionals, family medicine teams, nurses and other professionals involved in the rollout of the initiative in order to facilitate the achievement of the above-mentioned objectives.

Deliverables and timeframe

The expected starting for the assignment is 22 April 2019, for a total 20 working days in four consecutive weeks. Within the time foreseen by the assignment the following methodology and time allocation is foreseen:

Tasks	Deliverables	Due date	Working days
Outline a detailed work plan and timeframe.	Submit to UNICEF the work plan	1^st week	1 day
Review the home visiting standards; monitoring framework; the road map; regional home visiting resource package.	Submit the draft outline	1^st week	3 days
Outline the draft guideline based on the reviewed materials.	Submit the draft outline	1^st week	4 days
Conduct one day meeting with the established working group to draw practical suggestions on the use of the guideline and their expectations.	Presentation of the first draft and consultation with the working group	2^nd week	1 day
Draft a solid draft for review to UNICEF Kosovo office	Submit the draft to UNICEF for review	2^nd week	4 days
Deliver 2 days workshop to present the draft guideline and receive feedback; Consolidate recommendations and inputs received from the working group during the two days workshop.	Submit the draft workshop agenda to UNICEF	3^rd week	2 days
Finalize the guideline based on the inputs and recommendations drawn from the workshop.	Submit the final guideline in Albanian language to UNICEF and MoH	4^th week	5 days