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Consultancy: Consultancy for the development of operational guidance on Health Systems Strengthening for UNICEF  - Health Section/Programme Division/NYHQ- REQ#527148

New York City

  • Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
  • Location: New York City
  • Grade: Consultancy - Consultant - Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Operations and Administrations
    • Public Health and Health Service
    • Children's rights (health and protection)
    • Project and Programme Management
  • Closing Date: Closed

Consultancy for the development of operational guidance on HSS for UNICEF and options for monitoring and evaluation of UNICEF’s work on HSS, plus updating the UNICEF-EU Reference Pack for 2020

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.

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. 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. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND 

UNICEF has identified an important role for the organization in ensuring national systems are strong and resilient enough to provide sustainable quality services to those who need them, particularly children, as part of its strategy to achieve its strategic goals, and in response to global imperatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health Coverage. In 2016, UNICEF published its Approach to Health Systems Strengthening as an internal, operational framework to help the agency decide how it can most effectively support health systems strengthening (HSS) in different contexts. 

UNICEF commissioned a formative evaluation of its programming in HSS with the purpose of generating evidence and learning on what is needed for the successful implementation of HSS. A limited number of priority recommendations were identified that will help UNICEF accelerate and strengthen its transition towards HSS, including to develop operational guidance on HSS for UNICEF, adapted to local health systems status, capacity, finance and motivation; as well as to develop and implement a clear strategy for M&E of UNICEF work on HSS. 

In addition, in 2016-17, UNICEF and the EU developed a Reference Pack for UNICEF offices and EU Delegations to use in developing collaborations for programming at country level. This was developed in the period before the current global focus on universal health coverage and primary health care (PHC) and should be updated. This may jointly refer to health, education and early child development, in the context of the two agencies’ focus on human capital development. This will be confirmed after further discussion with the EU. 

The consultant undertaking this assignment will work within the HSS Unit in the Health Section, Programme Division at UNICEF HQ, and will report to and work under the direct supervision of the HSS Unit Chief to support UNICEF's advocacy and partnership efforts on HSS. 

The consultant will support the UNICEF HSS Unit in four areas:

  1. Revising UNICEF’s HSS Approach, as recommended by the Evaluation, to better enable UNICEF offices to understand how to incorporate HSS thinking in programming and public advocacy with governments and partners, with a focus on PHC
  2. Developing more detailed operational guidance on implementation of HSS for UNICEF offices, including through situation analysis using approaches such as systems maturity assessment and the operational framework for PHC
  3. Developing, in partnership with UNICEF’s new Data, Analysis, Planning and Monitoring (DAPM) team, options for monitoring and evaluation of UNICEF’s work on HSS at all levels, and
  4. A rapid update of the UNICEF – EU Reference Pack for Health, possibly incorporating a focus on human capital development by including mention of education and early child development at the level of PHC (but without detail on these). 

Terms of Reference / Deliverables 

  1. Revised HSS Approach according to the recommendations of the Evaluation, including development of two new sections on human resources for health and health financing (including UNICEF’s role in public financial management), as appropriate for offices at all levels and in varying contexts.
  2. Update and improve current sections in the HSS Approach on strengthening procurement and supplies management (PSM) across programmes; quality of care (QoC); data systems and digital health, and health governance and management; within the latter section, introduce specific guidance on district HSS (DHSS) and district-level political economy analysis, health program management and decentralised local governance and budget management.
  3. Revised approaches to routine monitoring of UNICEF’s HSS work, as appropriate to the organization and to context, in collaboration with DAPM.
  4. Maturity model approaches for each HSS component (as used by UNICEF Supply Division, some Regional Office teams and other agencies) developed in coordination with the responsible UNICEF teams in the Health Section, for use at Regional and Country levels.
  5. Brief advisory guidance and check-lists on HSS elements for use in assessments and evaluations of health programmes supported by UNICEF at various levels, during development of national health program documents and UNICEF country program documents.
  6. Updated UNICEF-EU Reference Pack for Health, including the elements listed above.

Qualifications 

(1) Education

  • Advanced university degree in public health, health policy and/or management, health research, family health, global/international health or other health related sciences is required. 

2) Work experience

  • 5-8 years of professional experience in public health program planning and management and/or in relevant areas of maternal and neonatal health care, health emergency/humanitarian preparedness, at the international level with at least two years in a developing country.
  • Relevant experience in health/ program/project development, monitoring and management in any UN system agency or organization at the country level is an asset.
  • Experience in change management processes an asset 

3) Competencies

  • Excellent written and oral communication skills in English with strong interpersonal and presentation skills. Leadership with preparation of published work will be highly valued.
  • Expertise in Health Systems Strengthening
  • Expertise in the development of operational guidelines
  • Knowledge of UNICEF programming in health systems strengthening. Ability to identify issues, formulate opinions, make conclusions and recommendations. Demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter; is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and meeting results
  • Strong organizational, planning, and analytical skills 

Requirements:

  • Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and provide Personal History Form (P11) (can be downloadedhere: https://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_consultancy_assignments.html 
  • Upload copy of academic credentials
  • Financial proposal that will include:
    • your daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above
    • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
    • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
    • Indicate your availability
  • Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
  • At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
  • Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

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.  

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

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. View our competency framework at: Here

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.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

This vacancy is now closed.
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