Community Health Worker Consultant, Dakar Senegal, WCARO, 11.5 months (Remote/ intermittence visits to WCARO & COs)

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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.

For every child, health

Despite the critical role played by CHWs in delivering essential high-quality child and maternal health services and the strong reliance that was even placed on their services during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a paucity of good data on the number of active CHWs, their location, and exactly what services they are delivering. Accurate, updated and reliable data on CHWs is instrumental to the design, implementation, monitoring of disease-specific and integrated programs delivering services at household and community levels. Community Health Programs in WCAR, the national coordination bodies and the program managers, implementers, and the investors/donors would benefit from real-time data on the number of active CHWs providing these services, specifically malaria-related services, their geo-spatial distribution, and capacities to enable effective planning that maximizes impact, efficiency and equity. This data would also provide a basis for advocacy to decision makers in countries where CHWs have not been put to good use in accelerating UHC.

Objectives

• To map the most up-to-date information on community health workers actively working in all malaria endemic countries in WCA drawing from available datasets at country, regional and global levels.
• To consolidate and validate community health workforce data generated into regional database with links to a global and continental dashboards to enhance visualization and use of the data by all stakeholders from country to global level.
• To update the community-based primary health care country profiles in WCAR and contribute to the development of a regional monitoring framework and dashboard to track progress in scaling and institutionalizing community health.
• To support in the coordination and provision of technical support to countries, with priority to the Community Health Roadmap countries in addressing system bottlenecks in the scale up and implementation of national community health programs

How can you make a difference?

The consultant, working collaboratively with key partners and ongoing initiatives, will support malaria endemic countries in WCAR to provide accurate, up-to-date information on the number and profile of active CHWs focusing specifically on those that are actively delivering iCCM+ services. This consultant will also support WCAR countries, focusing on Community Health Roadmap Countries, to do stock-taking of their respective community health programs, support them for priority setting and related workplan for improving and institutionalize community health programs.

The consultant will work under direct supervision of the WCARO Health and HIV Specialist (Community Systems) and collaboratively with the Health Data Analyst (PMR unit), the WCA countries, and be in communication with ESARO and HQ focal points to achieve the following objectives in line with the overall goals of the project:

The consultant will work with UNICEF Regional Office Health and HIV Section and collaborate with other Sections like the Nutrition, WASH and SBC Sections, in the regional office to support the review and identify country specific actions to improve CHW programs in respective countries. To ensure timely data collection, provide dedicated country specific support and evidence-based solutions to strengthen community health programs, this dedicated technical expertise is required to carry out specific tasks. Therefore, the UNICEF WCARO Health and HIV section is seeking to recruit a consultant to support its overall efforts to strengthen community health systems.

The consultant will be home based with frequent travel in the region. S/he will work under direct supervision of and report to the WCARO Health and HIV Specialist (Community Systems) and collaboratively with the Health Data Analyst (PMR unit), under the overall guidance of the Regional Health and HIV Advisor. S/he will communicate and interact closely with the UNICEF Country offices in WCAR and be in communication with ESARO and HQ focal points.

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

Education: Advanced University degree in Public Health, Social Sciences, or a related maternal and child survival area including Community Health and Primary Health Care*

*A first level university degree with two additional years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least five (5) years of progressively responsible professional work experience at the national and international levels preferably in public health or related field, with focus on MNCAH/community health.
• Experience in data collection and research
• Experience working on community health in WCAR is a strong asset.

Language Requirements: Excellent knowledge of French and English (written and oral).

How to Apply

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

1. Cover letter/application.

2. Financial quote at a daily rate in US Dollars including all taxes.

3. Examples of previous, relevant work.

4. At least 3 Reference contacts.

Please indicate your availability and daily rate to undertake the terms of reference above.

Applications submitted without a daily rate will not be considered. Travel costs and DSA will be covered in accordance with UN rules and regulations. No other remunerations apply. UNICEF considers best value for money as a criterion for evaluating potential candidates. As a general principle, the fees payable to a consultant or individual contractor follow the “best value for money” principle, i.e., achieving the desired outcome at the lowest possible fee.

Conditions

The conditions for the contract are as follows:

• The contractor will be responsible for the use of his/her own ICT equipment and software
• All travel is by most economical fare and reimbursement as per UNICEF policy
• As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment is made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary
• Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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 be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

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

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.