Consultancy – Consultant, Pre-screened Experts Pool Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Req

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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.

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For every child, HEALTH

Vacancy Announcement: Consultant

Consultancy Title: Consultancy – Consultant, Pre-screened Experts Pool Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

Section/Division/Duty Station: DH&IS, MNCAH, PG Health - Programme Group - NYHQ

Duration: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2026

Home/ office Based: REMOTE

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. 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

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

The Immunization Agenda 2030 is to make vaccination available to everyone, everywhere, by 2030. However, the immunization coverage of various antigens has been sub-optimal, and this could be attributed to both service as well as demand side issues. The decline in vaccination coverage could be attributed to many factors, including an increased number of children living in conflict and fragile settings, areas affected by natural disasters, inadequate health worker availability and their capacity, suboptimal disease surveillance, poor quality of supplementary immunization rounds, inadequate use of second year of life vaccination platforms, supply chain disruptions, and increased misinformation. The stagnated immunization coverages, coupled with the backsliding due to COVID-19 have resulted into an accumulation of susceptible children. The VPD outbreak is usually managed by vaccination of the affected population subgroups and no/inadequate efforts are made to identify the underlying factors, responsible for the outbreak. This leads to a vicious cycle of subsequent VPD outbreaks that further damages the already overstretched health system including the routine immunization programme.

VPD outbreaks can be used an opportunity to strengthen health systems including routine immunization as these outbreaks highlight the communities and/or geographic areas that lack access to routine immunization services and can be markers of inequity in health service delivery.

The purpose of developing this roster is to establish a pool of pre-screened consultants that can be deployed in short time to countries, during the post VPD-outbreak period for planning and implementing Root Cause Analysis (RCA) in the countries, during the Vaccine Preventable Disease (VPD) outbreak. The work will also entail aligning and synchronizing the tools and guidelines, already available for assessing other elements relevant to EPI programme e.g., Coverage and Equity Analysis, Effective Vaccine Management (EVM) and Vaccine wastage studies, gender related analyses, KAP assessment etc.

Scope of Work:

The RCA would entail appraisal of current practices, relevant to different elements of routine immunization programme. The key objectives of carrying out RCA are to:

• Identify the underlying causes of VPD outbreak
• Development of a costed, multi-year action plan to address the system inadequacies to prevent future outbreaks
• Using evidence generated from RCA, for advocacy & resource mobilization
• Periodic review to ensure implementation of action plan
• In this context, the consultant will work with the countries, in the post outbreak period, in planning and conducting RCA in a systematic manner. The consultant will work on the followings:
• Review, revise and contextualize RCA package (Standard Operative Procedures (SOPs), guidelines and checklists after every assessment
• Align the tools already available for other EPI assessments and synchronize these to eliminate redundancy and bring forth efficiency and effectiveness
• Develop a concurrent calendar for RCAs and update the calendar on quarterly basis
• Facilitate countries in planning and implementing RCA
• Support countries in development of action plans
• Develop country reports
• Maintain a database for the information collected from the countries
• Follow up on implementation of the action plans, in the post RCA period, in the respective countries
• Develop advocacy/communication material for MoH/donors/partners etc.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

• RCA package (SOP, checklists, ODK based tool) submitted

By 30 November 2026

• Annual calendar of RCA activities submitted

By 30 November 2026

• RCA planned and conducted

By 30 November 2026

• Country RCA report finalized and submitted

By 30 November 2026

• Country Action Plan developed and endorsed by Ministry of Health

By 30 November 2026

• Revised RCA package (in the first month of each quarter) submitted after each RCA assessment

By 30 November 2026

• Presentation and fact sheets submitted (updated every quarter)

By 30 November 2026

• RCA package (SOP, checklists, ODK based tool) submitted

By 30 November 2026

Qualifications

Education:

• Masters degree/ Public Health or other health related area or social sciences is desired

Language Proficiency:

• Fluency in English and excellent writing skills

Work experience:

• Experience of working in health and/or EPI for at least 5 years
• Experience in outbreak investigation and response and campaign planning and implementation
• Experience in developing and implementing Root Cause Analysis
• Experience in planning and conducing other EPI related assessments e.g. coverage surveys, coverage and equity assessments, EVM and vaccine wastage studies, KAP studies etc.
• Experience of supporting countries in developing donor proposals e.g. Full Portfolio planning (FPP), Health System Strengthening (HSS), Cold Chain

Competencies/Knowledge:

• Strong analytical, oral & written communication skills
• Proven track record in project management with the emphasis on planning and reporting
• Effective facilitator with proven ability to engage and train a group of individuals (through an interpreter if necessary)
• Demonstrated ability to work in a team with multi-cultural environment and proven experience of working in multi-stakeholder and multi-cultural settings
• Proficiency in MS Excel, PowerPoint, Word

Requirements:

Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and

• Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include/ reflect:
  • the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • 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 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: Individuals engaged under a consultancy 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. Consultants 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.