Consultancy: Expression of Interest for Roster, Oxygen consultancies in biomedical engineering and/or oxygen programming - Various duty stations/NYHQ, Health Section, PG - Supply Division

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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.

And we never give up.

For every child, hope.

Consultancy Title: Expression of Interest for Roster, Oxygen consultancies in biomedical engineering and/or oxygen programming

Section/Division/Duty Station: Various duty stations -– NYHQ – Health Section, Supply Division, UNICEF regional and country offices, 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. 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

Oxygen is an essential medicine, required to save the lives of COVID-19 patients as well as millions of women, newborns and children every year. COVID-19 has exposed a massive oxygen gap in many low- and middle-income countries, with limited oxygen infrastructure and production capacity, health facilities not equipped for oxygen provision, and a lack of trained human resources, both biomedical staff to install and maintain oxygen equipment as well as clinicians to provide oxygen therapy for COVID-19 and non-COVID patients.

UNICEF has, even before the onset of COVID-19, invested in improving oxygen access, through updating oxygen device specifications with WHO, including a suite of oxygen therapy equipment in the UNICEF supply catalogue, developing an oxygen systems planning tool to support countries in planning and costing national, subnational and facility-level oxygen needs, and by improving the quality of maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) through improved access to and safe use of oxygen as part of integrated service delivery at Primary Health Care and referral levels.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNICEF has supplied over 30,000 oxygen concentrators and other equipment to over 94 countries and is boosting oxygen production capacity through the implementation of PSA plants in multiple countries – including through an innovative Plant in a Box solution. UNICEF country offices support governments in multiple ways through needs assessment and planning, local procurement and installation of oxygen equipment, service contracts with suppliers, capacity building and other efforts aiming to strengthen country oxygen systems with sustainable solutions for long-term impact beyond COVID-19, and to improve MNCH outcomes. These country-level efforts are supported by a global oxygen team spanning across UNICEF Programme Division (New York) and Supply Division (Copenhagen), in collaboration with regional offices.

PURPOSE OF EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)

UNICEF is seeking expressions of interest (EOI) from individual consultants qualified in either or both of two fields: 1. biomedical engineering and 2. Public Health programming for the provision of services related to planning, coordination, strategy design, procurement, installation and maintenance, programmatic use, monitoring, business analysis and documentation, as well as costing and resource mobilization for oxygen systems in low- and middle-income countries. Specific focus will be on ongoing support to the COVID-19 pandemic in a manner that strengthens health systems and specifically oxygen access and use in the long term, including for MNCH. The EOI aims to build a pool of expertise around those areas to strengthen global, regional and country capacity to support governments with activities in oxygen systems planning and implementation. Individual consultants that meet the requirements of this EOI will be placed on a roster and may be selected and invited by UNICEF headquarter, regional and country offices to submit proposals/be interviewed for short and long term consultancies for which specific Terms of Reference would be provided.

SCOPE OF WORK

UNICEF is seeking qualified individual consultants, with background in either biomedical engineering and/or public health programming, with experience in providing technical assistance focusing on appropriate planning, robust procurement and maintenance systems and rational oxygen use for the COVID-19 response and beyond. The consultants will be placed on the UNICEF Oxygen consultant roster, managed jointly by the Health

programme and Supply Division and used by UNICEF Headquarters, regional and country offices. UNICEF is seeking the services of individuals who are available to support oxygen systems work on a short- or longer-term basis from their home-base or at our offices. Assignments may be at global, subnational, national, multi-country, or regional levels. Depending on the individual country contexts, consultants can be seconded to the Ministries of Health or work directly with UNICEF teams. 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 proven experience in several of the following domains:

• Inventory, need assessment, analysis and budgeting to inform decision making
• Development and implementation of national or subnational oxygen strategies/roadmaps/improvement plans
• Development of structured country level oxygen procurement plans
• Procurement, site and infrastructure assessment, installation, commissioning, and maintenance of oxygen equipment including PSA and LMO plants
• Supply chain strengthening for oxygen including inclusion of oxygen in supply chain management systems (e.g. LMIS) and tracking systems (e.g. barcoding to track oxygen concentrators), development of oxygen system dashboards (production and consumption)
• Guidance and tools for the programmatic implementation and strengthening of oxygen use for COVID-19 and in the context of maternal, newborn and child health
• Capacity building for oxygen systems and oxygen use – engineers/technicians and/or health workers
• Adapting training materials to the country context (training relevant to clinicians, biomedical engineering technicians, biomedical engineers, logistics staff, and others)
• Previous experience in working and supporting at policy level around assessment planning, medical equipment optimization
• Exposure to/experience in supply chain system strengthening is preferable

Other Skills and Qualifications:

• Computer literacy, MS Office Suite required
• Willingness to learn and use the UNICEF Oxygen Systems Planning Tool and be oriented on other oxygen resources and tools
• Proven ability to analyze data and write reports that are of high quality
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills to liaise with a wide variety of people, good attention to detail.

Core Competencies:

• Able to quickly understand instructions and proactively seek clarification when needed
• Able to work well in a team environment

Functional Competencies:

• Able to work independently and problem solving oriented
• Able to work in a multi-cultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships
• Demonstrated communication and relationship building skills
• Proven capacity to work with collaborative teams across different locations and with different technical skills

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is essential.
• Fluency in written and spoken French, Arabic, Spanish or other UN language is highly desired to enable support across all UNICEF regions

Location of the assignment: Consultants to indicate which regions they would be willing to be deployed to.

Qualifications:

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

Academic:

• Biomedical engineer consultants: University degree in biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, or related discipline. Advanced degree (Masters) preferred.
• Oxygen programming/public health consultants: Master’s in public health or relevant health care experience

Professional Experience:

• At least five years of experience with in-country medical device management or public health that include assessment, planning and execution, installations, and maintenance
• Hands on experience in oxygen systems (planning, procurement, implementation) is strongly desired, and broader public health experience will be considered.
• Experience in Maternal Neonatal and Child Health programming is a desired asset.
• Demonstrated experience with in-country health systems technical assistance, including for oxygen systems, ideally including low- and middle-income settings
• Understanding of different capacity building models including engaging in-country service providers and private sector

Requirements

• Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and provide Personal History Form (P11)
• Upload copy of academic credentials

• Financial proposal that will include:

  • your daily/monthly rate (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 is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, culture, appearance, socio-economic status, ability, age, religious, and ethnic backgrounds, 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.