Consultancy - Hand Hygiene for All - LACRO, Panama City

Contract

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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, an advocate

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of Consultancy:

Universal hand hygiene is essential to prevent infection and reduce transmission of COVID-19, and to safely care for those who are infected. When considering how to achieve universal hand hygiene, it makes sense to consider all settings public and private which includes, households, refugee and IDP camps, institutions (schools and health care facilities), workplaces, markets and food establishment, and transport hubs.

In 2020, in Latin America and Caribbean, not enough countries report on hand hygiene to generate regional coverage estimates at household level and in health care facilities. Out of an estimated 830,000 primary and secondary schools in the region 100,000 (12%) do not handwashing facilities and 235,000 (28%) have limited handwashing facilities (water but no soap). Even in some high-income settings where handwashing facilities may be widely accessible, compliance with recommended handwashing behavior is very low.

Taking full advantage of the opportunity presented to rebuild better conditions for hand hygiene in the context of COVID-19, UNICEF and WHO have initiated consultations on Hand Hygiene for All Initiative. This initiative is calling on several platforms such as the WASH Cluster, Sanitation and Water for All, the World Economic Forum to prioritize hand hygiene but more importantly, take a whole of society and systems approach to hand hygiene. The initiative also aims to support countries and development partners to develop a coordinated response to the coronavirus outbreak, to ensure that hand hygiene is adequately included in coronavirus responses.

The Hand Hygiene for All initiative was launch at the end of June 2020 for which a number of advocacy materials have been prepared. Going forward, the HH4A Initiative will focus on the development of plans, develop and implement tools and workstreams and materials to translate the initiative into action at global, regional and country level. Mirroring the coordination mechanism at global level, the HH4A Initiative will establish regional coordination mechanisms tasked to coordinate between core partners at regional level; engage regional stakeholders and stakeholder platforms; support countries to develop roadmaps, monitoring and knowledge exchange; and capture innovations and distill lessons learnt at regional level.

This consultancy will help to set up and maintain a functional coordination and advocacy mechanism at regional level as well as strengthen the regional office’s capacity to provide technical support to country offices for the Hand Hygiene Initiative.

Scope of Work:

Under the supervision of the WASH Regional Specialist and in direct coordination with the Hand Hygiene for All Initiative Global Secretariat as well as Regional Coordinators in other regions, the consultant will provide regional planning and coordination support as well as technical support Country Offices related to the Hand Hygiene for All initiative. The primary areas of work are the following:

I. Coordination between core partners at regional level

• Prepare a detailed work schedule for the HH4A initiative in the region (objectives, work streams, timeframes, budget, and responsibilities) and provide regular updates to the core group
• Coordinate regular regional convenings of core partners (agenda setting, invitations, meetings, follow up)
• Develop and maintain a calendar of regional events considering a variety of sectors relevant to the HH4A Initiative (WASH, education, health, nutrition, labor, etc.)
• Identify and set up a suitable communication mechanism with core partners (e.g. regular newsletters, email updates, etc.)
• Maintain a database of regional membership and commitments

II. Engagement of regional stakeholders and advocacy

• Prepare one high-level advocacy product to strengthen advocacy activities at regional and/or country level
• Support preparations for Global Handwashing Day and/or other key advocacy events
• Support the identification of strategic moments of engagement and advocacy with regional stakeholder and stakeholder platforms
• Contribute to the design and execution of events (webinars, conferences, etc.)
• Contribute to the regional communications and advocacy plan
• Facilitate core partner meetings with regional multi-stakeholder platforms (WASH LAC Group.)

III. Knowledge management:

• Facilitate and moderate discussions on multi-lateral platforms for knowledge exchange (Knowledge point, Yammer, washlac.com, and/or similar) and motivate active participation by country and regional stakeholders
• Identify outstanding examples of comprehensive hand hygiene programming in the region and document lessons learnt from their programming in two case studies representing different settings and approaches
• Support the global secretariat with the curation of UNICEF knowledge products (situation reports, donor reports, WASH global and regional newsletters, etc.) to identify case studies and experiences on the initiative
• Support the translation and regional dissemination of key technical resources
• Prepare summary reports, briefing notes, presentations and updates as needed
• Coordinate and collate regional inputs to quarterly global newsletter

IV. Technical support to countries

• Provide countries with timely, constructive feedback on technical documents, including country roadmaps for hand hygiene; case studies; policies, strategies, standards and plans; etc.
• Support countries to set up or enhance their knowledge exchange mechanisms
• Support countries to set up and run monitoring systems or integrate hand hygiene into existing monitoring systems
• Support countries’ capacity development assessments of hand hygiene plans (as per SWA building blocks), and with consideration for potential future shocks
• Support countries to set up or strengthen functioning government-led coordination body across public and private stakeholders.

Work Assignment Overview:

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

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• Advanced university degree in related technical or specialized field.
• At least 5 years of professional experience in WASH or Public Health includingknowledge management and coordination
• Experience working with UNICEF or WHO on water supply, sanitation and hygiene(WASH) programmes in the LAC region is an advantage. Experience with relatedorganizations, such as the World Bank, or Sanitation and Water for All is anadvantage.
• Strong communication skills (fluent written and oral) in English and Spanish are required (additional French and Portuguese is an advantage)
• Knowledge of Microsoft 365 is required, specifically Word, PowerPoint, Yammer,SharePoint, and Teams.
• Excellent interpersonal and partnership management skills. Demonstratedexperience working in a multicultural environment and demonstrates the corevalues of UNICEF.

Duration:

From January until December 2021

Number of Days (working): 167 days

This is NOT a full-time consultancy but still requires 167 working days out of 11,5 months

Workplace:

As it is home-based, and the consultant may live in a different time zone we require availability from 9am-3pm (Panama Time) at least during working days.

Supervision:

The consultancy will be carried on under the supervision of the WASH Regional Specialist and in direct coordination with the Hand Hygiene for All Initiative Global Secretariat as well as Regional Coordinators in other regions.

How to apply: Qualified candidates are requested to submit a financial proposal. Proven past experience and financial proposal will be taken into consideration during selection process.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at: Competency Framework Brochure.pdf

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 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:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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.