Consultancy to support the Global Alliance to end AIDS among children by 2030 in Eastern and Southern Africa (30 months)

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Application deadline 10 months ago: Thursday 25 May 2023 at 20:55 UTC

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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, a chance

HIV and AIDS | UNICEF

Background

Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) is the region carrying the largest share of the global burden of HIV and remains the epicenter of the epidemic. In the last decade, much progress has been made, but the gains are still fragile, and HIV continues to have a tremendous impact on the lives of children, adolescents, and their families. In 2021 an estimated 1.74 million children and adolescents aged 0-19 years, in ESA were living with HIV. Approximately 57,000 children and adolescents died of an AIDS-related cause in the same year. Although declining, the number of new infections in children, at 78,000, remains far too high. Testing and treatment coverage as well as rates of viral suppression among children and adolescents living with HIV significantly lag those for adults in this region. While antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage for adults stood at 79% in 2021, only 56% of children were accessing lifesaving treatment in that same year.

In the face of these grave inequities, global partners led by UNAIDS, UNICEF, and WHO together with networks of people living with HIV, PEPFAR, and The Global Fund launched the Global Alliance to end AIDS in children by 2030 (hereto referred to as the Global Alliance) at the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada July 2022. The Global Alliance emphasizes the importance of a ground-up approach with local, national, and regional stakeholders taking ownership of the initiative, and engagement of a broad set of partners. The Global Alliance has four populations of focus: Children and adolescents (0–19 years) living with HIV, children exposed to HIV, pregnant and breastfeeding girls and women who are living with HIV, and pregnant and breastfeeding girls and women who are HIV-negative. There are four pillars of action for the Global Alliance as follows: 1) early testing and optimized comprehensive, high-quality treatment and care for infants, children, and adolescents living with HIV to achieve universal coverage of ART and viral suppression; 2) closing the treatment gap for pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV and optimizing continuity of treatment towards the goal of elimination of vertical transmission; 3) preventing new HIV infections among pregnant and breastfeeding adolescents and women and; 4) addressing rights, gender equality, social/structural barriers that hinder access.

Eight of the twelve inaugural Global Alliance partner countries are in Eastern and Southern Africa. They include Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. All eight have developed high-level action plans endorsed by their Ministers of Health. Accountabilities for the Regional Office in the Global Alliance include technical support to participating countries to operationalize national action plans, liaising between the Global team and Country teams, collaboration with UNAIDS and WHO regional offices, including in co-convening a regional hub for the Global Alliance, knowledge management and resource leveraging in support of the Global Alliance. While ESARO has a dedicated capacity for the elimination of vertical transmission and adolescent HIV, the ESARO team is limited in dedicated expertise on pediatric and adolescent HIV lacks expertise. It is to support key regional accountabilities in the Global Alliance through additional expertise that ESARO is seeking to recruit a senior consultant with a particular focus on closing the treatment gap for children and adolescents.

How can you make a difference?

The overall goal of this consultancy is to support the Global Alliance in Eastern and Southern Africa to accelerate action and progress on closing the treatment gap for children and adolescents and ending AIDS by 2030. The specific objectives for this consultancy are to:

1) provide expert advice and guidance to at least eight countries (through UNICEF country offices and joint UN teams) to operationalize the Global Alliance action plans, with a particular focus on closing the treatment gap for children and adolescents,

2) lend expertise to the Regional Office in operationalizing the Global Alliance regional hub and liaising with global and regional partners for smooth information flow and timely implementation

3) inform action through knowledge management, including the development of knowledge products, south-to-south learning, and support for monitoring the implementation of the Global Alliance in Eastern and Southern Africa

4) to provide technical expertise for resource mobilization and leveraging for operationalizing the Global Alliance and closing the treatment gap for children and adolescents.

Activities and Tasks

Expert technical advice to Country Offices

  • Provide remote expert technical guidance to the eight inaugural Global Alliance partner countries on closing the treatment gap and other aspects.
  • Lend technical expertise to other countries in the region on closing the treatment gap to ensure alignment and continued progress across the region

    Support for the regional hub

  • Provide relevant technical expertise in support of the Global Alliance regional hub and global partnership on behalf of UNICEF ESARO

  • Provide technical advice and guidance to support the translation of Global Alliance policies and initiatives to the ESAR context, especially on closing the treatment gap.

    Knowledge Management

  • Develop, revise and technically edit regional documentation products of UNICEF efforts/activities on closing the treatment gap, including through PHC integration.

  • Provide remote expert technical reviews of country documents related to the Global Alliance. closing
  • Develop evidence and programme summaries on key HIV programme areas to support the Global Alliance, especially on closing the treatment gap.

The specific products will be determined in consultation with the regional team, country offices, and partners as part of the work planning process and in line with developments over time and are likely to include summaries of national action plans, input to the 2023 SADC Health Ministers meeting, and documentation of promising practices and learning from the operationalization of the Global Alliance.

Resource mobilization and leveraging

  • Assess the programming and partner context and make recommendations on promising concepts and initiatives for resource mobilization.
  • In consultation with the Regional HIV and PPP teams, provide expert technical inputs on concept notes and proposals.

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

Education: Advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in public health, social sciences, or related field.

Work experience: A minimum of ten years of professional experience at the international level, including field experience with expertise in HIV programming.

Prior working experience in Eastern and Southern Africa on HIV programming with a specific focus on treatment and viral suppression is an added advantage.

Ability to analyze complex technical information and present it to non-technical audiences.

Accurate, creative, and versatile writing skills

Experience in resource mobilization and partner relations

Prior experience working with UNICEF is highly desirable.

**Language***:* Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

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.

How to apply

Qualified candidates are requested to submit a cover letter, CV, or P11 form, and their technical proposals to the online recruitment portal (Talent Management System).

Interested candidates to indicate their ability, availability, and rate (daily/monthly) expressed in US$ for international or KES for national consultants to undertake the terms of reference. The fees should be inclusive of other costs such as return flight tickets and subsistence allowance incurred during travel to New York (3 days x 4) and to the region (10 days x 1).

Applications submitted without a fee/ rate will not be considered.

Conditions

  • The consultant will use her/his own space and equipment (computer, digital voice recorder, etc.) to produce deliverables.
  • 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 percent of the total contract value in cases where advances 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 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, by local or other applicable laws.

    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 including 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 a reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterward 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.

The consultant is expected to be home-based with potential travel as indicated in the scope of work, depending on COVID-19 travel restrictions for which the UNICEF office would reimburse subsistence allowances and travel costs. If the consultant is required to quarantine while traveling, UNICEF will pay for the quarantine if not organized by the host country. All travel will be by the most economical fare and reimbursement will be as per UNICEF policy.

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, by 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 before 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.

Added 10 months ago - Updated 10 months ago - Source: unicef.org