Health Specialist - Geospatial Health (P-3), Programme Group - Health (DICE), New York HQ (Temporary Appointment 364days)

Contract

This is a P-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 140,639 USD and 184,155 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

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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.

UNICEF Program Group is currently undergoing organizational changes; therefore, the exact location of the post has yet to be determined. Selected candidates may be required to commence duties remotely until the location is confirmed. If reassigned or relocated to New York, candidates may be expected to relocate to a new location again during the initial contract or assignment period. When working remotely, the candidate will be required to agree on working hours with the Hiring Office, which may require inclusion of all or some of the NYHQ core working hours (10AM-4PM).

UNICEF is committed to the vision of a world where everyone, especially children, has access to the care they need, a human right reaffirmed in the 2017 Tokyo Declaration on Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Because UHC includes both access and financial protection, UNICEF is focused on strengthening community health systems and the quality of primary health care. Addressing inequities in health outcomes, strengthening health systems, including emergency preparedness, response and resilience-building, and promoting integrated, multi-sectoral policies and program all remain fundamental to the realization of UHC, and to achieving the SDGs and the goals articulated in UNICEF’s Strategy for Health (2016–2030) and the UNICEF Strategic Plan (2022-2025).

UNICEF’s Strategic Plan (2022-2025) includes Digital Transformation and Innovation as priority Change Strategies, which will require sustained efforts to integrate within regional and country health programmes, build needed technical capacity, and realign technical assistance with country requests. This will require both global coordination to streamline availability of geospatial tools and data suitable to the planning and monitoring of health programmes, as well as field facing, programme guidance on the implementation of such tools and data by UNICEF offices and Ministries of Health. These contributions to primary health care and health system strengthening will support the acceleration of achievement of health-related SDGs.

As countries are operationalizing their COVID-19 pandemic response plans, including National Deployment and Vaccination Plans (NDVPs) for COVID-19 vaccines, there is an opportunity to identify areas where digital health innovations involving the use of geospatial data and technologies can amplify these efforts while also improving health service delivery and strengthening health systems more broadly: From identification of the distribution of target population, to supporting the microplanning of service delivery and optimization of strategies to ensure all target population have access to vaccination services. These areas are aligned with problem areas prioritized by the WHO-UNICEF-Gavi led “COVAX Innovations for Scaling COVID-19 Vaccines Working Group”. UNICEF will support these efforts through the newly established UNICEF-WHO co-led COVID Digital Health Centre of Excellence (DICE). The DICE was established to provide coordinated technical assistance to COVAX recipient countries to support sustainable and scalable deployment of carefully chosen digital health solutions, including geospatial health, that support equitable COVID-19 distribution and that strengthen health and immunization systems in the long term.

For every child, a good health……

Under the guidance of the Health Specialist (Geospatial health), Senior Health Adviser (Digital Health & Information Systems), and in close collaboration with the DICE Senior Health Specialist and the DICE Communications Specialist, you will be responsible for provide technical support to the DICE secretariat to support the establishment and operationalization of the geospatial component of the DICE portfolio.

How can you make a difference?

Coordination of country access to Technical Assistance for geospatial health solutions for COVID-19 vaccine roll-out.

• Support global coordination on utilization of geospatial solutions for COVID-19 vaccine rollout, including maintaining communication and coordination with countries through DICE Regional Portfolio Managers.
• Gather and manages country requests for support channeled through DICE, aggregates and prioritize demand from regional and country offices.
• Contribute to the strengthening of capacity to deliver TA to countries by supporting the creation of ToRs for geospatial consultants or temporary appointments at HQ, regional and/or country level to fill gaps in UNICEF geospatial expertise.
• Foster partnership with regional and national GIS experts towards the development of a surge capacity at suitable agencies, such as regional HISP hubs, the Health Geolab collaborative, KEMRI, Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development, that can provide immediate and long-term technical support to the regions.
• Support the DICE Regional Portfolio Managers in providing adequate TA resources to countries, including facilitate access to assessment and contracting tools, guidance and information products related to geospatial applications.

Development of technical guidance and tools to support rollout of geospatial health solutions

• In collaboration with the WHO GIS Centre and the core partners of the WHO-UNICEF GIS Working group, support the development of technical guidance, tools and information products to support countries in the budgeting, planning and implementation of geospatial solution for COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
• Responsible for development of template TORs / RFPs for country-level contracting of technical assistance for population mapping, health system mapping, GIS-based microplanning and assessment of the geospatial enabling environment, and for contracting the translation of existing implementation guidance on GIS-based microplanning into eLearning material to be made available on the UNICEF Agora platform.
• Building on existing guidance and toolkits such as the UNICEF Managerial guidance for integration of geospatial data and technologies into immunization program and the Gavi/UNICEF rapid implementation guidance, contributes to the compilation of DICE toolkits for digital health platform assessment, country deployment and the technology playbook.

• Support identification of existing geospatial platforms for digital microplanning with potential to be compliant with Digital Publics Goods (DPGs) principles and develop contracts for their adaptation to align with the principles of digital development.

  Knowledge management and dissemination

• Complement DICE Communications Specialist by gathering country use cases and lessons learned on the application of geospatial applications for COVID-19 vaccine rollout, compiles technical summaries for distribution on the DICE KM portal and other UNICEF dissemination channels, and supports facilitation of South-to-South learning and knowledge sharing exchanges.

• Ensure UNICEF supported activities are documented on UNICEF INVENT innovation platform.
• In collaboration with the WHO GIS Centre and the core partners of the WHO-UNICEF GIS working group, establish and facilitate the Community of Practice (CoP) on Geospatial Health to serve as global forum to shares lessons learned related to implementation of geospatial solutions for COVID-19 and routine immunization deployment, identify gaps in TA, training, guidance and resources materials to be developed to respond to country needs, disseminate best practices, innovations and support resources to regional and country-level members.
• Support the DICE coordinator in submitting timely progress/status reports for management, board, donors, budget reviews, programme monitoring and evaluation, and annual reports as related to DICE geospatial activities

Contribute to Global Partnerships for Geospatial Health

• Support the Health Specialist (Geospatial health) in coordinating UNICEF’s external partnerships with development partners and donors, identifies opportunities for additional partnerships and participation in global initiatives related to geospatial health, and contributes to the operations of the WHO-UNICEF GIS Working group, including support in convening meetings, development of brief and presentations.
• Support UNICEF’s advocacy activities related to global funding for Geospatial health.

To qualify as a champion for every child, the candidate must have…

• Advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Health Geography, Geography, Geographic Information Systems, Information Technology or related field.
• A minimum of five (5) years of professional work experience supporting the operational implementation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and geospatial health solutions in developing country context including significant interaction with Governments and/or Ministries of Health is required.
• Advanced knowledge of GIS concepts and main applications of GIS related to global health and country-level public health programs is required.
• Working knowledge of at least one general purpose GIS Software (ArcGIS, QGIS) is required.
• Demonstrated experience developing high-quality technical and/or educational material related to geospatial health applications such as guidance, technical reports, funding proposals or peer review publications is required.
• Experience in supporting the integration of GIS into countries health information systems, including influencing health sector policies and strategies, building digital ecosystems, and implementing strategies for strengthening country GIS capacity and infrastructure, will be considered an asset
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.
• Experience with the United Nations and its specialized agencies is a distinct advantage. Knowledge of UNICEF a clear advantage.
• Prior experience building and maintaining collaboration with development partners, donors, private sector and national government a clear advantage

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.

To view our competency framework, please visit here and Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

• 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.
• For more information on remuneration and benefits, please visit UNICEF’s Entitlements’ page. If you would like to find estimates for entitlements, you may use the online Salary Estimate Calculator
• “UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/”
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.