Health Specialist (Health Emergencies), NO-3, Harare, Zimbabwe - (364 Days - Open only to nationals of Zimbabwe)

Contract

This is a NO-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-3 contracts.

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, Good Health!

UNICEF has been operating in Zimbabwe since 1982. We are a team of passionate professionals committed to the protection and fulfillment of children’s rights.

Supporting the Government’s vision of a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income society, the country programme is aimed at contributing to sustainable socioeconomic development that provides all children, including adolescents, with opportunities to fulfil their potential, lead a healthy life, access quality learning and protection and meaningfully participate in society.

For more information about UNICEF Zimbabwe please click here

You can also access and explore all new UNICEF vacancies and create job alerts via the UNICEF Zimbabwe website link below:

https://www.unicef.org/zimbabwe/work-us

How can you make a difference?

UNICEF Zimbabwe seeks to hire a passionate and dedicated Health Specialist (Health Emergencies) for their Health & Nutrition team. Reporting to the Chief of Health & Nutrition, the Health Specialist supports the development and preparation of the health programme and is responsible for Global Health Security upstream and downstream works. S/He oversees planning, managing, implementing, monitoring, evaluating, and reporting the programme progress on public health and humanitarian emergencies, within the country programme. The Health Specialist provides technical guidance and management support throughout the programming processes to facilitate the administration and achievement of concrete and sustainable results according to plans, allocation, results based-management approaches and methodology (RBM), organizational Strategic Plans and goals, standards of performance, and accountability framework. The specialist works in conjunction with other health and Nutrition staff to achieve UNICEF's overall goals for maternal, newborn and child survival goals and objectives for the country. This must be done in full alignment with an ‘epidemic ready’ Primary Health Care approach to efficiently delivery concrete results at scale.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Support to programme development and planning

• Support and contribute to the preparation, design and updating of the situation analysis for the sector(s) to establish a strategic plan for development, design, and management of health-related programmes. Keep abreast of development trends to enhance program management, efficiency, and delivery.
• Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes to ensure integration, coherence, and harmonization of programmes/projects across the Health and Nutrition Section and with other UNICEF sectors and achievement of results as planned and allocated.
• Ensure that health and nutrition planning and inputs on prevention, preparedness and response align with anticipated country risk analysis, regional and global guidance on global health security/IHR.

2. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results

• Provide expertise on upstream agenda with MoHCC, WHO and other partners to achieve strengthening of core capacities for public health surveillance (with a focus on community level) before, during and after emergencies.
• Lead UNICEF agenda on enhancing evidence generation on health threats including but not limited to climate change impact on health and nutrition in Zimbabwe.
• Lead UNICEF contributions to IHR processes such as Intra/After Action Reviews, State Party Self Assessments, State Party Reporting, Joint External Evaluations (JEEs), and the development of National Action Plans for Health Security (NAPHS), should those take place.
• Develop or adapt existing approaches for strengthening stock management and monitoring of emergency supplies within the health sector.

3. Technical and operational support to programme implementation

• Participate in discussions with national partners and stakeholders to promote health and development issues, especially in the areas of emergency preparedness, climate change, including UNICEF mandate areas in emergency such as social behavior change and nutrition
• Draft policy papers, briefs and other strategic programme materials for management use, information, and consideration.
• Coordinate health emergency planning and reporting – coordinate humanitarian preparedness and response planning and reporting from district level and for UNICEF internal planning and reporting (including HAC planning/reporting and preparedness planning);

4. Networking and partnership building

• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with health sector government counterparts, national stakeholders, as well as global partners, allies, donors, and academia. Through active networking, advocacy, and effective communication, build capacity and exchange knowledge and expertise to facilitate the achievement of programme goals on response and preparedness to emergencies.
• Participate and/or represent UNICEF in appropriate inter-agency (UNCT) discussions and planning on health-related issues to collaborate with inter-agency partners/colleagues on UNSDCF planning and preparation of health programmes/projects, ensuring organizational position, interests and priorities are fully considered and integrated in the UNSDCF process in development planning and agenda setting.

5. Emergency preparedness capacities are maintained, and emergency responses with effective coordination are provided.

• Coordinate and supervise in forming emergency preparedness plans relating each sub-area of work in the program
• Lead in monitoring and assessing the nature and extent of the emergency in case of emergency,
• Coordinates and aids the Country Office in identifying where support is required in terms of immediate response as well as long-term strategy and plan.
• Work with emergency specialist in CO to ensure emergency-related plans are updated and maintained
• Develop analytical reports, with priority actions and provide training and technical support to country for data analysis, interpretation and use within UNICEF.
• Provide technical advice and advocacy to MoHCC and UNICEF Country office for conducting rapid epidemiological assessments of the health and general condition of affected populations during outbreaks.
• Contribute to building the capacity of districts to track and collect data related to events of public health concern work with Country Office and WHO (health cluster/sectoral coordination mechanism) to analyze it to anticipate outbreaks, alert and respond when they occur and inform other UNICEF sections (Health, Nutrition and WASH and SBC) accordingly.
• Collaborate with the UNICEF evaluations team and sections to provide appropriate data and standards for monitoring and evaluating cholera preparedness, response, and control programs.

6. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

• Contribute to the development, implementation and monitoring of emergency policies and procedures to ensure optimum efficiency and efficacy of sustainable programs and projects.
• Organize and implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of staff, implementing partners and stakeholders to promote sustainable results on health-related programs/projects.

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

Education: A medical degree with added advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: public health/nutrition, pediatric health, family health, health research, global/international health, health policy and/or management, environmental health sciences, biostatistics, socio-medical, health education, epidemiology, or another relevant technical field.

Experience:

• A minimum of five years of progressive professional experience in health emergency or humanitarian preparedness [Required].
• Strong experience in disease prevention and control, with specific expertise in outbreak preparedness and response [Required]
• Strong analytical skills and ability to clearly synthesize and present findings, draw practical conclusions, make recommendations, and prepare well-written reports [Required].
• Experience working in complex coordination environments with multiple stakeholders. Specific experience working with other health organisations and the health cluster [Required]
• Sound knowledge of the IHR (2005) framework, and experience in contributing to/implementing IDSR, AARs, IARs, JEEs or related activities at the country level [Strong asset]
• Specific experience in managing emergency/epidemic preparedness and response in Zimbabwe or other settings [Strong asset]
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization and in a host government health system [Asset].

Language requirements: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

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 include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. 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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable candidates irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.