Health System Officer ( Primary Health Care)

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Application deadline 2 years ago: Saturday 11 Sep 2021 at 21:59 UTC

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This consultancy is requested by:

To support WHO in occupied Palestinian territory to carry-out the Primary Health Care (PHC) system assessment and develop PHC strategy, including operational plan.

Background

In line with the principles and targets set by the WHO Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW 13), the World Health Organization and its Member States are committed to the achievement of UHC and emphasize the importance of strengthening primary healthcare (PHC) as the primary means to progressing towards universal health coverage (UHC). WHO’s work on UHC is fully aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.8, which focuses on achieving UHC, including financial risk protection and access to quality essential health-care services.

Palestine has achieved strong results compared with neighboring countries in UHC. However, access to hospital services is increasingly constrained by high costs and barriers to referral, contributing to avoidable morbidity and mortality. Fragmentation in the health system and financial constraints related to health employment are also negatively affecting the availability and quality of health services. Furthermore, COVID-19 has imposed additional challenges to the system.

In June 2021, WHO and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have established a new partnership to support the Ministry of Health (MOH) to develop a comprehensive national PHC-strategy and an associated PHC Investment Plan for Palestine. Within this initiative, WHO will extend its technical assistance to MOH to jointly achieve three key milestones between 2021 and 2023 as described below:

  • Conduct a national analysis of PHC-related needs to guide priority UHC reforms.
  • Facilitate multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder policy and societal dialogues to engage them on the needs analysis evidence base, emerging reforms agenda, and investment options.
  • Develop a National PHC Strategy and PHC Investment and Implementation Plan in accordance to the country availability to absorb and ensure sustainable financing and investment.

Planned timelines

Start date: 1 October 2021

End date: 28 February 2023

Work to be performed

Pursuant of the consultancy main objective, the consultant will perform the following functions:

  • Conduct a desk review on all resources to identify critical needs and consolidate all available resources in one needs assessment document.
  • Support to form the PHC task force that WHO in occupied Palestinian territory will coordinate together with the national health authorities and counterparts.
  • Coordinate with WHO Health Systems Team at oPT to participate to all relevant meeting including preparation of relevant documentation and materials.
  • Coordinate the consultative workshops for the planning and implementation of the PHC assessment and strategy development process.
  • Provide input to other technical areas and programs in health system strengthening to ensure integration of efforts in PHC and hospital service delivery.
  • Contribute to the identification and targeting of health inequities and the inclusion of vulnerable groups to ensure equitable access to quality health services.
  • Contribute to promote alliances and stakeholders’ involvement and dialogue as part of the policy dialogue. Stakeholders include the Ministry of Health including main relevant departments/units (PHC directorate, hospital directorates, quality and patient safety, planning, international department and others), main donors, UN partners, NGOs and private sector.
  • Disseminate up-to-date knowledge and findings in the various areas of the PHC initiative for advocacy, policymaking and communication.
  • Provide technical input to the development of the investment plan.
  • Coordinate with WHO Opt and EMRO communication teams to support the content development of media materials in adherence with the visibility and communication plan under the EIB-funded partnership.
  • Ensure adherence to WHO guidance, standards, SOPs and tools, as needed, throughout the consultancy.

Deliverables:

The consultant will produce the following deliverables:

  • In Year 1 (first 12 months of the consultancy)

  • Desk review analysis.

  • Desk review report.
  • Policy dialogue and stakeholder consultations (preparatory materials and reports).
  • PHC assessment.

  • In Year 2 (last 5 months of the total consultancy)

  • Draft of the PHC strategy.

  • Summary of lessons learned (as part of knowledge management).

During the entire period of the assignment (17 months), the consultant will provide WHO oPT with monthly activity reports describing the progress made towards the development of the deliverables.

The consultant will be reporting to the WHO oPT Health System Officer (first level supervisor) and to the WHO Country Representative and Head of Mission (second level supervisor).

Specific requirements

Education:

An advanced university degree (Master level) in medicine, public health, health systems/services administration, health management or health related field from an accredited/recognized institute. Alternatively, PhD in topic relevant to the consultancy, preferably, in the area of health systems planning.

Experience****:

Essential: From 5 to 10 years of relevant and documented experience in the area of experience in PHC policy, planning, and monitoring and evaluation.

Desirable: Previous experience with WHO and/or UN agencies.

Skills/ Technical knowledge

Technical Knowledge in the following areas:

  • Health information systems.
  • Monitoring and evaluation and use of data for improvement in PHC.

  • Health Systems Policy and Reform processes.

  • How to operationalize PHC through policy, planning and service delivery efforts.

Technical skills:

  • Data interpretation and visualization.
  • Technical writing.
  • Communication for multi-stakeholder audience, particularly as applied to complex consultations for policy dialogue and policymaking.
  • Partnership coordination.

Language:

Expert Knowledge of English is required (Read - Write – Speak).

Intermediate knowledge of Arabic is desirable (Read - Write – Speak).

Place of assignment

The first two months of the consultancy will focus on the desk review; therefore, the consultant will work from home. The remaining fifteen months of the assignment will require the consultant to travel to and work in Jerusalem, based at the WHO oPT premises (subject to teleworking measures due to COVID-19).

Medical clearance :

The selected Consultant will be expected to provide a medical certificate of fitness for work.

Travel:

Medical certificate of fitness for work will be required. All travel arrangements will be made by WHO – WHO will not be responsible for tickets purchased by the Consultant without the express, prior authorization of WHO. While on mission under the terms of this consultancy, the Consultant will receive subsistence allowance. Visas requirements: it is the consultant’s responsibility to fulfil visa requirements and ask for visa support letter(s) if needed.

Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: who.int