Individual Contractor: Hand Hygiene for All – Regional Coordinator (MENA Regional Office)
Contract
This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.
LOCATION/DURATION:
Duration: 11.5 months
Location: UNICEF regional office, Amman
Estimated Start Date: 15 November 2020
Estimated end Date: 30 October 2021
BACKGROUND:
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.
The dawn of the SDGs era was marked by over 35 million children in the Middle East and North Africa region lacking access to safely managed drinking water services, over 1.25 million children using untreated water for drinking purposes, over 100 million children lacking access to safely managed sanitation services and over 4 million children lacking access to hygiene facilities including hand washing. 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 WHO and UNICEF-led initiative calls for countries to lay out comprehensive roadmaps that bridge together national COVID-19 preparedness and response plans with mid- and long-term national development plans to ensure hand hygiene is a mainstay beyond the pandemic, as part of infection prevention and control (IPC) and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) efforts. The 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.
OBJECTIVE:
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
DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT:
Under the supervision of the WASH Regional Adviser 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:
- 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, RCCE, etc.)
- Identify and set up a suitable communication mechanism with core partners (e.g. regular newsletters, email updates, etc.)
- Support countries to set up and run monitoring systems or integrate hand hygiene into existing monitoring systems
- Maintain a database of regional membership and commitments
- 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
- Participate in relevant meetings and events including COVID task team, Interagency RCCE, etc.
- 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 (e.g. Cholera platform and IPC coordination mechanisms and regional task forces)
- Knowledge management and evidence generation
- Facilitate and moderate discussions on multi-lateral platforms for knowledge exchange (Knowledge point, Yammer 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 relevant evidence generation including reviewing and synthesizing regional behavioral data on hand hygiene practices; technical support to countries in collecting and using hand hygiene behavioral data, identification of emergency practices and lessons learned, etc.
- Prepare a thought/discussion paper on enablers and constraints around handwashing and hygiene linked to the regional accelerator on climate change and water scarcity. What do these behaviours look like and their feasibility in places with water scarcity. What new partnerships would be required here. How to engage with private sector to diffuse these practices.
- 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
- Technical support to countries
- Provide countries with timely, constructive feedback on technical documents, including country roadmaps for hand hygiene; case studies; policies, strategies and plans; etc.
- Support countries to set up knowledge exchange mechanisms
- Support countries to set up and run monitoring systems or integrate hand hygiene into existing monitoring systems
KEY DELIVERABLES:
Work Assignment Overview
Tasks/Milestone:
Deliverables/Outputs:
Timeline
Work plan with timelines, roles and responsibilities
Regular meetings organized and documented
Identified and set up regular communication mechanism
Written updates (max. 2 pages) on progress against the workplan, including updated calendar, membership database and commitments
November 2020
Once per month
December 2020
Monthly reports
Regional communications and advocacy plan
Design and execution of events, webinars, conferences, etc.
High-level advocacy product
Core partner meetings with regional multi-stakeholder platforms
Timely and constructive inputs into the regional communications and advocacy plan
Brief documentation of outcomes (max. 500 words each) of at least one high-level advocacy events
Recordings and Q&A from 6 webinars
One advocacy product developed (max. 2,000 words)
Minutes of regional meetings
February 2021
TBD
May 2021
Bimonthly
Curation of knowledge products and exchange
Case studies
Translation and regional dissemination of key technical resources
Prepare summary reports, briefing notes, presentations and updates as needed
Evidence generation
Regional inputs to quarterly global newsletter
Monthly updates on online engagement and curation of content generated in the region (max. 1 page)
Documented lessons learnt from countries with outstanding hand hygiene programming in two case studies (max. 1,500 words each)
Translation of 5 key technical resources supported and shared widely
As needed
One regional synthesis paper on handwashing behaviours in region. One thought paper on handwashing in water scarce contexts.
Regional inputs for HH4A global newsletter shared timely
Monthly updates
May 2021
July 2021
As required
As required
As required
As required
Quarterly
Technical support and feedback
Country support
Timely, technically sound and constructive feedback on draft documents (country roadmaps, guidance, case studies, etc.)
Monthly progress reports on support provided to Country Offices (max. 1 page)
As required
Monthly report
REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
- Written monthly updates (max. 2 pages) on progress against the workplan (14 reports), including updated calendar, membership database and commitments
- Various papers/report/etc. as mentioned above.
- Monthly updates on online engagement and curation of content generated in the region (max. 1 page)
- Monthly progress reports on support provided to Country Offices (max. 1 page)
For individual contractors and consultants, all travel arrangements to commence the assignment, including insurance and visas, will be managed and paid by the individual. Therefore, expected travel costs must be included as a budget item in the financial proposal. Should “mission travel” be required, UNICEF will manage and pay for travel via Travel Authorization. However, this will be subject to the following prerequisites: Medical Clearance, Security Clearance through the Travel Request Information Process (TRIP) system, the Basic and Advanced Security in the Field Trainings, Travel Visa, and liability waiver. Trip prerequisites will be met at the expense of the consultant.
Travel cost shall be calculated based on economy class travel, regardless of the length of travel. Costs for accommodation, meals and incidentals shall not exceed applicable daily subsistence allowance (DSA) rates, as promulgated by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC at http://icsc.un.org). The consultant must travel on UNICEF approved airlines.
QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:
1. Education:
- Advanced university degree in related technical or specialized field.
2. Work experience:
- At least 5 years of professional experience in WASH or Public Health including knowledge management and coordination.
- Experience working with UNICEF or WHO on water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programmes in the region. Experience with related organizations, such as the World Bank, or Sanitation and Water for All is an advantage.
3. Technical knowledge:
- Knowledge of Microsoft 365 is required, specifically Word, PowerPoint, Yammer, SharePoint, and Teams.
- Excellent interpersonal and partnership management skills. Demonstrated
4. Language:
- Strong communication skills (written and oral) in English and Arabic are required.
Payment Schedule:
Monthly Payments: Lump sum payment will be made monthly linked to satisfactory submission of the monthly progress reports, inclusive of all professional fees, daily allowances, living allowances, and other administrative costs. Overtime, weekend and official holidays will not be compensated, nor will any holiday/leave time be granted.
EVALUATION PROCESS:
Qualified candidates are requested to submit:
- Cover letter/application.
- Financial quote as lump sum for professional fees, and lump sum for travel/administrative/subsistence, if applicable.
- CV.
- Examples of previous, relevant work as applicable
- Proposed methodology/approach to managing the project.
- At least 3 Referees
- P 11 form (which can be downloaded from our website at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_53129.html ).
“UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.”