Internal and External VA: Health Specialist (Primary Health Care Coordinator, HSS ), P-4, FT, ESARO, Nairobi-Kenya

Contract

This is a P-4 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 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 139,275 USD and 179,566 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.

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, health care

Health systems strengthening is one of three overarching approaches of the UNICEF Health Strategy which link UNICEF’s actions to its dual goals of ending preventable maternal, newborn, and child deaths and promoting the health and development of all children (the other two are addressing inequities in health outcomes and promoting integrated, multi-sectoral policies and programs). These approaches are necessary to increase focus and coherence across health programs and underpin all of UNICEF’s programming and engagement in the health sector. In this strategic context, stronger health systems are necessary to reach the most marginalized children and women, to sustain the progress achieved, and to increase the resilience of both delivery systems and communities to absorb and recover from external shocks, including public health emergencies and outbreaks.

UNICEF’s approach to HSS is framed around a core set of actions that are categorized as either system-wide or issue‐specific. System‐wide HSS action is further conceptualized as occurring at community, district, or national levels while issue‐specific actions relate primarily to data and information, procurement and supply management, and financing. Underlying all these actions is HSS as a contributor to health security by strengthening the resilience of the system as well as its readiness to respond in the context of emergencies.

Eastern and Southern Africa has the second highest child mortality rate in the world and 19 out of 21 countries are off track in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal indicator for under-five mortality. Maternal mortality also continues to remain high. Despite a consensus on the need to strengthen health systems as a key strategy to achieve Universal Health Coverage, only one country (South Africa) is close to the global average on the Universal Health Coverage Service Index.

How can you make a difference?

The Health Specialist/Primary Health Care Coordinator (HSS) reports to the Regional Advisor Health. S/He is responsible for leading the management, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of the health programme (e.g gender, maternal, neonatal, child survival/development) within the regional office. S/He provides technical guidance and operational support to countries in the region throughout the programming process to facilitate the 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. S/He provides timely and state-of-the-art technical support to UNICEF health country programmes, country office, and regional partners in capacity building, knowledge management, monitoring & evaluation, represents UNICEF in regional fora, and coordinates on UNICEF’s behalf with regional partners and donors.

1. Programme development and planning

Plan and provide technical support and guidance to country offices, for the preparation and formulation of health programme, alignment of the sectoral programme with UNICEF’s Strategic Plans and regional strategies, and assisting countries in budgeting for strategies and linking the strategies to country budgets.

2. Programme management, monitoring and delivering of results

Establish monitoring benchmarks, performance indicators, and other UNICEF/UN system indicators and measurements to assess and strengthen performance accountability with internal and external partners. Actively monitor programmes/projects through field visits, surveys, and/or exchange of information with partners/stakeholders to assess progress, identify bottlenecks, and potential problems and take timely decisions to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for timely resolution. Provide technical support and capacity building of country teams to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the strategic frameworks and operational plans and assist country offices in demonstrating and reporting on results on key indicators ensuring compliance with the commitments made by UNICEF; including progress towards SDGs and Core Standard Indicators (CSIs)

3. Advisory services and technical support

Collaborate and consult with key government officials, NGO partners, UN system partners, and other partners/donors on policies, strategies, best practices, and approaches on health-related issues to support programme development planning, management, implementation, and delivery of results. Ensure quality assurance of country offices programming, documentation – situation analysis, CPD, CPAP, MTR, thematic evaluations, etc. – and country programme implementation.

4. Advocacy, networking and partnership building

Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with health sector government counterparts, national stakeholders, UN inter-agencies partners, as well as global and regional partners, allies, donors, and academia. Promote awareness, establish partnerships/alliances, and support fund raising for health programmes (system strengthening and PHC maternal, neonatal and child survival and development). Develop proposals for additional resource mobilization and reporting to donors. Lead in the coordination, reporting, fundraising and representation of UNICEF RO in health system strengthening and primary health care priority areas of focus, including but not limited to: health financing, digital health, information systems, and subnational systems strengthening. In support of COs and RO and in coordination with HQ, organize monitoring visits, and produce documentation that can be used for fund-raising and advocacy purposes.

5. Innovation, knowledge management, and capacity building

Keep abreast, research, benchmark, and implement best and cutting-edge practices in health management and information systems. Institutionalize and share best practices and knowledge learned. Contribute to the development of policies and procedures and introduce innovation and best practices to ensure optimum efficiency and efficacy of sustainable programmes and projects. Lead, plan and implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of stakeholders to promote sustainable results on health-related programmes/projects. Strengthening of systems for real-time data generation and action, implementation follow-up, and monitoring of the operational plans, within routine information systems.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in 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.
• A minimum of eight years of relevant professional experience in one or more of the following areas is required: public health/nutrition planning and management, maternal and neonatal health care, or health emergency/humanitarian preparedness.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset. Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• 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 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.

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable male candidates from industrial countries are encouraged to apply.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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.