International Consultant- Development of Mother Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (MBFHI) Guidelines for Somalia (Home-based)

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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, Protection

www.unicef.org/somalia

How can you make a difference?

Background

Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative has proven to be effective for the breastfeeding practices and the cost-effectiveness.[1]’[2] Facilities that are accredited as ‘baby friendly’ are considered to have established systems and codes of practice that support early and exclusive breastfeeding of newborns. Many countries in ESAR, have implemented BFHI but some of them are still struggling with its effective implementation. BFHI is an effective initiative only if it is implemented with its full essence. The operationalization of BFHI can get difficult if proper planning and ownership of all the professional groups have not been considered[1].

Newly released BFHI guidelines have a greater focus on the quality of care which is a current time’s need. Interestingly, a deeper view of BFHI’s ten steps and WHO’s MNH quality of care (QoC) standards will reveal that most of the steps of BFHI are part of MNH QoC standards. QoC standards provide a comprehensive approach that could facilitate health facilities to institutionalize best practices for breastfeeding without having two parallel efforts.

[1] Wieczorek, C. C., Schmied, H., Dorner, T. E., & Dür, W. (2015). The bumpy road to implementing the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative in Austria: a qualitative study. International Breastfeeding Journal, 10, 3. doi:10.1186/s13006-015-0030-0

UNICEF commits to work alongside governments and partners to strengthen the capacity of different systems to deliver results for women and children. UNICEF efforts will focus on engaging the health system to foster the establishment of a culture of breastfeeding at all levels. Benefits of integration of quality of care maternal and newborn standards, maternal nutrition recommendations, and BFHI standards will be enormous and some of them are as follows:

• Support institutionalization of BFHI – in the long run, will be less resource-intense both in terms of human and financial.
• In the era of scarcity of resources, the health and nutrition sectors will be able to leverage each other’s limited resources.
• Integration will provide us an excellent opportunity/form for coordination between the health and nutrition sectors.
• Generate more support from the health sector and health professional bodies.

This is a specialized task, which requires more time and focus. Staff may be distracted by other competing priorities and may not be able to find time to concentrate. The amount of time that may be taken by staff will be more considering their other tasks and areas of focus. This assignment should be completed within nine months.

Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is to provide technical guidance to the Somali government and partners to implement a mother-baby-friendly health facility initiative (MBFHI) aligned within the health system. The overall objective is to enhance the institutionalization of MBFHI as part of the implementation of WHO’s MNH quality of care (QoC) standards. The consultancy will be done in two phases with the first phase involving developing an implementation mechanism of the quality improvement that considers MBFHI and the second phase will be the rolling out of the integrated standards.

Scope

The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Nutrition Specialist, Somalia, supported by the Regional Nutrition Specialist responsible for MIYCN;

1. The Nutrition Specialist SCO will facilitate communication between the consultant and the Somalia government and partners.
2. The consultant will complete all activities and deliverables listed within the allotted time frame.

3. End consultancy performance review will be conducted upon receipt of all deliverables by the consultant and finalized by SCO.

   Methodology

• Conduct a situational analysis of the quality of care in maternal and child health services including breastfeeding support services.
• Develop a draft report of findings.
• Facilitate stakeholder consultations on the findings to identify strategies for improving gaps.
• Powerpoint presentation on findings
• Presentation of global MNH quality of care, maternal nutritional
• Presentation of BFHI standards

• Facilitate discussion on identification of areas of integration for MNH quality standards and BFHI standards which will culminate into the MBFHI guidelines

• Develop draft MBFHI guidelines-the facility-based QI system

• Support the development of QI indicators and health facility checklist for the self-assessment (facility-level)
• Development of training package, testing, and validation
• Conduct Training of National Trainers (trainers drawn from CSR, Puntland, and Somaliland)

Work overview (task, deliverables, and duration)

Task/Milestone

Deliverables

Duration (days)

Deadline

1. Conduct a situational analysis of MNH and breastfeeding support services in Somalia.

Situational Analysis Report

15. days

16. May 2022

17. Facilitate stakeholder consultations and develop MBFHI guidelines for Somalia

MBFHI guidelines developed

25. days

26. July 2022

27. Develop QI indicators and health facility checklist for the self-assessment (facility-level)

QI indicators and self-assessment checklist developed

10. days

11. August 2022

12. Development of training package, testing, and validation

Training package developed

20. Days

31 August 2022

5. Training of QI teams

Training Report

10. days

30 September 2022

6. Facilitate designing of staff recognition activities

Staff recognition developed

10 Days

30. October 2022

31. Provide technical support for the orientation and training in the selected districts and health facilities

Training and report

10 Days

30 November 2022

8. Support Implementation and document the process of implementation

Implementation report

10 days

31 January 2023

9. Evidence generation via documentation and self-assessments

Self-Assessment Reports and 1 published article

10 days

30 March 2023

Total

120 days

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

• Minimum of master’s degree in nutrition, public health, medical sciences, or social Sciences
• Minimum five (5) years progressively responsible professional-level experience in nutrition programming, including child survival, infant and young child nutrition, and/or maternal, neonatal, and child health and nutrition programs including experience in developing countries.
• Strong track record in undertaking and supporting research, data collection, analysis, and report and article writing.
• Strong technical skills in IYCF.
• Demonstrated effectiveness in project planning and organization, as well as personal time management.

• Ability to work efficiently and effectively with project members/partners in various locations and from multiple organizations.

• Ability to integrate different experiences, methodologies, and approaches from a diverse range of stakeholders, organizations, and technical experts from multiple sectors.

• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered 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. Ability to read, analyze and interpret complex documents.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

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. 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:

Kindly include an all-inclusive financial and technical proposal together with your application.

UNICEF only considers Higher education 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.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.