Consultant Medical & Health Programme & Policy

Contract

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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, Good Health

The Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) is one of the frontline public health intervention programs under the Directorate of Health Services within the Ministry of Health (MoH) in The Gambia. Immunization services are provided to the communities through an integrated Reproductive Maternal Neonatal Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) clinics for both fixed and outreach sites, monitored, and supervised by the Regional Health Directorates (RHD). This is one of the high impacts, cost effective child survival and development programs of the Ministry of Health.

The EPI program started in the Gambia in May 1979 issuing BCG, Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), DPT, Measles and Yellow fever vaccines. The goal was to reduce childhood morbidity and mortality due to vaccine-preventable diseases. The EPI made steady progress in implementing and attaining global initiatives such as Polio Eradication, Maternal & Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) and Measles Elimination as well as Reaching Every District (RED)/Reaching Every Child strategy as envisioned in the WHO Regional office for Africa (AFRO) Strategic Plan. This has resulted in impressive child immunization rates of OPV 1 &3 coverage. DHS data shows that in national OPV 1&3 coverage 2019 was 97.5% and 90.4% respectively. DPT-HepB-Hib 1 &3 coverage in 2019 was 98.3% and 92.8% respectively. Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) was introduced in 2015 and coverage in 2019 was 92.1%. In addition, the EPI program has been introduced new and underused vaccines into the routine services, including hepatitis B (1990), Haemophilus influenza type b (1997), Pneumococcal (2009), Measles second dose (2012), Rotavirus (2013), IPV in 2015, MenAfrivac and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in 2019.

The country has very high immunization coverage (Penta 3 at 90% in 2021 and 2022 at national level) mainly due to increasing access, service utilization and good program management. Despite the gains serious challenges in achieving set target due to hesitancy, misinformation, including from social media among others, continue to hamper progress towards achieving high coverage.

The program continues to introduce new and under-utilized vaccines and therefore the need to engage all the relevant stakeholders such as Civil Society Organization (CSOs) to improve vaccine uptake. The EPI aims to engage CSOs to take part in community sensitization and engagement. Thus, mapping is very crucial as some CSOs may not be relevant to immunization service delivery.

How can you make a difference?

The individual consultant will lead to conducting a complete potential CSO Mapping exercise in all the seven health Regions. This mapping would enable the participation of stakeholders and partners with the aim of creating demand to increase vaccine uptake especially the vaccines given at the second year of life (2YLs) vaccines.

Objectives

To identify potential CSOs to support immunization service delivery uptake through desk review and field visits to CSOs.

Deliverables

Areas/ Activities

Deliverables & Report

Preparation and Training/orientation

Minutes

Desk review at various Organization

Reviewed documents

Compilation of reviewed documents

Reviewed documents and analysis

Identify potential Civil society Organizations to support routine immunization

Submit the list of CSOs identified during desk review and filed visit to support immunization

Debriefing with SMT of MoH and partners (UNICEF, WHO, CSOs etc.)

Meeting minutes

Drafting and submission of first Report

Draft report submitted for review

Incorporation of feedback and submission of final report

Final approved report

Schedule of Tasks and Timeline

Areas/ Activities

Deliverables & Report

Preparation and Training/orientation

Minutes

2 days

Desk review at various Organization

Reviewed documents

5 days

Compilation of reviewed documents

Reviewed documents and analysis

5 days

Identify potential Civil society Organizations

Submit the list of CSOs

2 days

Debriefing with SMT of MoH and partners (UNICEF, WHO, CSOs etc.)

Meeting minutes

1 day

Drafting and submission of first Report

Draft report submitted for review

5days

Incorporation of feedback and submission of final report

Final approved report

3 days

Payment Schedule Linked to Deliverables

Deliverables & Report

% Paid

Meeting /orientation Minutes/ report

Reviewed documents

Reviewed documents and analysis (inception report)

25%

Submit the list of CSOs Meeting minutes

25%

Draft report submitted for review Final approved report

50%

Duty Station and Supervision/Reporting Arrangement

The consultant’s duty station is The Gambia and will be working closely with MOH/EPI under the supervision of immunization officer at UNICEF country office. Brief report will be submitted after completing deliverables as per table above for payment. The final report will be submitted at the end of the contract with a maximum of 1 week of receipt of feedbacks.

Qualifications and skills

• University Degree or advanced qualification in one or more of the following disciplines: Communication and demand generation, nursing, Public Health, or a field relevant to communication and immunization
• Must be a national familiar with the local context and regional dynamics of CSOs activities in the Gambia.
• To have the capacities relevant to support health interventions, especially immunization
• At least 5 years of practical experience in Communication and demand generation, risk communication and community engagement and social and behavioral change communication
• Fluent in English
• Ability to express clearly and concisely ideas and concepts in written and oral form.
• Fully proficient computer skills including use of relevant software and other applications.
• Experience in conducting similar exercises especially in low- and middle-income countries is an asset.

Assessment criteria

The ratio between the technical and the financial proposal for this task is 80:20 respectively. Only those proposals that score 56 points (70% of technical points) on the technical proposal will be shortlisted for the review of the financial offer.

Each technical proposal will be assessed first on its technical merits and subsequently on its price. A maximum of 80 points is allocated to the technical component and 20 points for the price component, with a maximum possible total score of 100 points.

The proposal obtaining the overall highest score after adding the scores for the technical and financial proposals is the proposal that offers best value for money and will be recommended for the award of the contract. UNICEF will set up an evaluation panel composed of technical UNICEF staff and EPI unit of ministry of health.

In making the final decision, UNICEF considers both technical and financial aspects.

The proposals will be evaluated against the following two elements:

Criteria

Points (100)

1. Qualification: knowledge, skills and working experience

50

1.1 In-depth knowledge and understanding on CSO Mapping

20

1.2 Demonstrated experience in working in a cross-sectoral environment and ideally having worked with the government institutions.

Familiarity and prior experience with the UN system, or with the international development/humanitarian/emergency community highly desirable.

10

1.3 Professional experience in working or in Social Behavioural change communication and CSO mapping

10

1.5 Excellent report writing and presentation skills, in English

10

2. Methodology, workplan

15

3. Financial proposal

15

4. Interview

20

Mandatories

All prices/rates quoted must be exclusive of all taxes as UNICEF is a tax-exempt organization.

Financial Proposals must be submitted separately to Technical Proposals

The total amount of points allocated for the price component is 20. (The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal of the technically qualified proposals).

UNICEF will award the contract to the vendor whose response is of high quality and meets the specific objectives.

The Contract shall be awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores, subject to the satisfactory result of the interview.

How to apply

UNICEF accepts applications from individual contractors. The Selection Committee will review applications and make a final decision of a successful application based on a review of the quality of the Technical Proposal and methodology of work (60%), the Financial Proposal (20%), and the interview (20%)

All applications should contain the following documents: Technical Proposal, including:

Consultant’s profile/portfolio

Proposed timeframes (days/weeks)

Names and contact details of reference persons

List of publications or analytical reports (if applicable)

Any other additional information to support the application (optional).

Financial Proposal:

Detailed budget breakdown (in US Dollars).

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

To view our competency framework, please visit 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.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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:

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.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

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Added 10 months ago - Updated 9 months ago - Source: unicef.org