Knowledge Management Consultant, HIV/AIDS UNICEF WCARO Dakar, Senegal - Home based for 3 months

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, a Hope

Background:

West and Central Africa (WCA) is home to about 6 percent of the world's population and bears the second highest burden of the global HIV epidemic, with one-third of the new infections in children and adolescents globally occurring in WCA. More than four decades into the HIV epidemic, three out of four of the 500,000 children aged 0-14 living with HIV in WCA are still not receiving life-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART) because the majority have not yet been tested for HIV.

Humanitarian challenges caused by armed conflict, population displacement, and food insecurity continue to strain community resilience and health systems in several countries in the region. The COVID-19 pandemic might further derail the fragile gains in access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care for children, adolescents, and mothers.

In WCA, only 3 out of 10 children in need of HIV testing received it within the first 2 months of life. The region s coverage of ART among children living with HIV (32.4%) is the among the lowest in the world. Without antiretroviral treatment, up to 50 percent of HIV-infected children will die by their second birthday, with peak mortality at 3 to 4 months of age.

At the mid-point of implementation of the Dakar Call-to-Action, the coverage rate of antiretrovirals in pregnant and lactating women has stagnated at around 48 percent, while the coverage rate for antiretroviral therapy in children has increased by 40 percent in three years and that of early HIV testing in children has increased by 61 percent. This progress remains insufficient in relation to the 2020 targets.

There is hope given that 26 countries renewed their commitment to the Dakar Call-to-Action at the High-Level Meeting held in January 2019. Critical actions to be undertaken as part of this renewed commitment are:

1. Support of the national roll-out of Family HIV Testing;
2. Use of modern HIV testing techniques, such as the combined HIV-Syphilis test in the minimum prenatal consultation package and Point of Care (PoC) technologies;
3. The adoption and scaling up of task-shifting in support of the decentralization of HIV services and their effective integration into maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health programs and services; and,
4. Support of the roll out of combination strategies for retention of mother-baby pairs in care

 With COVID-19, service disruptions threaten to reverse the decade-long progress made for children and pregnant women in the fight against HIV. The progress made is at risk of stagnating or even reversing if women and children are unable to access essential HIV services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reductions in access can occur if country mitigation measures result in disruptions to HIV services, if transportation disruptions complicate people s ability to reach services, if household financial difficulties make services unaffordable, or if people chose not to seek care due to fear that they will contract the coronavirus at the health care centre.

How can you make a difference?

Objectives:

1. Support the documentation of innovative approaches initiated to ensure the continuity of HIV services in the context of COVID-19 targeting two thematic areas:
   1. Leveraging HIV POC platforms to scale-up COVID-19 testing and EID of HIV: Opportunities for scaling up.
   2. The retention in HIV care and continuity of family HIV testing in the context of COVID-19.

Support in the content development and maintenance of the WCARO HIV Share Point site including the updates of the SharePoint dashboards

Scope of work : The scope of this work include:

1. Desk review methodology writing & tools development
2. Regular follow up calls with countries & RO for the validation of methodology and tools and various products
3. Data collection & Data analysis
4. Draft reports writing
5. Finalization of the report including a PPT presentation

Deliverables and Schedules

Deliverables

Timeline

Comprehensive methodology for each piece of the work including: key questions to respond/assumption, geographic scope, sampling, data collection and analysis strategies, dissemination of results.

Estimated duration to complete: 10 days

To be delivered by 2nd week of consultancy

Report for each of the calls with RO and CO, documenting the meeting outcomes and action points, as per the validated KM methodology. These calls include discussions on data collection, validation of various documents, and for follow ups.

As needed throughout the consultancy

1. A full report on Leveraging HIV POC platforms to scale-up COVID-19 testing and EID of HIV: Opportunities for scaling up.
2. A full report on The retention in HIV care and continuity of family HIV testing in the context of COVID-19.

Considerations:

• The full reports must be in Word format.
• The full reports will comprise of the consolidated regional analysis and country-level documentation.
• Summarized versions should be prepared in PPT (for regional presentations) and PDF formats (for printing in brochure style), with relevant graphs/charts and datasets available in Excel.

Duration:

Total estimated duration to complete the two reports is 40 days

Key deliverables due dates:

Progress reports: Due at the end of 6th week of consultancy

Full reports: Due at the end of the 10th week of the consultancy

Report dissemination plan, including drafts for e-mail and social media posts (e.g. Yammer)

Estimated duration to complete: 5 days

To be delivered by 11th week of consultancy

Fully functional HIV SharePoint site with updated website content and latest files

Estimated duration to complete: 5 days

Continuous during the consultancy period. By the 12th (last) week of consultancy, all materials must be uploaded.

Timing/duration : Three months (26 October 2020 to 25 January 2021)

Reporting Requirements :The consultant will prepare the following reports/documents:

• Draft and final full report of each piece of the work
• PPT of reports summary
• Dissemination plans

As part of quality review, a weekly review session will be conducted between the consultant the HIV/AIDS and Health Sections to discuss data collected, preliminary data analysis, draft report writing, PDF and PPT developments, and drafts for the final report. As mentioned in the deliverables, a progress report must be submitted by the end of the 6th week of the consultancy.

Administrative Issues :

• The consultant will work under the supervision of the WCARO Regional Advisor HIV/AIDS. He/she will keep close collaboration with the POC and family testing staff in the HIV section for orientation and guidance and the health officer in charge of data.
• He will work on a full-time basis. He will telework with virtual meetings to discuss the progress as needed
• The consultant will be provided with a UNICEF email address to be issued by the organization once the consultancy starts.
• The consultant will use their own Laptop
• Interested candidates should share a financial offer when applying.

To qualify as an a****dvocate for every child you will have to be a Champion

Profile Requirements

The consultant will demonstrate technical expertise and operational support to the HIV section in knowledge management, which comprises of evidence generation, information & data collection, analysis, and knowledge sharing for the HIV/AIDS section and its regional priorities, in the context of COVID-19.

Education/Skills/E****xperience

• Advanced University degree in Public Health, Global Health, Epidemiology (specifically in HIV/AIDS), or other related fields. A Bachelors degree with 2 additional relevant work experience may be considered instead of a Masters degree.
• At least five (05) years of working experience in knowledge management, organizational learning, evidence synthesis, Â research, policy or other related fields. Evidence of experience and application of knowledge management skills in the field of Public Health, specifically in HIV/AIDS, is a plus.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Extensive experience working with UNICEF or other UN agencies is desirable
• Fluency in English and French required. Knowledge of one other UN working language an advantage

For every Child, you demonstrate Trust

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The functional competencies required for this post are...

• Excellent analytical, conceptual thinking and writing skills
• Analytical skills and ability to synthesize data into concise reports
• Effectively presents data and information to diverse audiences and listens well to instructions and feedback.
• Ability to quickly understand instructions, ask for clarification when needed, adapt and work independently to produce results on time.
• Able to work in a multi-cultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships.
• Attention to detail, good prioritization skills.
• Proficiency in MS Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, and Power Point) and internet navigation required, and a website content management system is preferred.
• Â Extensive experience managing SharePoint and Yammer platforms or equivalent including experience of content management systems, facilitation and moderation of online communities of practice
• Extensive experience in evidence-informed advocacy and/or evidence informed policymaking processes
• Experience of incorporating adaptive learning techniques into project cycle management processes
• Have no immediate relatives (e.g. father, mother, brother, sister) working in any UNICEF office; and
• Have no other relatives in the line of authority which the consultant will report to.

NB: kindly fill in your profile correctly when applying on the UNICEF website. A misinformed profile will not be considered.

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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:

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

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.