National consultancy to provide technical assistance for the development of the National Sanitation Strategy, 42 w/d, Dushanbe, Tajikistan (for Tajik nationals only)

Consultant Programme & Policy Medical & Health

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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, Access to safe water, adequate sanitation and suitable hygiene

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nation.

Overall, the provision of drinking water and sanitation services in Tajikistan are characterized by institutional gaps, overlapping authorities, and lack of financial stability adequate systems. Unavailability of robust WASH related data is also an overarching gap that is hindering efficient planning and decision making. Tajikistan lacks leadership of a single Ministry on Water and sanitation. Multiple components are spread of various ministries. The National Water strategy (a policy document) is still a draft document which is yet to be approved and currently no policy exists on sanitation and hygiene at national level.

According to the WASH Joint Sector Review (2022) led by MoH and supported by UNICEF, only 0.67% of the national GDP (54.5 million USD) is allocated annually to the Water supply and Sanitation sector whereas the required investment is 213 million USD (4 times the existing allocation) to meet SDGs. This allocation is 72% for urban and 28% for rural areas. In terms of overall spending, 80% goes for water supply and 20 % for sanitation. Negligible and difficult to track spending on hygiene. Additionally, Tajikistan is also facing difficulties with full cost recovery of the water supply and sanitation services which is currently at 25% of the total. (75% Deficit). The state-owned service provider are under huge debt already and are struggling to meet quality standards.

Key WASH indicators for Tajikistan remains less than optimal. Tajikistan is a member of the High-Level Panel on Water launched by the World Bank and the United Nations and has announced its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-6) to “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. Tajikistan also committed to achievement of the SDGs and recognized the access to WASH in schools and health facilities as important favorable conditions for sustainable development in its National Development Strategy 2030, National Water Sector Strategy (2020 – 2030) and Water and Sanitation Plans and National Programme for Children that are in the process of development and endorsement.

According to WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) 2017 report, only 47.9% of people nationally in Tajikistan have access to safely managed drinking water services (improved source located at premises, available when needed, and free from microbiological and priority chemical contamination). Similarly, at national level, access to drinking water has improved from 51.2 (2001) to 81 percent (2017). For urban setting figures vary between 87 (safely managed water) to 96.2 percent (improved/basic water), with periodical upward and downward trends. Same sources report figures varying between 36 (safely managed water) and 75.6 percent (improved/basic water) for rural settlements.

There is significant gap of access to WASH in HCFs. Referring to the WHO-UNICEF JMP data available for 2020, only 24.1% of the HCFs have basic access to drinking water supply. The data is missing on access to sanitation, hygiene, waste management and cleaning environment. According to UNCEF Tajikistan, as of 2020, out of 73 maternities / maternity departments within Central District Hospitals (CDHs – secondary level HCFs), 47 facilities (65%) do not meet the required WASH standards. Most challenging situation with access to WASH is in 3,500 rural medical centers (primary health care level). Up to 80% of these facilities have limited or no access to WASH services. Consumables that are key to effective IPC such as soap, hand sanitizers and chlorine are not always available.

There has been a substantial reduction in the under-five mortality rate (U5MR), (from 107 in 1990 to 33 per 1,000 live births in 2017, and infant mortality rate (IMR) from 84 in 1990 to 27 per 1,000 live births in 2017), but children under five years of age continue to die from preventable causes. Ministry of Health and Social Protection (MoHSP) statistics state that in 2016 around 77% of deaths of children under five years of age occurred among children younger than twelve months, and 87% of neonatal death occurred during the first week of life. Many of these deaths are attributable to causes related to poor Quality of Care (QoC) and Health Care Associated Infections (HCAI) that remain largely under-reported, resulting from an unsafe environment including inadequate WASH at HCFs.

On the other hand according to the JMP data available for WASH in schools indicate that 79% of schools across the country have access to a functioning water supply system, 47% of schools have access to improved sanitation and only 26% of schools have water and soap available in designated handwashing areas near toilets. This means that 21% (~ 815 schools = 427,875 children) of schools still do not have access to safe water supply, 53% (2,060 schools = 1,081,500 children) of schools lack access to improved sanitation services and 74% (2,875 schools = 1,509,375 children) of schools do not operate handwashing facilities and no soap near toilets. Large disparities exist in terms of pre-school institutions as well. 48% of urban pre-school institutions have permanent centralized cold water supply against 17% of rural pre-school institutions. A functioning central sewerage system is available only in 7% of kindergartens and early childhood development centers located in rural areas, and in 41% of kindergartens/early childhood development centers in cities.

Tajikistan still facing challenges on increasing expenditures on health that has impacted negatively on the quality of health care nationwide. Problems facing the health care system include obsolete infrastructure and equipment, poor accountability at the HCF level on the application of approved standards and protocols, and inadequate capacity of health care workers to provide quality care. The issues are similar for allocation of budget for WASH in schools which creates a big challenge of operations and maintenance of WASH facilities in institutions.

The Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population of Tajikistan has requested UNICEF to develop the National Sanitation strategy which doe not exist as of now and to also support with costing of the existing Sanitation Development Plan developed with the support of UNDP.

How can you make a difference?

Under the overall oversight of the Chief, Child Survival and direct supervision of the WASH Specialist (international Professional), the Consultant will provide technical guidance and support to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection and more specifically to the Sanitary Epidemiological and Surveillance (SES) Department on the development of National Sanitation Strategy and Costing of the National Sanitation Development Plan. The consultant is also expected to coordinate with other relevant ministries that has key roles on service provision, policy and regulation.

Support the development of the National Sanitation Strategy and costing of the National Sanitation development Plan to determine a clear strategic direction for MOHSP and a costed action plan with financial requirements that could be implemented.

Duty station: Dushanbe, Tajikistan

On-site working days: 42 days (between Oct, 2022 - Jul, 2023)

Off-site working days: N/A

Supervisor: WASH Specialist (IP), UNICEF Tajikistan

Reporting to: WASH Specialist (IP), UNICEF Tajikistan

DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

1. Support the International consultant by providing local contextual knowledge and bureaucratic structural understanding of the country

2. Jointly conduct meetings (along with the international consultant) with the MoHSP, other ministries and the technical working group (TWG) formed by the order of the health minister, to set working procedure/team work/working schedule/processes/steps and list of potential stakeholders/networks to be consulted during the consultation process in collaboration with the local consultant

3. Provide support with identifying key documents for the review of relevant literature on the existing and past policies, strategies, initiatives, projects, survey reports, WASH sector initiatives, sanitation programmes. This would also including consultation with key development partner and government (jointly with the International consultant). This would also include discussions with international consultant to have clarity.

4. Develop inception report specifying support to the International Consultant on the process of strategy development. The inception plan shall spell out the overall process, methodology, detailed outlines of the framework including sub-sections, work plan amongst other.

5. Facilitate various consultative processes/meetings in collaboration with the International Consultant including a workshop. The process/meetings shall follow participatory process engaging all three tiers of governments, development partners, representatives of private and public sectors and other relevant stakeholders and relevant groups such as person with disabilities, marginalized groups, women, children, private sector, civil societies and sectors

6. Work jointly with the International consultant to draft the new Sanitation Strategy and gather feedback through a participatory process

7. Work jointly with the international consultant with presentation of the strategy, under the guidance of the TWG/ministries, to the wider stakeholders and specific groups while ensuring there is political buy-in from a wide variety of governmental stakeholders (all relevant ministries and departments at all three level of governments), and collect feedback

8. Submission of the final National Sanitation Strategy and costed plan to MoHSP jointly with the international consultant.

Deliverable(s)

(Specify final outputs.)

Work Schedule

Payment Schedule

1. Inception meeting with UNICEF and MOHSP to develop clear understanding of the assignment and tasks with sequence
2. Inception report covering outline, methodology and process to be followed for the development

02 days

100% payment upon completion and final submission (and acceptance)

3. Review of an existing WASH policy documentation and literature produced by the GoT and Development partners for the development of sanitation policy and costing of sanitation development plan

15 days

4. Bilateral Consultations with civil society, stakeholders, target groups, government departments and public representatives for the development of National Sanitation Strategy
5. Bilateral Consultations with Relevant government departments, Ministries and Development partners for the costing of the National Sanitation development Plan
6. Facilitate a joint workshop on the basis of the consultations and establish consensus

10 days ( face to face)

7. Produce the draft document based on the feedback and finalizing for onward submission to the relevant government department
8. Work with the International Consultant to develop a standard costing tool using the criteria for casting based on desk review and consultations and a costed plan
9. Close Coordination and follow-up with the established Technical working Group

10 days

10. Facilitate a workshop on sharing final findings and scope of the new costed Sanitation Strategy and make a presentation to the TWG along with the National Consultant

03 days (face to Face)

11. Final Submission to MoHSP

02 days

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/output is incomplete, not delivered, or for failure to meet deadlines.

Due to COIVD19, the work and deliverables are subject to change. Consultancy company need to be flexible to adjust to any unforeseen adjustments that might occur during the implementation.

Upon completion of the deliverables, all documents specified in the deliverables shall be developed and submitted to the UNICEF in soft copy:

Performance indicators for the evaluation of results

The evaluation of the results will be based on:

1. Technical and professional competence (quality of the products delivered to UNICEF);
2. Scope of work (Including methodology)
3. Quality of work (quality of documents submitted);
4. Quantity of work (completing the tasks indicated in the table above within the set timeframe)

In addition, such indicators as work relations, responsibility, drive for results, and communication will be taken into account during the evaluation of the Consultant’s work.

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

• Education: An advanced University degree in environmental studies, public health, social sciences, Public Policy, Economics, Engineering or other relevant field of study. Relevant experience could be used in lieu of relevant degree
• Work Experience: At least 5-8 years proven experience in similar work, in technical report writing and development of concise reports of workshop, meetings, discussion/consultation sessions in English (Russian and Tajik Preferable), for WASH sector. Additionally, extensive experience in policy drafting and technical strategy matters, especially in the development of Sanitation policies/strategies. Past work experience with UN, especially UNICEF Tajikistan is advantageous
• Technical Knowledge: Strong knowledge of the WASH enabling environment is required specifically working on review and development of policies, strategies and national level roadmaps
• Competencies: Strong coordination skills, analytical and conceptual thinking. Ability to work with large teams and guide policy discussions. Excellent writing, communication, and presentation skills with stakeholders. Ability to work under pressure and commitment to work to tight timeframe.
• Language: Excellent working knowledge and communication in English is required. Knowledge of Tajik and Russian is an asset and preferable

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

1. Cover letter/application/CV.

2. A technical proposal with proposed approach to managing the consultancy deliverables, showing understanding of tasks.

3. Financial quote for the consultancy in TJS per deliverable, stating also the timeframe for completion of deliverable and/or daily rate in TJS

4. Examples of previous, relevant work related to the deliverables.

5. Applications without financial quote will not be considered.

APPLICATIONS:

Applications must be received in the system by 5 September 2022 onour website: http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index.php

Only queries can be sent to dushanbe@unicef.org with the subject line “National consultancy to provide technical assistance for the development of the National Sanitation Strategy (until 2030) and Costing of Sanitation development Plan”.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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 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 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org