National Consultant Digital Health Coordination, Solomon Islands, 12 Months

Consultant Medical & Health Programme & Policy

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, health.

Solomon Islands National Development Strategy 2016-2035 emphasizes prioritization of information and communication technologies for improved access and quality of social services. Likewise, the National Health Strategic Plan 2022-2031 emphasizes health information systems improvement as a key objective. Currently, Health Information System (HIS) in Solomon is mainly based on a combination of paper based reporting from Health facilities to Provincial level and entry of facility-based data into the District Health Information system 2 (DHIS2) application at Provincial level for data aggregation. During the Covid 19 Pandemic, Solomon Islands introduced the COVID-19 tracking system in DHIS2 that assisted in patient tracking, appointments for vaccinations and follow up. Additionally, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) is using mSupply application to manage medical supplies and logistics.

The MHMS with support from partners has embarked on development of a new digital health strategy to provide guidance and direction for investments in digital health in the country. As this is an ongoing process, the MHMS with support from UNICEF and funding from the Government of Japan has commenced the process of improving patient identification and follow-up through unique identity using Master Patient Index (MPI) and digitizing immunization records to enable easy access to a child’s complete immunization history for both health facilities and individuals. The objective of this electronic immunization of this initiative is to provide frontline health workers with the essential tools for recording and reporting as well as client follow up to improve the quality of reporting and follow up of missed appointments. Additionally, it aims to enable access to real-time, high-quality, combined data for informed strategic decision-making at both the national and sub-national levels. The Master Patient Index (MPI) is a cutting-edge technology that matches individual information across different health data systems and prevents the creation of duplicate patient records. This technology ensures that each patient has a unique identifier, allowing for accurate tracking of immunization history and reducing errors in data management. By streamlining information across various platforms, the MPI enhances the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the immunization registry system.

UNICEF, working with MHMS, is looking to hire a committed, business-focused national consultant to coordinate and facilitate the implementation of the MPI and an Electronic Immunisation Register (EIR) as a pilot that would be scaled up country wide in a step-wise manner. The coordinator will play a crucial role in ensuring successful implementation, providing technical support to the Health Information Management (HIS) unit of MHMS and successful integration of the EIR/MPI initiative within the existing healthcare system. Strong communication and organizational skills are essential for this position to effectively engage stakeholders and drive sustainable change.

How can you make a difference?

This consultancy's overall objective is to facilitate and coordinate the implementation of digital health initiatives and technologies, particularly the EIR/MPI project.

More specifically, the consultant is expected to:

• coordinate overall project management activities, in terms of resources, equipment and information/knowledge
• provide technical support to the HIS unit of MHMS and ICT unit of Ministry of Finance.
• support the implementation, monitoring, quality assurance, reporting and documentation of EIR/MPI initiative
• ensure effective communication and collaboration among all stakeholders involved
• monitor and evaluate the progress of digital health projects to ensure successful implementation
• identify any potential (ICT related, programmatic, and/or managerial) challenges or barriers that may arise during the process and develop strategies to address them in a timely manner
• report regularly to project stakeholders on the status of the project and any key milestones achieved

Please refer to the ToR Digital health_Coordinator.pdf for further information on the deliverables and the timelines.

GUIDANCE FOR APPLICANTS:

Please submit a separate financial offer along with your application. The financial proposal should be a lump sum amount for all the deliverables but should show a break down for the following:

• Monthly / Daily fees– based on the deliverables in the Terms of Reference
• Miscellaneous - to cover health insurance, communications, and other costs.

Note: In-country travel costs do not need be included in the financial proposal, as the details of field missions are yet to be defined.

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

Education:

• Bachelor's degree is required in Computer Science, Health Information System or other related fields. Any equivalent combination of education and/or work experience may be considered.

Experience & Skills:

• Work experience in project management and coordination.
• Ability to prepare and interpret flowcharts, schedules, and action plans.
• Solid organizational skills, including multitasking and time-management.
• Strong teamwork skills.
• Familiarity with risk management and quality assurance control.
• Hands-on experience with project management tools.
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience in ICT with emphasis on information system development, project management and implementation
• Experience in coordinating or managing country level ICT projects would be advantageous.
• An understanding of Health Information Systems and or Health experience is an added advantage.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills with the ability to build strong relationships with diverse stakeholders.
• Fluency in English in both in oral and written communication
• Comfortable coordinating between multiple remote teams and stakeholders.
• Excellent communicator of concepts both verbally and in writing to a developing country government and international audience.
• Experience planning, writing, editing, and collating official reports.

Language:

• 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 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 2 days ago - Updated 2 hours ago - Source: unicef.org