National Consultant, Digital Health & Information Systems Strengthening, Kampala, Uganda, 7 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, Health

Background:

Community Health in Uganda

Uganda’s policy objectives of improving equity, efficiency, and effectiveness of the health sector, prioritize preventative and promotive interventions and a focus on a people centred approach for integrated Primary Health Care (PHC). These interventions are primarily delivered through PHC, including at the community level. Community level interventions provide a unique opportunity to deliver integrated programmes and Village Health Teams (VHTs)[1]have been identified as having a key role in achieving this. The GoU is highly committed to PHC and recognizes that a strong, well-resourced and well-functioning community health system is at the core of PHC and is critical for the achievement of universal health coverage (UHC). Although initially focused on MCH and communicable diseases, Uganda’s PHC policies and programmes have evolved over the years to respond more comprehensively to its population needs. Following the renewed 2018 Astana Declaration, MoH is putting together a UHC roadmap to respond to the latest developments at the country, regional and global levels. Community health is an integral part of the road map.

With UNICEF support, Ministry of Health is implementing the Child Friendly Communities (CFC) framework in Uganda starting with Kamwenge district. It is aimed at accelerating tangible and sustained improvements in the well-being and development of children in Uganda who are consistently experiencing the highest levels of deprivation and poverty. Key learnings from the Kamwenge district initial implementation will be used to inform the scale up of this approach in the country. As part of initial CFC implementation in Uganda, eCHIS app built on the WHO recommended Open Smart Register Platform (OpenSRP) will be implemented – it will entail empowering health workers at community and health facility levels with the necessary hardware (smart phones, tablets, computers, power banks/ solar units) and trainings, mentorships and coaching focused on strengthening their competences in managing and using eCHIS to better deliver quality services.

UNICEF Country Programme of Cooperation with the Government of Uganda

UNICEF operates in Uganda under a Country Programme Document (CPD) which is signed off between the Government of Uganda (GoU) and UNICEF. The CPD outlines UNICEF’s prioritized areas of support in Uganda, expected results and strategies for how to achieve these. The CPD for 2021-2025 emphasizes the use of innovations and technology to strengthen the community platform under several programme components, including but not limited to: Child Survival and Development (CSD): (incorporating Health and HIV, Nutrition and WASH; Basic education and adolescent development: (also covering Early Childhood Development), and Child Protection.

Under the outcome “By 2025, newborns, children and adolescent boys and girls, especially the most disadvantaged and those living in humanitarian situations, have access to and use of quality integrated health, nutrition and HIV services and benefit from a more nurturing, protective and clean environment,” the CSD Programme is implemented through five strategic outputs:

• Output 1.1. Maternal and Newborn Health - An integrated package of quality services for pregnant and lactating women, including pregnant adolescents, and new-borns; Output 1.2. Child Health - An essential package of quality preventative, promotive and curative services for infants and young children; Output 1.3. Adolescent Health and Wellbeing – A package of quality services for adolescent boys and girls, including programmes that aim at preventing HIV, establishing healthy lifestyle behaviours and diets, and reducing harmful exposures and risk-taking; Output 1.4 Nutrition - a package of high impact nutrition interventions for infants, children, adolescents and women of reproductive age; Output 1.5 WASH - safe water, sanitation and hygiene.

The use of innovations and technology to strengthen the community platform is emphasized in all five of the above CSD programme outputs through, for example, interventions such as consolidation and scaling up innovations in maternal and new-born care (m-health and voucher system), use of eHealth to support Maternal Death Audit; improve scale and quality of community-based management of acute malnutrition; and public-private partnerships for innovative sanitation technologies and maintenance of WASH facilities.

UNICEF Uganda’s Primary Health Care System Strengthening Approach

The UNICEF Uganda District Health Strategy implemented between 2018 to 2022; aimed at achieving five key elements at the sub-national level. A key underlying assumption for the DHSS strategy was that a strengthened district health management team, that has access to and use of high-quality information to inform decision making will support the implementation of an equitable package of RMNCAH interventions at the community and facility level and provide technical support to facilities to achieve this objective. A further assumption was that the HSS actions at the national level support the creation of an enabling environment to support good sub-national management practices. The focus of the strategy was strengthening management capacity with a major focus on the sub-national level (district level – district health management teams). The DHT is a vital component of the PHC system, the focus of current efforts will be on strengthening systems at the community and facility level while building on the gains made during the implementation of the DHSS strategy at both the sub-national and national level.

The implementation of the PHC Systems Strengthening approach in Uganda is guided by the following principles:

1. Leveraging Partnerships: Recognizing the increasingly challenging resource mobilization landscape, UNICEF will capitalize on its comparative advantages, such as the convening power to bring together partners at the national level through existing channels for instance the TWGs and other coordination structures to support PHC implementation.
2. Leverage Public Sector Utilized Implementation Approaches: There is a clear recognition in the PHC framework of the community focus, social accountability and multi-sectoral in nature of action. In this case, UNICEF Uganda will leverage the Programme Based Approach adopted by the Government of Uganda to create a coalition of sub-national level government departments and partners at the district level.

Internally, UNICEF Uganda will utilize the Programme Management Team structure to pave the way for UNICEF sector contributions towards PHC. PHC Systems Strengthening efforts will create change for children through the direct implementation of seven key interventions including: (a) Supply Chain Management; (b) Quality of Care; (c) Data and Digital Health; (d) Governance, Management and Partnerships; (e) Private Health Services & Systems Support; (f) National and sub-national financing, and (g) Health Workforce. In addition to the above, efforts will be applied to ensure collaborative engagement and support to the implementation of robust community engagement and social accountability while ensuring that other systems (Food, Education, WASH, Child and Social Protection) have a clear path and visibility for contributing towards the achievement of the UHC.

Currently, Ministry of Health is digitalizing health service delivery in line with her Health Information and Digital Health Strategic Plan 2020/21 – 2025/26 and the National Community Health Strategy as aligned with the MoH Strategic Plan 2020/21-2025/26. With support from UNICEF, MoH has developed a national electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS) to aid VHTs in delivering integrated health services at community level as well as strengthen capture, quality and use of community data to optimize and enhance community based-service delivery. So far, eCHIS has improved completeness, timeliness, and accuracy of community data capture, reporting and surveillance which is envisioned to greatly improve decision-making at all levels and contribute to health for all. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies like Smart Paper Technology (SPT) have the potential to catalyze more efficient data capture and management especially as a back-up strategy employed during electronic system downtime caused by power outages.

Overall, eCHIS has been rolled out to over 3,000 VHTs across 9 districts so far by MoH with support from partners – Initial implementation of the eCHIS is on-going in two (2) UNICEF focus districts i.e., Lamwo and Ntungamo districts where 500 VHTs are using the system. Ministry of Health with support from UNICEF plans to scale-up eCHIS in more sub counties/ districts including Kampala, Kamwenge, Kamuli, Kasese, Lamwo, Mukono, Ntungamo, Tororo and Wakiso districts. OCR technology (i.e., SPT) has been implemented in 11 districts across the country initially aimed at optimizing data capture and reporting at COVID-19 vaccination sites. To strengthen community and facility linkages, a fully-fledged digital health app (i.e., EMR) will be implemented at health facility level in addition to streamline data capture, management, reporting, analysis, and use including integration with the eCHIS and other initiatives like digital microplanning. This will strengthen beneficiary identity management, tracking, patient care management and accountability of resources allocated to improve population health outcomes. Consequently, supportive supervision, monitoring, learning and quality improvement activities will be implemented to strengthen capacity in management and use of eCHIS, digital microplanning, EMR and OCR technology tools.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of Assignment and Scope:

In collaboration with Ministry of Health and UNICEF focus District Local Governments, the Consultant will support digital health and information systems trainings and develop accompanying technical documentation. In addition, the Consultant will develop and implement a capacity building plan for the Ministry of Health and DLGs aimed at building competency for the Ministry in managing digital health interventions implemented by UNICEF.

Justification

UNICEF Uganda is currently implementing sever digital health interventions including the Electronic Community Health Information Systems, initiated with support from the Rockefeller Foundation and currently being supported by Elma Philanthropies, Johnson and Johnson, Japan Government and some thematic funding. UCO is currently negotiating a 4 year project that will build on this foundation and amplify the results of these interventions. It is therefore crucial that UCO maintains a focus on supporting these interventions to ensure coherence and continuation.

To this end, CSD seeks to recruit a national consultant to provide dedicated and targetted support to the MoH, DHI and partners on ensuring that the roll out momentum for these interventions can be maintained in the face of HR gaps occassioned by the upcoming transitions.

Objectives

This Consultancy is aimed at supporting roll out of digital health and information systems interventions, as well as developing operational technical documents, capacity strengthening, monitoring, and learning. This will contribute to improved utilisation of data for planning, implementation and monitoring of the Ministry of Health Strategic Plan, National Community Health Strategy and National Health Information and Digital Health Strategic Plan.

Specifically;

1. Develop an implementation plan and support implementation for data and digital health interventions at Ministry of Health and District Local Governments (eCHIS, digital microplanning, OCR, EMR etc.) to improve utilization of data for planning, implementation and monitoring of the Ministry of Health Strategic Plan, National Community Health Strategy and National Health Information and Digital Health Strategic Plan.
2. Support the drafting of the Ministry of Health operational technical documents to guide implementation of sustainable data and digital health interventions including the device management and standard operating procedures for electronic community health information systems

Major Tasks:

1. Implement Data and Digital Health Interventions at Ministry of Health and District Local Governments to improve utilization of data for planning, implementation and monitoring of the Ministry of Health Strategic Plan, National Community Health Strategy and National Health Information and Digital Health Strategic Plan.

• Conduct eCHIS (OpenSRP) Master Training of Trainers and district-level trainings for Kamwenge, Kampala, Kamuli & Mukono district.
• Conduct a consultative stakeholders' meeting on determination of catchment areas for service delivery/ planning & monitoring.
• Organize and convene at least two (2) technical bootcamps to produce digital maps for Service delivery planning & monitoring.
• Conduct User Acceptance Testing of Digital Maps for Service Delivery Planning and Monitoring
• Conduct District-Level Trainings on the use of Digital Maps for Service Delivery Planning and Monitoring
• Conduct a requirement gathering meeting for the integration of digital microplanning and eLMIS with a focus on immunization, nutrition and other MCH supplies.
• Conduct a requirement gathering meeting for the integration of eCHIS, FC, CHWR, EMR, Data Warehouse; and eCHIS Analytics and Systems Metrics.

1. Develop Ministry of Health strategic and operational technical documents to guide implementation of sustainable data and digital health interventions.

2. Draft the Guidelines for Digital Microplanning and Geospatial Data Management.

3. Review and finalize the Community Health Information System (CHIS) Guidelines.
4. Review and finalize the Digital Health Change Management Framework.
5. Review and finalize the National Health Client Registry Implementation Framework.
6. Organize and hold writing workshops and stakeholders meetings to validate and disseminate the Guidelines for Digital Microplanning and Geospatial Data Management and CHIS Guidelines.

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

1. An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in one of the following fields: Health Informatics or a field relevant to Primary Health Care Systems Strengthening, Information Systems Strengthening and Digital Health.
2. Seven years of progressively responsible professional work experience in programme management, scale up and implementation of Health Information Systems Strengthening in Low Middle Income Country setting. At least four of the seven years should be within the Uganda health and nutrition context in applying the District Health Systems and PHC systems strengthening.
3. At least 1 year of experience working on a Geographic Information System-related project in the health care system context.
4. Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
5. Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Core competences:

• Builds and maintains partnerships.
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness.
• Drive to achieve results for impact.
• Innovates and embraces change.
• Manages ambiguity and complexity.
• Thinks and acts strategically.
• Works collaboratively with others

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.