National Individual Consultancy - Consultant to develop national oxygen guidelines (Sri Lankan nationals only)

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

National individual contractor, providing professional technical support to develop a National Oxygen Guideline for Sri Lanka

How can you make a difference?

Goal and Objective:

Under the supervision of the Health and Nutrition Manager, the consultant will develop an oxygen guideline for Sri Lanka. The goal of the national oxygen guideline is to provide standardized and evidence-based recommendations for the use of oxygen therapy in healthcare facilities across the country.

Activities and Tasks:

• Review of Existing Evidence: Conduct a thorough review of the existing literature, guidelines, and best practices related to oxygen therapy in health care settings and gather relevant evidence for the development of national oxygen guideline.

• Establish a Multidisciplinary Expert Panel: Form a multidisciplinary expert panel comprising professionals, researchers, and relevant stakeholders who have expertise in respiratory medicine, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, medical administration, and other related fields. This panel will provide diverse perspectives and ensure a comprehensive approach to guideline development.

• Identify Key areas to be covered in the guideline and the target audience for the guidelines: Identify key questions and gaps that need to be addressed by the guideline. This will involve prioritizing topics such as appropriate indications for oxygen therapy, target oxygen saturation levels, methods of oxygen delivery, monitoring and assessment of oxygen therapy effectiveness, and strategies for weaning off oxygen

• Development of the guidelines: Analyze the evidence and synthesize it into actionable guideline. The guideline should be based on the strength of the evidence, balance benefits and harms, and consider the feasibility and resource implications for healthcare facilities.

• Consultation and Stakeholder Engagement: Seek inputs and feedback from relevant stakeholders including healthcare providers, professional organizations, and policymakers. Their perspectives will help ensure the relevance, applicability, and feasibility of the national oxygen guideline.

• Dissemination and Implementation: Develop comprehensive dissemination plan to ensure broad awareness and uptake of the national oxygen guideline.

• Monitoring and Evaluation: Establish mechanism for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the national oxygen guideline’s impact on patient outcomes, healthcare delivery and resource utilization. This will help identify areas for improvement and guide future updates of the guideline.

Work relationships:

• Based within the UNICEF Sri Lanka CSD section, the consultant will report to the Health and Nutrition Manager and will work closely with the Health and Nutrition Officer, consultant in oxygen system strengthening and CSD Programme Associate.

• The consultant needs to coordinate and liaise with the relevant officials in the Ministry of Health and the state health sector

The consultant will also work in coordination with the County Office, relevant programme sections, health/oxygen experts in, ROSA, HQ and/or external partners with relation to oxygen strengthening where relevant.

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

Academic qualifications:

• Doctorate in Public Health, Medical administration, anesthesiology, emergency medicine OR relevant sector in health
• Background/familiarity with emergency management would be an added advantage

Years of experience:

• At least five (05) years of experience with in-country emergency management, oxygen system management, public health, or medical administration
• Preferably has worked at different categories of hospital in the MOH.
• Hands on experience in oxygen systems (planning, procurement, implementation) is strongly desired, and broader public health or medical administration experience will be considered.
• Demonstrated experience with in-country health systems technical assistance, including for oxygen systems, ideally including low- and middle-income settings.
• Experience in developing Standard Operating Procedures and guidelines is considered as an added qualification.

Language competencies:

Fluency in English (written and oral) is required, along with fluency in either Sinhala (written and oral), or Tamil (written and oral).

Competencies:

Computer literacy, MS Office Suite required.

Familiarity with, or willingness to learn national oxygen supply system.

Proven ability to analyze data and write reports that are of high quality.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills to liaise with a wide variety of audiences, good attention to detail.

Able to quickly understand instructions, to proactively seek clarification when needed.

Able to work well in a team environment.

Able to work independently and problem solving oriented.

Able to work in a multi-cultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships.

Demonstrated communication and relationship building skills.

Proven capacity to work with collaborative teams across different locations and with different technical skills.

Technical skills and knowledge on some or all of the following:

Proven experience working in multi-stakeholder settings.

Experience in developing guidelines and training manuals

Experience in training, planning and delivery of technical assistance.

Proven track record in interfacing with national ministries of health

Work Assignment Overview:

Review existing evidence report on relevant evidence for the development of national oxygen guideline - submit a report - 30th Oct 2023

Establishing a multidisciplinary expert panel chaired by Additional Secretary Medical Services - group of Multidisciplinary panels - 30th Oct 2023

Identify questions and gaps that need to be addressed by the guideline - Report on questions and gaps - 15th Nov 2023

Development of National oxygen guideline in consultation with the relevant stakeholders including healthcare providers, professional organizations, and policymakers - National oxygen guideline - 15th Dec 2023

Development of comprehensive dissemination plan for national oxygen guideline and organize the dissemination workshop - Dissemination plan and the workshop - 30th Dec 2023

Duration - 10 Oct 2023 - 30 Dec 2023

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.

If you think this position might be for you, please take the time to review our Country Office Mutual Agreements before you apply.

If you believe you can be a team member that can uphold these every day, then we look forward to receiving and reviewing your application.