National Individual Consultancy on Child Environmental Health

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 fulfil 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, child environmental health

A child born today has a much better chance of reaching their fifth birthday than ever before. But climate change and environmental degradation threaten to reverse progress on child and adolescent survival, health and well-being. Children worldwide face a host of environmental hazards, like polluted air, water and food; exposure to toxic chemicals; unsafe infrastructure; and threats related to climate change. Environmental hazards have been linked to a range of significant health risks for children. For example, the global rise of cancer, diabetes, neurodevelopmental disorders and asthma has accompanied a surge in air pollution, e-waste and the use of harmful chemicals in everyday products.

UNICEF’s Healthy Environments for Healthy Children Global Programme Framework outlines five major actions:

1. Strengthening climate-resilience and environmental sustainability in health-care facilities
2. Developing primary health care that's responsive to environmental risks
3. Embedding ‘environmental health’ into school health programmes
4. Promoting climate and environmental education and action with children, adolescents and young people
5. Mobilizing collective action

Environmental factors and climate change have an impact on child health, nutrition and well-being in Azerbaijan in various ways.

For example, the prevalence of malaria in Azerbaijan has been successfully reduced to a very low level through public health interventions, progressing from over 13,000 cases of malaria in 1996 to zero locally acquired cases in 2013. Nonetheless, Azerbaijan’s climate remains suitable for reintroduction of malaria and climate change is likely to increase this risk. Higher air temperatures will allow malaria to affect areas of higher altitude that were previously free from the disease. Of greater concern is the lengthening of the epidemic period of the year that will accompany temperature rises, which will necessitate an increased effort to prevent malaria reoccurring. The widening of geographic spread and lengthening of the epidemic period of malaria in Azerbaijan are expected to occur as soon as temperature rises exceed 1.5°CC−1.6°CC.

General acute gastrointestinal infection, which has affected thousands of people in Azerbaijan in recent years, may pose an increasing threat. Rising average temperatures and potential reduction in water supply may exacerbate the issues that lead to gastrointestinal infection, such as improper food storage and poor-quality water supply. The impact of extremely high temperatures on human health has been increasingly evident in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital in recent years. The city is home to approximately one quarter of Azerbaijan’s population and is subject to an urban heat island effect and has already seen a rise in the number of summer days with maxima exceeding 35°C, with the population struggling to adapt. Research on the period from April to September 2003–2006 indicates that a temperature increase of 1.5°CC in Baku was correlated with an increase in first-aid calls and led to 20%–34% increases in the number of complaints of blood, respiratory and neural diseases. Vulnerability to heat-related mortality is set to increase as extreme temperatures and heat waves become more common and as elderly people make up a larger proportion of the country’s population.

Considering the above-mentioned concerns, it’s the right time to support strengthening the primary healthcare system and communities in preparedness and addressing environmental risks and related health issues and building capacities, systems and partnerships to work on the pillars of the Healthy Environments Framework.

How can you make a difference?

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide technical assistance to UNICEF and the Government of Azerbaijan in designing, implementing, coordinating and monitoring interventions planned within the Health Environments for Health Children Framework, including activities related to primary healthcare (PHC), communities, policies and regulations, as well as advocacy and partnership pillars of the Framework.

Scope of Work:

Result 1: Acquisition of clear and updated information on children’s and youth’s critical environmental health issues, along with the capacity building of PHC workers on addressing these identified needs.

• Rapid assessment of children environmental health issues (burden of diseases) in Azerbaijan
• Assessment of operation of primary healthcare facilities and development of recommendations for optimization
• Advocacy for establishment of institutional focal point within Ministry of Health responsible for children’s environmental health issues
• Review and adaptation/translation of WHO training modules on child environmental health (both for F2F and online training)
• Organization of F2F and online training for PHC workers through coordination with government partners
• Update of medical education curriculum (Azerbaijan Medical University and colleges) on environmental health
• Implementing other activities related to environmental health under the upcoming programme on strengthening primary healthcare

Result 2: Transformation of the social behavior of communities towards a more environmentally conscious behavior, including parents, youth, children and PHC workers.

• Development of new and/or adaptation of existing communication for behavior change and awareness raising digital and traditional assets (including pre-testing)
• Organization of community-level social behavior change interventions/ sessions

Result 3: Public-Private awareness raising, and leveraging the private sector

• Identification/Mapping of all existing government policies that can be potentially updated/adjusted to address environmental health concerns.
• Identification/Mapping of all private sector entities that may have significant impact on environmental health to inform and then broker public-private partnerships and solutions

Develop and deliver a training for private & public sector companies’ senior managers, strategic business & planning analysts, comms specialists/employees on changing organizational culture to factor in environmental health in the company’s CSR strategy, how it impacts their bottom line, and the children – their current and future consumers

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

• An advanced university degree in Public Health, Environmental Science, Social Sciences, Climate, Engineering, or equivalent professional qualification.
• Minimum 5 years of relevant work experience in public health, environmental health and/or environment and climate change related programme management
• Track record in working with government officials, NGOs, as well as private sector companies across industry sectors on environmental and/or health and safety issues, and ability to manage multiple partners
• Professional record of conducting needs assessments and studies
• Strong analytical skills, ability to think strategically, analyse and synthesize diverse environment-related data and information
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
• Strong analytical skills, excellent drafting of professional and standard reports and communication skills; excellent facilitation capacity
• Ability to communicate ideas clearly and confidently, articulate issues and recommend solutions
• Ability to work with minimal supervision
• Proficient English, including in report writing and presentation.
• General knowledge of UN evaluation policy, norms and standards, including a human rights-based approach to programming and results-based management, including gender equality and child.
• Fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to be contracted

Application requirements

The consultancy is open to national individual applicants.

Interested applicants are required to provide the following documents through the link:

• A short cover letter, highlighting relevant experience with similar type of assignments (max 300 words).
• CV of the individual applicants
• A technical proposal with tentative workplan and timeframe
• Financial proposal
• Samples or links to related work previously conducted by the consultant

The shortlisted applicants will be contacted by UNICEF with a technical discussion and interview.

The supervisor of the assignment is UNICEF Health & Nutrition Specialist.

Start date: January 2023

End date: December 2023

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.