Re-advertisement: Health Specialist (Economist), P-4, EAPRO, Bangkok, Thailand

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, strength

The East Asia and Pacific region include a high number of middle and upper middle-income countries, reflecting significant economic growth, with the potential to continue to lift populations out of economic poverty. Despite this growth however, social services have not been able to maintain a similar pace, resulting in rising inequity in Access to quality services. UNICEF Will work with governments to continue to advocate for more equitable distribution of domestic resources. In the specialized area of economic analysis in the health/social sector, a Health Economist will be required to provide strategic and enhanced technical guidance and support for economic analysis, costing, and investment cases and devises strategies for resource mobilization to accelerate the scale-up of maternal, newborn, and adolescent health (MNCAH) interventions with a specific focus on immunization.

How can you make a difference?

The Health Specialist (Economist) provides strategic and enhanced technical guidance and support for economic analysis, costing, and investment cases and devises strategies for resource mobilization to accelerate the scale-up of maternal, newborn, and adolescent health (MNCAH) interventions with a specific focus on immunization. The Specialist will also guide leveraging existing resources in this context and related advocacy and policy dialogue with the counterparts.

A position is based in Health section of the UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO). Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Regional Adviser Health, along with technical guidance from the Regional Advisor Social Policy and Regional public financing for children (PF4C) lead to align with the regional PF4C agenda/approach, the Health Specialist (Economist) is responsible for the strategic and operational guidance and technical support in health financing, including immunization financing. This includes support to managing, implementing, monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on health expenditures and financing for maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health, with a focus on immunization.

Specific work areas are:

• Provide strategic and programmatic guidance and technical support to the countries in the UNICEF region to improve the linkages between planning, costing, budgeting, and financing of child health programs with a focus on immunization, including guiding the costing of National Immunization Strategies and supporting government ownership of decision-making process on new vaccine introductions, with product profiles, and costing comparisons.
• Align child health, including immunization financing, to broader health financing and PF4C regional agendas, focusing on efficiency, effectiveness, equity, and sustainability.
• Ensure that policy dialogue and resource mobilization issues are addressed from a sector-wide and “Health in All Policies” approach with the focus that sustainability is not seen solely in terms of additional resources but also as requiring efforts to improve efficiency in the use of the existing resources, being domestic or external.
• Strategically leverage immunization resources to strengthen the pillars of the health system to impact broader maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (MNCAH) services with a focus on decentralized health systems management, innovative service delivery, and equitable access to quality services.
• Provide technical assistance to governments and other relevant stakeholders in the costing of PHC, particularly the operational costs of health, including immunization-related strategic and operational plans, with a focus on improving the allocative and technical efficiency of health systems.
• Work with national governments, health, and international agencies and regional bodies, including those addressing immunization, on sustainability strategies in the context of PHC, primarily identifying new funding sources, especially through domestic resource mobilization.
• Collaborate with the Regional Social Policy (SP) team to ensure alignment of the PHC financing agenda with broader PF4C agenda for maximum impact with a broad range of stakeholders.
• Support the development of research agendas and special initiatives related to improving health policy and financing.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in health economics or public health with a focus on health economics or health financing, or an advanced degree in economics or financing with a focus on health systems strengthening and/or another related field. *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience in health economics analysis and Public Financial Management in Health.
• Experience working in a developing country preferably in the Middle East or North Africa is considered an asset.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered an asset.
• Strong relationship-building skills in the global health community, particularly among donors, multilateral partners, and implementers
• Experience in strengthening public health financing and governance
• Experience in Gavi engagement processes and understanding middle-income countries strategic engagement desirable
• 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 Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework 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. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. 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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable male from programme countries are encouraged to apply.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.