RMNCAH Policy and Child Survival Strategy National Consultant (NO-C), Monrovia, Liberia, Programme, 6 months onsite

Contract

This is a NO-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-3 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 is a priority!!

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of Assignment:

The National Consultant will be hired to work alongside an International Consultant for which they will work with Government stakeholders and UNICEF Regional and Country office Teams to develop the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) Policy and Child Survival Strategy. Key relationships at the Ministry of Health will be to work with the Family Health Department, Planning and Research Department and other key stakeholders to develop vision, strategic objectives, and actions to reduce mortality and morbidity of women, mothers, newborns, children and adolescents.

The policy will help to increase access to and utilization of SRMNCAH services and in order to ensure that all those in need of SRMNCAH services are able to access them, while the strategy should include identification of priority evidence based RMNCAH interventions according to the context of Liberia, necessary actions, and strategies to ensure equitable access and provision of continuum of care with quality throughout life course and work with costing unit to cost and align budget plan based on the ongoing costing of Liberia Every Newborn Action Plan and Essential Package of Health Services.

This National Consultant role will focus on providing support to Liberia in the following:

1. Contribute to situational analysis and bottleneck analysis processes by conducting secondary data review with in-country context
2. Coordinate, train enumerators for data collection, key informant interviews and focus group discussions.
3. Participate and coordinate technical working groups with FHP related to RMNCAH to get consensus on the policy, vision, objectives and content of the policy and strategy.
4. Involved in drafting of all reports related to the activity – policy and strategy documents, with buying received from key stakeholders on RMNCAH.
5. Represent UNICEF in various RMNCAH meetings and technical discussions, and carry out other duties as required by the section.

This assignment will include engaging with the UNICEF Liberia Country office, WHO, MOH staff, and other in-country stakeholders in assessing RMNCAH needs and how it relates to other tiers of health service delivery and opportunities for the delivery of quality care through life course in line with the EPHS health Intervention.

The assignment will target the following:

1. Perform key actions, primary and secondary data review for the rapid assessment on the existing assessments, policies and strategies to identify priority RMNCAH approaches/ interventions, strategic objectives, necessary actions and budget.
2. Conduct of Key Stakeholders engagements utilizing the existing technical working groups (TWGs) or formation, as needed) and workshops as needed.
3. Contribute to the development of the 10-year RMNCAH Policy and 5-year Child Survival strategy and work with costing Consultants and Health financing unit for costing.
4. Disseminate findings using the existing TWGs and other regional/ global initiatives such as webinars to get approval and buy-in from Key Stakeholders and share lessons learnt.

Basic Objectives of Consultancy Services:

The National Consultant will be hired by UNICEF Liberia CO. The Consultant will work in close collaboration with the international consultant, UNICEF regional teams and key stakeholders engaged in Family Health Division of the Ministry of Health Government of Liberia. The incumbent will be based in the Health Section in UNICEF in Liberia, under the direct supervision of the Health Specialist who manages the Health Section for a duration of six (6) months.

1. Perform key actions, primary and secondary data review for the rapid assessment on the existing assessments, policies and strategies including situational analysis and bottleneck analysis****:

• Contribute to the desk review of the national health and development strategic documents and existing and ongoing assessments including NSHPP, NCHP, Pro-poor agenda, RMNCAH investment cases, LENAP, ENAP/ EPMM Joint Country Plan and other relevant documents (for target, interventions, and activities) and conduct a bottleneck analysis and prepare situational analysis report.

2. Conducting of Key Stakeholders engagement utilizing the TWGs through active participation****:

• Share the initial findings from the action 1 through the relevant TWGs, engage with the key stakeholders individually to get their feedback to reflect to a draft of RMNCAH Policy and Child Survival strategy, conduct regular meetings utilizing the TWGs to share the draft of the policy and strategy.

3. Contribute to the development 10-year RMNCAH Policy and 5-year Child Survival Strategy and work with costing Consultants and Health financing unit for costing:

• Provide required baseline data, coverage and indicator targets in consultation with the Family Health program. Do write ups for various sections of the RMNCAH policy as directed by the international consultant, and FHP. Extract contents from the 10-year RMNCAH policy and develop 5-year child survival strategy and ensure that it is costed with inputs from the HFUs.

4. Disseminate using the existing TWGs to get approval and buy-in from Key Stakeholders****:

• Share the draft of the RMNCAH policy and strategy using TWGs, conduct validation meetings and dissemination of the RMNCAH policy and strategy documents through MOH with full buy in. Develop implementation plan of the strategy and costed scale-up plan with a sustainable financing model that can be used when approaching donors and other investors. Share the final documents with regional and global partners including Child Survival Action Plan.

Objective 1: Perform key actions, primary and secondary data review for the rapid assessment on the existing assessments, policies and strategies including situational analysis and bottleneck analysis

Key Activities/Tasks

1. Contribute to data gathering for the desk review of national health and development strategy documents including NSH policy and plan, EPHS, and other relevant documents (for target, interventions, and activities),
2. Carry out mapping and desk review of the existing and ongoing assessments including costing of EPHS and ENAPEPMM joint country plan and investment case,
3. Plan, schedule and commence key stakeholders’ interviews to contribute to situational analysis Prioritize evidence based RMNCAH interventions and approaches for Liberia and identify potential strategic objectives, necessary actions
4. Training of enumerators, supervision and data collection as required for the data collection phase

Outputs/Deliverables

1. Work plan of consultants developed and signed off by MOH and UNICEF
2. Consolidated inception report with consolidation of the findings from the existing assessments review of policies, strategies to identify RMNCAH approaches/interventions, strategic objectives, necessary actions.
3. Conducted key stakeholder’s interviews, with trained enumerators, and focused group discussions held
4. Key stakeholders interview report completed

Time frame

2 months

Objective 2: Conducting of Key Stakeholders Engagement utilizing the TWGs through active Participation:

Key Activities/Tasks

Outputs/Deliverables

Time frame

1. Plan and coordinate ongoing meetings and capacity building exercises with Core team to conduct situational analysis and Bottleneck analysis on RMNCAH policy and strategy

2. Lead specific sessions and coordination planning for the validation workshops for the RMNCAH policy and strategy as guided by supervisor

3. Participation in meetings held with TWG to review the draft policy and strategy

4. Presentations done during the regional review of process
5. Preparation, planning and participation in two high level Workshops held to Validate the RMNCAH Policy and Child Survival Strategy

Ongoing through the whole consultancy

Objective 3: Contribute to the development 10-year RMNCAH Policy and 5-year Child Survival Strategy and work with costing Consultants and Health financing unit for costing:

1. Contribute through primary and secondary data collection for the conduct of RMNCAH landscape analysis and BNA.
2. Consolidate input for the finalization RMNCAH policy and Child Survival strategy documents.

3. Indicators, data collation and target setting for the costing process of the RMNCAH strategy alongside HFU.

4. Inputs to the RMNCAH landscape report and BNA report completed.

5. Validated RMNCAH Policy and Child Health Strategy Documents.
6. Contributed to the Costed Child Survival Strategy with implementation plan in place.

2 months

Objective 4: Disseminate using the existing TWGs to get Approval and buy-in from Key Stakeholders****:

1. Contribute to the development of RMNCAH Investment case and Advocacy messages.
2. Document lessons learnt from the process of RMNCAH policy and Child Survival strategy development.
3. Formulate and conduct capacity building strategies and activities to drive continuous RMNCAH programme improvements through transfer of skills, trainings, and webinars.

4. Play a pivotal role in the RMNCAH policy and Child Survival strategy launching with Government and stakeholders and resource mobilization.

5. Representation of UNICEF at all RMNCAH TWG sessions and required meetings.

6. 1 RMNCAH Investment case developed.
7. Clearly documented report of the process including the lessons learnt and recommendations.
8. Participation in high level advocacy meeting held to disseminate RMNCAH policy and strategy.

2 months

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

Qualification required for the Assignment:

Education: Advanced degree in a relevant field or equivalent related practical experience in Public Health, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health.

Experience: Experience in Health Policy Development will be an added advantage.

• In country experience conducting a similar activity and demonstrable experience working with the Ministry of Health, and in the RMNCAH sector.
• Capacity to conduct meetings, coordination and planning for events.
• Strong writing skills with experience in writing similar documents.
• Demonstrated experience on strong networking and engagement with Government and stakeholders.

Language****:

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

• Builds & Maintains Partnerships.
• Demonstrates Self-Awareness & Ethical Awareness.
• Drive to Achieve Results for Impact.
• Innovates and Embraces Change.
• Manages Ambiguity and Complexity.
• Thinks and Acts Strategically.
• Works Collaboratively with others-Establish

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

General Terms and Conditions of the Contract:

• Under the consultancy agreements, payment is deliverable based as defined in the ToR with mix model of home based and in country activities.
• All remuneration must be within the contract agreement.
• No contract may commence unless the contract is signed by both UNICEF and the consultant or Contractor.
• For international consultants outside the duty station, signed contracts must be sent by fax or email.
• Unless authorized, UNICEF will buy the tickets for the consultant. In exceptional cases, the consultant may be authorized to buy their travel tickets and shall be reimbursed at the “most economical and direct route” but this must be agreed to beforehand.
• Consultants will not have supervisory responsibilities or authority on UNICEF budget.
• Consultant will be required to sign the health statement for consultants/Individual contractor prior to taking up the assignment, and to document that they have appropriate health insurance, including Medical Evacuation.

• Mention is it as per the General Terms and Conditions of the Contract.

  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 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:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

For every child, a future!