UNICEF Zimbabwe is inviting applications for an individual consultant to conduct Full Portfolio Planning (FPP) on Health System Strengthening (HSS) & Equity Accelerator Fund Application to G

Consultant Medical & Health Programme & Policy

Overview

Lead technical support for MoHCC's Gavi application.

You have:

• Advanced university degree (masters or equivalent) in public health, epidemiology, health economics, health systems and health policy, social sciences or a related field.
• Minimum 10 years of experience from leading the design, execution and/or management of primary health care programmes.
• Strong programme design skills including capacity to prepare logical, coherent, and consistent technical documents including Theories of Change and narrative.
• Prior demonstrated experience from developing and writing proposals for institutional donors such as Gavi, The Global Fund, FCDO, etc.
• Previous experience with health systems strengthening and immunization services programming.
• Written and spoken fluency in English required and knowledge of main local languages (Shona and Ndebele) is an added advantage.

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

UNICEF has been operating in Zimbabwe since 1982. We are a team of passionate professionals committed to the protection and fulfillment of children’s rights.

Supporting the Government’s vision of a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income society, the country programme is aimed at contributing to sustainable socioeconomic development that provides all children, including adolescents, with opportunities to fulfil their potential, lead a healthy life, access quality learning and protection and meaningfully participate in society.

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https://www.unicef.org/zimbabwe/work-us

How can you make a difference?

BACKGROUND:

BACKGROUND:

The Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC), Zimbabwe recently developed the National Health Strategy (NHS) 2021-2025. Some of the main strategic objectives of the NHS 2021-2025 are to advance the agenda on Universal Health Coverage, leaving no one behind; and to enhance health systems functionality to modernize health services and expand resilient and comprehensive public health services. To operationalize the NHS objective related to the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), the MOHCC has also finalized the National Immunization Strategy (NIS) 2023-2026 whose objectives are to (a) Increase immunization coverage and equity; (b) Sustain the wild polio-free status of the country; (c) Achieve and sustain regional elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus, and accelerate progress towards elimination of measles, rubella and hepatitis B; and (d) Prevent and control other Vaccine-Preventable Diseases. Building on previous support from “Gavi The Vaccine Alliance” (Gavi), the MoHCC is in the process of making an application through the Full Portfolio Planning (FPP) mechanism to secure necessary financing for implementation of the NIS. This consultancy is therefore required to provide the MoHCC with the required technical assistance for undertaking of the FPP and therefore ensure submission timelines to Gavi are achieved.

Understanding the Problem to be addressed

The FPP process is a complex and labour-intensive process requiring synthesizing of multiple evidence sources to generate a logical framework for the next 5-tear phase of Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) in support of the EPI programme within the broader framework of Primary Health Care (PHC). The outputs that constitute the application to be submitted to Gavi is equally complex and comprise four (4) discrete yet related applications, i.e., the main Health Systems Strengthening Round - 3 (HSS-3), the Equity Accelerator Fund (EAF), the Cold Chain Equipment Optimization Platform (CCEOP), and the Targeted Country Assistance - Partner Engagement Framework (PEF-TCA).

Equity is the organizing principle of the Gavi’s 2021-2025 strategy, whose vision is Leaving no one behind with Immunization. Achieving this vision requires programming across all Gavi funding streams to focus on finding and sustainably reaching missed communities through routine immunization and PHC services to ensure that all children benefit from a full course of vaccines. Gavi’s efforts to reach sustainably missed communities are coupled with a special attention to zero-dose and under-immunized children. As such, proposed interventions will likely need to draw from differentiated approaches suited to local contexts to address barriers to both service provision and utilization.

Box item #1: key definitions

Zero-dose children are those who have not received any routine vaccines. For operational purposes, Gavi defines zero-dose children as those missing a first dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis containing vaccine.

Under-immunized children are those who have not received a full course of routine vaccines. For operational purposes, Gavi defines under-immunized children as those missing a third dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis containing vaccine.

Missed communities are home to clusters of zero-dose and under-immunized children. These communities often face multiple deprivations and vulnerabilities, including lack of services, socio-economic inequities and often gender related barriers

Four main Gavi funding streams are available to Zimbabwe for this purpose:

• Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) support is intended to help countries build strong, equitable, sustainable and high-quality immunisation programmes. The available GAVI funding is for extending immunisation services to reach zero-dose children and communities using tailored and differentiated strategies to build a stronger primary health care platform. Countries are encouraged to work with communities to build resilient demand, and to identify and address gender related barriers to immunisation. The funds also support planning and management of immunisation services and strengthen supply chains to ensure potent vaccines are reliably available.
• The Equity Accelerator Fund (EAF) is a new dedicated fund for interventions aimed at reaching the zero-dose children and missed communities including through scaling up new, innovative strategies and partnerships.
• Partner Engagement Framework -Targeted Country Assistance (PEF-TCA) is a mechanism for Gavi to facilitate provision of technical assistance through staff based in partner offices to deliver specific expertise. The technical assistance is primarily intended to support implementation of the HSS, EAF and CCEOP.
• Cold Chain Equipment Optimization Framework (CCEOP) is intended to strengthen vaccine supply chain capacity necessary to achieve immunization equity and coverage.

The Identify-Reach-Monitor-Measure-Advocate Framework

Gavi is proposing a common framework for countries to design tailored programmes to reach zero-dose children and missed communities, against which Gavi support can be programmed. This framework, the “IRMMA Framework”, has the following components:

• Identify where zero-dose children and missed communities are and why they are missed
• Reach these communities sustainably with differentiated context-dependent programmatic approaches
• Monitor the implementation of programmes that aim to reach zero-dose children
• Measure the effectiveness and efficiency of programmes
• Advocate for zero-dose children and missed communities with one voice as an Alliance

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT: Provide technical lead in support of MoHCC application for Gavi HSS-3 and related funding opportunities for 2024-2028.

All conditions will be reflected in the contract to be signed with the consultant. Payment will be made against the submission of deliverables and according to the payment schedule as below:

Major tasks and deliverables:

Tasks/Milestone:****Deliverables/Outputs:****TimelineReview relevant available reports, presentations, studies, assessments, dashboards, and secondary literature to respond to Gavi’s core analytical question and present to the Gavi HSS team.Desk review/situation analysis report.15 daysBased on the secondary data analysis, and feedback from HSS Country Team members identify gaps for additional analyses and/or primary data collection to inform the prioritisation of bottlenecks.Stakeholder consultation meetings arranged and minuted

Inception report detailing roadmap including approaches, and timelines for collection of additional information and expected analytical outputs15 days

Deliverable 1 and 2 – 30%Consolidate key pieces of information collected throughout this process to lay out clearly where coverage gaps exist and the key underlying causes that contribute to those gaps

Report on overall “problem tree/causal pathway” analysis for all identified gaps to guide the strategic approach to closing gaps through the Gavi application

Stakeholder consultation meetings arranged and minuted.6 daysPrepare draft HSS, EAF, PEF-TCA and CCEOP proposals within deadlines and in accordance with Gavi’s requirements for relevant funding streams.

Develop process map / Gantt chart for proposal completion

Schedule and coordinate meetings as and when necessary; ensure documentation of minutes and action items, and assure follow-up of action items

Conduct one or several workshops with in-country stakeholdersProcess map for proposal completion.

Stakeholder consultation meetings arranged and minuted

30 days

Deliverable 3 and 4 – 20%

Support drafting of the comprehensive HSS, EAF, PEF-TCA and CCEOP application package, including all relevant annexes

Multiple proposals may be required

Facilitate the development of a Theory of Change that reflects expected results across the HSS, EAF, PEF-TCA and CCEOP funding streams

Facilitate the development of a Monitoring & Learning Plan that is coherent with the agreed upon Theory of Change

Facilitate the development of work plans, budgets and narrative expected as part of Gavi’s application requirementsTheory of Change to clarify the strategic linkage of all Gavi funding streams to sustainably closing coverage gaps

Draft application packages (narratives, workplans, budgets)

Stakeholder consultation meetings arranged and minuted15 days

Deliverable 5 – 20%

Submit final version of the comprehensive Gavi HSS & EAF proposal to Gavi HSS focal person after address all the comments/Inputs from Country HSS Team and Gavi IRC.Final application package ready for submission to Gavi9 days

Deliverable 6 – 30%

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

Education: Advanced university degree (masters or equivalent) in public health, epidemiology, health economics, health systems and health policy, social sciences or a related field.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of experience from leading the design, execution and/or management of primary health care programmes.
• Strong programme design skills including capacity to prepare logical, coherent, and consistent technical documents including Theories of Change and narrative
• Prior demonstrated experience from developing and writing proposals for institutional donors such as Gavi, The Global Fund, FCDO, etc.
• Previous experience with health systems strengthening and immunization services programming

The detailed consultancy terms of reference is downloadable via this link Terms of Reference.pdf

If interested and available to undertake the individual consultancy, please submit your application online and attach the required documents including the technical proposal and an all-inclusive financial proposal incorporating an approximate number of travel days for field (local) travel.

Technical proposal: The Technical Proposal should articulate an understanding of the TOR and include the proposed Tasks/Milestones, Deliverables/Outputs, Timeline and level of effort by deliverable. The similar table provided in the TOR is indicative. Applicants may use the indicative table as a guide or deviate as per the proposed approach. The proposal should also cost-effectively propose the local travel proposed by the applicant to undertake the assignment.

Financial proposal: The Financial Proposal should include the costs (providing a daily rate as justification) for each task, including consultant fee, proposed travel costs and perdiem, communications costs and any other proposed cost.

Languages:

Written and spoken fluency in English required and knowledge of main local languages (Shona and Ndebele) is an added advantage.

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.

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Potential interview questions

Added 3 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org