Maternal Newborn Child Health Consultants at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) - Taraba & Jigawa

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) - For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments

We are looking for qualified candidates to fill the position below:

Job Title: Maternal Newborn Child Health Consultant

Job Number: 511870
Locations:Taraba & Jigawa
Work Type: Consultancy

Background
Nigeria represents less than 1% of the world's population, yet accounts for 10% of the global burden of infant, child and maternal mortality. Under 5 mortality in the North Zone of Nigeria is very high, with 43 per 1000 live births (LBs) in North central, 33/1000 LBS in the North East and 45/1000 LBS in the North West (MIC 2016).To reduce the childhood illnesses and death from vaccine preventable diseases and strengthen Routine Immunization and Maternal, Newborn and Child Health care in Jigawa and Taraba States, in 2014 the State Governments, Canadian Government and UNICEF went into partnership to address this.

Polio eradication is a corporate priority for UNICEF globally. Nigeria is one of the three remaining countries where polio is still endemic and UNICEF has committed itself in front of partners, donors, and national governments to continue the work on polio eradication until the goal is reached. With the declaration of polio as a public health emergency, UNICEF Nigeria is intensifying its efforts to ensure polio is stopped for good. As part of the ongoing efforts to stop polio, UNICEF and other partners are implementing a project in high risk polio LGAs with particular focus on underserved and hard to reach populations

The project will not only deliver polio vaccines, but expand access to basic primary health care by supporting integrated primary health care mobile outreach activities in about 4,000 hardtoreach settlements in 6 States – Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Zamfara, Taraba and Jigawa States. In order to achieve this, UNICEF will a) hire, train, equip, supervise and monitor mobile health teams who will deliver integrated primary health care services to these settlements settlements in Niger, Jigawa, Zamfara, Taraba, Kaduna and Katsina States; and b) procure, deliver and track health commodities that form an integrated package of basic primary health care services for hardtoreach settlements in the 6 States. C) link the HTR to Main Primary Health Care Centers  d) Support the Implementation of Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) in hard to reach settlements

The project will rapidly raise poliovirus immunity and help stop poliovirus transmission in Nigeria, while increasing coverage of basic maternal, newborn and child primary health care interventions in the hardtoreach communities. Baseline and end line assessments, with an endofproject evaluation, will show the costbenefits of using a mobileoutreach strategy to provide basic primary health care services to hardto reach communities. The project management and reporting will be embedded in the national and state polio Emergency Operations Centres.  All the above are successfully ongoing.

Specific Objectives
Under the direct supervision of the Technical officer in Abuja together with the health specialist in Bauchi field office; to work with the State Primary Health Care Development Agency; Emergency Operation Center (EOC), and other partners:

• Ensure effective delivery and tracking of an integrated package of high impact, basic health services and commodities in quarterly mobile primary health care outreaches to preselected settlements in  LGAS Â in the State which will lead to:
• reduced risk of poliovirus transmission and improve poliovirus immunity in 059 month old children in approximately preselected, hardtoreach and underserved communities in  >80% with at least 4 doses of polio vaccine.
• Expanded coverage of selected, basic, high impact maternal, newborn and child health interventions  utilizing both Health facility and community platforms such as Community Health Influencers and Promotors (CHIPS)
• benefits, challenges and lessons learnt in implementing integrated mobile outreaches so this may be applied to strengthening primary health care outreach in their respective States.

Major Tasks to be Accomplished

• The State Coordinator will report to the National Coordinator, HTR Health Specialist, Abuja and the UNICEF Health Specialist in Bauchi UNICEF Field Office.
• The State Coordinator to be deployed to respective states will be responsible for coordination of MNCH activities with the state and polio emergency operations center (EOC) and state level logistics.
• The Consultant will supervise the work of the  State HTR and ICCM team in the state and be responsible for implementation of the HTR state specific workplan linked to the One Main PHC and other Community structures
• The Consultant will be a member of the state Emergency Operations Centre and work closely with partners in their respective States.
• The Consultant is expected to travel up to about 15 days in a month to the clusters, settlements and health facilitates for the purposes of monitoring implementation of the project programme, supply and human resources.

End Product: (e.g. final report, article, document etc):

• Detailed monthly implementation workplan.
• Weekly State HTR Data and report on agreed template.
• Monthly data and progress report of HTR & ICCM implementation in the State, based on agreed reporting indicators.
• Detailed and up to date supply distribution plan and monthly commodity utilization.
• Reports of milestones achieved to advance MNCH implementation in their States.

Minimum Qualifications

• Advanced Degree in Health, Social Sciences, or Public Health and university degree or related technical field.
• Five years experience working on child survival issues or health projects.
• Fluency in oral  and written English is required. Knowledge of another UN working language an asset.
• Knowledge of local working language of the duty station, an asset.
• Knowledge of the latest developments and technology in related fields.
• Ability to make timely and quality judgments and decisions and very good training skills.
• Computer skills, including internet navigation and various office applications.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships, both within and outside the organization.
• Willingness to travel to remote settlements within the state
• Initiative, passion and commitment to UNICEF mission and professional values.
• 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 [insert years] of relevant professional experience in
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Application Closing Date
6th April, 2018.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Note

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