National Consultancy: Health Policy Expert- Still births and Neonatal Mortality Audit, Home Based with Regular Visits to the Field At United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)


The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

JOB DESCRIPTION

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

Stillbirth and neonatal deaths can have significant psychological, social, and financial effects on the affected families and health care providers. Thus, evidence generation on the root causes of these deaths and the use of this valuable information as learning opportunities to improve the quality of care is essential. This can be achieved through auditing of stillbirth and
neonatal mortalities especially those deaths occurring soon after delivery.

The purpose of the assignment is to support the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in the development of a comprehensive neonatal mortality audit system at the national level. The primary focus would be to craft and initiate context-specific system that encompasses neonatal mortality audits at various levels of the health system, building on the recommended 3-tier
reporting structure: tier 1 at the hospital level, tier 2 at the District/Governorate level, and tier 3 at the National level.

The main two objectives will be:

– To develop the overall structures for still births and neonatal mortality audit at the system level and establish the
required committees, technical work groups and operational bodies for implementation.
– To Build on the experience of the Maternal Mortality audit to establish a technical entity that can perform neonatal
audits at various levels.

How can you make a difference?

Work Assignment Expected Results

Deliverables/OutputsTasks/Milestone:TimelinePercentage of Payment
Conduct Needs Assessment including desk review, field visits, stakeholder discussions, and consultative meetings1- Provide a detailed consultancy inception plan.2- Deliver a needs Assessment and gap analysis report. 15 days 10% of payment for tasks (1 till 5)
Desk Review on best practices:– Global Guidelines and examples – Lebanese National Maternal Mortality Audit3- Deliver best Practices Summary Report including:– Lessons learned.– Recommendations on best contextualized model for Lebanon. 10 days
Stakeholder engagement and interviews4- Deliver a detailed stakeholders’ engagement report. 5- Deliver a stakeholders’ engagement summary report (2 pages). 15 days
Road Map Development6- Develop a budgeted integration Road map document for the still births and neonatal mortality audit (national, district and facility).7- Develop a road map PowerPoint presentation. 20 days 35% of payment
Capacity Building and Monitoring Framework8- Develop a detailed Capacity Building Plan with timeframe and required expertise of facilitators. 9- Develop a monitoring and Evaluation Framework specifying the required data sources and verification tools. 10 days 25% of payment
Final Report10- Deliver a final consulting report.11- Deliver an advocacy report (2 pagers).12- Develop a PPT presentation on final findings, roadmap and recommendation.13- Deliver any additional documentation, such as data quality scorecards or improvement guidelines. 15 days 30% of payment

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Please refer to the attached document for a full reading of the overall scope and background.  2024_Health_Health Policy Expert_ToR.pdf

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

  • An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in public health or other related health and policy fields
  • A minimum of 10 years of extensive professional experience in public health, with a focus on policy development, neonatal care, and mortality audits.
  • Demonstrated expertise in developing integrated healthcare structures.
  • Strong research and analytical skills.
  • Experience in working with governments and national systems.
  • PowerPoint skills – able to ‘translate’ ideas/takeaways from discussions into professional-grade outputs is required.
  • Experience sharing knowledge through conferences, workshops, and scientific journals.
  • Writing and communication skills – able to clearly depict nuanced or complex ideas and manage competing expectations among multiple projects stakeholders is required.
  • Proven ability to analyze data and write reports that are of high quality.
  • Familiarity and experience of working with UNICEF and government health offices considered an asset.
  • Fluency in English and Arabic is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

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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