National Health Consultant, NOD at UNICEF

Job Number: 520521
Location: Abuja
Duration of consultancy: 10 months
Work Type : Consultancy

Purpose of Assignment

• Each year in Nigeria over 7.5million babies are born, of whom about 300,000 die during their first month of life. Despite our gains for child survival whereby the under-five child mortality has decreased from 91 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 43 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2015, available data shows that the decline for newborn deaths has been much slower. Neonatal deaths now account for 32 percent of all under-five child deaths. Most of these deaths are caused by complications related to prematurity, birth asphyxia and infections. This trend requires an accelerated response to achieve remarkable reduction in under-five mortality rate.
• The launch of the Action framework for reduction of maternal and newborn mortality by the President on 5th January 2019 provides a unique opportunity towards accelerating action for impact towards decreasing preventable deaths in mothers and babies. The framework calls for leveraging existing resources including the newly launched basic health care provision fund, maximizing the delivery of high impact interventions and supporting quality design and roll out of a package for maternal and newborn care at each level of service delivery (community, ward LGA, State, National and community, PHC, General hospital, tertiary hospital.
• UNICEF is a key technical partner supporting the Government towards implementation of the framework, building on the lessons learned in country and the global best practices. The purpose of the assignment is to support select States towards implementation of the action framework leveraging on existing ongoing work (where applicable in select States) and on available resources maximizing efficiency gains and supporting innovative solutions building on evidence and data for results.

Major Tasks

• Support at least 2 meetings of the national Health Commissioners Forum and potentially the Governor's forum including sharing lessons from UNICEF's approach to fast tracking results for children and the implementation design of the action framework. This will entail preparing documents, presentations, briefs for the meeting with a focus on data analytics
• Support implementation of Action Frameworks for the Reduction of Maternal and Newborn Mortality in at least 5 States (States to be mutually agreed along with the Government)

This will entail the following activities (but not limited to):

• Meetings with national stakeholders FMOH, NPHCDA, WB, SOML, etc
• Visit States to discuss frameworks and develop detailed plans for implementation including coordination and governance mechanisms, partnership framework including with professional bodies like SOGON, PAN, NISOM, and academia, Universities and departments of public health, nursing, traditional leaders and rules etc building on local resources
• Complete a report providing insights and outlining steps and opportunities for the implementation of the framework in the States including resource mapping like the SOML, BHCPF etc (format of the report to be mutually agreed)
• Support the development and reviews of a scorecard to track progress including mechanisms to track 90 days plans (this work will be done closely with the UNICEF internal team that is already working on the scorecards)
• Identify and document opportunities towards implementing innovative solutions for fast tracking achieving results in the action framework including using the rapid pro and U-report platform, the use of GIS maps, etc (this work will be done closely with the UNICEF internal team working on innovations)
• Support State level stock take missions and seminars to disseminate results and share progress including lessons learned in the implementation of the action frameworks – at least 1 mission per State, and prepare a report of the stock take seminar (this work will be done closely with the UNICEF internal team)

Academic Qualifications or Specialized Knowledge/Experience and Competencies Required

• Degree in Medicine, Public Health and/or related technical field.
• At least eight years or more experience working in MNCH programs and/or health projects.
• Experience with the Nigeria health sector and with implementation of MNCH programs is an asset
• 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.
• Computer skills, including internet navigation and various office applications.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multi-cultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships, both within and outside the organization.
• Willingness to travel to states and remote regions of the country.

The competencies required for this post are:

• View our competency framework at: http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf