Senior Consultant (Mitigating indirect impacts of Covid-19 on Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent and Aging Health (MNCAAH) services in Nigeria) at World Health Organization (WHO)

Job Code: 2003101
Grade: No grade
Contractual Arrangement: Individual service contractor
Contract Duration (Years, Months, Days): 6 Months

Purpose

• Support Nigeria to deliver optimal response to COVID-19, while reducing the indirect effects on pregnant women, newborns, children, adolescents and older adults (MNCAAH) due to service disruption.

Goal:

• Prevent decrease in utilization of essential services for RMNCAAH/N, in order to prevent increase in mortality, morbidity, malnutrition, mental and physical ill health

Expected Outcomes:

• Evidence-informed strategies in place to mitigate indirect effects of the pandemic in the five vulnerable population groups (women of reproductive age, pregnant women, newborns, children and adolescents and older adults), as part of the pandemic response
• Models to assess indirect effects of COVID-19 pandemic on provision and/or use of core health services for the five vulnerable population groups are informed by recent data and guidance, are relevant for country programming and are used for policy dialogue and planning in countries.
• Synthesis and documentation of lessons learned from implementation of strategies to maintain the core MNCAAH services in different contexts informs ongoing policy dialogue in countries.
• Stakeholders’ experiences of the strategies implemented in different contexts as well as the range of innovations, both successful and unsuccessful, being tried to maintain core services and improve the social response are captured, collated and communicated.
• Using a clear set of indicators and visualizations to monitor the indirect effects of COVID-19 on essential MNCAAH services to inform corrective actions.

Streams of Work:

• In Nigeria, the work is expected to be organized under five possible streams, though specific adaptations could be possible:
• Workstream 1. Country-focused, evidence-based policy dialogue to contextualize strategies and use best options to mitigate the potential indirect effects on vulnerable populations
• Workstream 2. Models that assess the impact of the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on provision and/or use of core health services for pregnant women, newborns, children and adolescents and older adults streamlined
• Workstream 3. Synthesis, analysis and dissemination of strategies undertaken to improve system preparedness and responses
• Workstream 4. Capturing, collating and amplifying the experiences of stakeholders to inform the policy dialogues, modelling exercises, and foster broader awareness of country-specific innovations
• Workstream 5. Use of data to understand the impact on the provision, access and use of essential services, medicines and supplies and on health for vulnerable populations

Specific Tasks and Candidate’s Profile
Senior consultant:

• Working part-time for a total of 8 full days (total of 64 hours) per month, the senior national consultant will support all the above streams of work and carry out the following tasks:
• Support the work of the new RMNCAAH coordination platform or existing Covid-19-MNCAAH TWG (or its equivalent) and ensure linkage and regular communication through meetings with other relevant TWGs and the Covid-19 task force to strengthen partnership across board
• Support the process of developing the RMNCAEH+N covid response plan under the guidance of the Director Family Health Department within 15 working days. Work with Focal person in the RMNCAAH coordinating unit to:
• Collate and harmonize inputs/submissions from divisions and partners on the evolving RMNCAAH+N covid response implementation plan.
• Develop support the development of the narrative(prose) component of the plan.
• Cost the RMNCAH+N covid response plan.
• Provide regular updates to Director Family Health Department on progress of the plan
• Articulate and document the process of development of the RMNCAEH+N covid response plan.
• Facilitate the multi-stakeholder RMNCAAH partnership meeting for buy-in and dissemination of the plan for implementation
• Conduct a rapid review of measures taken and lessons learned during past outbreaks including Ebola, Lassa fever, SARS and Zika to mitigate the indirect effects on vulnerable populations, and classify different strategies undertaken to inform the policy dialogue.
• Identify the best mechanisms for policy dialogue to mitigate the negative indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and response, and ensure high-level timely dialogue takes place with all key stakeholders including government, H6 and other development partners, civil society and communities through the strengthening the multi-stakeholder engagement and partnership
• Support the country team and liaise with the regional and global level technical teams on modeling, and documentation and sharing of lessons learned, best practices and experiences, and support their implementation in the country.
• Provide technical capacity to the expert group for monitoring the indirect effects of Covid-19.
• Advise MOH and COVID incidence management team and support development/updating of country-level strategy to mitigate the negative indirect effects on core services.
• Advised on re-distribution of health workforce capacity based on evidence.
• Support experience learning to accelerate innovation, inform change, and generate enhanced impact.
• Support and supervise the work of the Junior consultant.
• Carry out any other tasks in line with this project as might be assigned by WHO/MOH.

Required Qualifications
Education:

• Essential: Masters’ level university degree in Medicine, Public Health, Epidemiology, Community Health, Health Services Planning and Management, Social Sciences, Public Policy, Demography and population health, Health Economics or equivalent relevant discipline.
• Desirable: A Doctoral level qualification in any of the above fields would be an added advantage.

 Experience:

• At least 10 years’ experience in health sector planning and governance, epidemiology, public health, health systems management, monitoring and evaluation, or related field.
• Proven experience with health sector plan reviews and assessments and analyses of health plans in resource-limited countries.
• Experience in developing, operationalizing and costing different kinds of work plans
• Prior experience with emergency / post-emergency response and planning would be an asset.

Language:

• Essential: Expert knowledge of English or French (depending on the national language of the country).
• Desirable: Knowledge of any other national language would be an asset

Other Skills:

• Excellent knowledge of MS Office applications and computer skills including the ability to make high-quality technical presentations and data analysis.

Reporting Lines:

• The consultant will report to WHO and MOH.

Times Lines:

• It is estimated that the execution of all five workstream activities will require about 6 months and broadly this timeframe should be enough to accomplish the consultancy task.  Mechanisms planned within this proposal for these activities can be used beyond the six months.

Compensation

• The consultant hired (one senior, part-time - 8 working days per month); to support the national MNCAAH technical working group (s), which will interact with groups involved in COVID response.
• Consultant will work for a period of 6 months.
• The rates for senior consultants are will be in line with standard WHO rate for  local senior consultant.