International Consultancy – Strengthening Health Governance Project

Job Number: 527567 | Vacancy Link

Locations: Africa: Sierra Leone

Work Type : Consultancy

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.

Project Background

The USAID-funded project, ‘Strengthening Post-Ebola Health Governance in Sierra Leone’ commenced in June 2017. It was borne in the aftermath of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) crisis, which highlighted the importance of large-scale and sustained community engagement to achieve change of norms, attitudes and behaviors.

Traditionally, governance issues in Sierra Leone are relegated to government actors, and the involvement of the general population is limited. This is further hindered by fragmented and vertical community platforms that are established/supported by various civil society organizations (CSOs) and development partners. Unequal power relationships, societal structures, and gender and social norms also pose a significant challenge to civic engagement and governance, especially for youth and more specifically for women and girls.

Though a performance monitoring structure is in place to hold the government bodies accountable for the delivery of services to citizens, anecdotal evidence suggests citizens have insufficient understanding of their rights and entitlements in general. This, coupled with social norms, inadequate knowledge of preventive behaviors and the importance of positive health-seeking behavior, has resulted in low demand for services.

How can you make a difference?

The purpose of the consultancy is to lead the project team in the last eleven months of the ‘Strengthening Post-Ebola Health Governance in Sierra Leone’ project, funded by USAID, in Sierra Leone.

Since the commencement of the aforementioned project in June 2017, gains have been made towards building the capacity of national and district-level government and partners to improve access to FHC drugs, commodities and services for pregnant and lactating women, children under five, disabled persons and Ebola survivors whilst also improving citizen and media engagement in good health governance.

The Health Governance consultant will build upon project achievements to date, strengthen the capacity development of citizens, media and civil society organizations to collaborate with local and national government; participate in improving service delivery and access to free health care drugs and commodities; and define and implement an exit strategy for the project. The consultant will work to ensure alignment of the project components to maximise the success of the project and ensure that an exit strategy is defined to ensure that the project gains will be sustained, and that government, civil society and community members continue to engage in health governance issues and hold service providers to account beyond the lifespan of the project.

Simultaneously, the consultant will strengthen work conducted thus far with the Directorate of Drugs and Medical Supplies (DDMS), under the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS), as well as district-level health staff, to improve management and oversight of FHC drugs from the central to district levels through advisory support for real time data collection, monitoring, analysis and follow-up corrective actions.

The consultant will report to the Deputy Representative and will be based in Freetown. The duration of assignment is 11 months.

Key tasks:

Conduct overall project management.

Guide and ensure the highest quality of project monitoring, evaluation and communications.

Document implementation successes, challenges, and lessons learned.

Provide mentoring and professional development support to project staff, with emphasis on building capacity of national staff.

Deliver technical presentations on programme achievements to different stakeholders as needed

Ensure best practices are institutionalized within the programme and adapted to the local context.

Please attach your financial proposal.

Please see attached ToR for more information:  ToR – supply chain.doc

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

Master’s degree in a related field such as public policy, public administration, governance, international development or sociology.

Five years of experience in good governance, citizen engagement and participation, or other development fields, preferably in Sierra Leone or West Africa.

Experience advising governments and civil society on citizen engagement and participation, including methodologies for oversight of government.

Ability to establish strong working relationships with civil society, government officials, civic leaders, media and private sector representatives.

Excellent organizational, analytical, oral and written communications skills, with keen attention to interpersonal skills and effective communication.

Demonstrated experience working effectively with diverse teams and building partnerships.

Fluency in English is required

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

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.

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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Remarks:

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

Closing Date Mon Nov 11 2019 00:55:00 GMT+0100 (Afr. centrale Ouest)