Current vacancies

Background

The UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO) supports work in 22 countries, coordinating regional efforts and supporting the local efforts of Country Offices across the region. With a special commitment to meeting the unique rights of young children, ECARO endeavours to support targeted and coordinated efforts to promote implementation and scale-up of evidence-based, and effective innovations and multi-sectoral packages aimed at ensuring that all children, including the most vulnerable, thrive and reach their development potential.

Within its health and early childhood development program, UNICEF supports strengthening of the primary health care as the key platform to delivery facility-based services as well as outreach services through home visiting programs. Quality primary health care services are crucial in providing support for child health including immunization, nutrition, and development. UNICEF supports governments in the region to strengthen PHC systems as well as content and quality of services.

UNICEF ECARO has led the development of Universal and Progressive Home Visiting (UPHV) as the pillar of Community Health in ECAR. Trained certified home visiting nurses deliver comprehensive support for child health, nutrition and development in communities, with referrals for specialized care or social services interventions. The model has strong equity dimension as it prioritizes children and mothers living in remote locations, in poverty, from ethnic minorities, with disability, struggling with substance abuse, violence, and single-parent households. ECARO developed comprehensive package of recommendations, training and tools for institutionalization of UPHV at the PHC level, that are used in the whole region.

Key activities to reform, strengthen or introduce home visiting services across ECA are ongoing and demand for support and technical assistance from Ministries of Health is growing. Strong collaboration with governments aims to integrate and expand Home Visiting (HV) Services within existing PHC service delivery systems. Key areas requiring future support and interventions include:

1. Support for investment and expansion of HV services: provision of technical assistance to fully integrate home visiting services in the health systems and establish adequate financing based on assessment of the functioning of HV services and their maturity.
2. Support to regulatory frameworks: further development of guidance and support to countries to develop legislation and standards for their national community health initiatives (policy frameworks, content recommendations, tools for home visitors, monitoring and evaluation guidelines, and implementation guides).
3. Capacity Building: developing regional resources for capacity building and supporting their implementation across countries through in-service and pre-service training of professionals.
4. Monitoring and Evaluation: technical assistance and support in developing robust M&E systems for home visiting programs, with key performance indicators, streamlining home visiting services within administrative data records and digitalization of health information systems.

UNICEF is seeking a consultant to provide technical inputs in development of regional resources, to support the coordination and oversight of the regional initiatives and to provide technical guidance to teams working at the country/national level. The consultant will work closely with the UNICEF ECARO teams, country offices and relevant national partners.  

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

The key activities are listed below while in agreement with the supervisor other functions can be carried out.

1. Support institutionalization and strengthening of the home visiting programs at primary health care level in ECA region:
   1. Support implementation of Maturity Model (MM) assessment of home visiting in 12 countries through data validation, support in development of recommendations and final reports
   2. Support development of national plans of action in 12 countries through provision of technical guidance
   3. Support development of a regional synthesis report based on  maturity model (MM) assessment with evidence as a basis for advocacy, fundraising and TA
   4. Provide inputs for development of new standards and guidance for strengthening of HV services based on the findings of the MM assessment
   5. Organize regional webinar to disseminate the MM assessment findings
2. Support evidence generation, knowledge exchange and advocacy
   1. Develop products and organize activities to support dissemination of findings of the systematic review of effectiveness of UPHV
   2. Provide inputs in development of regional recommendations on UPHV based on the systematic review findings
   3. Facilitate knowledge exchange between countries and support organization of a high -level regional conference on UPHV
   4. Engage in development of UPHV policy briefs and investment cases
   5. Support exchange with the Technical Advisory Group of international experts and in building partnerships with relevant experts and institutions around home visiting.
3. Support quality enhancement of home visiting services
   1. Support dissemination of the regional UPHV training package and support roll out across countries
   2. Support strengthening of quality assurance mechanisms
   3. Provide inputs for development of guidance for optimal use of home visiting in terms of content and frequency
   4. Provide technical advice in development of national M&E frameworks for home visiting  
   5. Support digitalization efforts of HV job aids and records
   6. Support development of content and approaches to increase use of Bebbo app through HV
4. Support regional knowledge sharing and learning initiatives around ECD and health
   1. Support the organization of knowledge sharing and learning events to take place through UNICEF platforms to strengthen the capacities of UNICEF staff and relevant national stakeholders around early childhood development and health.
   2. Support use of regional LearnECD platform by sharing key information with UNICEF country offices
   3. Support documentation of UNICEF achievements and good practices in health

• Master’s degree or higher in the following disciplines: Health, public health and/or medicine, epidemiology, nutrition, human development, child development, families' studies or another relevant technical field
• Five years minimum of relevant professional experience in primary health care strengthening or home visiting (at national/systems level).
• Understanding of PHC system and home visiting and related system pillars (policy, financing, workforce planning).
• Knowledge of the public health concepts and approaches.
• Experience in national PHC or home visiting programme implementation is highly desirable.
• Experience working with Ministry reform programmes is highly desirable and ideally experience working on PHC reforms.
• Experience managing health system strengthening projects is considered an asset.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Experience working in ECA region and familiarity with the region is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is essential. Knowledge of another language spoken in the ECA region is an asset.