Organization: UN Children"s Fund
Country: United States of America
Closing date: 27 Jul 2015
BACKGROUND
Improving the health of the world"s children is a core UNICEF objective. UNICEF is concerned with the survival and development of young children and mothers. It aims to achieve improvements in the coverage of evidence-based life-saving health interventions at scale with the ultimate goal of improving maternal and child health outcomes. UNICEF also works to ensure that children have access to health interventions at the household and community level, and the outreach that supports them, as well as the facility-based system. Eliminating barriers to accessing care requires the development of sustainable health systems, including financing mechanisms. UNICEF works with UN agencies and development partners to this end in order to ensure that healthy children become healthy adults.
Immunization is a critical, unfinished agenda in child health and as all children have the right to survive and thrive, access and uptake of traditional and new vaccines is essential. Immunization also makes economic sense. Scaling up vaccines in 73 of the poorest countries by 2020 could save not only 6.4 million lives but also $6.2 billion in treatment costs and $145 billion in productivity losses. Around the world, UNICEF and its partners – WHO; GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance; the US Centers for Disease Control; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and others including numerous non-governmental organizations – jointly act to ensure that vaccines protect all children, especially those hardest to reach and most in need. Furthermore, UNICEF along with its partners are fully engaged and support the goals outlined in the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), which cannot be achieved without reaching more children and bringing new vaccines.
It is against a backdrop of persistent inequities in immunization and suboptimal recording and monitoring of immunization service delivery that UNICEF helps governments to scale up their immunization services to ensure all people, wherever they live and whatever their status, can access and utilize these services; and furthermore, ensure that immunization is used as a tool to reach vulnerable and under-served populations with a range of health services.
In collaboration and coordination with the partners in the international community, UNICEF is stepping up efforts in the support to governments to increase vaccination coverage with equity.
PURPOSE, OBJECTIVES & SCOPE OF WORK
UNICEF HQ is seeking to contract a highly experienced contractor to represent UNICEF as a founding GAVI Alliance Partner in several data forums and working groups, support country office staff in data collection, analysis, synthesis and translation for informed immunization program management, and collaborate with the Immunization Unit in HQ. The contractor will represent UNICEF within its commitments in the Global Vaccine Action Plan.
Development objective:
- The DATA Strategic Focal Area and its subgroups of the GAVI Alliance reflect the comparative strengths of UNICEF
- Requests for data quality and utilization support of countries are met
- The revised “scaling –up” paper of the Immunization unit documents the strategic way forward of the unit in the area of data
Immediate objective:
Ensure that UNICEF is well represented in the data work-streams of the GAVI Alliance while contributing to the improvement, relevance, quality, availability and use of data and contextual information on children and women in UNICEF and its country offices.
SCOPE OF WORK
The contractor will support UNICEF country office colleagues in data collection, analysis, synthesis and translation for informed immunization program management; research question/hypothesis formulation and protocol development to support evaluation of programme interventions; as well as support and advise on immunization system performance data quality assessment during EPI-programme reviews and Post Introduction Evaluations.
The Evidence and Information for Immunization contractor will take the lead in:
- Strategic Focal Area approach concept development (GAVI)
- M&E framework and indicator development for GAVI 4.0
- Data technical assistance for selected GAVI focus countries
- Participate and contribute to Immunization unit strategy development
DUTY STATION
The contractor will be based at UNICEF New York Headquarters. Travel to Geneva and selected countries in Africa and Asia is expected.
When needed, liaise with UNICEF regional and country offices to maintain key outputs and synergies.
TIMEFRAME
The expected duration of the contract is up to 150 days during the timeframe of 17 August 2015 – 31 March 2016.
KEY SKILLS, TECHNICAL BACKGROUND, AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
- Advanced university degree in one of the social sciences with statistics, advance training, preferably a higher degree in data analysis and data manipulation skills.
- Minimum 8 years of professional experience at national and international levels in social/health and child survival statistics, programme monitoring and evaluation, household surveys, data analysis and other areas of applied statistics, information systems and data interpretation and use in health and child survival.
- Fluent in English and French (read, write, speak).
- Creative thinking, drive for results and strong commitment. Excellent commitment to time and delivery deadlines and good track record of producing quality deliverables.
- Good inter-personal relationship within a diverse work environment.
- Ability to work independently
*Travel
Please note, for travel to countries – it will be decided based on agreements with UNICEF and contractor. For agreed country visits, the contractor will be responsible in administering its own travel. Travel expenses will be reimbursed separately upon presentation of receipts based on actual cost or as per UN rates (http://icsc.un.org/rootindex.asp) whichever is lower.
Travel expenses shall be calculated based on economy class travel, regardless of the length of travel and ii) costs for accommodation, meals and incidentals shall not exceed applicable daily subsistence allowance (DSA) rates, as promulgated by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC)
Number of travelers, duration and dates of travel and travel locations will be agreed with UNICEF and the contractor prior to being arranged, undertaken and expensed.
Any variation in reimbursable travel should be authorized in writing by UNICEF through the Contract Manager.
Payment Provisions
UNICEF"s policy is to pay for the performance of contractual services rendered or to effect paymentupon the achievement of specific milestones described in the contract. UNICEF"s policy is not to grant advance payments except in unusual situations where the potential contractor, whether a private firm, NGO or a government or other entity, specifies in the bid that there are special circumstances warranting an advance payment. UNICEF will normally require a bank guarantee or other suitable security arrangement.
Any request for an advance payment is to be justified and documented, and must be submitted with the financial bid. The justification shall explain the need for the advance payment, itemize the amount requested and provide a time schedule for utilization of said amount. Information about your financial status must be submitted, such as audited financial statements at 31 December of the previous year and include this documentation with your financial bid. Further information may be requested by UNICEF at the time of finalizing contract negotiations with the awarded bidder.
*Please see deliverables and evaluation of the proposal in attached chart.
How to apply:
How to Apply
Applicants are requested to send their submissions to <**pdconsultants@unicef.org>** with subject line: “Evidence and Information for Immunization, Consultancy”by 27 July 2015, 5:00pm EST.
Applications must include:
- Cover letter,
- CV, and
- P11 form (http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc)
- Indicate where you heard about this advertisement
Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.
NOTE: Files should not exceed 5.0MB limit
UNICEF is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
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