Organization: UN Children"s Fund
Country: United States of America
Closing date: 11 Aug 2015
Background
Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 and 5 underscore global commitments to reduce child mortality by two-thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters between 1990 and 2015. In many low income settings, 10-20% of children die before the age of five and the death of mothers during childbirth takes place far too frequently. This is despite substantial evidence documenting the benefits of a range of simple, effective and low-cost interventions for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH). Too often, these high-impact interventions and the essential commodities they deliver fail to reach the women and children who need them.
In support of these efforts, the UN Commission on Life Saving Commodities (UNCoLSC) established a set of commitments to increase availability and access to 13 underutilized, high-impact commodities for women and children. This confluence of leadership and momentum has stimulated discussions around how to optimize the contributions of key financial and implementing partners. Effective global coordination is essential. In response to these issues, an RMNCH Steering Committee*comprised of key bilateral partners, country representatives, H4+ UN Agencies and others was established as a mechanism to enhance the alignment of the international response with country needs and resource gaps. This is supported by a new RMNCH financing mechanism (*RMNCH Fund) which provides a predictable and flexible pool of resources to support innovative and catalytic interventions to address key bottlenecks. A multi-UN agency Strategy and Coordination Team (SCT), comprised of representatives from UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA, provides coordination and technical support to facilitate this collective response.
In partnership between Ministries, lead H4+ agency and the SCT, are expected:
• To address key programme and commodity-specific RMNCH barriers
• To track critical RMNCH bottlenecks in the access, availability and effective delivery of programs and commodities
A Results Framework that links activities of the RMNCH Steering Committee and Fund to reductions in maternal and child deaths must be developed and informed by a theory of change that investigates interdependent processes at a number of levels. Development on the Results Framework is ongoing at the global level and will require additional country-specific logical frameworks.
During 2015, the RMNCH will produce the following outputs:
• RMNCH Landscape Synthesis for 20 countries including Summary Reports
• Relational database of RMNCH indicators and reference materials from multiple levels – global, national, and sub-national
• Management of web-based visualization platform for monitoring global and national progress towards RMNCH targets
• Evaluation of longer-term outcomes / impacts of RMNCH interventions and funding
• Modeling of current RMNCH intervention deployment and coverage on projected lives saved using the Lives Saved Tool (LiST)
• Production of various research publications related to SCT activities and/or UNCoLSC recommendations.
Purpose
Proposed junior-mid level consultant will support the work of RMNCH – specifically the timely preparation, quality review and analysis of RMNCH data sets, literature reviews, and ad hoc research by the Monitoring group.
Roles and responsibilities:
• Conduct literature review of RMNCH-related topics including country-level review of policies, strategies, and workplans.
• Compile, document, and archive relevant national documents for Landscape Synthesis and analyze documents to produce indicators; identify gaps in document review
• Compilation, data entry, preparation of documentation and archiving of datasets from various sources, including UNFPA, WHO, UNICEF, USAID/DHS, World Bank and country-level health information systems.
• Contribute towards impact modeling initiatives using available analytic software, such as the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) and Impact2.
• Macro-level costing analysis of RMNCH interventions as required.
• Data processing and analysis of RMNCH Fund grant reports within the di Monitoring system as required.
• Provide ad hoc research and analytical support as required.
• Content management of public-facing website, including:
o Input more documents from the Landscape Synthesis into the content management system (CMS) and add a short description to each
o Add authoring organization, date of publication, number of pages and language on every document; Tag every document
o Extract the cover of each document and add it in the CMS
o Hyperlink websites of associated organizations to the website.
o Add links to videos and documents published elsewhere in the right hand menus
• Coordinate the enumeration, dataset submission and quality assurance of the RMNCH Landscape Synthesis for all relevant countries.
• Conduct data processing and analysis of RMNCH Landscape Synthesis datasets and reference documents.
• Produce Summary Report for each RMNCH Landscape Synthesis and produce corresponding Powerpoint presentation for review with in-country teams.
• Based on the RMNCH Results Framework, develop procedures, corresponding documentation (i.e. manuals), modeling methodologies and analytic results for following analyses.
o Model changes in commodity distribution and coverage on projected child survival using the Lives Saved Tool (LiST)
o Costing of country-specific RMNCH interventions and coverage
• Based on the analyses above, produce summary indicators (across all participating countries) and provide narrative input for use in research publications as well as donor, advocacy and/or managerial reports.
Duty Station
UNICEF New York Headquarters with possible travel.
Timeframe
Full-time
Start date: 24 August 2015 End date: 30 June 2016
Key competences, technical background, and experience required
Education:
Graduate degree in public health, epidemiology, statistics, quantitative analysis, social sciences research, or related field
Experience
• At least 3 years of relevant work experience at a junior-mid level in an area related to quantitative analysis or costing, ideally in public health, international health or development programs. Familiarity and experience with the primary work areas below would be an added advantage:
o Reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health interventions
o Data analysis of household-level surveys (such as DHS or MICS) health facility, or community-based datasets.
• High level of proficiency in relevant computer applications including:
o Statistical analysis software (SPSS, SAS, Stata, or R).
o MS Office (Access, Excel, PowerPoint and Word),
• Preferred knowledge of other software including: Lives Saved Tool (LiST), Spectrum, and OneHealth
• Good analytical, organizational and writing skills;
• Experience in creating clear and visually appealing reports and technical guidance;
• Ability to work independently and in a team, and in a diverse work environment;
• Understanding of the UN system and familiarity with the work of UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children is an asset
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships with UNICEF staff.
Languages
An excellent knowledge of English. Knowledge of French or other languages an asset/preferred.
Technical Skills
• Excellent knowledge of Excel
• Some experience with relational databases or statistical software, such as Stata, SAS, Matlab or R preferred.
• Understanding of RMNCH interventions and in-country realities
• Oral and written communication
Core Competencies
• Gathering Information
• Solution-oriented analysis
• Communicating effectively
• Promoting Team Work
• A results-oriented approach
*Please see deliverables in attached chart.
How to apply:
HOW TO APPLY
Applicants are requested to send their submissions to <**pdconsultants@unicef.org>**with subject line:
“RMNCH Data Consultant”by 11 August 2015, 5:00pm EST.
Applications must include:
· Cover letter,
· CV, and
· P-11 form (http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc)
· Proposal
· 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.
EmoticonEmoticon