Organization: UN Children"s Fund
Country: United States of America
Closing date: 08 Sep 2015
Background & Rationale
Given the growing importance of coverage and equity issues for immunization, there is now momentum to better define priorities in improving coverage with equity and demand creation strategies to ensure vaccine uptake to complement on-going progress made on the vaccine supply side.
Diverse initiatives exist on improving coverage and equity in immunization, and it is now time to consolidate experiences and define priorities for support to countries in this field. Gavi secretariat is creating a coverage and equity initiative that lack technical inputs. UNICEF is well placed to lead this area of work
On the side of communication for immunization, strategic investments in stimulating and sustaining public demand for vaccines and immunization services require active support from UNICEF and its partners to support and complement countries’ efforts through evidence-based communication strategies and tools, guidance development and partnerships building.
Convinced that communities have a bigger role to play than only receiving immunization services, UNICEF strives to allow countries to develop and implement comprehensive, coordinated strategies for demand creation and stimulation that contribute to reaching immunization programs target. As Demand for Immunization is becoming a strategic focus area for the Gavi Alliance, UNICEF is ideally positioned given its unique experience and country partnerships in place to bring together resources of Gavi Alliance partner organizations at the global and regional level, in order to actively contribute to reaching the Strategic Objective 2 of the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), stating that “Individuals and communities value vaccines, seek and use services, and provide reliable, sufficient support so that high quality services are available to all in perpetuity”.
Purpose
At the Programme Division level, UNICEF has been focusing its work in Equity in immunization and communication for immunization on
₋ Equity assessment: identifying the unreached
₋ Advocacy for prioritization of high-risk communities
₋ Developing guidance to recast Reach Every District approach to Reach Every Community approach:
o Identify and map high-risk communities (HRC) for equity
o Prioritize HRC in microplans
o Connect health centres and HRC to reduce social distance
o Monitor HRC with immunization card check
o Provide and track adequate funding
₋ Learning and applying lessons from polio to routine immunization
- Coordinating and providing support to Communication for routine immunization
- Development of communication guidance and tools for countries in communication for immunization
- Inclusive communication strategies for countries to involve their communities, notably Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)
In addition, UNICEF, through the Gavi Alliance, is now looking at intensifying its Immunization improvement activities and demand for immunization activities through a nascent and ambitious approach to take advantage of the global interest in coverage and equity and demand for immunization, and advocate for strategic investments on:
- promoting best practices
- providing global coordination, tools and guidance to countries for strategic planning
- setting a research and evaluation agenda to support coverage with equity improvements and demand-related practices and evidence-based programming,
- and catalyzing strategic partnerships for technical and financial support to efforts in improving coverage with equity as well as demand for immunization.
In order to meet its agenda, UNICEF is willing to develop a strategy for Coverage with Equity and Communication for Immunization and Demand creation, and is therefore seeking assistance in the form of a consultancy, equivalent to 6 months full time work, to provide project management support to this strategically important stream of immunization related work.
More specifically, the consultant will:
· Project Management and Coordination of two projects: (a) Improving Immunization Coverage with Equityunder the leadership of the Coverage and Equity work stream lead, and (b) Communication for Demand Strategyunder the leadership of the UNICEF Communication for Immunization work stream lead
- Provide consistent tracking and reporting of on-going activities and deliverables. This includes, setting up an overall comprehensive project management tool with a work breakdown structure and Gantt chart, allowing monitoring of activities from the overall performance framework, deliverables and timeline, and also the identification of potential delays or bottlenecks
- Ensure that project activities and internal and external stakeholders working on the different work streams are on track, work jointly with the work stream leads to ensure deadlines are met, and that discussions and recommendations are recorded and action points are followed through
- Develop key documents and templates that are required by the UNICEF work stream leads to complete tasks and deliverables and to ensure a homogenous output quality
- Provide analytical support to the UNICEF work stream lead as required
· Knowledge management
- Collect key documents, data and analysis from the UNICEF work stream lead as well as internal and external stakeholders and share information as needed.
- Create and maintain a “Coverage and equity” and “Communication for Immunization central repository” of data and documents on a collaborative platform
· Meeting coordination
- Under the leadership of the UNICEF work stream leads, organise, coordinate the agenda and supporting documents, as well as document the key highlights and action points of calls and Face-to-Face meetings and disseminate them to internal and external stakeholders
- Prepare supporting documents and presentations for meetings as required
· Reporting
- Report on progress, lessons learned and challenges to the UNICEF work stream leads on a monthly basis
Deliverables and Payment: The deliverables below may expand over the months but not exceeding to 106 days in total to complete during the consultancy period due to any unforeseen reasons such as country responses. The UNICEF work stream lead will track the deliverables by establishing a regular meeting with the consultant.
Duty station New York
Timeframe106 working days
Start date: 15 September 2015 End date:12 February 2016
*Can include weekends/holidays, but only with supervisor’s written approval
*Payment will be based on the deliverables accomplished, and on the actual number of days worked.
Key competencies, technical background, and experience required:
· University degree (business, public health, sciences or economics)
· 5 years of mid-level experience in managing complex projects with multiple stakeholders
· Experience in planning and implementation; familiarity with donor funded projects is an asset
· Background in management consulting is an asset
· Experience in developing and implementing project management tools, reporting templates, and repositories
· Strong analytical skills, oral and written communication and team building skills
· Substantial experience in working with teams of national and international experts
· Excellent working level of English language in both writing and speaking
· Proficiency in Excel, Powerpoint, Word. Knowledge of a project management software is an asset
· Demonstrated ability to work in a multi-cultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships with both headquarters and field staff.
· Experience and familiarity with improving immunization coverage with equity or Communication for Development, specifically for Immunization
*Please see deliverables within the following link: http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_consultancy_assignments.html
How to apply:
How to Apply
Applicants are requested to send their submissions to <**pdconsultants@unicef.org>** with subject line: “Communication for Immunization Project Management, Consultant”by**08 September 2015, 5:00pm EST.**
Applications must include:
· Cover letter,
· CV, and
· P11 form (http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc)
· Sample work/methodology
· Indicate where you heard about this advertisement
Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference. Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered. Joint applications of two or more individuals are not accepted.
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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