Job Number: 494576 | Vacancy Link
Location: Programme Division, UNICEF NYHQ
Work Type : Fixed Term Staff
If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you.
For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children’s survival, protection and development. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
Purpose of the Position
Under the overall direction of the Senior Manager, Health, responsible for support to development , implementation, monitoring and evaluation of UNICEF’s emergency preparedness and response in activities and results related to Health; ensuring overall efficiency, effectiveness and delivery of results in accordance with UNICEF’s Core Commitments for Children (CCC) and national and international humanitarian standards. This includes responsibility for working with Headquarters, Regional and Country offices in developing plans and activities to strengthen UNICEF’S capacity to deliver effective health support in emergency situations; provision of technical assistance to Regional Offices and Country Offices so that there is adequate and appropriate support, both in addressing acute emergencies and in programming to mitigate the health impact of chronic and complex emergencies; and contributing to improved approaches and systems for emergency health response within UNICEF. Primary focus of work will be in Level 3 emergencies.
When under necessary deployment to affected country offices, support the country team by providing guidance and direction on emergency health issues and ensuring implementation of high impact health interventions in acute and chronic emergencies as outlined in UNICEF’s technical guidelines.
Key Expected Results
Situation Analysis and strengthening of Health Information Systems
-Support the CO to consolidate the health situation analysis based on available information.
-◾Advise on what additional health related information is needed through one off data collection or strengthening of available health information systems (surveillance, routine reporting, etc.) to guide the health response.
-Undertakes field visits at emergency locations to assess health programme progress, to identify major problems and constraints and propose solutions
and actions.Strategy and capacity development
-Collaborate with CO, RO and HQ in providing technical guidance, analysing and advising the Representative and the country team on the development of appropriate health policies, strategies and implementation frameworks to deliver a comprehensive package of health services, relevant to the health needs, national policies and overall emergency response. These strategies will also take into account existing country programme and long term national priorities. Guides the health response and preparedness by coordinating
inputs, preparing plans of action and work plans for implementation. Guide in defining and setting up monitoring mechanisms .
-Identify capacity needs for UNICEF staff and agencies engaged in the health response and appropriate capacity development activities and resources.
-Coordinates and directs organizational contribution to Health Cluster so as to ensure effective respond to emergencies . Leads and guides UNICEF’S engagement with stakeholders working in emergencies and fragile states . Ensures that health remains a priority issue in policy and budget development and provides guidance on upstream policy.Identification of human and other resource needs
-In collaboration with CO, RO and HQ, advise on the appropriate staffing (level and skills) required to deliver on UNICEF’s mandate for programme responsibilities from onset through transition from emergency; advise on immediate and ongoing supply needs as well as financial needs for the response, including liaison with Supply Division and contribution to resource mobilization documents (internal, external).Promotion of standards and partnership
-Participate in the development of joint policies and technical guidelines for appropriate provision of health response in emergencies, in coordination with other UN agencies, relevant NGOs and institutions through sector/cluster coordination mechanisms.
-Promote partnership with relevant agencies and negotiate country level MOU and LOU as appropriate.Monitoring, evaluation and documentation of the emergency response
-In cooperation with the Emergency Response Team, HQ and the Regional and Country office seeks out and participate in the monitoring and evaluation of the health component of the emergency response to ensure achievement of the organization’s objectives in this area (e.g. documentation of the response, lessons learned, best practices monitoring and evaluation frameworks) as well as liaising with donors and contribute to donor/response reporting to ensure that the emergency response is adequately resourced and documented for future planning and strategy development.Ongoing technical support
-Prepare an End of Mission/handover Report for submission to the CO, RO and HQ colleagues outlining required action from each level.
-Ensure regular liaison with regional offices, headquarters and partners to ensure follow-up actions at the respective levels and information needs are met.When not deployed in support of emergency response
-Improving UNICEF’s emergency response systems and emergency preparedness. Identifies institutional bottlenecks in delivery of the emergency response, and liaise with other Divisions and sectors within UNICEF (e.g. Nutrition, WASH, HATIS, EMOPS, Supply Division) in order to improve UNICEF systems and standards for emergency response.
-Works closely with the Senior Manager in the Health Section to ensure that UNICEF’s contribution to health in emergencies are of the highest possible quality.
-Provides oversight and ensures UNICEF’s contribution and engagement in global Health policies, standards and guidelines including the Global Health Cluster.
-Works with the Emergency Focal Points and other relevant staff members in PD, DHR, Supply Division etc. to direct, ensure and improve UNICEF’S capacity to be prepared and respond to emergencies including staffing, supplies and mechanisms.
-In collaboration with HQ, RO and CO, designs and conducts training for UNICEF’S staff/consultants and counterparts in emergency preparedness and response, in order to improve the quality and consistency of emergency response activities.
-Supports the development of emergency preparedness and response plans for incipient crisis Countries.
-Directs the documentation of lessons learnt from UNICEF health programmes and activities and identifies priority areas for consideration, analysis and research in emergency context.
-Oversees HQ technical contributions to emergency funding proposals and reporting.
Qualifications of Successful Candidate
-Advanced university degree in Public Health, Medicine or a field relevant to international development assistance in Health.
-Advanced training in humanitarian action
-At least 8 (eight) years of progressively responsible professional work experience at national and international levels in health programme formulation, planning, management and evaluation including in emergencies.
-Field work experience in emergency contexts.
-Experience in Emergency settings (preparedness and response) desired.
-Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of an additional UN language is an asset.
Competencies of Successful Candidate
Core Values
-Commitment
-Diversity and Inclusion
-Integrity
Core competencies
-Communication: Level II
-Working with People: Level II
-Drive for Results: Level II
Functional Competencies
-Analyzing: Level III
-Formulating Strategies and Concepts: Level III
-Applying Technical Expertise: Level II
-Persuading and Influencing: Level III
-Coping with Pressure and Setbacks: Level III
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