Vacancies

Home-based Consultancy: Public Financing for Children for Health Expert (71 working days; with travel as needed) - Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO)

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Job no: 572898

Contract type: Consultant

Duty Station: Geneva

Level: Consultancy

Location: Switzerland

Categories: Health, Social Policy, Knowledge Management

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, a vision.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

Under the overall supervision of the UNICEF ECARO Regional Health Adviser and Regional Social Policy Adviser, in close collaboration with Headquarters and other relevant Sections, the consultant will report to the health and immunization financing expert in the Regional Health Section and the Social Policy Section, to use the recently developed course content for Public Financing for Children with a focus on Health and Immunization, to continue to deliver it for in-person cohorts, support with post-delivery issues (e.g., capstone projects and others), to continue to iterate and improve the training content, and to develop the AGORA course format further. Other knowledge products such as advocacy briefs, technical documents, articles and support identified during the training will need to be available, as detailed below.

Background

UNICEF's mission is to promote the rights of every child, with a focus on the most disadvantaged and excluded. This equity strategy ensures all children can survive, develop, and reach their potential without discrimination. Investing in the health, education, and protection of disadvantaged children benefits individual children and promotes sustained growth and stability in nations.

UNICEF's Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) and Immunization strategies target national, sub-national, and community systems. It supports Ministries of Health and Immunization Agencies in developing equity-focused policies, improves district-level management for service delivery, and strengthens community health and immunization platforms. Central to this is planning for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through primary health care costing, budgeting, planning, and resource leveraging as part of Public Finance for Children (PF4C).

To deliver its work, UNICEF partners with international partners (in this case, GAVI) and national governments to improve public spending efficiency and effectiveness while advocating for increased domestic funding, namely in Health and Immunization. This advocacy work includes communicating and assisting on issues related to planning, budgeting, execution, reporting, and scrutiny to ensure funds are effectively, efficiently, and equitably used.

The training aims to strengthen health and immunization outcomes for children by enhancing public financial management in the health and immunization sectors, with participants learning to apply policy concepts, detect budget constraints, map key actors, improve program coordination, design PFM solutions, and advocate for child welfare issues.

To enhance skills, UNICEF conducted regional PF4C- H&I training in May 2024 (Cohort 1) and June (Cohort 2) for CO staff and key stakeholders from various countries, focusing on health and immunization. Approximately, 50 individuals have benefited from the in-person training so far. During the training, the participants requested the need of further continued support to develop Capstone Projects in addition to the basic information learnt during the training, especially on the use of PFM/ PF4C Tools. Furthermore, there is a growing demand to conduct another round of the training as several UNICEF colleagues were unable to join.

Finally, from the two trained cohorts, several other needs, knowledge products, technical assistance, in-country training, capacity building, follow-up actions, and activities have been identified and/or requested to the RO team to continue supporting the countries in advancing their Health and Immunization agendas.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks / MilestoneDeliverables / OutputsTimeline / DeadlineDevelop PF4C/ PFM Regional advocacy Briefs in enhancing the financial sustainability of immunization programsOne (1) Regional advocacy brief developed highlighting UNICEF ECAR initiatives, successes, challenges, and lessons learned

By July 2024

Provide technical assistance (TA) to CO for Capstone projects conclusion and presentation based on recently completed trainingsAt least five (5) CO teams provided with TA to complete Capstone Projects

By August 2024

Develop technical documents for health and immunization aimed at health officers at COsAt least three (3) Technical documents are drafted focusing on the understanding of different UNICEF PFM/PF4C tools

By September 2024

Capacity Building on Public Financing for Children for Health and ImmunizationIn-person training completed for one (1) batch of 25 participants from UNICEF staff and respective government counterparts using the training content recently developed

By October 2024

Provide technical support regarding the cost of the inaction analysis that is ongoing by RO.

By November 2024

Draft three (3) articles for publicationThree (3) Articles drafted for publication in international peer-reviewed journals based on capstone projects

By December 2024

Final report of the consultancyOne (1) Drafted final report

By December 2024

Estimated Duration of the Contract

71 working days between July and December 2024.

Consultant's Work Place and Official Travel

The Consultant will be remote/home-based.

As part of this assignment, some international travels are foreseen. The consultant will arrange her/his travel as and when they take place, and related costs will be reimbursed per UNICEF travel policy.

Travel Clause

• All UNICEF rules and regulations related to travel of Consultants apply.
• All travels shall be undertaken only upon the prior written approval by UNICEF.
• The consultant must be fit to travel, be in a possession of the valid UN BSAFE certificate, obligatory inoculation(s) and have a valid own travel/medical insurance and an immunization/vaccination card.

Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

Payment will be made on submission of an invoice and satisfactory completion of the above-mentioned deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs are incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines. All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Please submit a professional fee (in USD) based on 71 working days to undertake this assignment, without travel fees as these will be reimbursed as and when they take place.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in health economics, health financing, public financial management, or a closely related field is required.
• A minimum of eight (8) years of relevant professional experience in a public finance or economic development role within the national/international health sector.
• Prior experience conducting or developing course content on PF4C for health and immunization is an asset.
• Preference will be given to candidates who have demonstrated knowledge of and professional experience in at least two (2) of the following areas: Public Finance Management in health, health economic analysis, strengthening public health financing and governance, Health Systems Strengthening.
• Experience of working in the region is considered an asset.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency, organization, global health initiative (TGF, GAVI, GFF), or development bank is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of Russian is preferred.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS), and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most marginalized children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Please include a full CV and a Cover Letter in your application. Additionally, indicate your availability and professional fee (in USD) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a professional fee will not be considered. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

Advertised: W. Europe Daylight Time

Deadline: W. Europe Daylight Time