Senior Consultant for Vaccination Data Analytics, Kigali, Rwanda, 7 months, Remotely ( For Rwanda Nationals Only) UNICEF at United Nations Children’s Fund: (Deadline 2 December 2022)

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, health

To learn more about UNICEF work in Rwanda, please visit the country website https://unicef.sharepoint.com/sites/RWA/ or watch this video about UNICEF work in Rwanda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7B91m5Yzoc

How can you make a difference?

Scope of Work:

Rwanda already had a strong routine immunization system, with 96 per cent of children receiving basic immunizations.  Cold chain is routinely evaluated and upgraded. The COVID-19 vaccination data management was integrated in the Health Management Information System (HMIS) platform for which a dedicated DHIS2 tracker was designed and deployed with enhanced capacity countrywide to ensure real time recording and reporting of vaccination data. The system captures individual data, generates a unique identification number, an automatic SMS notification about the subsequent doses and vaccination certificate once the vaccine series are completed. The system is linked to the National ID Agency system (NIDA) from which it pulls demographic information of vaccine beneficiaries, which was crucial to link a beneficiary’s information and inform the program on the vaccination status. IT material and human resources for data management have been mobilized to facilitate the COVID-19 vaccination data collection analysis and reporting. Thus, data collected and reported from all health facilities are not analyzed, systems used for data collection not reviewed, vaccine side effects and other related consequences are monitored but need further analysis to comprehend the positive and negative consequences around the use of vaccines under emergency use list.

This technical assistance is needed to assist government of Rwanda through MOH/RBC to:

• Review the existing data collection and monitoring platforms to include all Covid-19 vaccination data analysis including adverse effects following immunization, based on defined standard requirements.
• Identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned from desk review for integration into broader knowledge development planning and management efforts.
• Assess current systems and practices for vaccine data management including client reminder/recall for the next visit.
• Develop an implementation plan for strengthening overall vaccination data management, registries and reporting including new vaccine introduction data management.
• Identify areas of improvement and support capacity building for focal points on the electronic data collection and management, reporting and analyzing immunization data focusing more on Covid-19
• Plan and implement Covid-19 vaccine effectiveness evaluations at country level
• Research and report on best and cutting-edge practices on immunization in general and Covid-19 vaccination in Rwanda for development, planning of knowledge products and systems for evaluations.
• Participate as resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of vaccination staff at different levels.
• Facilitate Covid-19 vaccination review workshop, develop recommendations and roadmap especially for systems resiliency and mitigation measures of the impacts of future pandemics on essential health care
• Support the national immunization programmes to meet global, regional, and country-specific routine immunization and COVID-19 integration and reporting

This will be done under clear guidance from MOH/RBC DG and immunization team, MOH HMIS team, RBC research team in close collaboration with UNICEF Health team.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks/Milestone:

• Develop inception report and action plan
• Conduct the design of data management, analytics and reporting including AEFIs and analyse covid-19 vaccination data
• Assess current systems and practices for vaccine data management including client reminder/recall for the next visit
• Build capacity, troubleshooting and supervising to ensure it is efficiently implemented at facility level to ease provider and patient load
• Identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned from evaluations of integration into broader knowledge development planning and management efforts
• Facilitate Covid-19 vaccination review workshop, develop recommendations and roadmap especially for systems resiliency and mitigation measures of the impacts of future pandemics on essential health care
• Final report and roadmap of integration of Covid-19 vaccination into national immunization systems
• Develop least one manuscript draft and support the review process for publication in a peer review journal

Deliverables/Outputs:

Payment 1: 15%

• RBC_UNICEF approved inception report and action plan submitted in the first month of the assignment

Payment 2: 15%

• AEFIs collected data analyzed, and tools revised/developed and approved by RBC and UNICEF

Payment 3: 20%

• Assessment reports approved
• Regular reports on activities and recommendations implemented

Payment 4: 20%

• Best practices on immunization systems and Covid-19 vaccination documented and approved
• Workshop completed/report and roadmap available

Payment 5: 30%

• RBC-UNICEF approved final report and roadmap of integration submitted and at least one manuscript developed, reviewed and edited.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Epidemiology, data analysis, policy development. A PhD in the area will be an asset.
• A minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience in real time data management analysis and reporting.
• Share examples of work done in the field of data monitoring, analysis, real time data system design
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of French and Kinyarwanda is an asset.

Selection Criteria

Applications shall be assessed based on their technical and financial proposals. Maximum scores for technical and financial applications will be 70% and 30%, respectively.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors 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.

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: 

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.

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