Senior Consultant to conduct a field survey estimating the rates of HIV seroconversion among pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, Kigali Rwanda , 3 months ( Remote/ work from home) – Rwandan Nationals Only UNICEF at United Nations Children’s Fund: (Deadline 16 November 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?

Background

Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV is a significant contributor to the HIV pandemic, accounting for 9% of new infections globally. MTCT of HIV occurs when HIV is transmitted from a woman living with HIV to her baby during pregnancy, labour or delivery, or after delivery through breastfeeding. Without treatment, approximately 15–30% of infants born to HIV-positive women will become infected with HIV during gestation and delivery, with a further 5–15% becoming infected through breastfeeding. HIV infection of infants results in early mortality for many or creates a lifelong chronic condition that greatly shortens life expectancy and contributes to substantial human, social and economic costs.

Dual elimination of Mother to child transmission of HIV and Syphilis serves to improve a broad range of maternal and child health (MCH) services and outcomes. This achievement directly contributes to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, 5 and 10 and to first billion of more people benefitting from universal health coverage of WHO GPW-13 which both aspire to ensure health and well-being for all, achieve gender equality and empower women and girls, and reduce inequalities in access to services and commodities.

The global community has committed to eliminating mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of HIV and syphilis as a public health priority. International and regional goals have been set, and countries are scaling up programmes towards EMTCT of HIV and syphilis. The processes and criteria to validate EMTCT of HIV and/or syphilis has been defined by WHO and partners to guide countries to apply a standard approach across a wide range of epidemiological and programmatic contexts.

In Rwanda, the UNAIDS estimates a mother to child HIV transmission of 6% which is much higher that the estimate from the program of 1.5%. The discrepancy may be mainly due lack of Rwanda specific data regarding mothers who drop off the program and those who get infected during pregnancy or breastfeeding period respectively, affecting the quality of estimates

Thus, the EMTCT national steering committee has recommended to conduct a deep study to estimate the HIV transmission rates among pregnant who receive ART services to reduce the MTCT, those who dropped out of the service, provide the size estimates for women with unmet need for PMTCT. Further, it is recommended to estimate the seroconversion among the pregnant and breastfeeding women as well as the vertical transmission from those mothers. These data will feed into the Rwanda HIV spectrum estimates.

Rwanda Biomedical Centre with technical and financial support from UNICEF has developed a scientific survey protocol, necessary tools. Further, Arm 1: prospectively follow up of children born to mothers who were newly diagnosed with HIV during labor from July 2016 to October 2021 while they were HIV negative at any of the ANC visits was implemented under the support of UNICEF. Therefore, the current term of references are only related to the implementation of the Arm 2.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

UNICEF seeks to hire consultancy services to provide technical assistance to Rwanda Biomedical Centre to implement Arm 2 of the study protocol.

Arm 2 will be conducted in 25 out of 100 health facilities.  Consultancy services are specifically required to collect field data, conduct data analytics, and write a report in strict accordance with the survey protocol as approved by the Rwanda National Ethics Committee.

Scope of Work:

•             Specific outputs and tasks will include the following:

•             Task 1.1:  Study in detail the survey protocol and associated tools and draft an implementation plan.

•             Task1.2: Convene the EMTCT- TWG to present the inception report, implementation plan and associated budget.

•             Task 1.3: Recruit and train data collectors and oversee data collection

•             Task 1.4: Conduct data cleaning and recoding and scientific analyses in strict accordance with the survey protocol as approved by Rwanda National Ethics Committee

•             Task 1.5: Synthesize results, submit and present a draft comprehensive scientific report to PMTCT – TWG for technical review and validation

•             Task 1.5: Revise and submit a final report in narrative and PowerPoint formats.

Specific tasks/steps:

•             Preparation of an inception report based on approved existing protocol and terms of reference describing how the assessment shall be conducted including timelines for the deliverables, research questions, sampling plan, tools, methodology and process of data collection and analysis, and outline of the report. To be validated by PMTCT TWG.

•             Orientation/training of data collectors and field-testing tools.

•             Coordinating and supervision of data collection and quality assurance, with regular updates to the PMTCT TWG.

•             Data review, analysis/interpretation

•             Report writing and validation:

o            Develop content and zero draft of report and submit to the PMTCT TWG for review, inputs/comments.

o            Present key findings, recommendations, and improvement plan to the steering committee for enhancement and validation.

o            Incorporate inputs from the PMTCT TWG and present for finalization.

•               Submit a final report with PowerPoint presentation approved by RBC/HIV division to UNICEF.

Design and Setting:

Arm 2: consists of a mixture of cross-sectional and prospective cohort study designs of mothers tested HIV negative.

Population:

The study will include mother and child pair for all mothers aged 15 years and above who consent to participate in the study and get further HIV testing as well as their children. Those mothers include: (i) pregnant and tested HIV negative at the first antenatal care visit, (ii) mothers confirmed HIV negative at delivery and followed up during the study.

Study Outcome:

(i) HIV Incidence among pregnant women, (ii) HIV Incidence among lactating women, (iii) Mother to child transmission rate among sero-converted mothers during antenatal care, (iv) Mother to child transmission rate among sero-converted mothers during breastfeeding period.

Study Sites:

The study sites will be the health facilities offering the full package of PMTCT (antenatal care, maternity and exposed infant follow-up).

Sample Size:

Arm 2: 247,000 mothers who came for children vaccination at each vaccination point (6 weeks, 9 months, and 15 months).

Work relationships: 

The consultant will be managed by UNICEF Health Specialist and technically supervised by the HIV Division Manager at RBC/MOH and a steering committee comprising relevant partners including WHO, UNAIDS, PEPFAR. Payments will be done upon completion of each deliverable and submission of invoice with deliverable approved by RBC/HIV division.

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.

Tasks/Milestone:

• Survey protocol and associated tools studied in detail and understood.
• Workplan, study tools revised and plan for data collection developed and submitted to RBC and UNICEF.
• Meeting convened to present a revised protocol to the PMTCT technical working group for endorsement.
• Well organized Database and draft preliminary analytical study report with a PowerPoint presentation.
• Final report study report with a PowerPoint presentation

Specific Deliverables/Outputs/ Payments:

Payment 1: 10%

• Inception report & Work Plan

Payment 2: 45%

• Arm 2 Field data collected as per protocol.
• Database is designed and in a well-organized format.
• Interim scientific analyses are conducted, and draft report is prepared, presented to PMTCT TWG for review and further revisions.

Payment 3: 45%

• Arm 2- Final narrative and PowerPoint reports prepared and submitted to RBC and UNICEF
• Full Database handed over to RBC.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Public Health, Child health or Global Health. A PhD in the area will be an asset.A minimum of 8 years of experience in below:

  • Familiarity with conducting HIV and similar studies

  • Familiar with the Rwanda health system from decentralized (Primary health care level) to National level.

  • Prior similar experience in conducting HIV surveys will be an advantage.

  • Prior experience in carrying out successfully the consultancy in Maternal, Newborn and child health domain.

  • Demonstrated competence in oral and written English language skills, including a proven ability to prepare reports and proposals in a clear, concise manner. (The program may ask short listed applicants for copies of previous evaluation reports).

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of French and a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE AND APPLY