Senior consultant to conduct the Routine Immunization Coverage & Equity (CEA), Kigali Rwanda, 5 months (Remote & office) – For Internationals ONLY UNICEF at United Nations Children’s Fund: (Deadline 2 December 2023)

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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

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Background:

The Ministry of Health (MOH) is committed to achieving and maintaining high immunization coverage by reaching all children with potent vaccines and reducing the number of zero dose and under-vaccinated children, including by: ensuring the availability of required vaccination services at the right time, right quality, and right place to all communities as per the recommended vaccination schedule, introducing new vaccines as they are needed, and improving equity and gender at all levels. This is all with the aim of achieving the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) targets.

The IA2030, which aims to halve the number of unvaccinated zero-dose children by 2030, and the Gavi 5.0 strategy for 2021-25, which aims to reduce the number of zero-dose children in Gavi eligible countries by 25% by 2025, both recognize the critical importance of addressing inequities across and within countries for the global immunization goals to be achieved. The equity reference group (ERG), which is a group of immunization experts, has identified four priority areas which contains the bulk of zero-dose and under-vaccinated children including the remote rural, urban poor, conflict settings and addressing gender dimension to make significant strides in reaching every child with vaccinations.

Some of the interventions needed include tailoring strategies such as conducting a robust coverage and equity assessment (CEA) to map inequities in immunization access and utilization as well as define the major drivers and what interventions will need to be implemented to address these inequities. Other interventions will include addressing the peculiarities seen in remote rural, urban and conflict populations, as well as mainstreaming gender dimensions into immunization programming.

Purpose of the consultancy:

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide technical support to the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC), Maternal Child and Community Health (MCCH) /Vaccine Programme Unit to conduct a comprehensive CEA incorporating gender dimensions and identifying the key interventions to reduce the number of zero-dose children in urban and peri-urban settlements, remote rural and humanitarian settings. This support will include assistance in developing and implementing zero dose reduction strategies in these contexts and documentation of the coverage and equity in Rwanda.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks and milestones

The Consultant will be responsible for the specific tasks as follows:

1. Conduct CEA and develop the report:

• Engage with country office and vaccination programmed in RBC to develop the plan with timelines of the CEA.
• Facilitate an orientation session with the country team and stakeholders at the national and subnational levels on the updated CEA guidelines.
• Assist countries to review existing national and or subnational data including administrative and survey data to analyze their coverage and equity situation and determine why coverage is lower in specific population groups, geographical areas, or pockets of under-immunized children.
• Assist with the design and collection of additional qualitative or quantitative data to supplement available existing data as part of the CEA plan of a country or district.

2. Develop plans and strategies to implement CEA findings:

• Based on the findings, assist countries to identify and develop the requisite strategies and interventions that address the root causes of the inequity as identified in the bottleneck and root cause analyses and integrate these into the district or sub district plans that then feed into the national plan.
• Develop component of gender analysis to be incorporated in the CEA and its recommendations, and opportunities to prioritize gender transformative interventions to reduce the number of zero-dose children and reach missed communities. Compile final coverage and equity assessment (CEA) reports including clear recommendations on steps to be taken and opportunities to leverage for improving routine immunization coverage and reducing inequities and zero dose children or reaching missed communities.

3. Documentation and plans to reduce ZD and sustain high coverage:

• Work with the UNICEF immunization teams to assist with other relevant activities to help countries plan, implement and finalize strategies to improve coverage and reduce inequities through CEAs.
• Documentation on immunization coverage and equity in Rwanda including develop and submit manuscript for publication

Deliverables

Payment 1: 20%

1. CEA reports of high standard with gender clearly highlighted.

Payment 2: 40%

1. Specific strategies to reach zero dose children in urban, remote rural and humanitarian settings.

Payment 3: 40%

1. Operationalized plans to sustain high coverage for all antigens.
2. Integration and updating zero-dose information system including in country capacity building.
3. Tools and draft guidelines to reach zero dose children in specific contexts.
4. Documentation of case studies, lessons learnt.
5. Draft manuscripts for publication: one on coverage and equity and one on immunization and gender in Rwanda

Duration and Duty Location

This consultancy will be completed within 4 months. The consultancy is home based but the consultant will have some days working in the office.

Selection Criteria

Applications shall be assessed based on their technical and financial proposals. Maximum scores for technical and financial applications will be 75% and 25%, respectively.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Advanced university degree in Medicine, Public Health, Health Policy, and Management, Social or Behavioral Science, other related fields. Additional qualifying experience of 5 years with bachelor’s degree may be accepted in lieu of the Master’s degree.
• Minimum of 8 years relevant professional experience in planning, management and implementation of immunization or health programs.
• Very good understanding of national immunization programs, Primary health care and health systems.
• Experience in supporting countries to design and implement coverage and equity assessments, equity analysis, strategies to reach zero dose and under-vaccinated children etc.
• Knowledge and experience with reaching every district or community (RED/REC) approach.
• Immunization programming field experience in contexts such as urban, remote rural, conflict, gender, and related areas an advantage.
• Proficiency in use of statistical software an
  advantage.
• Strong analytical skills and experience synthesizing information from multiple sources.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively.
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.

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 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: 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy 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. Consultants 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.