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 fair chance
Uganda is one of the over 190 countries and territories around the world where we work to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease, and discrimination place in a child’s path. Together with the Government of Uganda and partners we work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the objectives of the Uganda National Development Plan, and the planned outcomes of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework.
Visit this link for more information on Uganda Country Office https://www.unicef.org/uganda/
How can you make a difference?
The purpose of this Consultancy is to integrate the COVID-19 service delivery adaptation for management of children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM), that is Family MUAC, and the SURGE approach, into the recently revised IMAM training packages and action plan.
The consultant will be under the supervision of the Nutrition Manager working closely with the Nutrition Specialist (Nutrition in Emergencies and IMAM) based in Kampala.
Background :
Over the past year, UNICEF has supported the Ministry of Health (MoH) to revise the integrated management of acute malnutrition (IMAM) guidelines and training packages. Additional key documents including pocket handbooks for both inpatient and outpatient therapeutic care, job aids and IEC materials and a draft 5-year national action plan were also developed. A national training of trainers on the revised training packages was done in January 2020. District specific rollout previously hindered by the global pandemic COVID-19 is now gradually being supported.
Due to COVID-19, a number of program adaptations for the management of children with acute malnutrition have been recommended by the MoH. For example, in the absence of proper personal protective equipment the use of weight and height measurements to assess nutritional status is discouraged. In this case, the MoH has adapted the global recommendation to only admit SAM children using MUAC. The MoH in Uganda has approved the use of Family led MUAC for screening children. Family MUAC is a community screening approach which aims to empower mothers, caregivers and other family members to screen their own children for acute malnutrition. The approach extends screening activities to mothers/caregivers or and any other family member involved in the child’s development and care enabling them to detect the earliest signs of malnutrition. This approach also enables mothers/caregivers to participate fully in promoting the health of their children. To be able to inform the implementation of this approach, a formative research is needed to understand the community and health care aspects that will promote its institutionalisation.
Whereas the MoH has recently revised the national package for the integrated management of acute malnutrition, this revision does not consider the MoH recommended adaptations in COVID-19 for the management of children with acute malnutrition. As the COVID-pandemic becomes stable and national governments invest in vaccines, it is expected that there will be peaks in the numbers of children with SAM, due to increased health care seeking behavior and improved screening that may not need the use of PPEs. In order to timely detect these spikes and implement recommended actions, there is need to ensure that surge for nutrition is well integrated into the IMAM training modules. The surge approach will be handy to the MoH to detect the peaks and support appropriate actions.
The Government of Uganda has few systems and tools in place that trigger an intensified support for essential services, mainly human resources and supplies. However, these are mainly focused on disease outbreaks and specific emergency contexts (e.g. floods). The current governmental systems do not include nutrition triggers. A surge model specifically focused on improving planning and management of treatment services during seasonal spikes or surges in caseloads of acute malnutrition is key to improving the SAM treatment outcomes and overall efficiency of the service delivery. The goal of surge for nutrition is to enable the Ministry of Health and the District Health Management Teams to determine what capacity exists, look at what has been achieved and identify gaps and implement appropriate actions from a health system strengthening approach.
UNICEF in collaboration with the MoH will recruit a national consultant to provide services to support the integration of both adaptations for the management of children with acute malnutrition – Family MUAC and SURGE approach – into the revised IMAM training packages and action plan. In addition, the consultant will support the implementation of a rapid assessment on the implementation of Family MUAC and document lessons to inform scale up.
Scope of Work :
- Conduct a rapid assessment on use of Family MUAC and SURGE in West Nile region to inform the development of the Family MUAC and SURGE implementation packages ;
- Develop Family MUAC training modules as an annex to the current revised IMAM training modules, including appropriate visual aids and IEC materials for use by the community ;
- Develop a module on nutrition surge in the context of IMAM as an annex to the currently revised IMAM training modules ;
- Integrate SURGE and Family MUAC implementation into the IMAM action plan.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Qualification Requirements :
The consultant will be expected to have the following qualifications and skills :
1. EDUCATION : Master’s Degree in pediatrics and child health and preferably with higher degree (PhD level) in public health related field, and research experience in malnutrition or nutrition epidemiology.
2. EXPERIENCE :
- At least ten years or more of professional experience in clinical services, nutrition, public health, related research or planning and management in relevant areas of maternal, infant and child nutrition, at national or international levels ;
- Experience in developing guidelines for the management of severe acute malnutrition at country level ;
- Experience in conducting training of health professionals for the management of SAM in clinical settings ;
- Knowledge and experience with recent WHO recommendations in management of SAM and evidence on the management of MAM ;
- Experience in developing reports, case-studies and policy briefs, for a range of audiences including practitioners in the field and policy makers ;
- Relevant experience in health/nutrition program/project development and management with UNICEF is an asset ;
- The consultant should have preferably attended the UNICEF-supported workshop by Prof. Michael Golden (IMAM expert consultant) conducted in Uganda ;
- The consultant should have preferably participated the revision of the current IMAM guidelines and stakeholder engagement meetings during the revision process.
3. SKILLS AND ABILITIES :
- Proven experience and skills in programme management and strategic planning ;
- Proven ability to strengthen capacity of national and sub-national counterparts and partners ;
- Excellent communications and interpersonal skills; ability to influence and inter-act with senior-level decision-makers across different organisations; capacity to act with credibility, tact and diplomacy on sensitive issues and topics ;
- Proven skills in strong analytical and problem-solving skills ;
- Excellent written and oral communication skills ;
- Effective organizational skills; high drive for results ;
- Teamwork and strong interpersonal and intercultural skills.
- LANGUAGE : Fluency in English is a MUST.
Application Procedure/Call for Proposals :
Interested candidates are required to submit a technical proposal on how they intend to approach the work. The proposal should include a timeline, and methodology, based on the Terms of Reference. The proposal must also include detailed CV of the consultant, as well as a financial proposal, clearly indicating daily rate for professional fees. The financial proposal must be all-inclusive of all costs (consultancy fees and where applicable air fares, airport transfers, daily living expenses). This is a national level consultancy and competitive market rates should apply.
Evaluation of Candidate :
The consultant will be competitively selected from a list of applicants based on their past experience of doing similar work (extensive experience in writing donor reports, in compiling and editing annual reports for various UNICEF offices).
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
The competencies required for this post are….
View our competency framework at : UNICEF_Competencies.pdf
UNICEF 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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.
Remarks:
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.