UNICEF recrute un consultant national pour la gestion des données de vaccination pour l’introduction de la vaccination COVID-19 (réponse à court terme COVID-19), Guinée Bissau

 

 

 

Job no : 538037

Contract type : Consultancy

Level : NO-2

Location : Guinea-Bissau

Categories : Health, Consultancy

 

 

Apply here

 

 

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

Background :

Globally, immunization is the most widely accessed and successful child health intervention in use today. However, On 31 December 2019, WHO was alerted to a cluster of pneumonia patients in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. One week later, on 7 January 2020, Chinese authorities confirmed that they had identified a novel (new) coronavirus as the cause of pneumonia. To date, the coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread worldwide. The Communication for Development program is at the forefront of UNICEF’s emergency response.

The COVAX Facility, one of three key pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is a global collaboration co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and WHO to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access globally. With over 300 COVID-19 vaccine candidates being monitored in varying stages of development and 25 vaccines in clinical evaluation, it is possible that a many vaccine candidate may achieve emergency use approval in 2021.

Most health information system in Guinea-Bissau rely on traditional methods and paper or paper-electronic hybrid systems for measuring vaccination coverage, which can result in delayed information gathering for outbreak response. Extracting from paper-based records and transferring it to electronic records is time consuming and leads to delays in the availability of information, especially during outbreaks. Administrative coverage data are commonly used to assess coverage of mass vaccination campaigns.

An effective national implementation of COVID-19 vaccination will depend on the ability to access, receive and share information rapidly between managers and staff at all levels. To enable comprehensive decision-making, information from different data sources linked to COVID-19 such as local epidemiology, vaccination preparedness, performance and coverage monitoring, vaccine and supply management, vaccine safety and immunization waste management should be collected, analyzed and disseminated. For most COVID-19 vaccine products, two doses of vaccine likely separated by 21 or 28 days, will be needed. Because different COVID-19 vaccine products will not be interchangeable, a vaccine recipient’s second dose must be from the same manufacturer as their first dose. The real-time monitoring of uptake, safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines would benefit from use of electronic information platforms;

The UNICEF is supporting the overall COVID-19 vaccination roll-out across the country and looking for providing support to advance its planning horizons to introduce this new vaccine and identify key components (including information systems and monitoring) to strengthen as preparation for vaccination against this pandemic. Moreover, building and leveraging the COVID-19 vaccination introduction.

Objective :

The overall objective of this consultancy is to support for systematic and tailored introduction of COVID-19 vaccine with a focus on data management and monitoring as a key element of the COVID-19 response.

How can you make a difference?

Activities, tasks, deliverables and timelines :

The consultant is expected to provide technical support to the following activities :

  1. Assess the capability of national immunization programs to meet regional and country-specific COVID-19 vaccination reporting requirements ;
  2. Assess current systems and practices for vaccine data management including mass vaccination campaign management and patient reminder/recall in existing healthcare provider organizations to follow-up patients ;
  3. Define essential data and indicators needed to monitor immunization performance, standardizing the reporting formats and establishing information flow and procedures for all levels ;
  4. Review the existing national information management systems and determine their usability for COVID-19 vaccination data management including any additional needs ;
  5. Identify required modifications, ahead of time, in the existing data collection and monitoring platforms, or developing a dedicated system, based on defined standard requirements, if no such system exists ;
  6. Support the introduction of an electronic tool, paper-based or partially digitized system, for capturing and monitoring COVID-19 vaccination roll-out ;
  7. Assess ICT capacity including connectivity problems or challenges in country’s immunization data reporting ;
  8. Develop an implementation road map for COVID-19 vaccine administration documentation, data collection, management and reporting ;
  9. Develop an implementation road map for strengthening countries overall vaccination data management, registries and reporting including new vaccine introduction data management ;
  10. Issue recommendations of ideal scope and requirements for COVID-19 vaccination data management and monitoring in the Guinea-Bissau context ;
  11. Collaborate with potential vendors in areas such as proof of concept, product deployment and implementation plan ;
  12. Update existing registries, vaccination card by risk group, and standardization of data reporting ;
  13. Training and human resources ;
  14. Determine the type of training required for different audiences, virtual platforms, and mechanisms for supervision, evaluation, accreditation, and monitoring ;
  15. Develop national training plan with immunisation program and potentially with vendor collaboration covering ;
  16. Training content for data management, coverage reporting for severe adverse events following immunisation reporting, and operational implementation of the tools ;
  17. Develop training materials for use in different virtual platforms (potentially with vendor collaboration).

Deliverables :

  1. Situation and feasibility analysis (foundations, readiness and maturity to adopt different tools for immunization data management) ;
  2. Characteristics and implementation status of existing electronic information systems that could potentially support data management and other tools and/or with which integration/interoperability should be considered ;
  3. Identification of critical areas such as availability of IT infrastructure to support other tools from health facility to central level, mobile coverage, basic computer literacy of health staff, and capacity for system maintenance, including skilled human resources and funds, needs for technical assistance etc. ;
  4. Identification of key stakeholders that should be involved in the development of functional and technical requirements, governance and implementation of immunization information systems and campaign data management ;
  5. Assess feasibility to leverage and use existing infrastructure and tools (mobile data collection platforms, data warehousing) for COVID-19 vaccination data management and reporting ;
  6. The capability of immunization programs to meet regional and country-specific COVID-19 vaccination reporting requirements Assessed ;
  7. Monitor uptake among target population: subnational, national, and global monitoring of vaccine uptake will be essential to manage the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccination and reduce COVID-19 transmission ;
  8. Ability to track the administration of two doses of vaccine and generate second-dose reminders for vaccine recipients to ensure adherence with vaccine dosing intervals and achieve optimal vaccine effectiveness ;
  9. Ability to report certain data elements for each dose administered within 24 hours of administration ;
  10. Ability to provide proof of vaccination either in the form of a secure COVID-19 vaccination certificate (digital or paper based) ;
  11. Design data management strategy and information system road map to evaluate immunity and coverage of COVID-19 vaccination to the most detailed level possible (neighbourhood, community, individual).

Remuneration : The payment will be done at monthly basis. Professional fees will be paid on the successful completion of specific tasks and the satisfactory submission of deliverables. All payments, without exception, will be made upon certification from the supervisor of the contract, of the satisfactory and quality completion of deliverables and upon receipt of the respective and approved invoice.

Methodology and organization of work :

Duration : The contract will be for a total of 4 month.

Management and implementation arrangement : The overall management of this contract will be done by UNICEF. Within UNICEF, Child and Maternal health, & Nutrition Section will supervise the contract. The consultant is expected to work closely with UNICEF and Ministry of Health.

Important : As a general rule, the fees payable to a consultant must follow the principle of best value (obtain the desired result at the lowest possible cost). Therefore, the candidates are required to indicate their fees for the services to be provided. To be considered, candidates MUST submit their financial proposals when apply.

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

Academic qualification : Advanced University degree in one of the disciplines relevant to the following areas: Social Sciences, Medicine, Health, Public Health, Family Health, Child Development, Nursing, or a field relevant to international development assistance in Immunization and Child Survival & Health Care. Background/familiarity with Emergency.

Work experience :

  • Minimum two years progressively responsible experience in humanitarian/development contexts, emergency preparedness, complex emergency/multi-hazard disasters, community engagement and accountability to affected population work with UN, civil society and/or NGO, including programme management and/or coordination in major emergency response relevant to the cluster or other related area is required ;
  • Training and experience Immunization/health care ;
  • Experience in knowledge management.

Languages : Fluency in Portuguese and English or French is required. Knowledge of Creole is considered as an asset.

Professionalism :

  • Knowledge of a range of humanitarian assistance, emergency relief and related humanitarian issues, including approaches and techniques to address difficult problems. Analytical capacity and in particular the ability to analyses and articulate the humanitarian dimension of issues which require a coordinated UN response ;
  • Effective communication and analytical and writing skills. Developing country work experience is considered an asset.

Conditions of work :

  • The candidate selected will be governed by and subject to UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts ;
  • In Bissau, the consultant will work with his/her own means, using his/her computer and internet ;
  • All the products developed will be the property of UNICEF.

 

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

View our competency framework at UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

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 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 :

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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.

 

Deadline : 21 Feb 2021 Greenwich Standard Time.

Apply here