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 overall purpose of the consultancy is to synthesize and document the lessons learnt and good practices from the implementation of the Young People and Adolescents Peer Support (YAPS) model in Uganda as part of the programmatic learning and improvement of the YAPS related interventions. This will be backed up by stories and testimonies of change. The aim of this is to capture and share practices and experiences in order to build a collective knowledge network and inform learning from the experiences.
A “good practice” can be defined as follows: ‘A good practice is a technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has proven to reliably lead to a desired result’. A commitment to using the good practices in any field is a commitment to using all the knowledge and technology at one’s disposal to ensure success. Some of the characteristics of a good criteria include: (a) relevance in addressing the operational and programming areas; (b) innovative in demonstrating new and creative ideas to solving the problems; (c) impact demonstrates a positive and tangible result that enhances program delivery and contributes to long term results and (d) replicability in that it serves as an effective model and has potential for application to other contexts/programs.
In documenting the lessons learned and good practices for the Uganda YAPS model, consultant will work in collaboration with UNICEF Uganda Country Office and AIDS Control Programme (ACP) of the Ministry of Health. In the MoH, consultant will work with the Program Officer Adolescent HIV Programme, the National Paediatric and Adolescent HIV Care and Treatment Services Coordinator, the Program Manager ACP, as well as Members of the Health Sector Paediatric and Adolescent HIV sub-committee of the National HIV Technical Working Group (TWG).
Background :
Adolescents remain a unique sub-population with unique needs. This compounded with HIV infection renders their outcomes of HIV care and treatment to perform way below other populations. A process evaluation, conducted in Dec 2017 by MOH in Uganda on the status of implementation of Adolescent HIV/SRH responsive services revealed some progress around Linkage to Care and ART (44.6% to 74.3%), ART coverage (70.6%) and the scale up of adolescent responsive services from 37% to 59.6%. Despite these improvements, overall performance of key outcomes remains poor among adolescents. The same report revealed a high HIV positivity rate among older adolescents (15-19-year-old); with a yield among adolescents at 3.1%, an increase from the 2.5% observed in 2016. Viral load coverage remained low at an average of 73%[1] and retention into care at 24 months being at 53.5% way below the national average of 78% at 12 months.
Countries’ minimum care package for adolescent HIV foresees the implementation of several approaches to improve outcomes. One such approach is the engagement of adolescent peers in the provision of services. There is evidence showing that the use of adolescent peers has resulted in improved outcomes like better identification of HIV positives (17% yield), linkage into care (98%) and viral suppression (87%). The Zimbabwe’s Zvandiri CATS model has been recommended by WHO as one such best practice for replication. Several countries such as Tanzania, Swaziland, Rwanda and Botswana have adopted this model. Implementation of peer support interventions must however be done in a harmonised and standard manner. By 2017, implementation of this approach varied across the country with only 2.3% of sites having trained adolescent peer leaders involved in service delivery with 56.7% having adolescent peer support groups.
In 2018, the MOH in Uganda embarked on the process of standardising Adolescent Peer Support interventions through developing the YAPS model. The model was adapted from the Zvandiri Community Adolescent Treatment Supporters (CATS) model in Zimbabwe where it showed improved adherence from 44.2% to 71.8%. Adolescents in facilities implementing the CATS model were 3.9 times likely to adhere to treatment compared to the control health facilities. The YAPS model identifies and engages Adolescents and young people aged 18-22 years to provide HIV prevention, care, treatment and support services to their peers across the 95-95-95 fast track cascade. It targets adolescents and young people aged 10-24 and involves an intensive capacity building and mentorship program. The intervention uses a multi-sectoral approach with strong linkages and collaboration with other line Ministries of Gender, Labour and Social development (MOGLSD) and Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES).
The purpose of the documentation is to document experiences of AYPLHIV engaged in service delivery, their beneficiaries, best practices, challenges faced during the implementation of the YAPS model and recommend possible approaches to scale up to other health facilities and districts in order to improve the 95-95-95 targets of the HIV programme in Uganda.
The documentation aim to achieve the following objectives :
- To describe what the adolescents, health workers and community considers as best practices of the YAPS programme to provide quality HIV services for adolescents and young people ;
- To document human-interest stories from the YAPS programme; depicting the benefits and areas of growth of the program ;
- To recommend strategies and practices for scale up for Adolescents and Young people, scale up for the provision of Quality HIV services for adolescent and young people in Uganda.
Scope of work :
Before commencing on the assignment, the consultant will develop an inception report with Plan of Action outlining the detailed approach and methodology to this assignment, which will be discussed and agreed upon with UNICEF and MoH. This task may involve a number of consultative meetings.
Based on the agreed plan of action, the consultant will review relevant supporting documentation, conduct field work to programme areas and beneficiaries to collect evidence on the YAPS delivery model.
The consultant will document lessons learned and good practices for accelerating action and supporting scale up of YAPS model in Uganda. In documenting lessons learned and good practices, the consultant will use as a guide: Annex 1. Detailed best practice template and Annex 2. Checklist for identifying practices for potential scale up (WHO, 2017. A Guide to Identifying and Documenting Best Practices in Family Planning Programmes). In addition to the write up, the consultant will develop a power point presentation that can be utilized for dissemination of the YAPS good practices.
The consultant will also work with UNICEF HIV and communications section to identify, develop and document positive change in the form of testimonies, human interest stories, photos and videos.
The draft deliverables and presentation will be reviewed by the MOH Paediatric and Adolescent subcommittee and UNICEF. The final report and deliverables will be disseminated during the annual national stakeholders meeting to review the performance of the HIV programme.
Key tasks :
The consultant will work on the following tasks :
- Develop an inception report with Plan of Action outlining the detailed approach, methodology and timelines to this assignment ;
- Review relevant supporting documentation, conduct field work to programme areas and beneficiaries to collect evidence and information on good practices and lessons learned on the YAPS delivery model. Conduct data analysis, articulation and prioritization of good practices and lessons learned, and documentation of lessons learned and good practices for accelerating action and supporting scale up of YAPS model in Uganda in prescribed format ;
- Work with UNICEF HIV and communications section to identify, develop and document positive change in the form of testimonies, human interest stories, photos and videos ;
- Validation and finalization of the report and power point based on the feedback from key stakeholders ;
- Validation and finalization of the report and power point based on the feedback from key stakeholders.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
The selected consultant should have :
Education : Advanced university degree in one or more of the disciplines : Public Health, Development Studies or Social Science or a field relevant to international development assistance in HIV/AIDS
Experience/expertise :
- A minimum of 5 years of relevant work in documentation and dissemination of research and good practices, preferably in the area of HIV and adolescent health ;
- Experience working in communication including digital media and/or communications for development ;
- Knowledge of HIV and AIDS situation and programmes in Uganda ;
- Knowledge of Adolescent Health in context of HIV/AIDS epidemic at global, regional and national levels ;
- Excellent inter-personal communication skills ;
- Proven capacity to interact with the governmental and non-governmental partners and stakeholders.
Language : Excellent oral and written communication skills in English
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 an international 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.