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
The overall purpose of this consultancy is to propose strategic actions to accelerate eMTCT, EID coverage and pediatric HIV treatment, care and support in Sierra Leone. The specific objective is to conduct an assessment of eMTCT, EID and paediatric HIV programmes, aimed at taking stock of the achievements, identifying and analyzing bottlenecks, and defining actions for improving quality access to eMTCT and paediatric HIV treatment, care and support for both HIV-infected and exposed children in Sierra Leone.
It is expected that the findings of the assessment will inform the implementation of eMTCT and paediatric HIV programmes including gaps/challenges that need to be addressed in order to increase the coverage and quality of HIV/AIDS care and preventive services for pregnant women and children in Sierra Leone.
More specifically, the scope of the proposed assessment includes the following :
eMTCT :
- Analyse Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) quality coverage among pregnant women ;
- Analyse ART quality coverage (i.e., timely administration of ARV) among HIV positive pregnant women, including facilitating and constraining factors as well as lessons learned ;
- Identify and analyse key bottlenecks and disparities, including social, policy and programming environment, human resource capacity, health and community systems bottlenecks that limit provision of quality eMTCT services to pregnant women.
Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) and paediatric ART :
- Describe existing mechanisms for HIV case finding among children with a specific focus on compliance with the current testing protocol in clinical settings, family testing, linkages with other programmes (infectious diseases and nutrition), EID , timing of provision of results, what data is collected at which level, including lessons learnt and facilitating and constraining factors related to this ;
- Describe existing mechanisms for the provision of paediatric ART with a focus on service delivery points, cadre and capacity of personnel providing services, monitoring of treatment adherence and outcomes monitoring, patient transfer to ART centres, what data is collected at which level, including lessons learnt and facilitating and constraining factors related to this ;
- Identify and analyse key bottlenecks and disparities, including social, policy and programming environment, health and community systems bottlenecks that limit provision of quality paediatric HIV/AIDS treatment, care and support to HIV exposed and infected children.
Please see attached ToR for more information 
ToR eMTCT assessment.doc
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- Advanced university degree in Public Health, Medicine, Social Sciences, Health Systems Management, or other related discipline ;
- At least 8-10 years of relevant professional experience in programme design, planning, monitoring and evaluation in the field of HIV, eMTCT and padiatric HIV care programmes ;
- Familiarity with the current HIV situation and global and regional response, with focus on eMTCT and paediatric HIV treatment ;
- Experience in health data collection, analysis, monitoring and evaluation ;
- Previous working experience with UNICEF and/or other international agencies will be an asset ;
- Previous experience in countries or regions with similar context to Sierra Leone is an asset ;
- Fluency in English is required.
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 : 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 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.
Depending on COVID19 situation this assignment would be done remotely or as the situation develops.
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.