Consultancy to Support the Global Alliance to End AIDS among Children by 2030 at UNICEF

Background

• Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) is the region carrying the largest share of the global burden of HIV and remains the epicenter of the epidemic. In the last decade, much progress has been made, but the gains are still fragile, and HIV continues to have a tremendous impact on the lives of children, adolescents, and their families. In 2021 an estimated 1.74 million children and adolescents aged 0-19 years, in ESA were living with HIV. Approximately 57,000 children and adolescents died of an AIDS-related cause in the same year. Although declining, the number of new infections in children, at 78,000, remains far too high. Testing and treatment coverage as well as rates of viral suppression among children and adolescents living with HIV significantly lag those for adults in this region. While antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage for adults stood at 79% in 2021, only 56% of children were accessing lifesaving treatment in that same year.
• In the face of these grave inequities, global partners led by UNAIDS, UNICEF, and WHO together with networks of people living with HIV, PEPFAR, and The Global Fund launched the Global Alliance to end AIDS in children by 2030 (hereto referred to as the Global Alliance) at the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada July 2022. The Global Alliance emphasizes the importance of a ground-up approach with local, national, and regional stakeholders taking ownership of the initiative, and engagement of a broad set of partners. The Global Alliance has four populations of focus: Children and adolescents (0–19 years) living with HIV, children exposed to HIV, pregnant and breastfeeding girls and women who are living with HIV, and pregnant and breastfeeding girls and women who are HIV-negative. There are four pillars of action for the Global Alliance as follows: 1) early testing and optimized comprehensive, high-quality treatment and care for infants, children, and adolescents living with HIV to achieve universal coverage of ART and viral suppression; 2) closing the treatment gap for pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV and optimizing continuity of treatment towards the goal of elimination of vertical transmission; 3) preventing new HIV infections among pregnant and breastfeeding adolescents and women and; 4) addressing rights, gender equality, social/structural barriers that hinder access.
• Eight of the twelve inaugural Global Alliance partner countries are in Eastern and Southern Africa. They include Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. All eight have developed high-level action plans endorsed by their Ministers of Health. Accountabilities for the Regional Office in the Global Alliance include technical support to participating countries to operationalize national action plans, liaising between the Global team and Country teams, collaboration with UNAIDS and WHO regional offices, including in co-convening a regional hub for the Global Alliance, knowledge management and resource leveraging in support of the Global Alliance. While ESARO has a dedicated capacity for the elimination of vertical transmission and adolescent HIV, the ESARO team is limited in dedicated expertise on pediatric and adolescent HIV lacks expertise. It is to support key regional accountabilities in the Global Alliance through additional expertise that ESARO is seeking to recruit a senior consultant with a particular focus on closing the treatment gap for children and adolescents.

How can you make a difference? 

• The overall goal of this consultancy is to support the Global Alliance in Eastern and Southern Africa to accelerate action and progress on closing the treatment gap for children and adolescents and ending AIDS by 2030. The specific objectives for this consultancy are to:
• provide expert advice and guidance to at least eight countries (through UNICEF country offices and joint UN teams) to operationalize the Global Alliance action plans, with a particular focus on closing the treatment gap for children and adolescents,
• lend expertise to the Regional Office in operationalizing the Global Alliance regional hub and liaising with global and regional partners for smooth information flow and timely implementation
• inform action through knowledge management, including the development of knowledge products, south-to-south learning, and support for monitoring the implementation of the Global Alliance in Eastern and Southern Africa
• to provide technical expertise for resource mobilization and leveraging for operationalizing the Global Alliance and closing the treatment gap for children and adolescents.

Activities and Tasks

Expert technical advice to Country Offices

• Provide remote expert technical guidance to the eight inaugural Global Alliance partner countries on closing the treatment gap and other aspects.
• Lend technical expertise to other countries in the region on closing the treatment gap to ensure alignment and continued progress across the region

 Support for the regional hub

• Provide relevant technical expertise in support of the Global Alliance regional hub and global partnership on behalf of UNICEF ESARO
• Provide technical advice and guidance to support the translation of Global Alliance policies and initiatives to the ESAR context, especially on closing the treatment gap.

 Knowledge Management

• Develop, revise and technically edit regional documentation products of UNICEF efforts/activities on closing the treatment gap, including through PHC integration.
• Provide remote expert technical reviews of country documents related to the Global Alliance. closing
• Develop evidence and programme summaries on key HIV programme areas to support the Global Alliance, especially on closing the treatment gap.
• The specific products will be determined in consultation with the regional team, country offices, and partners as part of the work planning process and in line with developments over time and are likely to include summaries of national action plans, input to the 2023 SADC Health Ministers meeting, and documentation of promising practices and learning from the operationalization of the Global Alliance.

Resource mobilization and leveraging

• Assess the programming and partner context and make recommendations on promising concepts and initiatives for resource mobilization.
• In consultation with the Regional HIV and PPP teams, provide expert technical inputs on concept notes and proposals. 

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

• Education: Advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in public health, social sciences, or related field.
• Work experience: A minimum of ten years of professional experience at the international level, including field experience with expertise in HIV programming.
• Prior working experience in Eastern and Southern Africa on HIV programming with a specific focus on treatment and viral suppression is an added advantage.
• Ability to analyze complex technical information and present it to non-technical audiences.
• Accurate, creative, and versatile writing skills
• Experience in resource mobilization and partner relations
• Prior experience working with UNICEF is highly desirable.
• Language: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish) or a local language is an asset. 

Deadline: 25 May 2023 E. Africa Standard Time