Health Specialist - HPV Vaccine Scale-Up (P-4), PG Health (Immunization) at UNICEF

• Under the guidance of the supervisor, the incumbent of this position supports the Immunization Section in HQ in providing day to day assistance to strengthen Regional Office and Country Office capacities to effectively assist countries scaling up HPV vaccine in their national immunization programmes.

How can you make a difference?

Provide guidance, tools, technical assistance and capacity building to regions in supporting countries in planning and implementing HPV vaccine scale-up and to reach the adolescent girls that may be missed due to various equity barriers and pandemic disruptions,

• Support regions to ensure countries develop high quality Gavi applications and revise National Immunization Strategies (NIS) to introduce HPV vaccine.
• Provide targeted technical assistance to integrate existing immunization equity data and assessments in HPV vaccine introduction plans to ensure countries reach high-risk, out of school and marginalized girls with high coverage.
• Support regions to mobilize multi-sectoral capacity to facilitate countries utilize the opportunity of HPV vaccine as an entry point to integrate other adolescent interventions and to strengthen life course immunization including Td boosters.

Develop and disseminate programmatic guidance for UNICEF regional and country offices to mobilize multi-sectoral integrated approaches in reaching adolescent girls and share the guidance with partners to inform similar global guidelines.

• Develop internal programmatic guidance on multi-sectoral approaches under the guidance of Coverage & Equity team with inputs from the ROs, other teams, sections and programmes (Adolescent health, Gender, HIV/AIDS, Education, Nutrition, Adolescent Development and Participation (ADAP), etc).
• Develop a dissemination plan to introduce the multi-sectoral guidance to the UNICEF regions, countries and external partners.
• Assist with the dissemination of the guidance through regional coordination platforms and other mechanisms.
• Support developing a root cause analysis and its implementation in selected countries with low coverage to define equity, demand, gender and integration opportunities.
• Coordinate with the Immunization Supply Chain (ISC) team to support in-country HPV vaccine supply security in through strengthening stock monitoring, implementing wastage reduction strategies, and testing the Controlled Temperature Chain (CTC) last mile delivery where feasible.

Support regional and country coordination and decision making for HPV vaccine scale-up through regional coordination mechanisms, Regional Working Groups (RWG), Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (RITAG), national immunization programme managers meetings, and similar events).

• Participate in regional coordination mechanisms and provide guidance and technical assistance to facilitate country decision making.
• Facilitate the organization of dedicated sessions to discuss HPV revitalization and available UNICEF support.
• Identify remaining data and evidence gaps and needs on HPV vaccine introduction, reaching high coverage and integration with other interventions.

Support establishing consultant rosters and similar tools as needed to assist regions and countries in timely identifying and deploying the suitable capacity to meet the technical assistance needs for HPV vaccine introduction and coverage improvement.

• Identify technical assistance needs of regional and country offices regarding HPV vaccine introduction and scale-up.
• Support HQ in advertising and establishing a consultant roster as needed for the utilization of regions and countries.

Document regional and country experiences in introducing and scaling up HPV vaccine as part of the other adolescent interventions, and disseminate good practices and lessons learned in appropriate global and regional fora (Gavi HPV Sub-Team Regional Working Groups, Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Groups, EPI managers meetings, webinars, etc.)

• Support countries to document lessons learned and good practices to roll-out the HPV vaccine.
• Facilitate knowledge management across countries including the documentation and dissemination of promising practices including building on global and regional fora.
• Assist with planning and implementation of knowledge sharing events to share lessons and good practices to facilitate south-south cooperation and cross-country learning.

Conduct periodic monitoring of country progress and report UNICEF data to joint monitoring databases and tools of Gavi partners

• Collect monthly updates from Country Offices regarding progress against activities planned in their TCA proposals, progress of country programmes towards HPV vaccine introduction, challenges faced and needs for support.
• Regularly provide UNICEF updates to the joint monitoring tools of Gavi Alliance partners.
• Participate in the periodic calls and face-to-face meetings of the HPV Sub-Team and its working groups and provide UNICEF perspective and inputs.

Any other cross-cutting tasks to support the routine immunization coverage and equity team on new vaccine introduction.

• This includes contributing to milestone and grant reporting, maintaining a repository of knowledge materials and periodic reports and presentations as needed.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in public health, pediatric health, family health, global/international health, health policy and/or management, health education, epidemiology or other health related sciences is required.
• A minimum of 8 years of relevant professional work experience, especially in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating immunization programmes is required.
• Knowledge and experience in supporting new vaccine introduction preferably in low-and middle-income country context, and familiarity with Gavi Alliance and its country support mechanisms is required.
• Knowledge and experience with adolescent health or school health programmes and strategies preferably in a low-and middle-income county context is an asset.
• Relevant working experience in a UN organization and familiarity with global immunization partners is considered as an asset.
• Ability to travel for regional/country support and to attend meetings and events.
• Fluency in English (written and verbal) is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, Russian, French or Spanish) is an asset.