Internal and External VA: Health Specialist (Primary Health Care Coordinator, HSS ), P-4 at UNICEF

How can you make a difference?

• The Health Manager/Primary Health Care Coordinator (HSS) reports to the Regional Advisor Health. S/He is responsible for leading the management, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of the health programme (e.g gender, maternal, neonatal, child survival/development) within the regional office. S/He provides technical guidance and operational support to countries in the region throughout the programming process to facilitate the achievement of concrete and sustainable results, according to plans, allocation, results based-management approaches and methodology (RBM), organizational Strategic Plans and goals, standards of performance, and accountability framework. S/He provides timely and state-of-the-art technical support to UNICEF health country programmes, country office, and regional partners in capacity building, knowledge management, monitoring & evaluation, represents UNICEF in regional fora, and coordinates on UNICEF’s behalf with regional partners and donors.

Programme development and planning

• Plan and provide technical support and guidance to country offices, for the preparation and formulation of health programme, alignment of the sectoral programme with UNICEF’s Strategic Plans and regional strategies, and assisting countries in budgeting for strategies and linking the strategies to country budgets.

Programme management, monitoring and delivering of results

• Establish monitoring benchmarks, performance indicators, and other UNICEF/UN system indicators and measurements to assess and strengthen performance accountability with internal and external partners. Actively monitor programmes/projects through field visits, surveys, and/or exchange of information with partners/stakeholders to assess progress, identify bottlenecks, and potential problems and take timely decisions to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for timely resolution. Provide technical support and capacity building of country teams to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the strategic frameworks and operational plans and assist country offices in demonstrating and reporting on results on key indicators ensuring compliance with the commitments made by UNICEF; including progress towards SDGs and Core Standard Indicators (CSIs)

Advisory services and technical support

• Collaborate and consult with key government officials, NGO partners, UN system partners, and other partners/donors on policies, strategies, best practices, and approaches on health-related issues to support programme development planning, management, implementation, and delivery of results. Ensure quality assurance of country offices programming, documentation – situation analysis, CPD, CPAP, MTR, thematic evaluations, etc. – and country programme implementation.

Advocacy, networking and partnership building

• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with health sector government counterparts, national stakeholders, UN inter-agencies partners, as well as global and regional partners, allies, donors, and academia. Promote awareness, establish partnerships/alliances, and support fund raising for health programmes (system strengthening and PHC maternal, neonatal and child survival and development). Develop proposals for additional resource mobilization and reporting to donors. In support of COs and RO and in coordination with HQ, organize monitoring visits, and produce documentation that can be used for fund-raising and advocacy purposes

Innovation, knowledge management, and capacity building

• Keep abreast, research, benchmark, and implement best and cutting-edge practices in health management and information systems. Institutionalize and share best practices and knowledge learned. Contribute to the development of policies and procedures and introduce innovation and best practices to ensure optimum efficiency and efficacy of sustainable programmes and projects. Lead, plan and implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of stakeholders to promote sustainable results on health-related programmes/projects. Strengthening of systems for real-time data generation and action, implementation follow-up, and monitoring of the operational plans, within routine information systems.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in public health/nutrition, pediatric health, family health, health research, global/international health, health policy and/or management, environmental health sciences, biostatistics, socio-medical, health education, epidemiology or another relevant technical field.
• A minimum of eight years of relevant professional experience in one or more of the following areas is required: public health/nutrition planning and management, maternal and neonatal health care, or health emergency/humanitarian preparedness.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset. Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

• UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF Competencies Required For This Post Are…

• Builds and maintains partnerships
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• Drive to achieve results for impact  
• Innovates and embraces change
• Manages ambiguity and complexity
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Works collaboratively with others.