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, Safety…

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a global call to action to end poverty, protect the environment, and ensure peace and prosperity for all. UN support to Malawi aligns with these goals through the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2023-2028, which complements Malawi’s national development priorities as outlined in the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) IV for 2019-2023. The UNSDCF represents UN Malawi’s commitment to addressing national challenges through a system-wide response. 

UN investments under the Cooperation Framework focus on three main pillars:

1. Peace, Inclusion, and Effective Institutions
2. Population Management and Inclusive Human Development
3. Inclusive and Resilient Growth

The UN Joint Programme on “Health Systems Strengthening for Equitable Health Outcomes” (UNJP-HSS) is part of this framework, supporting the pillars of population management, inclusive human development, and inclusive and resilient growth. The programme is coordinated by three UN agencies—UNICEF, UNFPA, and WHO—with UNICEF as the technical lead.

Introduction:

Despite recent improvements, Malawi faces significant challenges in health outcomes. The UNJP-HSS, funded by the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, aims to improve health and survival rates for the most vulnerable populations in Malawi. Health care resources are disproportionately allocated to tertiary facilities and services. Achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) requires a cost-effective equity-focused Essential Health Package (EHP) that leaves no-one behind prioritizing      primary and preventive care, improves quality, and strengthens health systems.

Programme Focus:

• Reaching the poorest and most vulnerable with cost-effective primary and community-based health services.
• Improving quality of care to ensure better life-saving outcomes and increased demand.
• Establishing effective district governance and accountability for service delivery and outcomes to optimize resource use.

Key Objectives:

• Increase the provision and uptake of quality, cost-effective, life-saving primary healthcare (PHC) services.
• Improve equitable resourcing and district management of services.
• Strengthen government accountability and citizen participation in health service delivery at the district level.

The UNJP-HSS will emphasize the 4 Ps (People, Product, Place, and Policy), leveraging the comparative advantages of participating UN agencies. The Resident Coordinator’s Office (RCO) will coordinate the programme, providing technical support to ensure the availability and accessibility of quality integrated Sexual Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child Adolescent Health (SRMNCAH) services at primary care and community levels, aiming to achieve good health by 2025 for women including those pregnant, children, and adolescents.

How can you make a difference?

SCOPE OF WORK/OBJECTIVES

1. Build the capacity of DHO for evidence-based planning, budgeting, supervision, and monitoring of District Integrated Plans with a focus on PHC and SRMNCAH.
2. Enhance the capacity of the DHO to implement and monitor SRMNCAH-specific interventions, ensuring alignment with national health policies and guidelines.
3. Support integration of community-based and facility-based systems and coordination with other sectors at the district.      

4. Strengthen DHO capacities for conducting monthly and quarterly meetings, performance reviews, and follow-up on action points.    

5. Facilitate the development and/or operationalization of multi-year Strategic Plans for SRMNCAH services at the district level, promoting sustainability and long-term impact.
6. Assist DHO in conducting integrated supportive supervision to improve PHC and SRMNCAH intervention quality.
7. Collaborate with UNJP technical teams and DHO to strengthen institutional capacities and enhance SRMNCAH service delivery at both facility and community levels and referral pathways.

8. Maintain collaborative relationships with implementing partners, government counterparts, and civil society organizations.
9. Develop and implement capacity-building workshops for the DHO on advanced SRMNCAH topics, including maternal and neonatal health, family planning, and adoslescent health.

10. Support the implementation of Quality of Care standards and Quality Improvement initiatives.
11.  Support capacity building of human resources for health, including training and mentorship, focusing on PHC and SRMNCAH service delivery and documentation.

12. Coordinate and support the functionality of a robust supply chain management system to ensure continuous availability of SRMNCAH commodities and reduce stockouts.

13. Support DHO to generate, analyze and use data from HMIS/DHIS2 platform for programme planning, monitoring and decision-making.
14. Coordinate the strengthening of community-based health systems to create demand, drive accountability and ensure the provision of essential PHC and SRMNCAH services.

15. Facilitate the planning and implementation of joint field missions for UNJP programme performance monitoring and reviews

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

Academic Qualification:

• Master’s degree in medicine, nursing, midwifery, epidemiology or statistics, public health, or International Health, Health Policy and Management and M&E from an accredited/recognized institute.

Work Experience: Essential:

• At least five (5) years related experience in Primary Health Care (PHC) and Sexual, Reproductive Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adoslecent Healthcare (SRMNCAH) service delivery.
• Experience working with government agencies, local authorities, international organizations, NGOs, and communities in implementing PHC and SRMNCAH service delivery.
• A minimum of 2 years of experience working or collaborating with either the UN and/or NGOs.
• Extensive experience in evidence-based planning.

Desirable:

• Prior working experience at field level with MOH, other UN agencies, DHOs, NGOs.
• Familiarity with Health System Strengthening initiatives in Malawi or similar countries in the region is an advantage

Technical Skills, Knowledge, and Strength Areas:

Required

• Strong coordination and collaborative abilities within the health sector and across other sectors.
• Strong sense of team spirit and diplomacy.
• Good interpersonal skills, ability to build and maintain partnerships across government and NGOs, ability to work in multicultural settings and culturally sensitive communities.
• Ability to work under stressful conditions and a flexible approach in undertaking the assignment within a rapidly changing environment.
• Essential knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, working knowledge of online data collection applications, and statistical analysis packages (SPSS, Stata, etc.).
• Commitment to UNICEF’s values and guiding principles.

Languages:

• Fluency in English – both excellent written and verbal skills are required.
• Chichewa – verbal skills is an asset.

Please refer to the attached full Terms of Reference  Terms of Reference_UNJP District Coordination Consultants.pdf for more details on the consultancy and requirements.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit  here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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.

HOW TO APPLY…

Interested Individual Consultant should provide the following:

1. Curriculum Vitae
2. Academic certificates
3. Brief technical proposal (no longer than five pages) demonstrating the Individual Consultant’s understanding of the assignment and approach/methodology to the assignment
4. Financial proposal including a breakdown of their all-inclusive fees (including professional fees, stationery, communication, and other miscellaneous costs).  Financial Proposal for Consultancy.xlsx Complete the attached form.
5. References details from three most recent supervisors.

Remarks: 

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

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.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.