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National consultant to Support the assessment of the current status of the home visiting programs in North Macedonia – Skopje (1 Position)

United Nations Capital Development Fund

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JOB DESCRIPTION

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 purpose of this assignment is to support the assessment exercise is to take stock of the status of universal progressive home visiting services in North Macedonia, based on methodology developed by Regional Office for countries in ECA region. The assessment based on a maturity model should provide information on the state of UPHV policies, organization, scope, coverage, staffing, financing, reporting and monitoring and identify what are the specific country level and common bottlenecks that impede expansion and access to quality home visiting programs. The assessment findings will be used to identify priority areas that need to be addressed. For this purpose, UNICEF North Macedonia is seeking to engage a national expert to support this assignment, with expertise and experience in home visiting programs delivered as a part of primary health care services. The selected consultant shall work in collaboration with the Health and Nutrition Officer and the RO team, as specified in this ToR.

Action to improve child health and development is a key priority for the Region, and is reflected in the WHO European Child and Adolescent Health Strategies, Nurturing Care Framework (2018), Framework on Early Childhood Development in the WHO European Region (2020), Health 2020, UNICEF Programme Guidance for ECD and UNICEF regional ECD Strategy closely aligned with the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health 2016-2030 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Investments in the earliest years represent a major opportunity to reduce mortality and morbidity, as well as address health and social inequalities in the Region. Nevertheless, progress has been undermined by the COVID-19 crisis, which has increased the household poverty and food insecurity, and highlighted the importance of access and availability of services for children and their families.
The health sector plays a crucial role during early years as it is uniquely positioned to provide support to children and their families with early and universal services and acts as a gateway for multisectoral coordination and integration. Both WHO and UNICEF have been supporting the primary health system strengthening and the provision of accessible and quality health care for child health and development. As part of the regional initiative, UNICEF North Macedonia has been particularly involved in strengthening quality home visiting (HV) services for young children and their families, provided as part of the primary health care.
The rationale for investing in HV came from the notion that the health sector in the Region had the strongest connection to young families through universal access to patronage nursing services, present in majority (80%) of countries. However, traditional approaches to HV offered a limited range of services and focused mostly on child’s (physical) health. Thus, the HV reforms brought opportunities to provide support for child development and well-being more broadly and to offer specialized support to the most vulnerable families to reduce health inequalities. This upgraded package of HV services has been modelled by UNICEF in many countries in the Region under the label “Universal Progressive Home-Visiting” (UPHV) – where the universal services are available to all families for universal primary prevention, while progressive services are provided to a limited number of families based on assessment of risk and identified need. The multi-country formative evaluation of UPHV in 2019 found that UNICEF -supported UPHV initiative is “one of the most pioneering efforts” in the region’s health sector: “For the first time, the science behind early childhood in all its complexity has been incorporated into health care.” The evaluation also recommended to keep the Government’s focus on the most vulnerable by refining home visiting content, frequency and timing, and assuring sufficient outreach with UPHV services.
The importance of supporting parents and caregivers in providing nurturing care to their children is one of the key features of UPHV and the scope of the package includes focus on nutrition, immunization, safety and security, child health and development but also on building of parental competences to provide optimal support for nurturing care. UNICEF North Macedonia works with Ministry of Health to integrate UPHV into existing service delivery systems, advance capacity of home visitors, ensure adequate financial and human resources and focus on the most vulnerable, supply the inputs and commodities needed for service provision, and develop effective reporting, monitoring and evaluation systems to track results and make adjustments as needed.
Within the last five years countries tried to address the evaluation recommendations, and the time has come to map the current status of implementation and common bottlenecks in order to provide the most optimal and efficient guidance and support from the Regional Office. The aim of the consultancy is to support the assessment of HV system by using Maturity Model developed by RO and its functioning within the broader primary health care ecosystem. Maturity Models (MM) have been proposed in the health care domain with the purpose of assessing and improving the maturity of health care practices, operations and infrastructure.
To implement this task, UNICEF North Macedonia seeks to identify a national consultant that should work under the supervision and in close collaboration with Health and Nutrition Officer and complete the assessment, following the specific tasks described in detail in the Work Assignment Overview section below.

 

[1] Curatio International Foundation, Multi-Country Evaluation of Universal Progressive Home Visiting for Young Child Well-being and Development in the Europe and Central Asia Region (ECAR) 2014–2018, Final Synthesis Report (Part 1), UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, October 2019, p. iv.

How can you make a difference?

1. Work Assignments Overview 
Preparatory work for the assessment (familiarize with the maturity model assessment tool, guidance, and process, plan and organize the assessment process in accordance with the regional guidance and CO Health and Nutrition Officer, desk review of the relevant national documents related to the national HV model and review and validation of the translated Maturity assessment tool and other documentation)
Deliverables/Outputs
Plan with the timeline for the assessment process and summary report from the desk review submitted to UNICEF
Timeline: seven working days till 15 November 2024

2. Work Assignments Overview
Organize and coordinate the assessment process (data collection for indicators in the tool, across 8 domains, identification of relevant stakeholders for the different tool domains, organization of meetings to discuss available data and documents and provision of guidance and clarification to the national stakeholders involved in assessment of different elements of the maturity model
Deliverables/Outputs
Data inserted in the tool across 8 domains 2014-2024. Lists of relevant stakeholders for consultation across 8 domains agreed with UNICEF and minimum 8 meetings organised with relevant stakeholders
Timeline: 15 working days by 20 December 2024

3. Work Assignments Overview
Finalization of the process (collection of responses and inputs required by MM tool and validation of the collected information with the UNICEF CO, documentation of the process to ensure that all supporting documents are stored in a dedicated country folder. Draft the country report, as per the available guidance and finalize it based on the feedback received from UNICEF CO and RO, as well as relevant stakeholders. Based on comments, finalization of the report)
Deliverables/Outputs
Summary of responses submitted for discussion with UNICEF CO. Process report and all documents available in dedicated country folder. Draft country report available for consultation with CO and RO. Final report submitted to UNICEF, with all comments incorporated
Timeframe: eight days by 28 February 2025.

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

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  • Undergraduate degree in health and/or public health. Master’s degree (MPH) is an asset
  • Minimum of 5-years’ experience in collecting large datasets and multiple year indicators (form national and international sources)
  • Minimum of 5-years’ experience in writing process and summary reports
  • Excellent knowledge of English and Macedonian language is required. Knowledge of other local languages is an asset.

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 committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic background, and persons with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. To create a more inclusive workplace, UNICEF offers paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. Click here to learn more about flexible work arrangements, well-being, and benefits.

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. In its Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy 2022-2030, UNICEF has committed to increase the number of employees with disabilities by 2030. At UNICEF, we provide reasonable accommodation for work-related support requirements of candidates and employees with disabilities. Also, UNICEF has launched a Global Accessibility Helpdesk to strengthen physical and digital accessibility. If you are an applicant with a disability who needs digital accessibility support in completing the online application, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility nearmejobs.eu UNICEF.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

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.


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