National Immunization Consultants

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Description

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Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Under the supervision of Immunization Officer, and overall oversight from HSS Manager the consultants will be responsible for providing coordination and technical assistance on following areas:

• Support Immunization unit at the provincial and district level in organizing district level workshops on the need of reaching zero-dose children for vaccination as advocacy events where health workers, members of Village Development Committees, mass organization and local media would participate.
• Support the Health Center staff to conduct social mobilization meeting at the villages with the village chiefs, community leaders and Village Health Volunteers on the benefits of COVID vaccination and reaching zero-dose children for vaccination.
• Support the district and HC-level staff in implementing targeted messages in local languages using appropriate means of communication to reach underserved communities.
• Support the district and HC-level staff in selecting female VHVs who will implement zero-dose plan and HC-based Health Workers will supervise VHVs.
• Support the district and HC-level staff in training VHVs and HC-based supervisors on identifying and vaccinating zero-dose children following the guidelines developed by UNICEF.
• Support HC-based Health Workers to monitor and supervise the performance of VHVs, ii) provide refresher training to them, and iii) estimate eligible children for vaccination.
• Community-based advocacy meeting with village chiefs and other village leaders in selecting volunteers, if needed.
• Participate in all provincial and district level immunization and other meetings
• Provide routine progress reports on immunization uptake and cold chain development and maintenance.
• In addition, following activities have been identified which are expected to be implemented in the 20 low performing districts from July-Dec 2023. The consultant will be responsible to provide necessary coordination support and monitoring of these activities. 
• Microplanning:  Household survey of district – One-day training followed by two-days household survey
• Cold Chain:  3-days Training of district and HC on vaccine and cold chain (including data recording and reporting) and Repair and Maintenance drive for equipment (Savannakhet)
• Supportive Supervision: Supportive supervision visits atleast 4 times in one year (all 20 districts) and District consultation meetings every 3 months (Bokeo)
• Data Management:  Training on data entry using EIR system for districts and HCs staff

Communications:  

• Training to health staff on health education and social mobilization
• Broadcast messages on information about vaccination and sessions prior to the session through loudspeakers
• Promote community engagement with community/village leaders
• RCCE and SBCC workshop at district level:  RCCE and SBCC for health education officers, immunization officer at districts, health centers and village health volunteers, using a cluster training approach 
• Technical field exchange between districts:  Swap district health education teams among 20 districts to identify gaps, foster new knowledge and improve the planning and strategies of health education teams 
• Social listening:  Roll out of technical guideline and practice of social listening at provincial level
• Creation of feedback mechanism on RCCE from community to central level:  Provision of RCCE feedback platform to strengthen feedback mechanism at subnational level to the central level on COVID-19 vaccination and routine immunization

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

Minimum Qualifications required:

• University degree/diploma in Public Health, Social sciences, or any other related field

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• Public health expertise and relevant experience in child health and immunization related research and programming required.
• A minimum of 10 years of experience in Effective Vaccine Management and Immunization related initiatives required.
• Previous experience working for the United Nations would be an advantage.
• Familiarity with the Lao PDR health system context would be an advantage.
• Excellent analytical, report writing and communication skills.
• Self-driven and self-managing, with good inter-personal skills.

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/en-us/job/562170/national-immunization-consultants-2-positions

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