Health Specialist (Child Health) at the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (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.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Health Specialist (Child Health)

Job no: 115973
Location: Nigeria
Contract Type: Temporary Appointment
Level: NO-3
Categories: NO-3

Purpose of this Post

• As part of Unicef’s Core Commitment for Children in Humanitarian Action, the Health Specialist (Child Health) supports the development and preparation of the health programme in relation to the emergency, early recovery and development programming and is responsible for managing, implementing, monitoring, evaluating, and reporting the programme progress made in the three-prong approach of the health programme (e.g. health emergency, early recovery and gender, maternal, neonatal, as part of child survival/development) within the country programme. The Health Specialist provides technical guidance and management support throughout the programming processes to facilitate the administration and 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.

Responsibilities
How can you make a difference?
Support to programme development and planning:

• Support and contribute to the preparation, design and updating of the situation analysis for the sector(s) to establish a strategic plan for development, design and management of health related programmes particularly in the humanitarian and emergency context. Keep abreast of development trends to enhance programme management, efficiency and delivery.
• Participate in strategic programme discussions on the planning of health programmes. Formulate, design and prepare a sector of the health programme proposal, ensuring alignment with UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, the Country Programme, as well as coherence/integration with the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), regional strategies, and national priorities, plans and competencies and in line with the Humanitarian action plan for children and the humanitarian response plan.
• Establish specific programme goals, objectives, strategies, and implementation plans based on results-based planning terminology and methodology (RBM). Prepare required documentations for programme review and approval.
• Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to discuss strategies and methodologies, and to determine national priorities and competencies to ensure the achievement of concrete and sustainable results particularly in the humanitarian and emergency context.
• Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes to ensure integration, coherence and harmonization of programmes/projects with other UNICEF sectors and achievement of results as planned and allocated in line with the health strategy with a special focus on HSS in the humanitarian development context.

Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results:

• Plan and/or collaborate with internal and external partners to establish monitoring benchmarks, performance indicators, and other UNICEF/UN system indicators and measurements to assess and strengthen performance accountability, coherence and delivery of concrete and sustainable results for the assigned sector in health programmes.
• Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sectoral reviews with the government and other counterparts to assess progress and to determine required action/interventions to achieve results.
• Prepare and assess monitoring and evaluation reports to identify gaps, strengths and/or  weaknesses in programme management, identify lessons learned and use knowledge gained for development planning and timely intervention to achieve goals.
• Actively monitor programmes/projects through field visits, surveys and/or exchange of information with partners/stakeholders to assess progress, identify bottlenecks, potential problems and take timely decisions to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for timely resolution.
• Monitor and verify the optimum and appropriate use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets) confirming compliance with organizational rules, regulations/procedures and donor commitments, standards of accountability and integrity, ensuring timely reporting and liquidation of resources.
• Supervise the state data consultants and ensure the regular updating of data and the health dashboard.
• Prepare regular and mandated programme/project reports for management, donors and partners to keep them informed of programme progress.

Technical and operational support to programme implementation:

• Provide technical guidance and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners and other country office partners/donors on the interpretation, application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes, and best practices and approaches on health-related issues to support programme development planning, management, implementation and delivery of results particularly in the humanitarian and emergency context.
•     Lead and supervise the programme consultants and ensure their deployment to ensure implementation of the health strategy.
• Participate in discussions with national partners, clients and stakeholders to promote health and development issues, especially in the areas of gender, emergency preparedness, maternal and neonatal health, and child survival and development and HSS in the humanitarian context.
• Draft policy papers, briefs and other strategic programme materials for management use, information and consideration.
• Participate in emergency preparedness initiatives for programme development, contingency planning and/or to respond to emergencies in country or where designated.

Networking and partnership building:

• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with health sector government counterparts, national stakeholders, as well as global partners, allies, donors, and academia. Through active networking, advocacy and effective communication, build capacity and exchange knowledge and expertise to facilitate the achievement of programme goals on child rights, social justice and equity.
• Prepare communication and information materials for CO programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships/alliances, and support fund raising for health programmes (maternal, neonatal and child survival and development).
• Participate and/or represent UNICEF in appropriate inter-agency (UNCT) discussions and planning on health-related issues to collaborate with inter-agency partners/colleagues on UNDAF planning and preparation of health programmes/projects, ensuring organizational position, interests and priorities are fully considered and integrated in the UNDAF process in development planning and agenda setting.
• Assess, institutionalize and share best practices and knowledge learned.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of policies and procedures to ensure optimum efficiency and efficacy of sustainable programmes and projects.
• Organize and implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of stakeholders to promote sustainable results on health related programmes/projects.
• Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building
• Apply and introduce innovative approaches and good practices to build the capacity of partners and stakeholders, and to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results.
• Keep abreast and conduct research to provide evidence for implementation of best and cutting-edge practices in health.

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

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: public health/nutrition, pediatric health, family health, health research, international health, health policy and/or  health management, environmental health sciences, biostatistics, socio-medical, health education, epidemiology, or another relevant technical field.
• A minimum of five years of professional work 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.
• Experience of working in the humanitarian and emergency context is considered as an asset.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Fluency in English is required.  Knowledge of local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply

Application Deadline 26th April, 2021.