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, hope.

 

Consultancy Title: Capacity Building Specialist, GBV and PHEs, Public Health Emergency Team

Section/Division/Duty Station: Health PD, PHE Team, NYHQ/Outposted Geneva

Duration: 80 Days

 

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children’s survival, protection and development. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

Epidemics affect livelihoods, disrupt public service delivery and undermined economic growth and human rights. At the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is realizing, once again, the need to take urgent measures to be collectively and institutionally more resilient and better prepared for future health emergencies. For UNICEF, these crises highlight the need for the organization to strengthen its capacity as a reliable partner in prevention, preparedness, response and recovery efforts.

UNICEF has worked to respond to many types of health emergencies over the past decades and understands the complexities of this type of response. The organization’s unique attributes enable it to serve as an effective partner for national governments in developing and implementing multi-sectoral emergency responses. Arguably, UNICEF is the best placed agency to bring forth essential changes to epidemic preparedness and response through its proven expertise in key sectors (i.e. community health, primary health, immunization, WASH, Risk Communication and Community Engagement, Education, Supply systems, etc.) and steer global health out of exclusive bio-medical models.

Since September 2015, the Public Health Emergencies Program (previously known as Health Emergency Preparedness Initiative – HEPI), has led this work for the agency, while supporting the response to high-profile epidemics globally.

UNICEF has become a leading organization in PHE preparedness and response and partner with communities, governments (specially at the regional/district level), non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and other UN agencies. UNICEF provides leadership in the response through its cross-sectoral approach and programming expertise, including in:

• Integrated Multidisciplinary Outbreak Analytics
• Health & nutrition
• Infection Prevention & Control and WASH
• Risk Communication & Community engagement
• Psycho-Social Support
• Gender responsive programming
• Supply & Logistics support

In addition to the PHE control response, UNICEF works equally hard to address the impacts of   the pandemic on continuity of essential social services that support children’s health and wellbeing such as education.

Purpose & Rationale

The recently completed internal UNICEF’s Humanitarian Review states that within the organization, there is a need for better understanding of UNICEF’s work on public health emergencies: they are a program, are not health specific and require a holistic and integrated response that can only be achieved with appropriate organizational setup and political will.

The 2020 UNICEF Core Commitments for Children, which include for the first time PHE specific commitments, is a unique opportunity to build a wider understanding of UNICEF’s key preparedness and response actions both internally and with our partners. 

Ending or controlling an outbreak should not come at the expense of the health, safety and well-being of the local population, particularly women and girls. UNICEF commits itself to mitigate risks of gender-based violence (GBV) including sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) against affected population that we serve across all humanitarian responses and  the provision of services for gender- based violence response and care, child protection and mental health and psychosocial support in public health emergencies. These are not secondary to the response to the outbreak – they are intrinsic to delivering a principled, timely, quality and child-centered humanitarian response.

In order to achieve the commitments UNICEF has made to women and children, UNICEF will strengthen its preparedness to mitigate risks of and respond to gender-based violence including sexual exploitation and abuse in public health emergencies through better preparedness and response internally and with our partners and a joint commitment to GBV mitigation.

It has become even more important to scale up this capacity as part of the ongoing COVID-19 response.

Terms of Reference / Deliverables

The consultant will work from home and will report to the Senior Advisor, Public Health Emergencies.

Deadlines for deliverables will be agreed and indicated. However, the consultant is expected to work on more than 1 deliverable in a simultaneous fashion. Payment will be by deliverable.

Tasks/Milestone:

• Develop training package for GBV and public health emergency deployments on GBV accountabilities in preparedness and response based on the CCCs for PHEs and existing tools and guidance
• Organize and facilitate the training through 2 virtual ‘face to face’ trainings
• Conduct an evaluation of training and write a brief report.
• Document and disseminate lessons learned from 2  countries experiencing public health emergencies
• Finalize training package and develop outline for online package based on the evaluation of the training
• Based on lessons learned develop minimum preparedness actions for GBV during PHEs

Qualifications

• Advanced university qualification in relevant field (Social Work, MPH, etc.)
• 8-10 years of progressively responsible professional work experience at national and international levels working in GBV in humanitarian settings including in public health emergencies.
• Demonstrated ability to synthesize complex scientific content for multiple audiences 
• Demonstrated ability to develop capacity building tools
• Fluency in English is required, working knowledge of French is an asset

Requirements:

• Completed profile in UNICEF’s e-Recruitment system and provide Personal History Form (P11) Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include:
• your daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.  

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

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, culture, appearance, socio-economic status, ability, age, religious and ethnic backgrounds to apply to become a part of the organization.

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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.