Consultancy: Water Sanitation and Hygiene In Health Care Facilities Expert WASH, PD - NYHQ, Requisition# 502405

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide technical assistance for WASH in Health Care Facilities strategic partnerships and fundraising, global, regional and country learning events and the development of plans of action and advocacy materials.

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.

Context / Justification

UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Programme Division in partnership with UNICEF Regional and Country Offices and together with the World Health Organization (WHO) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Unit is leading efforts in implementing a Global Action Plan on WASH in Health Care Facilities (HCF). These efforts also involve collaboration with several sections at UNICEF including Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Health System Strengthening and Nutrition.

While advancing and coordinating global efforts, UNICEF is also working in specific countries on improving risk assessment tools and WASH practices in health care facilities. These countries include: DRC, Liberia, Mali, Zambia, Nepal, Tanzania, Fiji and Bangladesh. While the institutionalization of WASH in HCF within Health sector in these countries varies according to the context, it involves influencing and strengthening engagement with health systems, generating new evidences for advocacy, improving monitoring and capacity building as well as technical support for assessing and making improvements at the facility level. For the latter, UNICEF is supporting the development of risk-based quality improvement tools and implementation of training in close collaboration with the Government and health partners (e.g. infection prevention control and quality universal health coverage).

Finally, UNICEF recently launched its WASH Strategy 2016 – 2030, with emphasis on the importance of doing more in working inter-sectorially, including WASH in HCF, in support of SDG targets relating to health. UNICEF will use evidence-based advocacy and its programming capacity in health to achieve results at scale by institutionalizing WASH issues within the health sector. On the other hand, the recently launched UNICEF health strategy 2016-2030 also highlights the importance of linkage with other UNICEF programmes, including WASH, focusing on maternal, newborn and child health, with delivery of WASH interventions and services through primary health care platforms.

Purpose

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide technical assistance for WASH in Health Care Facilities strategic partnerships and fundraising, global, regional and country learning events and the development of plans of action and advocacy materials.

Objectives

Under the guidance of the WASH in Institution Specialist, the candidate will be responsible for three key outputs:

• Output 1. Support the organization of WASH in Health care facility and Quality of Care global events.
• Output 2. Provide technical assistance to three priorities WASH in HCF strategic partnerships.
• Output 3. Support development of UNICEF WASH in HCF plan of action and advocacy materials as part of the EMEN Quality Improvement

Duties and responsibilities

The Water Sanitation and Hygiene in Health Care Facilities Expert will be responsible for the following:

Output 1. Support the organization of WASH in Health Care Facilities and Quality of Care global events

• Co-facilitate four Global WASH in Health Care Facilities task team conference calls.
• Support the preparation, in-country logistics, and overall co-coordination and co-facilitation of Global WASH in Health Care Facilities learning event 28 to 31 March 2017, Kathmandu – Nepal.
• Support the preparation, facilitation and coordination of WASH in HCF contribution and advocacy at the launch of the network to improve Quality of Care for Mothers, Newborns and Children, 14 to 16 February, Lilongwe – Malawi.
• Review and provide comments on workshop materials and final reports.

Output 2. Provide technical assistance to priority WASH in HCF strategic partnerships and fundraising

• Provide remote support and review progress on the implementation of the partnership with London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for the systematic review of WASH in HCF.
• Provide remote support and review progress on the implementation of the partnership with Infection Control Africa Network (ICAN) for the IPC-WASH Training curriculum and coordinate with Emory University review of the curriculum
• In coordination with Health and WASH and US-Fund explore options for funding beyond 2017 and develop a draft proposal for WASH in HCFs

Output 3. Support development of WASH in HCF advocacy materials as part of the EMEN Quality Improvement

• Provide technical assistance to the secondary analysis of EMEN baseline dataset of Tanzania, and, upon receipt of data,  Ghana and Bangladesh
• Support the preparation and review of WASH in HCF advocacy material from Tanzania EMEN Baseline
• Provide support for UNICEF staff on the implementation of the joint WASH and Health guidance for WASH in HCF

Expected Deliverables

The Deliverables for the period 15 February to 15 April 2017 (total of 43 working days) will include the following:

Qualifications

• University degree in Civil Engineering, Sanitation, Public Health Engineering, or a field relevant to international WASH related development assistance.
• At least 5 years of progressively responsible work experience at the Mid-level related to WASH and or Health programming.
• Good understanding of UNICEF WASH and or Health programme strategies.
• Knowledge and familiarity of international development issues in the field of WASH in HCFs and proven track record of working effectively with partners in developing countries
• Experience in producing WASH in Health Care Facilities capacity building materials, such as training materials, resources packages, toolkits. Fluency and strong communication and writing skills in English and French .
• Understanding of the work of the UN, and UNICEF an advantage.

To view our competency framework, please click here. 

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable).  Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.