United Nations Children’s Fund,Health Specialist (Maternal, Newborn Health) Jobs in Uganda

Job details:

Job Grade: NO-C
Reports to: Health Manager
Vacancy Number: 497958

About Us:
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is mandated by the UN general
assembly to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet
their basic needs and expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.
Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to
translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on
reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all
children, everywhere.

Job Summary: The Health Specialist (Maternal, Newborn Health) supports
the development and preparation of the health program/s and is responsible for
managing, implementing, monitoring, evaluating and reporting of program
progress of a sector of the health (e.g. nutrition, gender, maternal, neonatal,
child survival/development) program/s within the country program. The incumbent
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) and organizational Strategic Plans and goals,
standards of performance and accountability framework.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Support to program development and planning:

• Support/contribute
  to the preparation/design and conduct/update of situation analysis for the
  sector/s to establish a strategic plan for development, design and
  management of health related programs, including maternal and newborn
  health and emergencies. Keep abreast of development trends to enhance
  program management, efficiency and delivery.
• Actively
  participate in strategic program discussion on the planning of maternal
  and newborn health program. Formulate, design and prepare a sector of the
  health program proposal, ensuring alignment with the overall UNICEF’s
  Strategic Plans and Country Program and coherence/integration with UN
  Development Assistance Framework (UNDF), regional strategies and national
  priorities, plans and competencies.
• Establish
  specific program goals, objectives and strategies and implementation plans
  based on results-based planning terminology and methodology (RBM). Prepare
  required documentations for program review and approval.
• Work
  closely and collaboratively with internal and external colleagues and
  partners to discuss strategies and methodologies and to determine national
  priorities/competencies to ensure the achievement of concrete and
  sustainable results.
• Provide
  technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming
  processes and to ensure integration, coherence and harmonization of
  programs/projects with other UNICEF sectors and achievement of results as
  planned and allocated.

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

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

• Build
  and maintain effective close working partnerships with health sector
  government counterparts, national stakeholders and global
  partners/allies/donors/academia through active networking, advocacy and
  effective communication to build capacity and exchange knowledge/expertise
  to facilitate the achievement of program goals on children rights and
  social justice/equity.
• Prepare
  communication and information materials for CO program advocacy to promote
  awareness, establish partnership/alliances and support fund raising for
  health programs (maternal, neonatal and child survival and development).
• Take
  part in and/or represent UNICEF in appropriate inter-agency (UNCT)
  discussions and planning on health and related issues to collaborate with
  inter-agency partners/colleagues on UNDAF planning and preparation of
  health programs/projects ensuring organizational position, interests and
  priorities are fully considered and integrated in the UNDAF process in
  development planning and agenda setting.

• Apply/introduce
  innovative maternal and newborn health approaches and good practice to
  build the capacity of partners and stakeholders and to support the
  implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable program results.
• Stay
  abreast and conduct research to provide evidence for implementation of
  best and cutting edge practices in health.
• Assess,
  institutionalize and share best practices and knowledge learned.
• Significantly
  contribute to the development and implementation of policies and
  procedures to ensure optimum efficiency and efficacy of sustainable
  programs and projects.
• Organize
  and implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of
  clients/stakeholders to promote sustainable results on health related
  programs/projects.

• Timely,
  regular data-driven analysis for effective prioritization, planning,
  development and results-based management for scaling-up specific Health
  interventions.
• Technical
  expertise on specific Health interventions.
• Technical
  and operational guidance provided to key government and non-government
  partners on scaling-up interventions, including the elaboration and
  implementation of detailed sectoral work-plans and budgets (downstream
  activities).
• Monitoring,
  evaluation and reporting on specific Health interventions carried out
  through various field visits, in a timely manner, efficiently, rigorously
  and transparently in compliance with the established guidelines and
  procedures.
• Government
  and non-government recipients accountable for UNICEF specific supply,
  non-supply and financial assistance.
• Effective
  knowledge management through documentation and dissemination of lessons
  learned and implementation of appropriate capacity building activities.

• The
  applicant for the United Nations UNICEF Health Specialist (Maternal,
  Newborn Health) career vacancy should hold an Advanced University Degree
  in public health/nutrition, pediatric health, family health, health
  research, global/international health, health policy and/or management,
  environmental health sciences, biostatistics, socio-medical, health
  education, epidemiology or other health related science is required.
• At
  least five years of professional experience in public health/nutrition planning
  and management and/or in relevant areas of maternal and neonatal health
  care, health emergency/humanitarian preparedness, is required.
• Relevant
  experience in health/nutrition program/project development and management
  in any UN system agency or organization is an asset.