employment
Vacancies at UNICEF
Overview
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
Efficient
and effective use of data for right decision making is critical for maximizing
the impact of investment on health and nutrition status for children. Tanzania
is one of front-runner countries in terms of evidence-based planning and
monitoring at a decentralized level using quality administrative data. Over
recent years, UNICEF Tanzania Country Office has deployed efforts to support
the Government in the development and advancement of data information
management system and innovative data collection systems such as District
Health Information System 2 (DHIS2) and ALMA RMNCAH Scorecard to be introduced
and institutionalized in Tanzania. The use of data from these platforms and
information is critical to improving data quality, as well as for better
prioritization and programming. Insufficient and ineffective use of data
collected from these platforms has been identified as the key challenge during
planning cycles and further support on data use has been requested by the
Permanent Secretary in the ministry of health in the Government of Tanzania.
UNICEF Tanzania Country Office has a comparative advantage in this area and
plays a critical role in the support provided to the Government to address and
respond to the call at both national and decentralized levels.
How
can you make a difference?
Under
the overall guidance and direction of the Chief of health, The Health and
Nutrition Specialist (Information System) will consolidate progress made so far
from existing digitalization initiatives, accelerate and support the data use
for right decision making and better programming for both Health and Nutrition
programmes and will work under the supervision of the Chief of Health section
in UNICEF Tanzania Country Office. Specifically, his/her scope of work will be
focusing on data management, information systems, data use and supporting
implementation researches on health and nutrition systems strengthening related
activities through collaborating with other UNICEF sectors colleagues as well
as consultants and partners.
Data
management and use The Health and Nutrition Specialist will take a lead of
discussion and programmes related to data use and management in various
administrative levels in Tanzania. Not only below specified areas of work, s/he
will be required to be flexible to take initiatives on leading and providing
technical support in on-going discussion and programmes from data management
and use perspectives. Possible areas of work in addition to the below details
are; revision and use of ALMA RMNCAH Scorecard, developing and dissemination of
community scorecard for social accountability and EQUIST data update at
decentralized level for Tanzania.
Development
and scaling-up of District RMNCAH&N Investment Case UNICEF Tanzania is
currently supporting the Government in the designing of district-level
RMNCH&N district profile and investment case. This brief and local-level
portrait aims to support better use of data for problem identification and
investment opportunity for women and children at district level. In
consultation and effective collaboration with the Government and partners, the
Health and Nutrition Specialist will provide support and bring additional
expertise to improve and complete the design and implement this district level
RMNCAH&N investment case approach. S/he will make sure that the approach is
in line with existing planning exercises such as Comprehensive Council Health
Plan (CCHP) and explorer scale-up plan through close collaboration with the
Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children
(MoHCDGEC), the President’s Office of Regional Authorities and Local Government
(PORALG) and other development partners especially the World Bank.
Development
and dissemination of Nutrition information system within DHIS2 UNICEF Tanzania
has provided leading support to develop an evidence-based National
Multi-sectoral Nutrition Action Plan (NMNAP) for the period of 2016 to 2021 to
address the high levels of all forms of malnutrition in Tanzania. An important
component of the NMNAP is Strengthening Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Information
System (MNIS). UNICEF Tanzania has been supporting the implementation of MNIS
agenda through strengthening and promoting evidence based planning and
budgeting through applying bottleneck analysis (BNA) approach, including
financial expenditure tracking for all districts since 2015. For sustainability
and robustness of the system, effort has been deployed to transition from
manual data collection approach to digitalized information collecting system
embedded within DHIS2 in collaboration with Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre
(TFNC) and University of Dar es Salaam. The Health and Nutrition Specialist
will ensure current initiative is fully supported in terms of completion of the
system development, including dissemination and use of the new system at
district level, as well as promoting its effective use. S/he will also
represent UNICEF at the technical working group (TWG) on MNIS, including
co-chairing for the coordination of any nutrition data related activities
within Tanzania and maintain close communication with MoHCDGEC, PORALG and key
development partners.
Developing
and coordinating Newborn related data collection Despite improved coverage of globally
recommended perinatal care interventions, newborn morbidity and mortality still
remain high in Tanzania. Factors such as shortage of human resource, erratic
supply of essential medicines and commodities, weak referral system,
unintegrated health information system and poor care seeking behaviour are key
in determining newborn health status. The Health and Nutrition Specialist will
also work closely with the Maternal and Newborn health specialist (NOD) and
newborn research consultant to address health information system challenges for
newborn care programming, and develop newborn dashboard system to be used at
all levels (health facility, district, regional and national) to overcome data
availability challenges.
Implementation
research UNICEF Tanzania has been implementing a significant number of
activities at different levels of the health system. Implementation or
operational research is needed to document the process, as well as to identify
corrective measures during implementation phase. The Health and Nutrition
Specialist will lead and facilitate any operational or implementation research
related activities for health system strengthening approaches and quality
improvement initiatives. S/he will make sure that quality reporting systems are
in place at project sites and work closely with HQ and RO focal points to
conduct the study when necessary.
Partnership
coordination The Health and Nutrition Specialist will enhance close working
partnerships with government counterparts (both MoHCDGEC and PORALG) and other
development partners through proactive communication. S/he will represent
organization in key meetings and introduce UNICEF’s activities to partners.
S/he will also dedicate some time for capacity building, not only UNICEF team
but also partners including development partners in the areas of Health and
Nutrition data management and use. S/he will also facilitate resource
mobilization effort in supporting and strengthening UNICEF Tanzania’s Health
and Nutrition programmes implementation. S/he will initiate activities related
to resources mobilization and advocacy for funding opportunities, including
developing proposals and reports and organizing delegation field visits as
necessary.
To
qualify as an advocate for every child…
An
advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required:
medicine, public health, nutrition, biostatistics, social sciences, behavior
change communication or another relevant technical field.
Additional
relevant post-graduate courses that complement/supplement the main degree are a
strong asset.
A
minimum of five years of professional experience in Health and/or
Nutrition-related programmes is required.
At
least three-year experience in supporting evidence based planning and
monitoring activities for developing countries is required.
Successful
experience in large dataset and complex information management, evidence based
programming and expenditure tracking and financial analysis in Tanzania for
both Health and Nutrition areas are required.
Fluency
in English is required. Knowledge of Kiswahili is an asset