Health Specialist

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For every child, Health

The Health Specialist (Maternal Newborn and Child Health) reports to the Health Specialist (Level 4) for guidance and general supervision. The Health Specialist supports the managing, implementing, monitoring, evaluating, and reporting the programme progress of the maternal, newborn and child health programme including New Vaccine Introduction in the Middle Income Countries within the regional office Health 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.

How can you make a difference?

• Support to programme development and planning
• In coordination with the Health Specialist, support the development, design and management of the Middle East and North Africa maternal, newborn and child health including immunization programme.
• Participate in strategic programme discussions on the planning of the regional maternal, newborn and child health programme. Keep abreast of development trends to enhance programme management, efficiency, and delivery.
• Contribute to the development/establishment of sectoral programme goals, objectives, strategies, and implementation plans based on results-based planning terminology and methodology (RBM) through research, data collection, analysis and reporting of maternal newborn and child health for development planning and priority and goal setting. Prepare required documentations for programme review and approval.
• Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to discuss strategies and methodologies, and to determine regional priorities and competencies to ensure the achievement of concrete and sustainable results.
• Ensure the maternal, newborn, and child health regional programme priorities, implementation modality are aligned with UNICEF’s internal procedures and policies, regulatory frameworks activities.
• 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.
• Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results
• 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 maternal, newborn and child health programme.
• Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises and programme reviews/sectoral reviews organized by the regional and country offices with the government and other partners (WHO/UNFPA) as required to assess progress and to determine required action/interventions to achieve results in alignment with the global Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP) and Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality (EPMM) coverage targets and milestones and new vaccine introduction in the Middle Income Countries
• Support country programme implementation through country missions, surveys and/or exchange of information with regional and country partners/stakeholders to assess progress, identify bottlenecks, potential problems and provide necessary technical support to resolve issues.
• Support the preparation of regular and mandated programme/project reports for donors and partners to keep them informed of programme progress.
• Technical and operational support to programme implementation
• Provide technical support to the implementation of the regional and country offices maternal, newborn and child health and immunization planned programmes and activities.
• Draft policy papers, briefs and other strategic programme materials for management use, information, and consideration.
• Support regional emergency preparedness initiatives for programme development, contingency planning and/or to respond to emergencies and as requested by country offices.
• Networking and partnership building
• Prepare communication and information materials for regional office programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships/alliances, and support fund raising for the maternal, neonatal and child health and development programmes.
• Participate and/or represent UNICEF in appropriate inter-agency discussions and planning and to collaborate with inter-agency partners/colleagues on planning and preparation of maternal, newborn and child health programmes/projects, ensuring organizational position, interests and priorities are fully considered and integrated in the development planning and agenda setting.
• Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building
• Support evidence generation through taking stock of lessons learned from global, regional, and country best practices to inform policy and leverage resources for action.
• Contribute to identifying, capturing, synthesizing, and sharing lessons learned, experiences and case studies from regional and country maternal, newborn and child health implementation to inform capacity development trainings as well as address gaps and refine relevant regional, national and sub-national guidance and strategies.
• Support country office on innovative approaches and good practices and to build the capacity of partners and stakeholders on trainings on areas such as: Integrated Community and Case Management (iCCM), Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses (IMNCI), Emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC), Respectful Maternity Care (RMC), Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) and others to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results on MNCH
• Support capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of stakeholders to promote sustainable results on maternal, newborn and child health inclusive of immunization programmes.
• Support in the documentation of immunization programme initiatives including new vaccine introduction.