International Midwife Mentor

Details

Mission and objectives

UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency with the mission to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. UNFPA calls for the realization of reproductive rights for all and supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services – including voluntary family planning, maternal health care and comprehensive sexuality education.
UNFPA has been active in Bangladesh since 1974 to achieve the three transformative results – ambitions that promise to change the world for every man, woman and young person to 1) end unmet need for family planning, 2) to end preventable maternal death, and 3) to end gender-based violence and harmful practices. Currently, UNFPA is implementing 10th Country Programme (2022-2026) in Bangladesh. UNFPA’s main office is in Dhaka, while there is a sub-office in Cox’s Bazar to coordinate UNFPA’s humanitarian efforts in response to the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Context

A wave of military violence against the Rohingya population caused mass (forced) displacement from Myanmar into Bangladesh in 2017. Initially, approximately 730,000 Rohingyas arrived at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Almost seven years after the initial influx, Bangladesh is currently hosting the world’s largest refugee camp, spanning over 33 congested camps, in the space-constrained, densely populated and climate vulnerable Ukhiya and Teknaf Upazilas of the Cox’s Bazar District. There are currently (January 2024) a total of 975,350 Rohingya refugees registered in Bangladesh, of which 51.3% are women and girls. With restricted movement and limited access to regular income and livelihood opportunities, an estimated 95% of the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar and 99% refugees in Bhasan Char are categorized as highly vulnerable, relying entirely on humanitarian aid.
UNFPA provides vital sexual and reproductive health services, combats gender-based violence, and supports adolescents and youths in line with the Joint Response Plan for humanitarian support to the Rohingya refugees across Cox’s Bazar district and Bhasan Char island in Bangladesh. Within the Rohingya Response, UNFPA is chairing the SRH working group (42 partners), as well as leading the GBV-Sub Sector (54 partners), leading the coordination of activities and facilitation of information management, technical expertise, and resources.
UNFPA’s sexual and reproductive health response in Cox’s Bazar according to the JRP, there are over 350,000 women of reproductive age who are in need of sexual and reproductive health information and services (ca. 24.5% of the total population). Under the JRP, and with support of various donors including the Government of Japan, UNFPA’s SRH programme supports access to SRH services, strengthening of emergency obstetric and newborn care facilities, improving quality of antenatal and post-natal services, quality facility-based deliveries and ambulance services for emergency referrals.
UNFPA works with its partners to deploy 283 licensed national midwives across the Rohingya Response, supporting government and non-government health facilities. They provide mid-wiferyled Sexual Reproduce Health (SRH) services in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char. As the midwifery profession was newly introduced in Bangladesh in 2015, knowledge and skill gaps in obstetrics care are observed in health institutions remain, where midwives are required to provide assistance to expectant mothers’ high-quality care during the ANC, labor, delivery, and postpartum phase. Implementing high-quality midwifery will improve efforts to reform health systems, as midwifery is a vital component of any health system. Research indicates that midwives who are competent, informed, and caring minimize stillbirths and maternal and new-born deaths while also promoting health and well-being and keeping mothers and babies safe.
The purpose of this JICA-funded UNV position is to mentor the national midwives, midwife coordinators, midwife supervisors as well as work with the doctors, facility managers and clinical coordinators. This position will enhance capacity building and evidence-based respectful midwifery-led care within an interdisciplinary team. They will contribute to provide high-quality health services for the refugee and host community girls and women, with a focus on maternal health.

Task description

Under the direct supervision by, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Program Specialist, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:
Capacity development : –
• Provide midwives, clinical coordinators and involved doctors with relevant training, bedside/hands-on teaching, and mentorship.
• Build capacity of midwives to provide initial stabilization of emergencies when need-ed, and evidence-based routine maternity care, including respectful adolescent friendly ANC, delivery, and PNC services.
• Build capacity of midwives to provide comprehensive and quality SRH services including family planning, cervical cancer screening, MR/PAC, clinical management of rape, health response to sexual violence and prevention and treatment of sexually trans-mitted infections.
• Develop and support the implementation of systems to strengthen the quality of SRHR service delivery.
• Build capacity of midwives to provide the needed data for monitoring and evaluation.
• Assess and respond to challenges in midwives’ enabling environment, including logistics and commodities and capacity or communicate to relevant support systems.
• Conduct regular field visits to provide oversight and support to health facility managers and clinical coordinators to enable national midwives to provide quality comprehensive SRH services with a focus on maternal health.
• Coordinate training and mentoring sessions on all aspects of comprehensive SRHR. Support an effective response that integrates SRH (including Adolescent and Sexual Reproductive Health), gender-based violence (GBV) and data interventions.
Advocacy and Partnership : –
• Advocate within facilities for evidence-based respectful (adolescent-)friendly midwifery led SRH services.
• Coordinate with other partners at the facility level to synergize SRH care provision.
• Participate in the SRH working group, as needed. Develop guidelines for provision of SRH care to refugees and host communities, as needed.
• Support coordination with donors, governments, including JICA/Embassy of Japan, and non-government actors to monitor the project and enhance existing partnership and generate where possible new ones.
• Provide input for situational reports, donor reports, background briefs, and other communication/advocacy products as required.
Project/programme Management Support : –
• Support SRH unit programme implementation with implementing partners.
• Provide support to assessments of SRH needs of the affected population particularly as it relates to midwifery services, as needed.
• Support the development of a Midwifery leadership programme.
• Support the documentation, organisation and visibility of the Midwifery programme.
• Assist in developing/adapting protocols for selected areas in programme coordination (such as syndromic case management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), referral for emergency obstetric care, midwifery, fistula repair, medical response to survivors of rape, counselling and family planning services, etc.).
• Conduct monitoring/mentoring visits and ensure a systematic approach for tracking barriers, challenges, and progress within facilities.
• Carry out any other duties as required.
Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to :
• Strengthen his/her knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for in-stance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;
• Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities;
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.