Re-Advertisement: Consultant – Quality Maternal, Newborn Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition for Migrants in LAC Region, LACRO -Panama City (Home Based)

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, health 

Over the past five years, UNICEF has been strengthening its response responding to increasing migration flows in LAC region. The flow of migrants to the north from South America and Caribbean countries through Central America has increased significantly during the last two years, and increasingly with more children and adolescents included. In 2023, Panama registered over 113,000 children and over 1,000 pregnant women who transited through the country from the Darien jungle on their way north, out of a total of more than 520,000 people on the move during the year. This is almost a threefold increase in the number of children compared to 2022 (40,438 children).  

The migration situation in the region is increasingly complex and comprises migrants in transit, returnees, pendular migrants and the groups include families, pregnant and lactating women with their infants, unaccompanied adolescents, and other minors. The migration flows create humanitarian situations in each of the transit countries. Irregular migration through these corridors may increase the exposure to health risks. The health status of the migrant population depends largely on interactions with the various factors that determine their health, before, during and after the migratory journey. These factors include availability of health services at the various transit points, capacity of health service providers to provide quality services in humanitarian context, affordability of services and linkages and coordination of service providers with other stakeholders (humanitarian organisations, surveillance authorities and other regulatory departments).

Even though several organizations are providing support to the host countries to address some of the migrants’ basic needs, the situation is often overwhelming at the border and reception sites and for the existing capacities in these areas. Several assessments including one supported by UNICEF, have documented challenges in the provision and access and quality of health services by migrants, including for maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition, and challenges with the recording and reporting of these services and with linkages between service provision and health surveillance. 

The situation described above requires a concerted efforts by governments, humanitarian agencies and implementing partners to strengthen the capacity of government agencies and frontlines health service providers to provide quality health services particularly for women, children, and adolescent migrants along the migration route.

How can you make a difference? 

Under the general guidance of the UNICEF LACRO Health Specialist MNCH/EMTCT plus, and in coordination with LACRO Nutrition Specialists,  and in close collaboration with the three UNICEF Country Offices, the consultant will develop training content and conduct capacity building sessions for frontline health service providers in selected points in Panama, Costa Rica, and Guatemala to provide quality Maternal Newborn Child and Adolescent Health (MNCAH) services for migrants and facilitate at least one collaborative meeting between  health service provider partners and the surveillance agencies of each of the three countries.

Key Activities/Tasks

• Conduct literature review and identify different capacity building materials and models on MNCAHN for humanitarian contexts.
• Conduct desk review on the access to health services by migrants and delivery approaches in Latin America and the Caribbean and liaise with the three UNICEF COs for their suggestions for the training content.
• Develop content for capacity building for frontline health workers including training guide and Power Point presentations.
• Conduct capacity building sessions for frontline service providers in the three countries using the training materials that were developed.
• Participate and provide technical support for at least one collaborative meeting on data capture and data sharing between health service provider agencies or partners and the authorities in charge of health surveillance.
• Utilize feedback and experiences from the training sessions to finalize the training content and same with training report.
• Facilitate a joint meeting involving the three countries to share experience for cross boarder collaboration.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• An Advance university degree in Medicine, public health, or related field.
• Prior experience in developing training materials and conducting training for frontline health workers.
• Eight (8) years or more of experience in public health or primary health care space.
• Prior experience working in humanitarian context and the migration flow in LAC are desirable.
• Demonstrated ability to work with various stakeholders.
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills.
• Fluency in Spanish. Proficiency in English desirable.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

 UNICEF competencies: building and maintains partnerships, demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness, drive to achieve results for impact, innovates and embraces change, manages ambiguity and complexity, thinks and acts strategically and works collaboratively with others.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

Administrative details

Supervision: The consultant will work under the overall supervision and guidance of the UNICEF LACRO Health Specialist MNCH/EMTCT plus, and in coordination with LACRO Nutrition Specialists.

Workplace: The consultancy is home-based.  Travels to Panama, Guatemala and Costa Rica will be determined and coordinated with consultant. Travel cost will not be part of consultant’s financial proposal. Travels will be paid upon actual costs and as per UNICEF regulations.

Duration:  The total working days for the consultancy is 39 days which will be spread for the period between April and July 2024.

How to Apply: Application should be submitted online and should include: TMS application form duly completed, Cover Letter, Study certificates and Financial proposal (Daily fee and/or deliverable fee).

Consultants must have their own equipment, tools and materials needed to perform their services. They will use their own laptops/computers, any application or system needed to complete the assignment. They need to provide the full service without using UNICEF resources. The access to UNICEF email and system is restricted to UNICEF staff therefore consultants should not be granted access unless it is imperative to complete the assignment.

Travel

Should travel is requested, it will be covered by UNICEF as per policy.

• Travel costs will be estimated and added to the contract once they are determined based on UNICEF Financial Rules and Regulations.
• For agreed country visits, the contractor/consultant will be responsible in administering their own travel. UNICEF will reimburse travel related expenses based on actual costs or on the below Travel criteria whichever is lower and upon presentation of receipts.
 • Any travel involved should be budgeted according to UN Travel Standards as a ceiling.
• UN Secretariat Administrative Instruction on Official Travel, STLA1L2013L3: Sect. 4, para. 4.2, numerals (d) and (e)
• For information on Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA), can be found on the International Civil Service Commission website (all countries and destinations can be found by navigating on the map).

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts. 

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.