National Consultant (Maternal, Newborn and Child Health)

Duty Station: Dhaka

Contract Duration:  12 months

Number of Vacancies: 1 (One)

Contract Type: Contract with E-Zone

Contract Start Date: 1st of February 2024

Reporting to: Health Manager, MNCAH

A. Objectives:

The purpose of hiring national consultant is to provide technical assistance to MOH&FW/DGHS/DGFP/DGNM for accelerating the coordination to implement Maternal, Newborn and Child programs and services including Noncommunicable Diseases in paediatric, Early Childhood Care & Development (ECCD). The consultant will work for the UNICEF supported priorities, such as, Reaching Every Mother Every Newborn (REMN) microplanning for improving quality of MNH services, Clinical Mentorship program, Maternal & Perinatal Death Surveillance & Response (MPDSR), and Newborn Care (EmONC) and Newborn and Child Health interventions, such as, Essential Newborn Care (ENC), small and sick newborn management in SCANU, immediate KMC at facility and community, Day Care Approach (DCA) for pneumonia, early Childhood Care and Development etc.

B. Background:

UNICEF-Bangladesh is supporting the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOH&FW) the implementation of the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health programme through joint GOB-UNICEF Rolling Workplan. 

UNICEF has been supporting MNCH programs of both DGHS and DGFP under MOHFW to strengthen the capacity and readiness of public hospitals for 24/7 comprehensive obstetric care, BEmONC services, implementation of gender-responsive women friendly hospital initiative and Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR) and scaling up good practices nationwide. UNICEF is also supporting the MOHFW for operationalizing the Quality Improvement Strategic Framework and strengthen on-site support for QoC of MNCH services at district and Upazila level facilities through different government department like DGHS, NIPSOM and academic institution like BSSMU including professional bodies like BNF and OGSB. From 2023, UNICEF together with MoHFW initiated ‘Reaching Every Mother & Every Newborn (REMN) strategy in 10 districts to ensure quality Antenatal Care (ANC), institutional delivery, Essential Newborn Care (ENC) and Postnatal Care (PNC)1, initial stabilization, timely referral for maternal and newborn complication management and follow-up at PHC level. 

DGHS in collaboration with UNICEF, has finalized the National newborn health strategy and costed newborn action plan where innovative and effective interventions planned with global evidence like mother SCANU, immediate KMC, community follow up of SCANU discharge newborn and community KMC. With support from UNICEF, DGHS initiated implementing the of Day Care Approach (DCA) approach for management of severe childhood pneumonia with or without malnutrition in two districts and three city corporations as innovative approach. This result will support to generate evidence for further scale up of the DCA for children with severe pneumonia with or without severe malnutrition within the health system of Bangladesh in the country through MNCAH operational plan. UNICEF will provide technical assistance for scale up the intervention in government system and will provide technical support for implementation of DCA through capacity building of service providers and health managers, monitoring and mentoring of services. In coming days UNICEF will work closely with different department of DGHS and DGFP for implementation of new interventions planned under NNHS like M-SCANU, Immediate KMC, community KMC, community follow up and model development for paediatric NCD management from PHC.

The TOR has been developed to engage a consultant at National level to provide technical assistance to respected LD of DGHS/DGFP/DGNM for accelerating the coordination and implementation of UNICEF supported programme interventions through different operational plans of MOHFW.

D. Tasks and Schedules:

1.  Provide support for effective coordination among different operational plans of DGHS to implement REMN strategy in UNICEF’s supported districts including capacity building, supervision, monitoring and performance review 
2. Facilitate coordination among HSM, QIS of HEU, MNCH, NIPSOM and professional bodies like OGSB and BNF for effective implementation of Quality Improvement Initiatives on MNH services including CEmoNC/BEmONC, QoC for small and sick newborn in SCANU & KMC, paediatric quality of care and IMCI services with special focus on safe use of oxygen therapy for hypoxemia management. Support QOC assessment and accreditation/certification system.
3. Technical assistance for documentation of the good practices in MPDSR implementation from UNICEF supported district and including developing PDCA from the MPDSR review and analysis findings for improving quality of care at facility level.
4. Technical assistance to implementation of gender-responsive Women Friendly Hospital Initiative (WFHI) in the UNICEF districts under LD-HSM.
5. Support maternal program to review and analyse the EmONC performance and support monthly quarterly reviews to monitor the progress
6. Technical support to NNHP&IMCI for capacity development of service providers on ETAT, IMCI, SCANU SOP, KMC, QoC and Oxygen therapy for hypoxemia management and implementation at facilities.
7. Coordinate with NNHP and City Corporations for Implementation and monitoring of Day Care approaches for management of Pneumonia in selected districts and urban facilities
8. Coordinate with NIO, NNHP, HSM, professional bodies and respective SCANUs for implementation, reporting and monitoring on ROP. 
9. Provide support to NCDC program for development of plan with budget for PNCD model development in coordination with ICDDR,B in line with overall plan including capacity development and joint monitoring.
10. Technical support in Data quality for maternal, newborn and child health:

• Monthly review of MH, SCANU, MPDSR, IMCI data for different district 
• Analyse and interpret the trends of data and report to national managers and respective supervisors
• Link the data trend with upcoming activities for effective use of data for decision

    11. Coordinate with OGSB, BPA, BNF, BSMMU and HEU for implementation of clinical mentorship programme as per costed action plan.

E. Deliverables:

Monthly report on tasks number 1 to 11

F. Administrative issues:

•  Consultant will be in Dhaka and report for daily works to Health Specialist NB &CH 
• The consultant will bear the cost of communication and will use his own computer.
• Stationery and other office equipment will provide by the Consultant
• Consultant will be responsible to pay all taxes as per government rules and regulations. E-Zone will make statutory deductions towards income tax as per government rules and regulations.

G. Profile Requirements Qualification Skills:

• MBBS degree with preferably MPH or any related subject with at least 5 years working experience with government and UN partners. 
• Working experience in Maternal, Newborn, and Child health program, implementation of gender-sensitive programming, training facilitation skills on Maternal, Newborn and Childhealth program, and expertise on data analysis and interpretation for data-driven decision making.
• Good working relationship with the Ministry of Health and GOB high officials, UNICEF or WHO would be an added advantage.
• Special priority will be given to those who have experience in working on similar projects with GOB or private sector. 

H. Consultancy Costs:

• The consultants will get consolidated BDT 250,000.00 per month for 12 months

C. Scope of work:

In 2024, UNICEF will continue technical support to MOHFW for innovative approaches, such as “Reaching Every Mother & Newborn” (REMN) strategy through local level microplanning for resource mobilisation to improve quality and coverage of MNH services, immediate KMC at community, follow-up of small-sick newborn at community, clinical mentorship, instituionalisation of QOC approaches etc. 

The consultant will support in operationalizing the REMN strategy, strengthen MPDSR and linking with QOC, Clinical Mentorship program, facilitate implementation of the quality improvement activities for EmONC, and technical assistance to WFHI. Furthermore, consultant will provide technical assistance to program managers in identifying the key effective intervention and effective implementation of the newborn and child health interventions, such as, Immediate KMC, M-SCANU, DCA for pneumonia, IMCI, oxygen management for hypoxemia, ECCD and pediatric NCD along with the DGHS and DGFP. The consultant will support Health Specialist for implementation and monitoring of MNCH interventions from national level. 

The consultant will co-ordinate with QIS, NIPSOM, BSMMU, OGSB, BPA, BNF, BPS, and other key partners to strengthen the on-site support for quality improvement of the MNH services at the facilities, monitoring of the progress and introduce regular monitoring and coordination mechanism.

This position is open for Bangladeshi Nationals only. All candidates, irrespective of gender, religious and ethnic backgrounds can apply for the vacancies. 

The UN Agency prides itself as fostering a multicultural and harmonious work environment, guaranteed by a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, and on any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment and discrimination. All selected consultants will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Candidates with the required profile and proven experience, who meet these qualifications, are invited to submit their application in English clearly mentioning the Job Title along with a meaningful cover letter, updated CV, recent PP size photographby email to:

https://forms.gle/YR8Gv6EZxnGuQArt6 

Last Date of Application: 09 January, 2024 

No phone calls please. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. All applications will be treated according to the merit and with strict confidentiality