The Ugandan Jobline

Consultancy Title:   Support the development and the costing of the National Accelerated Newborn Implementation plan, Kampala, Uganda, 6.5 months

Organisation: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

Duty Station:  Kampala, Uganda

 

About the Company:

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is mandated by the UN general assembly to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.

 

Background and Purpose:

Uganda has committed to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.2, which aims to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under-five by 2030. The country has made notable progress, reducing the under-five mortality rate from 64 to 52 per 1,000 live births and the infant mortality rate from 43 to 36 per 1,000 live births. However, newborn mortality remains a critical challenge, declining only marginally from 27 to 22 per 1,000 live births after stagnating at this level for over two decades. Of concern, newborn mortality is now the leading cause of death across all age groups in Uganda (AHSPR 2022/23). To meet the SDG targets, Uganda must double its efforts to reduce newborn mortality. The primary causes of neonatal mortality include birth asphyxia (60%), prematurity (23%), and its complications, as well as sepsis (7%).

 

In 2023, the Ministry of Health (MoH), with support from Makerere University School of Public Health (MaKSPH), UNICEF, the ELMA Foundation, and USAID’s MCHN Activity, conducted a national newborn health situation analysis. The findings revealed significant gaps in the quality and coverage of newborn care, with the adoption of beneficial optimal essential newborn care practices reported only at 15.1 percent relative to the national target of 80 percent. Similarly, an Emergency Obstetric Newborn Care (EmONC) assessment conducted in the same year, showed that health facilities’ readiness to provide newborn care was much lower at HCIIIs compared to HCIVs and hospitals.

While the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) sharpened plan II, sets ambitious targets to reduce the under-five mortality rate to below 30 per 1,000 live births, and the neonatal mortality rate to 12 per 1,000 live births, in keeping with SDG targets, progress has consistently been hindered by inadequate infrastructure, human resources shortages, frequent stockouts of essential commodities, lack equipment, and generally the fragmented implementation of newborn interventions.

In response, the MoH, in consultation with development partners has prioritized a catalytic plan to systematically accelerate the newborn born response at all levels of the health system, by way of an Accelerated Newborn Implementation Plan (ANIP). While a comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) action plan informed by the recent 2024 EmONC assessment could be ideal, maternal health in Uganda has shown remarkable progress denoted by a 44% decline in MMR between 2026 and 2022, whereas newborn health sustained slowed progress with NMR stagnant at 27% between 2006 and 2016 and a much lower reduction of 19% recorded between 2026 and 2022 when compared to the maternal reduction within the same period [2022 UDHS]. Relatedly, evidence indicates that Uganda’s maternal health outcomes are pivoted by access and quality of care. While the country has invested in, and surpassed access to health care benchmarks as defined by WHO, maternal quality of care continues to suffer with direct impact on newborn outcomes.

The accelerated newborn implementation plan will seek to operationalize the revised 2023/2024 child survival strategy by delivering a cohesive package of newborn care interventions anchored on comprehensive Maternal health quality of care interventions, with clear timelines, aiming to maximize their overall impact on reducing mortality. Since the expiration of the 2010 newborn implementation plan, there has been no dedicated plan for newborn health. High level guidance on newborn interventions is currently embedded within the RMNCAH sharpened plan and the revised child survival strategy, underscoring the need for a more detailed costed framework responsive to newborn health.

The proposed costed plan will focus on ensuring coordination, integration, and timely harmonization of newborn health interventions implemented by various stakeholders under the leadership of the MoH. This approach will help eliminate duplication of efforts, ensure geographical rationalization of investments, efficient use of limited resources and will reduce the burden on health workers, who often face multiple trainings and guidelines. There is a clear need for a dedicated accelerated action plan focused exclusively on improving newborn health outcomes in Uganda. To this end, the ministry of health has requested UNICEF to provide technical assistance through a dedicated consultant to lead the process of its development.

 

Justification:

The MoH has completed the revision of the national newborn child survival strategy, which provides recommendations to enhance survival rates for the children under five years of age. Notably, the recommendations are broad-based and general, spanning across age-bands without a specific focus on the newborns. Moreover, newborn mortality contributes to 42 percent of all under-five mortality. The MaKSPH and the MoH have also developed an investment case that primarily focuses on level II care for newborns, leaving other critical components for newborn care unaddressed. There’s therefore urgent need to have a strategic document which specifically articulates a catalytic response inclusive of comprehensive high impact intervention areas for newborn health including the expansion of comprehensive maternal health quality of care interventions, which will result in the acceleration of the reduction of newborn deaths. This necessitates the need for a strategic document that clearly articulates how specific strategies will be deployed to address the unique needs of newborns and how newborn health can be integrated into the broader RMNCAH agenda and tracked against an agreed upon time frame. Additionally, it is crucial to incorporate new global thinking and consensus around the goals and approaches for newborn care into the national accelerated newborn implementation plan.

This plan will also be used to leverage and galvanize resources, actions, and data-driven/evidence multi-stakeholder accountability for newborn response ensuring the scale-up of high-impact interventions for newborn health. To this end, the Child Survival and Development (CSD) section seeks to recruit a national consultant to lead the development of the 2025-2030 national costed newborn accelerated implementation plan.

 

Objectives

Technical support to the Ministry of Health to develop a comprehensive costed accelerated newborn implementation plan (2025-2030).

 

Specific outputs

• Review existing reports, studies, frameworks and information on assessment and analysis on newborn health including best practices on reduction of morbidity and mortality.
• Under the leadership of the MoH, engage key stakeholders in co-creating the costed accelerated implementation framework/plan.
• Draft the costed accelerated newborn implementation plan for Uganda.

 

Key Duties and Responsibilties:

• Inception and literature review: Desk review of the newborn situational analysis report, newborn frameworks, and other relevant report.
• Analyse the existing report, policies, programs, and intervention frameworks aimed at reducing newborn mortality.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Facilitate meetings to garner inputs and ensure stakeholder buy-in into the draft plan/framework.
• Draft Costed implementation plan: Design a detailed costed implementation plan, including timelines, responsibilities, and resource requirements and monitoring and evaluation mechanism.
• Technical validation meeting: Technical validation meeting with the core team comprising of representative from the MoH, CSOs, DPs, Academia, District Local Government, Regional Referral Hospitals, Private Sector. Presentation to the Newborn technical working group, Maternal Child Health Cluster and Senior Management Team of the MoH
• Final Report and Presentation: Compile a comprehensive final report, including all findings, strategies, and recommendations, including lessons learned.

 

Deliverables:

1. Inception report, detailing the methodology and workplan.
2. Detailed desk review report outlining existing literature.
3. Data collection tools for stakeholders’ consultation
4. Report on consultation with Donors, Development Partners (DP), Civil Society Organization (CSO), Academia, Professional Association, and private sector.
5. Report on consultation with the district health teams and health facility staff including in charges of the Special Neonatal Care Units
6. Report on the consultation with the community resource persons (VHTs and care givers)
7. Draft I accelerated newborn implementation plan
8. Costed Draft I accelerated newborn implementation plan
9. Costed Draft II accelerated newborn implementation plan informed by the technical validation report.
10. Final costed ANIP; draft; power point deck of the plan and final assignment report.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:  To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education:

• A master’s degree in public health, Paediatric, or a related field.
• A university degree in Medicine, Public Health, or Nursing.
• Work-experience, specify minimum years of progressively responsible professional work.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in maternal and newborn health.
• Evidence and proven track record in developing health strategies and plans or similar assignment.
• Strong analytical and research skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement abilities.
• Familiarity with the healthcare context in Uganda and the SDG framework.
• Proven working relations with district and sub-district structures.
• Good analytic skills and report writing skill.
• Fluency in written and spoken English.
• Good interpersonal and negotiation skills

Technical knowledge

• Excellent knowledge on new approaches in newborn as well as quality of care
• Ability to analyze, understand, innovate, and discuss new program strategies, management, and implementation approaches as required.
• Evidence of completion of similar past assignment
• Professional experience working in pediatrics and NICUs at hospital level, including the development of strategies and Quality Improvement approaches in clinical setting.
• Experience in data collection, analysis, and monitoring and evaluation.
• Experience working with the national and district local governments in Uganda, and a strong understanding of the health system.
• Strong writing and communication skills and the aptitude to handle competing messages and priorities with multiple audiences.

Specific knowledge

• Excellent facilitation skills, negotiation skills and oral and written communication skills.
• Computer skills including MS Office, qualitative and quantitative analytical skills.
• Knowledge of the Uganda context is an added advantage.

Competencies skills

• Builds and Maintains Partnerships
• Works Collaboratively with others.
• Drives to achieve impactful results.
• Manages ambiguity and complexity.
• Language skills.
• Proficient in English
• UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values
• UNICEF competencies required for this post are…
• Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people.

 

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified and interested applicants who wish to join United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) should apply online at the link below

 

Click Here

 

Deadline: 13th January 2025

 

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