Local Consultant: Sub-national Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project – Information Management (11.5 Months)

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UNICEF has been an active partner of the Government of the Philippines and civil society in realizing the rights of every Filipino child, in line with priorities to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. UNICEF efforts have been focused on the most vulnerable regions identified by the Government of the Philippines Development Plan, particularly in the regions of Visayas and Mindanao. To ensure that interventions are sustainable and scaled up, UNICEF will support primarily local government units (LGUs) as the main instruments of delivering services and building systems. The level of engagement with government institutions will take into account capacities, economies of scale and sector issues.

It has a field office in Cotabato City, the second largest city in Mindanao, southern Philippines, with some 300,000 population. The city is the regional administrative centre of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and over 80 percent of the population is Muslim. Mindanao is both conflict-affected and prone to frequent earthquakes and typhoon storms.

Visit this link for more information on Philippine Country Office: https://www.unicef.org/philippines/

How can you make a difference in the following areas?

DOH CHD 4A – Lucena City (2)

DOH CHD 4B – Mamburao (1)

DOH CHD 5 – Masbate City (1), Naga City (2), Sorsogon City (1)

DOH CHD 6 – Bacolod City (1)

DOH CHD 7 – Cebu City (1)

DOH CHD 8 – Borongan City (1), Catarman (1), Ormoc City, (1) Tacloban City (1), Catbalogan (1)

DOH CHD 9 – Pagadian City (1)

DOH CHD 10 – Cagayan de Oro City (1)

DOH CHD 11 – Digos City (1)

DOH CHD 13 – Tandag City (1)

The project has three components:

• Component 1 led by the Department of Health (DOH) and aims to strengthen nutrition and primary health services through Performance-Based Grants (PBGs), health system enhancements, and capacity-building support for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
• Component 2 led by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) focuses on community-based nutrition service delivery and multisectoral nutrition convergence. It promotes essential family practices and supports interventions for improved access to water, sanitation, hygiene services, social protection, early childhood care and social protection.
• Component 3 jointly co-led by DOH and DSWD, focuses on institutional strengthening,

monitoring, evaluation, and communication. This includes planning and implementing high- impact interventions, project management, and establishing guidelines and frameworks for monitoring and evaluation practices.

The technical assistance focusing on three key outputs:

1) Project Evaluation covering 235 municipalities in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

2) Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) targeting 235 municipalities in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

3) Third Party Verification of Performance Based Grants (PBG) to application and Local Fiduciary Systems on PMNP in 235 municipalities in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Purpose:

• Under Component 1 of the DOH-UNICEF partnership, the sub-national IM Consultant post will support the UNICEF Health and Nutrition Section, particularly the PMNP Team, in strengthening the availability and quality of health and nutrition data at the municipal level. The IM sub-national consultant will be engaged mainly in:

1. Providing technical, coordination, and reporting support in implementing PMNP nutrition information strengthening activities in the 235 target municipalities of PMNP in Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao particularly on data quality checks of the maternal and child health and nutrition indicators of the FHSIS and OPT+, and support the implementation of the PMNP Household Convergence Scorecard (HCSC), including supportive supervision and mentoring/coaching of MLGUs. The IM Consultants will work closely with the PMNP sub-national consultants assigned in the PMNP areas, the UNICEF institutional contractor for data quality checks, and the PMNP Project Staff based in Manila.

2. Providing technical, coordination, and reporting support in strengthening the quality and use of FHSIS data not only for PMNP purposes but also for Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition programming at national and local levels. The IM Consultant will work closely with UNICEF Health and Nutrition Staff based in Manila,, and FHSIS teams at the local level.

• At the sub-national level, the IM consultant may also be engaged with regional and LGU stakeholders (provincial, municipal, and barangay) including CSO partners through coordinating, planning, and reporting functions for health and nutrition data improvement.
• From a larger perspective, the IM consultant will contribute to fulfilling PMNP and the Health and Nutrition Section objectives aligned with the UNICEF Country Programme of Cooperation2024 – 2028 (CPC 9) in the target LGUs.

Scope of work/Tasks:

Under the supervision of the PMNP officers based in Manila, and in close coordination and collaboration with the Sub-national PMNP Consultants assigned in the PMNP areas and the UNICEF H&N Programme Officers based in Manila, the IM Consultant is expected to perform the following tasks:

1. Support UNICEF PMNP Officers in implementing activities to strengthen availability and quality of nutrition data in PMNP municipalities:

a. Provide technical support in the roll-out of DQC training on FHSIS and OPT Plus at municipal levels; and in the implementation of the Household Convergence Scorecard.

b. Provide technical support in the conduct of supportive supervision activities including mentoring/coaching of MLGUs/BLGUs to ensure that the learnings from DQC and HCSC trainings are applied, and that the DQC and HCSC post-training action plans are implemented.

c. Provide technical support in the conduct of spot check validation of FHSIS data quality checks and provide the necessary mentoring at municipal and barangay levels.

d. Review DQC reports by the institutional contractor at municipal level and provide inputs to enhance the report.

e. Assess, identify, and report to PMNP Programme Officers issues and concerns raised by the PMNP municipalities on the implementation of activities to strengthen routine health and nutrition data , and agree on the action points to address such issues.

f. Document and regularly communicate to the PMNP Programme Officers positive and negative feedback raised by relevant stakeholders at the local level in implementing PMNP nutrition data strengthening activities.

2. Support UNICEF PMNP Programme Officers in data collection, analysis, visualization and reporting of relevant information needed for PMNP planning, monitoring, and reporting with government partners and other relevant stakeholders.

3. Participate in sub-national PMNP coordination and collaboration mechanisms with sub-national government stakeholders and partner CSOs in the PMNP MLGU assignment. This will include but is not limited to PMNP sub- national Technical Working Group Meetings, and Program Implementation Reviews.

4. As part of UNICEF CPC-9 workplan with DOH, support UNICEF H&N Programme Officers in coordinating and implementing activities related to strengthening data collection, quality, analysis and use of FHSIS data at the local level.

5. Identify, document, and manage knowledge for routine health and nutrition data strengthening initiatives in the geographic areas of assignment. This includes documenting and maintaining repository of human interest stories, issues and concerns raised, successful strategies and initiatives, among others, that contribute to the continuous improvement of routine health and nutrition data systems g.

6. Perform other tasks aligned with the UNICEF-DOH PMNP partnership agreement.

Child Data Role:

• About 80 hours per month. This assumes that the consultant will work for 40 hrs/week for 4 weeks in a month. The IM consultant is expected to provide support in reviewing the quality of FHSIS and OPT+ data, including Household Convergence Scorecard data, all of which cover personal-identifiable data on maternal and child health and nutrition. These task will take about 2 weeks (80 hours) distributed within a month covering about 10 MLGUs.

Deliverables:

• 11 Monthly Rolling Workplan covering all areas (MLGUs) of assignment.
• 11 monthly progress reports indicating:
• Accomplishments
• Issues/ challenges/ emerging challenges in implementation
• Measures adopted/ proposed measures to address challenges
• Positive and negative feedback raised by relevant stakeholders related to nutrition data strengthening
• Relevant attached files to support the report (photos, and other MOVs)
• Human-interest stories with high-resolution photos
• Repository of information and data that could contribute to the continuous improvement of routine health and nutrition data systems

Qualifications and Competencies of Successful Consultant:

• Bachelor’s degree in any of the following areas: nutrition, public health, statistics, information management, development studies, or a relevant field.

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills Required:

• Three (3) years of practical and operational knowledge on data collection at community level, management, and analysis of data.
• Strong analytical, presentation, and writing skills, including handling and analysing spreadsheet data, and visualization softwares such as MS powerpoint, MS Excel, etc.
• Experience on information systems particularly government routine data systems like FHSIS, and/or OPT+, is an advantage.
• Experience working with local government units is an advantage.
• Ability to meet deadlines and work with minimal day-to-day supervision.
• Relevant field experience and previous work experience in the UN are highly desirable.

Languages: Fluency in English, Filipino and local language is desirable.

HOW TO APPLY

Qualified candidates are requested to complete an online candidate profile in http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/ by 08 October 2024. Only applications sent through the e-recruitment portal under Job Number: 575710 will be considered.

All candidates are requested to submit a COVER LETTER, and the duly filled P11 Form which can be downloaded from our website at P11 Form.docx (sharepoint.com) indicating three (3) previous supervisors. Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate and area to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.

Only shortlisted consultants will be contacted.

Remarks:

Terms of reference may be shared upon request.

By applying through our Talent Management System (TMS) you agree to our privacy statement which is in line with the Philippines Data Privacy Act. You are strongly advised to read carefully through the privacy statement before submitting your application.

“UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.”

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