Individual Consultant: Expert for Sexual Reproductive Health, including, Maternal Health and Cervical Cancer Prevention

Job Description

Purpose of consultancy

To support and collaborate with the Member States to further develop and implement national policies and strategies that ensure equitable and universal access to quality health care to improve women’s health, focusing on maternal care and reproductive health care.

Description of duties:

(Note: This is a generic description of duties developed for a roster of consultants/experts. The final terms of reference for the assignment/contract will be based on the actual requirements at the time of assignment, Under the overall guidance of the Director, Family Health, Gender and Life-course, and in close collaboration and Team Leads in the respective areas, i.e. Regional Adviser/Medical Officer/Technical Officer, the consultant/expert will be expected to carry out time-limited assignments in following areas:

• Technical assistance at the regional/country level in development policies and strategies on SRH programmes and supporting programme planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of maternal and reproductive health programme activities, focusing on reducing maternal mortality and morbidity, stillbirths, and cervical cancer elimination. Focusing on antenatal care, Intra natal care, Post-natal care, scaling up quality institutional deliveries, rationalization of cesarean sections, including comprehensive abortion care, post-abortion care, family planning, etc.
• Technical assistance in shaping capacity development at the national level through collaboration in planning and implementation of comprehensive, integrated and community health services.
• Provide technical inputs in promoting an integrated and scaled-up approach in maternal and reproductive health programmes ensuring linkages with child and adolescent health programmes including immunization, nutrition, prevention of STI and Hepatitis and other relevant WHO programmes practicing life cycle approach.
• Provide technical inputs to the Member States ( MS) to implement regional strategic guidance on sexual reproductive health and Technical Advisory Group recommendations on maternal and sexual reproductive health.
• Provide technical support and implementation support to Member States to develop and implement national plans on cervical cancer screening and management of precancerous lesions. Support for developing national screening programmes by selecting appropriate screening tests, transit to HPV DNA testing as per WHO recommendations. Provide support to MSS for implementation of WHO regional framework of cervical cancer elimination, Capacity building on the management of precancerous lesions using WHO-recommended treatment modalities.
• Provide technical inputs in the development of proposals for resource mobilization at the regional/country level, cutting across other programme areas towards realizing project objectives
• Support countries to plan and monitor RMNCAH programmes and implement maternal deaths surveillance and response, Stillbirth surveillance and responses, and severe morbidity audits.
• Support Member states to develop capacity in Programme management in RMNCAH.

Background

The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO) provides ongoing technical support to countries to improve maternal and sexual reproductive health programmes focusing on accelerating the reduction of preventable maternal mortality, morbidity, and reduction of stillbirths and achieving flagship priority 3. The SEARO continued to collaborate with the Member States and partners to set the roadmap to accelerate the progress toward the SDG targets by providing technical assistance and strategic support to keep RMNCAH at the centre of Universal Health Coverage to sustain the gains and accelerate progress towards achieving SDG and Flagship targets by scale up coverage of lifesaving interventions with equity.

Deliverables are specific to individual consultancy and terms of reference.

Qualifications, experience, skills, and languages

Educational Qualifications:

Essential:

PAY BAND A, B, C University degree in medicine, public health or community medicine, from a recognized university
PAY BAND B, C level assignments require, in addition: Master’s-level university degree in public health or community health or medical sciences from a recognized university.

Desirable: Training and experience in the relevant field, training in obstetrics and gynecology or public health programme management.

Functional skills and knowledge

• Sound knowledge of principles of public health and health systems, maternal, sexual and reproductive health.
• Knowledge of proposal development, analysis, programme planning, monitoring and evaluation
• Demonstrated ability in the establishment of networking with developmental partners
• Excellent communication and presentation skills

Competencies

• Teamwork
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Communication
• Producing results
• Moving forward in a changing environment

Other skills: Excellent knowledge of MS office applications and computer skills including to make high quality technical presentations and for data analysis

Experience:

Essential:

Pay Band A - 2 to 5 years,

Pay Band B - 5 to 10 years, and

Pay Band C - Over 15 years of experience in relevant areas (maternal and sexual reproductive health ) considerable experience obtained in the international context

Desirable:

• Experience in implementing/monitoring programmes at the national level
• Experience in a developing country, especially in the Region
• Experience in analyzing data and producing relevant reports with time-bound recommendations

Languages and level required (Basic/Intermediate/Advanced): Advance English writing skill.

Location

Onsite: FGL Department, SEARO, New Delhi, and Multiple duty stations in SEAR countries.

Travel

New Delhi, India, and regional countries depend on the consultancy

Remuneration and budget (travel costs are excluded):

Remuneration:

USD 7000 - USD 12500 per month

Living expenses (A living expense is payable to on-site consultants who are internationally recruited): Per diem as applicable to the location for the Region will be applied

Expected duration of the contract: two weeks to 24 months (July 2022-June 2025.)

Closing Date: May 24, 2022, 5:59:00 AM