Background
Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 and 5 underscore global commitments to reduce child mortality by two-thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters between 1990 and 2015. In many low-income settings, 10-20% of children die before the age of five and the death of mothers during childbirth takes place far too frequently. This is despite substantial evidence documenting the benefits of a range of simple, effective and low-cost interventions for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH). Too often, these high-impact interventions and the essential commodities they deliver fail to reach the women and children who need them.
In support of these efforts, the UN Commission on Life Saving Commodities (UNCoLSC) established a set of commitments to increase availability and access to 13 underutilized, high-impact commodities for women and children. This confluence of leadership and momentum has stimulated discussions around how to optimize the contributions of key financial and implementing partners. Effective global coordination is essential. In response to these issues, an RMNCH Steering Committee comprised of key bilateral partners, country representatives, H4+ UN Agencies and others was established as a mechanism to enhance the alignment of the international response with country needs and resource gaps. This is supported by a new RMNCH financing mechanism (RMNCH Fund) which provides a predictable and flexible pool of resources to support innovative and catalytic interventions to address key bottlenecks. A multi-UN agency Strategy and Coordination Team (SCT), comprised of representatives from UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA, provides coordination and technical support to facilitate this collective response.
An RMNCH Coordinated Country Engagement process has emerged from this Steering Committee as a high-level partnership between participating UN agencies, major development partners and interested countries (approximately 40 countries expected) to better coordinate technical and financial flows. The overall aim of the RMNCH Steering Committee and Fund are to contribute to reductions child and maternal deaths and accelerate progress towards MDGs 4 and 5. The broad objectives are to:
In partnership between Ministries, lead H4+ agency and the SCT, the following outputs are expected:
A Results Framework that links activities of the RMNCH Steering Committee and Fund to reductions in maternal and child deaths must be developed and informed by a theory of change that investigates interdependent processes at a number of levels. Development on the Results Framework is ongoing at the global level and will require additional country-specific logical frameworks.
During 2015, the RMNCH will produce the following outputs:
The Database Management Officer contributes to the implementation of the RMNCH Strategy.
Purpose:
The Database Management Officer will support the work of RMNCH – specifically the collation, processing, entry, maintenance and analysis of information within the RMNCH database and archive for the Monitoring and Evaluation group.
Roles and responsibilities:
o Collate, organize and archive datasets provided by internal and external partners
o Process datasets including, but not limited to, reformatting data elements and file types, running data quality checks, and modifying or cleaning data elements as needed
o Transfer, enter or upload datasets into the primary RMNCH database
o Existing library of R scripts processing RMNCH data for the purposes of display in the online Dashboard
o Any new code required for SCT’s analytical activities
o design, modification and maintenance of an integrated results framework
o implementation of the results framework and related analyses
o on-going data quality improvements and harmonization of external datasets
Duty Station
UNICEF New York Headquarters with possible travel.
Timeframe
Full-time
Start date: 24 August 2015 End date: 30 June 2016
Expected results & deliverables
Deliverables
Due date
· Document standard operating procedures for collating, processing, entering and extracting information in the RMNCH database.
· Custom analytical code addressing SCT’s data needs.
· Regular reports with observations on dataset requests and receipt by SCT, dataset processing, entry or transfer into RMNCH database and quality standards
· Document standard operating procedures for archiving reference materials
· Regular reports with observations on updates to reference material archive
· Consistent data management for RMNCH database and reference material archive
Consultant to work full-time, delivering collectively to achieve these results.
To be paid monthly based on submission of invoice certifying deliverables and number of days worked.
Key competences, technical background, and experience required:
Education:
University degree in public health or administration, business administration, statistics or other relevant field or equivalent professional training or work experience
Experience
Languages
An excellent knowledge of English and preferably a good working knowledge of French. Knowledge of other languages an asset.
Technical Skills
Core Competencies
HOW TO APPLY
Applicants are requested to send their submissions to pdconsultants@unicef.org with subject line:
“RMNCH Database Manager, Consultancy” by 11 August 2015, 5:00pm EST.
Applications must include:
Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.
NOTE: Files should not exceed 5.0MB limit
UNICEF is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
