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UNICEF contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Nigeria with a mandate to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. UNICEF’s Nigeria country programme: Aims to accelerate the realization of the rights of all c...
Job Number: 519949
Location: Kano
Work Type: Consultancy
Contract duration: 11.5 months
Background/Purpose of Assignment
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. And we never give up.
The routine immunization coverage in Nigeria has been very low for decades. According to WHO- UNICEF Estimate, the 2016 DPT3 coverage was 49% and MCV1 coverage was 51%. In 2016 NICS/MICS national coverage of Penta3 was 33.6% and state coverage range were between ranging from 3-80%. Lagos is the highest state with 80.2 % of Penta3 and Sokoto State with 3% of Penta3. Kano state is among the lowest State with 19.9 % of Penta3. Only 17.5% of children were fully Immunized. It was observed the huge disparity between the northern states and the southern States respectively 61% of children were not Immunized in North West States and only 8% were not Immunized in South East States. I was also noted the disparities in Immunization coverage, regarding the area of residence the coverage was only 25% in rural area while 51% of penta3 was reported in the urban area. The caretaker's age represented 15% of coverage between 15 to 19 years and 32 to 39 % of penta3 coverage between 30 to 39 years. Caretaker's Education was respectively 9% of coverage for the Non-formal education and the highest education was 74% of Penta3 coverage. The index quintile shows only 10% of children Immunized for the poorest quintile against 63% of Penta3 for the Richest.
Some of the factors contributing to the poor coverage include lack of awareness (42%) mistrust or fears (22) service delivery issues ( 25%), lack of time or other family issues ( 18%) other previous issues still relevant such as : Suboptimal governance and accountability of local officials; poor primary health care system with variable quality of program management at the States and Local Government Area (LGA) levels; variable distribution, capacity and retention of the health workforce; poor data quality; limited operationalization of the Reaching Every Ward (REW) strategy especially in high risk areas with poor linkage of services to communities; variable quality in vaccine management across States and LGAs; and incomplete community utilization of immunization services as evidenced by high dropout rates.
The key finding shows that: Immunization coverage varies dramatically across Nigeria but improvements are needed in every state, all states fall below the global goal of 90% coverage for 3 doses of pentavalent vaccine, also Immunization performance is weakest in north East and North-West zones where every state falls below 50% of penta3 coverage, children in rural areas are half as likely to be vaccinated as those is urban areas. Children of younger mother and caretakers are at greatest risk.
Due to the above result, the government of Nigeria made a declaration of State of Public Health Concern on RI Programs on June 17, 2017. As a result, the National Emergency Routine Immunization Coordination Centre (NERICC) has been established and the 18 low-performing states urged to put in place SERICC. Yobe has a functional SERICC and the current UNICEF consultant is providing technical support to this body.
UNICEF's role in Nigeria is concentrated on technical support, advocacy and capacity building role rather than a service delivery role. The government looks up to UNICEF for technical expertise to be able to achieve international commitments and standards. In this context, the priorities of UNICEF Nigeria are therefore:
The position, in close collaboration with other partners at State level, will work with the State Ministry of Health (SMOH), State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA), State Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) and State Emergency Routine Immunization Coordination Center (SERICC) to achieve the main objective which is:
Major Tasks to be accomplished
Major milestones:
Qualification or Specialized Knowledge/Experience
Note
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