National Consultant, New Maternal and Newborn Care at UNICEF

Job Purpose

• Provide technical support to the Ministry of Health at Federal and State levels, relevant agencies, Local Government Areas and health facilities to design and implement maternal and newborn program focusing on time around childbirth and early neonatal period with special attention on care for small and sick newborns.

Key Objectives

• The overall objective is to provide technical support at national and subnational levels to design, implement, monitor and document newborn care program coordinate oxygen system strengthening support and align same with UNICEF overall Health System Strengthening approach to improve maternal newborn and child health.
• Provide technical support to federal and state ministries of health to review and align policies, strategies, guidelines, protocols and tools for newborn program at national and subnational levels and advocate for scale up of care for sick and small newborns.
• Strengthen capacity to establish functional level-2 newborn units for the care of small and sick newborns in 2 health facilities in 2 UNICEF focused states.
• Build capacity in health facilities in UNICEF focused states to expand essential newborn care and quality of care for mothers and newborns during childbirth and early neonatal period at the primary health care facilities
• Support advocate to Federal and State Ministries of Health to scale up essential newborn care and care for small and sick newborns
• Coordinate oxygen system strengthening support including installation and commissioning of 6 oxygen Plants in a Box (PIBs)
• Document and share experiences and lessons learned on the establishment of small and sick newborn corners and their impact on newborn indicators at health facility level.

Scope of Work

• The consultant will provide technical support to the Federal Ministry of Health, State Ministry of Health and National Primary Health Care Development Agency and UNICEF field offices for newborn care, particularly, to scale up care for sick and small newborns and implementation of oxygen system strengthening activities.
• The consultant will ensure that the maternal and newborn care interventions leverage on other ongoing interventions such as oxygen system strengthening, integrated PHC services under one roof and Quality of Care.

Requirements
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have:

• An Advanced University Degree in Public Health, preferably a Doctor, Pediatric Health, Family Health, Health Research, Global / International Health, Health Policy and/or Management, Biostatistics, Epidemiology or other Health related Science is required.
• A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in public health planning and management and/or in relevant areas of maternal and neonatal health care, relevant experience in newborn health and quality improvement program/project development and management in any UN system agency or organization is an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you Demonstrate:

• UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).