Consultancy – Geospatial HealthConnekt Global Consultant Req.#567595

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. 

For every child, HEALTH

Vacancy Announcement: Consultant

Consultancy Title: Consultancy – Geospatial HealthConnekt Global Consultant

Section/Division/Duty Station: DH&IS, MNCAH, PG Health – Programme Group – NYHQ

Duration: 11 December 2023 – 31 December 2024

Home/ office Based: REMOTE

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children’s survival, protection and development. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

In 2019, UNICEF and ITU’s Giga project aimed to connect every school to the internet, successfully engaging in 19 countries, mapping 2 million schools, and connecting over 5,600 schools, aiding 2.1 million students. Leveraging this momentum, UNICEF will initiate “HealthConnekt” to expand internet access to health facilities, particularly primary healthcare, in line with Africa CDC’s digital goals.

HealthConnekt Global will tackle the digital healthcare divide, improving service and data quality, and addressing connectivity for marginalized areas. The initiative will upgrade health facility lists, integrate connectivity data, utilize new technologies, and scrutinize infrastructure and budgets. It aims to enhance health sector funding, develop financing methods, drive investments, and craft connectivity solutions. HealthConnekt will support the adoption of digital tools, establish necessary frameworks, and monitor service contracts, ensuring fair access to digital health services. The program will collaborate with regional and global efforts and supplement government or donor health initiatives.

 Scope of Work:

UNICEF seeks a Geospatial Consultant who will facilitate technical analysis in support of the equity analysis by the HealthConnekt Country Engagement, Equity Analysis, and Investment Cases consultant.

The consultant will facilitate the quantification of the link between the availability of connectivity at health facilities, the geographic coverage of health service points with suitable infrastructure for digitalization of health services, and population health outcomes, thereby supporting the definition of the HealthConnekt investment case in terms of ROI of expansion of connectivity in terms of access to digitalized health services and health outcomes. The consultant will provide technical assistance to the integration between HealthConnekt Global and Giga, and with HealthConnekt Africa and the Africa CDC, ensuring that analysis and outputs undertaken under HealthConnekt are grounded on health programmatic outcomes of strategic importance to UNICEF and countries. 

The consultant will closely work with UNICEF Digital Health & Information system team, HealthConnekt consultants (Country Engagement, Equity Analysis, and Investment Cases consultant (lead), and Data Scientist), as well as the Giga team in Barcelona, and Digital Centre of Excellence team in Nairobi. Additionally, the consultant will collaborate with the Digital Health Department within the Africa CDC in Addis Ababa.

The consultant will perform the following duties:

1. Contribute to HealthConnekt Inception Report and Workplan aligning timelines of proposed activities with those under the HealthConnekt consultants
2. Liaise with countries for identification of country-specific indicators of connectivity and health equity for 5 target countries
3. Support assessment and improvement of data quality and management of national Health Facility Master Lists (HFML), and augmentation of HFMLs with geolocation, connectivity and electrification data for 5 countries
4. Compile, analyze and package country datasets for 5 countries to inform analysis of link between the availability of connectivity at health facilities, the geographic coverage of digitized health programs and population health outcomes
5. Perform spatial analytics of the link between the availability of connectivity at health facilities, the geographic coverage of digitized health programs and health outcomes, contextualized to country health programmatic needs
6. Communication and dissemination of results
7. Completion of Contract – Handover Report including proposed 2024-2030 priorities and activities

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

• Inception Report and workplan By 11 January 2024
• Literature review of existing spatial methods, platforms and use cases for analysis of the link between the availability of connectivity at health facilities, the geographic coverage of digitized health programs and population health outcomes By 15 February 2024
• Report of desk review of existing country-specific assessments or analysis of health system connectivity/electrification status, health service coverage and level of digitization of health services at primary health care level By 15 February 2024
• Set of country-specific agreed measures and indicators of the geographic coverage of digitized health programs and indicators of health outcomes for ROI quantification By 15 February 2024
• Assessment report of data quality of HFML according to standard data quality dimensions and international best practices By 15 April 2024
• Assessment report of existing HFML management platforms and mechanisms against good practices and standard requirements for health facility registry By 15 April 2024
• Health facility geolocation, electrification and connectivity information derived from Giga workflows integrated into HFMLs By 15 June 2024
• Desk review of existing spatial datasets suitable to the analysis for each target country By 15 June 2024
• Completed catalogue of quality-checked spatial data for target countries with quality check report and identified gaps in input data By 15 June 2024
• Additional datasets of real or modelled health facility catchment area boundaries created in the case of inexistent, incomplete or inadequate such datasets By 15 July 2024
• A set of analytical products (datasets, maps, charts, tables) to express the link between the connectivity at health facilities, the geographic coverage of digitized health programs and population health outcomes, as per country-specific indicators By 15 October 2024
• A set of country reports detailing the analysis undertaken, including description of inputs, data transformation, spatial functions and assumptions, and narrative description of the outcomes of the analysis By 15 November 2024
• Contribution of relevant analytical products (datasets, maps, charts, tables) to Country specific investment cases developed by main consultant By 27 December 2024
• Contribution to bi-annual progress report developed by main consultant By 27 December 2024
• Development of slide deck detailing equity analysis in target countries for UNICEF internal and external communication By 27 December 2024

  Qualifications

Education:

• Masters degree/ University degree in Health Geography, Geography, Geographic Information Systems, Information Technology, Data Science, or similar applied discipline, or equivalent work experience.

Language Proficiency:

• Fluency in written and oral English is required.

Work experience:

• A minimum of three years of relevant professional experience in spatial analysis applied to health programs or alternatively closely related development programs
• Experience undertaking geospatial data analytics involving national-scale datasets independently or under limited technical supervision
• Experience with geospatial processing, manipulation, data quality check and editing of all common data types (raster, vector line and point) independently or under limited technical supervision
• Experience with spatial analysis utilizing spatial datasets related to population density, population health indicators and health services

Competencies/Knowledge:

• Technical proficiency with:
  • Standard GIS software (ArcGIS, QGIS)
  • Geospatial databases management and organization
  • Basic statistical analysis
• Experience producing narratives and data visualizations material for technical and non-technical audiences

Requirements: 

Completed profile in UNICEF’s e-Recruitment system and

• Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include/ reflect:
  • the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at Here

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check

Remarks:  Individuals engaged under a consultancy will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants. Consultants are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.