National Consultancy to support scale-up of Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response System in Uzbekistan

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! 

The first month of life – the neonatal period – is the most vulnerable time for a child’s survival. Children face the highest risk of dying, with three-quarters of all neonatal deaths globally occurring in the first week of life. Every day, 42 newborns die in Uzbekistan, and neonatal mortality is increasing – from 12 per 1,000 live births in 2018 to 17 per 1,000 live births in 2022.

While there is a general agreement that registration and surveillance of newborn deaths are needed to better understand the causes of perinatal deaths and to drive actions for mortality reduction, the reporting practices and their implications for healthcare providers on the facility level are not well-known. Therefore, the implementation of the Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response system, which the WHO introduced as a tool for understanding the causes of perinatal death, has received significant political commitment in Uzbekistan.

During 2020-2023, UNICEF supported the adaptation and implementation of the Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response System in Uzbekistan through establishment of the national team of experts, capacity building of health care providers, supportive supervision visits and further scale-up. UNICEF supported the incremental scale-up of national service quality standards by enhancing the capacity of 150 perinatal centres’ staff in implementing perinatal death audits (PDA). As a result, 150 of 227 maternities (66 per cent) fully implemented PDA.

Considering the aforementioned, UNICEF Uzbekistan is seeking a qualified National Individual Consultant with relevant background and experience who will provide support the scaling-up of the Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response System in Uzbekistan in new targeted maternities. The national consultant will also support the capacity building of national partners under the overall guidance of the Chief of Health and Development and the direct supervision of the Health Specialist.

Duration of assignment: 1 Feb – 31 December 2024.

Work Assignments Overview – Deliverables – Timeline

1. Facilitate Orientation meetings in regions – Report – Feb (10 days)

2. Conduct ToT for regional trainers – Training report – Feb (12 days)

3. Facilitate trainings for the staff of 78 selected maternity hospitals across the country on implementation of the PDA – Training report – Mar – May (40 days)

4. Facilitate supportive supervision visits per one maternity (78), trained in 2024; Facilitate supportive supervision visits per one maternity (71), trained in 2023; Facilitation of cross-visits by regional teams – Report – Jun – Sep (60 days)

5. Monitoring visits to 78 maternities, trained in 2021-2022; Facilitation of cross-visits by regional teams – Monitoring Report with indicators – Oct – Nov (35 days)

6. Collection of reports from regional teams. Analysis. Generation of recommendations. Monitoring of implementation – Reports – Feb – Dec (24 days)

7. Provide technical support to national partners to develop annual perinatal death surveillance and response report – Annual perinatal death surveillance and response report – Dec (10 days)

8. Facilitate PDA Conference – Report – Dec (5 days)

Total: 196 days

Travel: 

Local travel is required. Cost for local travels will be covered by DCT to IP. In line with the latest UNICEF’s Financial Guideline

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• An advanced university degree in health/ public Health, maternal, pediatric health or other relevant fields
• At least 5 years of progressive professional experiences in the field of mother, newborn and child health or Public Health
• Proven 5-year experience of capacity building of health care providers
• Proven 5-year experience of supportive supervision of MNCH programs implementation
• At least five-year experience in implementation of activities focused on maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response system
• Proven experience in technical support to MoH in adaptation and implementation of MCH programs
• Good command of written Russian
• Knowledge of English will be an asset

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

 UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

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:  

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

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract 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 and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors 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.