National Consultant for IEV (Identify Enumerate & Vaccinate) strategy for polio OBR and zero dose big catch up in Nigeria, Abuja (may require field visits to other States)

The consultant will work under the supervision of the Health Manager (Immunization cluster lead) and the Health Manager for Immunization, in the UNICEF Nigeria country office, with extending supports to UNICEF FO, national & state health authorities.

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 

Nigeria has a massive burden of 2.3 million zero dose children across the 37 states. In addition to that, an estimated 12.8 million people, including 8.1 million children and 4.7 million adults, are affected by conflict in north-east and north-west regions. Of these, over 2.3 million are displaced and one million are living in inaccessible areas. The numbers of the zero dose (ZD) and under immunized children went up during the Covid-19 pandemic due to interrupted routine immunization and other PHC services in 2020-2022. This led to multiple outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases including the Circulating Variance of Polio Virus type2 (cVPV2) since 2021. cVPV2 transmission is showing a clear trend of increase in 2023 as compared to 2022, with a confirmed 224 cases in 2023 as opposed to 170 cases in 2022. The major driver of continuous transmission of virus is the implementation of sub optimal quality campaigns that continually reach a subset of children and miss another cohort of eligible children. The 5 northern AIT states (Areas of Intractable Transmission) are reporting most of these cases who are also affected by low routine immunization, insecurity, inaccessibility and internal displacement of population.

For Nigeria and elsewhere in the world, zero dose can be an important and sensitive marker for disadvantaged populations that are affected by multiple social and health deprivations.  Therefore, identifying these children and their communities they are concentrated in, can facilitate recognition and access to a range of primary health care, containment of cVPV2 transmission and other social services to which they have a right.

How can you make a difference? 

The Nigeria government through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency using its Primary Health Care Resources has consistently implemented EPI as a strategy to prevent child mortality, containment of cVPV2, introduction of new vaccines (HPV). In addition, UNICEF Nigeria is assisting the national efforts through developing strategies focused on zero dose immunization (Big Catch Up) to strengthen delivery of priority services including identifying zero dose communities, scaling up childhood immunization and strengthening primary health care for the delivery of integrated immunization and essential health services. Moreover, to improve the population immunity against polio virus and to contain the transmission of cVPV2 in the AIT states and other priority states, UNICEF is assisting the government of Nigeria through the Identify Enumerate and Vaccinate (IEV) strategy operationalization.

In order to assist the NPHCDA and the state health authorities for operationalizing the polio IEV strategy, to plan & operationalize the big catch up for zero dose communities, and to operationalize the HPV vaccine introduction (phase 2), UNICEF will recruit a national consultant. The consultant will work under the supervision of the Health Manager (Immunization cluster lead) and the Health Manager for Immunization, in the UNICEF Nigeria country office, with extending supports to UNICEF FO, national & state health authorities.

The consultant will work in collaboration with the Nigeria Country Office Immunization team, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and partners, to plan and operationalize the priority interventions focusing cVPV2 outbreak response, zero dose reduction and HPV vaccine rollout.

Specifically, the consultant will support country office efforts to:

• Microplanning for implementing the IEV round in all priority LGAs in Sokoto and Kebbi states.
• Analysis of all the enumerated children in Sokoto and Kebbi states tracking and vaccinated during the April round of the SNIDs.
• Monitoring of the IEV exercise using ODK and GTS tracker.
• Micro planning of the phase-2 HPV vaccine rollout in 21 states.
• Training of national supervisors and all state managers on HPV microplanning and operationalization in association with the NPHCDA and partners.
• Finalization of the Zero dose big catch-up plan in association with the NPHCDA and partners.

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

Education & Experience: 

• Minimum of an Advanced university degree (Masters) in health with expertise in immunization.
• Minimum five years of work experience in Health/Immunization and development programmes
• Solid technical knowledge of immunization curricula, tools and resources.
• Demonstrated experience with programme design, development and implementation, monitoring and evaluation using both quantitative and qualitative techniques.

Personal/organizational Competencies

• A high level of organizational and coordination skills.
• High level of attention to detail.
• An excellent command of the English language – both written and oral.
• Ability to produce quality work within a deadline and under pressure.
• Highly developed communication skills.

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.