National consultant to work as Adolescent Health Technical Support Officer for the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), Kigali Rwanda, 12 months based in RBC – For Rwandan nationals ONLY

The Adolescent Health Technical Support Officer will support the RBC MCCH team with effective coordination and implementation of the adolescent health programme, working in close collaboration with other RBC divisions and departments and coordinating with other sectoral ministries. Under the supervision of the Director of the Community Health Unit and the MCCH Division Manager, the officer will contribute to planning, coordination, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of adolescent health interventions at central and decentralized levels.

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. 

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For every child, Health

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Background:

Adolescents constitute a significant proportion of Rwanda’s population, representing 23 per cent of the total population (3,060,688). However, despite the impressive progress in the health and well-being of the Rwandan population, adolescents, particularly girls, face multiple challenges including mental teenage pregnancies, gender- based violence, HIV, mental health, and the burden of poverty. Regarding teenage pregnancy, a recent population study by MIGEPROF in partnership with UNFPA, indicates that prevalence of teenage pregnancy may be on the rise, which is consistent with Rwanda’s administrative data, which showed an increase from 19,832 cases in 2018 to 22,098 in 2022.

Government of Rwanda has demonstrated a commitment to promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights through various initiatives. The government has developed policies and programs focusing on family planning, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, and gender equality. Rwanda has integrated SRHR into its broader healthcare system, ensuring that services are accessible and of high quality across the country through establishment of youth corners at health center level and youth centres at district level. Efforts have also been made to address gender- based violence and promote women’s empowerment, recognizing the linkages between SRHR and broader social determinants of health.

Despite this commitment, challenges remain, with many adolescents lacking access to the essential information, quality services and protective environments they need to stay healthy and well. Additionally, girls, particularly pregnant adolescents, and adolescent mothers, face multiple vulnerabilities and high levels of stigma from the community that hinder their access to information and services, as well as learning and economic opportunities. Lack of agency and self-efficacy, compounded by harmful gender norms, negatively impact their ability to access and use services, as well as increase their vulnerability to violence and abuse. Furthermore, there is need for greater alignment and coordination among stakeholders (including across RBC divisions and sectoral ministries), increased resource allocation, adaptation of materials for different audiences, and incorporation of innovative approaches to engage youth effectively. Additionally, there remains a wealth of global resources and best practices that could be leveraged to enrich existing programs.

Action is needed to strengthen the coordination, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of quality, innovative and comprehensive adolescent health services, ensuring integration, scale, and sustainability. Recognizing this reality, RBC/maternal, child, and community health (MCCH) has requested UNICEF Rwanda for support to recruit an

Adolescent Health Technical Support Officer who will provide technical and programmatic assistance in adolescent health and act as an integral part of Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC)/ Maternal Child and Community Health (MCCH) Division team.

 

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The Adolescent Health Technical Support Officer will support the RBC MCCH team with effective coordination and implementation of the adolescent health programme, working in close collaboration with other RBC divisions and departments and coordinating with other sectoral ministries. Under the supervision of the Director of the Community Health Unit and the MCCH Division Manager, the officer will contribute to planning, coordination, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of adolescent health interventions at central and decentralized levels.

Key Tasks:

The Adolescent Health Technical Support Officer will lead the following tasks, working closely with the MCCH Team and other RBC departments, UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO and UNAIDS technical teams.

Technical support for effective planning and integration of adolescent health:

• Work closely with RBC/MCCH team to plan and develop strategies for high impact interventions related to adolescents’ health and well-being at the facility, school, and community levels, ensuring inclusion, gender equity, integration, innovation, scale, and sustainability.
• Provide technical oversight, strategic direction and ensure appropriate support for quality implementation and scale of integrated and gender responsive adolescent health programmes.
• Support and oversee the formulation of comprehensive service packages, tools, and SOPs for scaling up inclusive and gender-responsive adolescent health services ensuring alignment with national policies, strategies, and guidelines (e.g., HSSP5, RMNCAH, FP/ASRH, YFS Guidelines), leveraging digital health solutions where applicable.
• Oversee capacity-building activities among health care providers, school counselors/teachers, and community level agents (e.g., community health workers, youth volunteers) in inclusive and gender-responsive adolescent and youth-friendly service provision in collaboration with districts and partner organizations.
• Develop a framework to monitor progress of implementation of work plan activities related to adolescent health, ensuring that activities are executed according to plan, positively effecting key indicators, and that any issues are flagged and addressed through planning with team members and adjusting implementation approaches.
• Support capacity strengthening in adolescent-specific data, age and sex disaggregated data collection, analysis and use to inform evidence-based adolescent health interventions at both service delivery and community level and provide data-driven insights to improve indicator availability and influence decision-making at national level.
• Contribute to the development of policy briefs, technical reports, and publications on adolescent health issues and to the documentation and dissemination of lessons learned, best practices, and success stories to inform policy and programming at the national and global levels.

Coordination and leadership

• Work collaboratively with UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA and UNAIDS, other MOH/ RBC divisions (e.g., mental health), and sectoral ministries such as ministries of youth and education, to ensure good coordination and efficient programming and management of the adolescent health program.
• Provide technical support for the coordination and harmonization of the adolescent health programme, including strengthening and broadening the scope of the ASRH TWG to holistically address adolescent health issues across MoH/RBC departments and other relevant government line ministries and institutions (NCDA, MINIYOUTH, MINEDUC & MIGEPROF).
• Effectively lead the engagement of adolescent boys and girls in decision making processes including policy dialogue and programming, as well as well as their meaningful participation in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of adolescent health programmes.
• Effectively involve local government, health care providers, civil society, religious leaders, to foster community-wide commitments, to strengthen actions and create an enabling environment at the community level to foster young people’s healthy behaviours, including the use of SBC and community outreach activities to increase awareness and demand for services.
• Coordinate data-driven advocacy and capacity-strengthening across key government sectors to ensure prioritization and integration of adolescent health considerations within national policy development, budgeting and M&E processes.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks/Milestone:

• Collaborate with RBC/MCCH team to develop the annual implementation plan and ensure adolescent health priorities are comprehensively addressed within national strategic plans under development and support development of the comprehensive strategy.
• Oversee quality implementation at scale of integrated and gender responsive adolescent health programmes, leveraging digital health solutions where applicable.
• Support and oversee the formulation of comprehensive adolescent health strategies, guidance, service packages, tools, and SOPs, including the integrated adolescent and youth friendly service for scaling up inclusive and responsive adolescent health services.
• Support capacity-building of health care providers, school counselors/teachers, and community level agents in adolescent and youth-friendly service provision.
• Develop a framework to monitor progress of implementation of work plan activities related to adolescent health, timely flag and address any issues.
• Work collaboratively with the MOH/RBC divisions, sectoral ministries, and the UN to ensure good coordination, efficient programming, and management of the adolescent health program.
• Support multi-sectoral coordination and harmonization of the adolescent health programme, including strengthening of the ASRH TWG to holistically address adolescent health issues.
• Effectively lead the engagement of adolescent boys and girls in decision making processes including policy dialogue and programming.
• Effectively involve local government, health care providers, civil society, religious leaders, and schools to create an enabling environment and to increase awareness and demand for services.
• Coordinate data-driven advocacy and capacity-strengthening across key government sectors, document lessons learned, and ensure prioritization and integration of adolescent health considerations within national policy development, plans, budgets, and M&E processes.

 

Deliverables/Outputs:

Payment 1: 16%

• Approved bi-monthly workplan and progress report.
• Annual implementation plan and M&E framework developed indicating key milestones and timelines for deliverables.
• HSSPV finalized and has prioritized high impact adolescent health interventions.
• Comprehensive adolescent health situation analysis underway
• ToR for development of comprehensive adolescent health strategy, M & E framework and operational plan developed and approved.
• Comprehensive adolescent health situation analysis completed and report available.
• Dissemination workshop conducted on youth friendly service guidelines and health care providers oriented on their use.
• Dissemination workshop for school health and nutrition guidelines conducted service providers oriented on their use and linkages to youth friendly services enhanced.
• Digital tools on adolescent health, supported during the elaboration process, launched, institutionalized, and scaled up through existing government structures and systems.

 

Payment 2: 16%

 

• Approved bi-monthly workplan and progress report.
• Adolescent Health Training Manual and Facilitators Guide validated and disseminated.
• Youth friendly service guideline validated and disseminated.
• School health and nutrition guidelines validated and disseminated.
• Integrated adolescent-friendly health services package, including tools and SOPs developed in alignment with national YFS guidelines.

Payment 3: 16%

• National ToT workshop on YFS Guidelines and Adolescent Health Training Manual conducted and plans for cascading training to decentralized levels available.
• Capacity building of health care providers completed based on cascade plan.
• Approved bi-monthly work plan and progress report.
• Participation in strategic health information and system meetings and incorporation of adolescent specific indicators in routine data collection systems and surveys

 

Payment 4: 16%

• Approved bi-monthly workplan and progress report.
• Quarterly coordination meetings held with the UN, MCCH and relevant RBC divisions with agenda and minutes shared timely (4 by end of the assignment)
• ToR for ASRH TWG updated to include broader adolescent scope and multi-sectoral coordination.
• Bi-monthly ASRH TWG meetings convened by RBC MCCH involving other RBC divisions, line ministries and partners with agenda and minutes shared timely (6 by end of assignment)
• ToR for Youth Advisory Council strengthened to comprehensively address adolescent health issues (HIV, SRHR, Mental Health etc).
• Youth Advisory Council meetings held (at least 3 by end of assignment)

Payment 5: 16%

• Approved bi-monthly workplan and progress report.
• Integrated community and school-based adolescent health (SRHR, HIV, mental health, NCDs, life skills) packages of IEC materials finalized, validated, and disseminated for use.

Payment 6: 20%

• Approved bi-monthly workplan and progress report.
• 4 quarterly monitoring and supportive supervision visits conducted, and key issues noted for action.
• Knowledge management products produced and disseminated (at least 1 policy brief, 1 success story, 1 publication, 1 abstract by end of assignment.

Duration and Location

The consultancy will be for 12 months from July 2024 to June 2025 and the consultant will be based in RBC.

Selection Criteria

Applications shall be assessed based on their technical and financial proposals. Maximum scores for technical and financial applications will be 75% and 25%, respectively.

Successful candidates in technical evaluation will be requested to send their most competitive, all-inclusive financial proposals.

 

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Public Health, Epidemiology, Reproductive Health including clinical background (medical, nursing or midwifery). Having social sciences background would be of added value. Candidates with a first degree (Bachelors) in relevant fields may also be considered if they have at least 5 years of experience in related fields.
• At least 5 years of professional experience implementing and/or supporting reproductive health programmes at national or sub-national levels.
• Proven experience working with and for adolescents and young people, and track record of successful implementation of similar programmes in Rwanda.
• Demonstrate a commitment to gender equality and the ability to integrate gender perspectives into health programmes, ensuring that both male and female adolescents benefit equally from health services and interventions.
• Experience to mentor health providers using competency-based approaches, as well as experience in training health workers in clinical aspects related to adolescent health.
• Ability to work with senior MoH officials, executive of civil society organizations, senior members of development partners on adolescent health issues including SRHR.
• Demonstrated in-depth understanding of the Rwandan Health care system.
• Ability to coach, mentor, and develop technical capacity in national programmes and technical staff in adolescent health.
• Strong oral and written communication and presentation skills in English and Kinyarwanda. The knowledge of French language is of added value.
• Strong skills in word processing, excel spreadsheets and power point presentation.

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.