Roster of Consultants/Experts – Maternal Care and Reproductive Health

Area of expertise:

Roster of Consultants/Experts – Maternal Care and Reproductive Health

Purpose of consultancy

To support and collaborate with the Member States to further develop and implement national policies and strategies that ensure equitable and universal access to quality health care to improve women’s health, focusing on maternal care and reproductive health care including safe abortion care.

Under the overall guidance of the Director, Family Health, Gender and Life-course, and in close collaboration and Team Leads in the respective areas, i.e. Regional Adviser/Medical Officer/Technical Officer, the consultant/expert will be expected to carry out time-limited assignments in following areas:

1. Technical assistance at the regional/country level in development policies and strategies on SRH programmes and supporting programme planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of maternal and reproductive health programme activities, focusing on reducing maternal mortality and morbidity, stillbirths, and cervical cancer elimination. Overall area of work; pre-conception care, antenatal care, Intranatal care, post-natal care, scaling up quality institutional deliveries, rationalization of cesarean sections,comprehensive abortion care, post-abortion care, family planning including subfertility / infertility. etc.
2. Technical assistance in shaping capacity development at the national level through collaboration in planning and implementation of comprehensive, integrated and community health services.
3. Provide technical inputs in promoting an integrated and scaled-up approach in maternal and reproductive health programmes ensuring linkages with other relevant programs; child and adolescent healthincluding immunization, nutrition, prevention of STI and Hepatitis and other relevant WHO programmes implimenting life cycle approach.
4. Provide technical inputs to the Member States (MS) to implement regional strategic guidance on sexual reproductive health and Technical Advisory Group recommendations on maternal and sexual reproductive health.
5. Provide technical support and implementation support to Member States to develop and implement national plans on cervical cancer screening and management of precancerous lesions. Support for developing national screening programmes by selecting appropriate screening tests, transit to HPV DNA testing as per WHO recommendations. Provide support to MSS for implementation of WHO regional framework of cervical cancer elimination, Capacity building on the management of precancerous lesions using WHO-recommended treatment modalities.
6. Provide technical inputs in the development of objective based proposals for resource mobilization at the regional/country level,and other cross cutting programme areas.
7. Support countries to plan and monitor RMNCAH programmes and implement maternal deaths surveillance and response, Stillbirth surveillance and responses, severe morbidity audits, assessments related to Maternal, reproductive Health including comprehensive abortion careand subfertility.
8. Support Member states to develop capacity in Programme management in RMNCAH.

Background

The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO) provides ongoing technical support to countries to improve maternal and sexual reproductive health programmes focusing on accelerating the reduction of preventable maternal mortality, morbidity, and reduction of stillbirths and achieving flagship priority 3. The SEARO continued to collaborate with the Member States and partners to set the roadmap to accelerate the progress toward the SDG targets by providing technical assistance and strategic support to keep RMNCAH at the centre of Universal Health Coverage to sustain the gains and accelerate progress towards achieving SDG and Flagship targets by scale up coverage of lifesaving interventions with equity. The subfertility and pre-conception care activities are included in 24-25 biennium and needs initial assessment and alignment with upcoming HQ guidelines.

Deliverables

Deliverables are specific to individual consultancy and terms of reference.

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications:

Essential:

• PAY BAND A, B and C requires University degree in medicine, health sciences, public health, community medicine, population studies or demography from a recognized university.
• PAY BAND B and C level assignments require, in addition: Master’s level university degree or above in health or medical sciences (Obstetrics & gynecology, community medicine), public health/community health or population studies/demography from a recognized university.

Desirable:

• Postgraduate degree in community health, Obstetrics& gynecology, publichealth, population studies or demography.
• Training in the relevant field

Experience:

Essential:

• Pay Band A -: At least 5 years of experience in the area of specialization, some of which is at the international level.
• Pay Band B -: At least 7 years of experience in the area of specialization, some of which is at the international level.
• Pay Band C -: Over 10 years of experience in the area of specialization, including considerable experience obtained at the international level.

Desirable:

• Expertise in a specific topic or programmatic area.
• Solid experience of developing/implementing/monitoring/evaluation of health programmes at the national level.
• Proven experience of providing technical assistance in a developing country, especially in the SEA Region.
• Experience in collecting, collating, analyzing data and producing high quality reports with specific recommendations.

Skills/Knowledge:

Essential:

• Sound knowledge of principles of public health and health systems, maternal, sexual and reproductive health.
• Knowledge of proposal development, analysis, programme planning, monitoring and evaluation.
• Demonstrated ability in the establishment of networking with developmental partner.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills

Desirable: ExcellentknowledgeofMSofficeapplicationsandcomputerskillsincludingtomakehighqualitytechnicalpresentationsandfordataanalysis.

Languages and level required (Basic/Intermediate/Expert):

Essential: Expert knowledge of English writing skill.

Desirable: Knowledge on other regional languages.

Location

On-Site (FGL Department, SEARO, New Delhi, and Multiple duty stations in SEAR countries).

Travel

The consultant is expected to travel to regional countries depending upon the TORs of the consultancy.

Remuneration and budget (travel costs are excluded):

• Remuneration- USD 7000 – USD 12500 per month
• Living expenses is payable to on-site consultants who are internationally recruited: Per diem as applicable to the location for the Region will be applied.
• Expected duration of contract (Maximum contract duration is 11 months per calendar year): Two weeks to 24 months.

Additional information

• This vacancy notice is being issued for establishing Roster of Consultants/Experts – Maternal Care and Reproductive Health.
• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
• A written test may be used as a form of screening.
• If your candidature is retained for interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.
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• An impeccable record for integrity and professional ethical standards is essential. WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter (https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/our-values) into practice.
• WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of short-listed candidates.
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• Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority.
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