WASH Information Systems Consultant, Kampala, CSD, 12 Months

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. 

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For every child, Health

How can you make a difference? 

Background and Purpose

UNICEF is supporting the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Water and Environment (MoWE) and Ministry of Education (MoES) and Sports to develop and operationalize the WASH Management Information System (WASH-MIS). The previous system used by government required expansion to capture data across the WASH sector against Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators, along with additional features for improved access and interpretation of WASH data, and to ensure seamless, efficient, and effective data capture from various administrative levels up to the national level. The new reporting system is designed to strengthen horizontal coordination and reporting (reporting across sectors) as opposed to vertical reporting within the respective ministries. This is to reinforce integrated WASH reporting and promote effective decision making across the different ministries that are mandated to implement and report on SDG 6.

A comprehensive monitoring framework has been developed and used to define the system, which has been finalized and is being hosted by the National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U). However, the operationalization of the system has met with some challenges. MoH, MoWE and MoES have existing systems and reporting mechanisms to track progress of sanitation in their respective mandates. However, the systems are not yet effectively integrated into the WASH-MIS. There is need to support integration of the separate systems to respond to user needs and improve progress monitoring and reporting at all administrative levels. There is also limited capacity across the administrative levels to use the system.

It is against this background that UNICEF is seeking to support the engagement of a technical person consultant to assist the process of operationalizing the WASH-MIS, support to build capacity of the central teams and have the system rolled out to local governments to facilitate data collection and overall management.

Justification

The consultant will provide technical assistance to MoH, MoWE and MoES to ensure timely operationalization of the WASH-MIS. Particularly, the consultant will complete the development of the system, support its integration and interface with other systems and applications, carry out regular refresher trainings for system administrators and managers and provide support during the initial training of district local government as part of the operationalization of the WASH-MIS.

Objective of the assignment

The strategic objective of this consultant is to provide technical assistance in the operationalization of monitoring framework for SDG indicators related to SDG 6.

Scope of Work of the contract

Under the supervision of the Senior Environmental Officer (MoH) and working closely with the Senior Education Officer MoES and Assistant Commissioner MoWE with the oversight of the WASH Officer, UNICEF, the consultant will provide day to day support/guidance to MoH, MoWE and MoES in the operationalisation of the monitoring framework for SDG indicators related to SDG 6. The detailed scope of work and deliverables are provided below:

Major Tasks

1. Prototype Review:

Review prototype to assess performance, data visualization, and identify gaps/opportunities for action/intervention.

2. MIS Hosting:

Liaise with the Ministry of Health and NITA-U to provision infrastructure necessary for scale-up of WASH-MIS to National Level.

3. System changes:

Implement approved minor configuration changes and Change Requests that fall within a level of effort of 72hrs.

• Develop customized reporting module for MIS to generate

4. System Integration:

Integrate the WASH MIS with the Electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS) and the Education MIS (DEMIS).

5. Support and Maintenance:

Carry out Software, System updates and incident resolution as and when required. Maintain the MIS in optimum operational condition.

6. Helpdesk Support:

Provide timely and reliable support to the users and assess the system, including identifying and addressing bottlenecks and teething problems in the use of the system and providing recommendations for its better functioning.

7. WASH MIS Scale-up:

Provide technical and user support at various levels (national and select district) for the uptake of the WASH MIS

8. Capacity Building:

Carry out regular refresher trainings and on the job mentoring for system administrators and managers

9. Sustainability of the WASH MIS:

Train and Build capacity of the Ministry technical and IT Teams to maintain and administer the MIS infrastructure in working condition.

10. Documentation and Reporting:

Update system administration documents and user guides and publish them on a selected location provided by the supervisor.

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

• A university degree in Information Technology or related field, preferably related to computer programming.
• At least 5 years of experience in developing web-based Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems, especially for water supply, sanitation and/or hygiene behavior change programming
• GIS skills
• Linux skills
• Software skills – Java, Postgre SQL, HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, Tomcat, GlassFish
• Familiarity or prior work experience for Government of Uganda, UN, or international development organizations.
• M&E expertise

Language:

English

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.