Technical support to the Ministry of Health to operationalize electronic community-based surveillance within the eCHIS framework, 84 days in 5 months

Objectives

The objective of the consultancy is to provide technical assistance to MoH to Operationalize an electronic community-based surveillance within the eCHIS framework.

Key Tasks And Responsibilities

• The consultant will be responsible for completing the following tasks during the assignment period:
• Provide technical support to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in developing/reviewing and updating standardized community-case definitions for identifying and reporting signs and symptoms of potential diseases, health risks, and public health events.
• Assist MoH in updating community-case definitions for key notifiable diseases, incorporating a One Health approach through consultations with relevant stakeholders and departments.
• Support MoH in updating existing paper-based tools, securing endorsement and adoption for national-scale implementation.
• Development of a Structured Case Notification and Reporting Protocol
• Conduct a gap analysis to assess existing case notification and reporting protocols, covering both paper-based and eCHIS-integrated reporting mechanisms.
• Provide technical support in updating reporting protocols, ensuring seamless case notification from community level to health facilities and district health offices.
• Strengthen the feedback loop process by integrating a mechanism that triggers investigations by Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) or healthcare workers, linking to the facility-based notification system (6767) for timely response and action, including integration into eCHIS with an embedded alert system to flag notifications that remain un-responded to within 72 hours
• Integration of Community-Based Surveillance (CBS) Indicators into eCHIS
• Collaboratively work with Living goods towards technical support provision to the MoH Division of Health Information (DHI) on integration of CBS indicators into eCHIS, ensuring real-time data capture and reporting.
• Lead capacity efforts on use and reporting of community-based surveillance indicators within Mukono, Wakiso, and Kampala through eCHIS.
• Actively participate in MoH Technical Working Groups (TWGs), including EPI, Community Health (CH), and eCHIS, contributing technical insights and documenting best practices and lessons learned from the CBS integration process.
• Capacity-Building for District, Facility, and Community Healthcare Workers
• Lead capacity-building initiatives for 3,870 Village Health Teams (VHTs) across Mukono, Kampala, and Wakiso, equipping them with the updated CBS tools.
• Document key learnings from the capacity-building process to assess effectiveness, challenges, and additional capacity needs, ensuring continuous improvements and optimization of CBS efforts.

Major Tasks

• Development of inception report detailing understanding of the assignment and implementation plan.
• Technical Support for Standardized Community-Case Definitions development including structured Case Notification, Reporting protocol and Integration of Community-Based Surveillance (CBS) Indicators into eCHIS
• Capacity-Building for District, Facility, and Community Healthcare Workers and overall activity report highlighting best practices, challenges, and recommendations.

Deliverables

Inception report detailing approach to the assignment including anticipated collaborations (MoH, Sub-national level).

Report on Standardized Community Case Definitions, Reporting Tools, and Case Notification Protocol, including Successful Integration into eCHIS.

Capacity Building Report on the Optimization of Community-Based Surveillance (CBS) Efforts, including Comprehensive Documentation on CBS/eCHIS Integration and Implementation.

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

Education background: Advanced university degree in Public Health, Social/political sciences, Statistics or other relevant fields.

Work-experience: Minimum of 7 years of relevant professional work experience at national and international level in analysis and/or research and/or communication/advocacy in public health, primary health care, digital health, emergency response, community health programming

Extensive experience producing timely and high-quality reports for UN systems

Experience working with international development organizations and/or government institutions is an asset.

Technical knowledge Health Informatics and digital health systems including the electronic community health information system

Experience in scoping, user testing, and training in digital health projects.

Experience in development and deployment of low bandwidth solutions in challenging and/or low resource settings.

Ability to align technical and strategic goals in multi-partner engagements Community health systems in Uganda & Region

Primary health care and Health System Strengthening

Language skills: Excellent written and verbal communication in English is required.

Knowledge of the local language is considered as an asset.

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

Technical Support for Standardized Community-Case Definitions development

Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework 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.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

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

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