National Individual Consultant for support to home visiting assessment in Montenegro based on maturity model approach

UNICEF Montenegro is looking for a National Individual Consultant for support to home visiting assessment in Montenegro based on maturity model approach.

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, the best start to life. 

Action to improve child health and development is a key priority for the Region, and is reflected in the WHO European Child and Adolescent Health Strategies, Nurturing Care Framework (2018), Framework on Early Childhood Development in the WHO European Region (2020), Health 2020, UNICEF Programme Guidance for ECD and UNICEF regional ECD Strategy closely aligned with the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health 2016-2030 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Investments in the earliest years represent a major opportunity to reduce mortality and morbidity, as well as address health and social inequalities in the Region. Nevertheless, progress has been undermined by the COVID-19 crisis, which has increased the household poverty and food insecurity, and highlighted the importance of access and availability of services for children and their families.

The health sector plays a crucial role during early years as it is uniquely positioned to provide support to children and their families with early and universal services, and acts as a gateway for multisectoral coordination and integration. Both WHO and UNICEF have been supporting the primary health system strengthening and the provision of accessible and quality health care for child health and development. As part of the regional initiative, UNICEF Montenegro has been particularly involved in strengthening quality home visiting (HV) services for young children and their families, provided as part of the primary health care.

The rationale for investing in HV came from the notion that the health sector in the Region had the strongest connection to young families through universal access to patronage nursing services, present in majority (80%) of countries. However, traditional approaches to HV in the area of maternal and child health (MCH) offered a limited range of services and focused mostly on child’s (physical) health. Thus, the HV reforms brought opportunities to provide support for child development and well-being more broadly and to offer specialized support to the most vulnerable families to reduce health inequalities. This upgraded package of HV services has been modelled by UNICEF in many countries in the Region under the label “Universal Progressive Home-Visiting” (UPHV) – where the universal services are available to all families for universal primary prevention, while progressive services are provided to a limited number of families based on assessment of risk and identified need. The multi-country formative evaluation of UPHV in 2019 found that UNICEF -supported UPHV initiative is “one of the most pioneering efforts” in the region’s health sector: “For the first time, the science behind early childhood in all its complexity has been incorporated into health care.” The evaluation also recommended to keep the Government’s focus on the most vulnerable by refining home visiting content, frequency and timing, and assuring sufficient outreach with UPHV services.

The importance of supporting parents and caregivers in providing nurturing care to their children is one of the key features of UPHV and the scope of the package includes focus on nutrition, immunization, safety and security, child health and development but also on building of parental competences to provide optimal support for nurturing care. UNICEF Montenegro works with Ministry of Health to integrate UPHV into existing service delivery systems, advance capacity of home visitors, ensure adequate financial and human resources and focus on the most vulnerable, and develop effective reporting, monitoring and evaluation systems to track results and make adjustments as needed.

The purpose of this assignment is to assess the home visiting (patronage nurse) program and its functioning within the broader primary health care ecosystem in Montenegro by using Maturity Model methodology developed by the UNICEF Regional Office Europe and Central Asia (ECARO). Maturity Models (MM) have been proposed in the health care domain with the purpose of assessing and improving the maturity of health care practices, operations and infrastructure.

The assessment based on a maturity model should provide information on the state of UPHV policies, organization, scope, coverage, staffing, financing, reporting and monitoring and identify what are the specific country level and common bottlenecks that impede expansion and access to quality home visiting programs. The assessment findings will be used to identify priority areas that need to be addressed.

The aim of the consultancy is to support the Maturity Model assessment of HV system.

To implement this task, UNICEF Montenegro seeks to identify a national consultant that should work under the supervision and in close collaboration with the Early Childhood Development Officer and complete the assessment, following the specific tasks described in detail in the Work Assignment Overview section below. The selected consultant shall also work in collaboration with the ECARO team.

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

Education:

• An advanced university degree (Master’s) in Medicine, Public Health, or related field.

Experience:

• A minimum of two years of work experience at primary health care level.
• Familiarity with Montenegro’s home visiting programme
• Minimum of 5-years experience in collecting large datasets and multiple year indicators (form national and international sources).
• Minimum of 5-years experience in writing process and summary reports.
• Previous work experience with UN/UNICEF or other international organization will be considered as an advantage.

• Fluency in both Montenegrin and English is required.

Other:

• Excellent writing skills, presentation skills, strong strategic and analytical skills.
• Ability to work with different stakeholders.
• Demonstrates tact and high sense of responsibility and discretion.
• Demonstrates integrity and high ethical standards.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

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. 

Payments:

Upon conducting the recruitment process and prior to the signing of the contract, the consultant will be required to complete the following online courses. All certificates should be presented as part of the contract.
1. Ethics and Integrity at UNICEF;
2. Prevention of Sexual Harassment and Abuse of Authority (PSEAA);
3. Prevention of Sexual Exploitation Abuse (PSEA);

Before commencement of any travel on behalf of UNICEF, the Consultants and Individual Contractors must complete course on General Information Security Awareness Course.

In addition to above, any consultant or individual contractor who is issued a UNICEF email address must complete the following courses no later than 30 days after signature of contract:
1.Fraud Awareness;
2.General Information Security Awareness Course (only for consultants/individual contractors with a UNICEF email address)

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic background, and persons with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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.