Historique

Ukraine has the highest adult HIV prevalence in all of Europe and Central Asia. Annual HIV diagnosis in Ukraine has more than doubled since 2001 (UNAIDS, 2010). The HIV epidemic is still concentrated among most-at-risk populations, and HIV is still mostly transmitted through injecting drug use, but the risk of a generalised epidemic continues to grow. Due to their biological and social vulnerability, women are more prone to infection. Currently, they represent 45 per cent of all adults living with HIV in Ukraine. Most of them are in childbearing age.

HIV can be transmitted from a HIV-infected mother to her baby during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding. HIV-positive pregnant women need to receive a preventive course of antiretroviral medicines (ART) to prevent HIV transmission to their newborns. A state programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) was established in Ukraine in 2001, and the Government currently guarantees free HIV testing and ART to all HIV-infected pregnant women in Ukraine.

The elimination of mother to child transmission (EMTCT) of HIV is a global goal that has been endorsed by national governments in partnership with UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF and a number of other national and international stakeholders. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia the strategy of elimination builds on on-going efforts to reduce the vertical transmission of HIV through the building of systems that are able to strengthen functional linkages and integration between existing maternal and child health systems and the HIV treatment, care and support systems in the region. Ukraine recently confirmed its commitments to scale up Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV programme (PMTCT) towards elimination of mother-to-child transmission by 2015, approving a new National AIDS Programme for 2014 -2018.

A national level of HIV transmission from mother-to-child (MTCT rate) reduced in 2011 to 4,5 % comparing to 27,8% in 2001 . Despite progress, in order to achieve further advances towards the elimination of MTCT (defined as less than 2% at 6 weeks of age among children born to HIV-positive mothers by 2015), it will be essential for Ukraine to reduce the number of new infections among women of child-bearing age, sustain and improve quality of PMTCT services provided as well as focus on increasing access and uptake of services by those segments of the population that are currently not accessing PMTCT services or accessing them too late. In 2011, more than 5,000 pregnancies were registered among HIV-positive women in Ukraine. The absolute number of children infected with HIV through mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) continues to increase as there is a 20-30 per cent yearly increase in HIV-infected pregnant women.

The country has the highest coverage of PMTCT services in the CIS region, including a very high proportion of HIV-positive pregnant women receiving ARV prophylaxis (95. 5 % in 2011). However, coverage of those segments of the population who are most vulnerable to HIV-infection (including IDUs, FSWs) with PMTCT services is still low. Official epidemiological data indicate that MTCT rate in vulnerable pregnant women who inject drugs (IDUs) is 13,1% , and this leads to the “elevation” of the national MTCT rate. Drug-dependent women remain most at risk to transmit HIV to their newborns. Drug-using pregnant women often receive prenatal care only towards the end of their pregnancy or attend a clinic for the first time for the delivery, missing out on the possibility of taking the preventative course of ART. Official data of MTCT rate in vulnerable pregnant women who inject drugs (IDUs) is 13,1%. However, the estimates suggest the real rate of MTCT among IDU women is closer to 23 %.

In 2011, injecting drug use was identified as the risk factor of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in 19.1% of HIV-positive reproductive-aged women, and 3.5% of pregnant HIV+ women reported active drug use during latest pregnancy (probably an underestimate due to the stigma of admitting drug use, especially in pregnancy) . Only 29 of 395 (7.3%) of pregnant HIV+ pregnant women who used drugs got substitution maintenance therapy and most opioid dependent pregnant women continued using drugs during pregnancy. Pregnant women who inject drugs have worse outcomes than other women: more advanced disease (14% vs. 6%), less access, more adverse outcomes (preterm delivery 16% vs. 7%), and a higher mother-to-child transmission rate . They are also 3.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV in labour than other women. Relatively few HIV+ pregnant women who injected drugs received ARV prophylaxis, which can prevent HIV transmission to newborn (65% compared with 94.5% overall) .

Pregnant women injecting drugs (IDU), who could be also infected with HIV, form a subgroup of female injecting drug users with specific needs. However, women find it difficult to access appropriate psychosocial, social and medical support when identified as “HIV positive” and as “drug users” because of stigma and discrimination.
Fragmented design of healthcare system where HIV positive drug using women are receiving addiction, HIV and MCH services in different places reduce their access to services. Healthcare workers at MCH services are lacking knowledge and skills to provide care for pregnant women using substances and rely on referral expertise of addiction and HIV specialists. Addiction specialists have very limited knowledge about pregnancy, reproductive health and family planning and rely on MCH specialists.

Drug-dependent women not seek services due to a fear of hostility from practitioners or of having their children taken away from them after delivery. The social factors, such as household responsibilities, lack of family support, lack of social networks, lack of financial resources, lack of privacy and confidentiality, and fear of being stigmatized create the barriers to accessing services. Behavioral patterns, particularly low level of adherence to the healthy life style in the target group also lead to avoidance of contacts with the state services.

The biggest problems faced by women and families affected by HIV are partially attributed to a lack of a coordinated system of social services. Services do not exist to address or even effectively identify vulnerabilities at early stages. Social services are not sufficiently inclusive or sufficiently flexible to be able to adapt to the various profiles of children or their families within their communities, and thus avoid unnecessary separation. Service provision has largely been put in place without coordinating with other social support such as social benefits, and thus opportunities for synergy are limited. Local government does not have sufficient autonomy to manage the development of services and lacks financial resources.
Harm reduction NGOs are not institutionally involved in service provision for pregnant women using drugs, being mostly donors’ funded organizations; they have limited knowledge about specific needs of women using drugs, including prevention of unintended pregnancies, provision of basic services to pregnant women and their referral to ANC .

The Project to be evaluated

To remove inequity in care, treatment and support for drug-addicted pregnant women, overcoming barriers to the provision and utilization of services by them, UNICEF initiated a pilot project ‘Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission and Improving Neonatal Outcomes among Drug-Dependent Pregnant Women and Children Born to Them in Three Cities in Ukraine’.
The pilot project was developed as a model of PMTCT service provision for drug dependent pregnant women expected to result in better coverage, quality and uptake of services for pregnant drug-dependent women. This would, in turn, lead to improved health outcomes for their own health and for the health of their babies.

The main objective of the project is:

• To establish, maintain, and improve gender responsive, comprehensive, and integrated services that address the needs of drug-dependent pregnant women and children born to them.

The lessons learned from the model are expected to inform the system changes required and the process of scale-up of such services to other areas of Ukraine. When expanded to the national level, improved access to better quality services will result in more women benefiting from services adapted to their needs, leading to improved neo-natal outcomes for their children, including the realization of their right to be born free of HIV.

The logic model, as a part of Theory of Change is:

• Transforming the services for pregnant women using drugs from vertical and fragmented system to horizontal and integrated will create an enabling environment in which gender sensitive HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services are available for pregnant women using drugs and their children. Setting up such functional linkages between MCH, HIV services, addiction services and integration with social services will prevent MTCT among pregnant drug using women and will contribute towards elimination of MTCT in the country;
• This should increase number of drug-addicted HIV-positive mothers and their newborns that received timely social support, diagnosis of HIV, treatment and care to prevent mother-to-child transmission and, in turn, reduce number of children born with HIV;
• Provision of, access to and uptake of gender responsive, non-discriminative and integrated medical and social services targeting HIV vulnerable groups, including drug using pregnant women, is the precondition for further reduction of HIV transmission to newborns and elimination of MTCT in country;
• By decreasing the risk of HIV MTCT rate among drug using pregnant women, we decrease the MTCT rate at national level, thus contributing towards elimination of MTCT in the country.

The chart form of the logic model (Theory of Change) is presented in Annex1 ‘Theory of Change Chart’.

The Risks and assumptions (events and conditions) likely to affect implementation and outcomes:

• Allocation of proper funds for integrated services for pregnant IDUs within new the NAP for 2014 – 2018, if not sufficient, may hamper scale up of the model at national level;
• Social perception of illegality of drug use, criminalization, stigma and marginalization and lack of recognition of medical and social support to IDUs as a legal and inalienable component of support are likely to lead to stigma and affect access and utilization of services;
• Low level of adherence to the healthy life style in the target group may lead to avoidance of contacts with the state services;
• The system of social protection of families and vulnerable to HIV group, if not effective, may compromise the model of integrated services and decrease a trust of the target group to the state institutions. Strong governmental commitment to eliminate MTCT should be maintained and strengthened to ensure coordination between medical and social sectors;
• Insufficient joint efforts of a broad range of state, non-governmental and civil society partners reduce access of the target group to outreach services;
• Lack of partnership between the state institutions and nongovernmental organizations, in which individual case management of vulnerable to HIV drug using pregnant women and children born to them is seen as the operating principle of integrated services provision;
• Enhanced policy environment with provision of new regulatory (operational guidelines, protocols) and budgetary provisions would provide better support to vulnerable groups of pregnant women and their children;
• Professional trainings, experience exchanges and involvement of social services and civil society will change the attitude of health and social care workers towards pregnant drug using women, and will facilitate their early access to ANC and will improve maternal and child health outcomes, including prevention of HIV mother-to-child transmission;
• Pilot projects in selected cities, if proven successful through the evaluation and with evidence, will contribute towards the national scale up to ensure access of the most vulnerable pregnant women to PMTCT and elimination of MTCT in the country.

Pilot Project Interventions:

The project focuses on introducing integrated services for drug addicted pregnant women by establishing Centers for Integrated HIV Prevention, Care and Support Services. Centers provide a range of medical and psychosocial services to drug addicted women and their children: offering antenatal care, HIV testing and counselling, ARV treatment to prevent HIV transmission from mother-to-child, assisting in delivery, postnatal care, and treatment of neonatal withdrawal syndrome, drug dependency treatment, psychosocial counselling and social support to families.

Key Stakeholders:

Addressing the health and social needs of drug-using women and their infants is a challenge, as it requires strong coordination and functioning referrals between various stakeholders and service providers. The project was built on established close partnership between public and civil society organizations. Different organizations and non-state actors were involved into project design and implementation:

• UNICEF;
• UN Joint Team on HIV and UN Team Group on HIV, including WHO, UNODC and UNAIDS within the UN Joint Programme of Support on HIV/AIDS to the Government of Ukraine for 2012-2016);
• Charitable Fund/ William J. Clinton Foundation in Ukraine (WJC Foundation);
• Open Society Institute (OSI);
• Eurasian Harm Reduction Network;
• Coalition of HIV-services organizations;
• Ministry of Health of Ukraine;
• Oblast State Social Services for Family, Children and Youth;
• All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS;
• HIV-services organisations;
• Steering Committee.

Duty bearers:

• Ministry of Health, State Department on HIV/AIDS and other socially dangerous diseases, Oblast State Social Services for Family, Children and Youth, Kyiv city, Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava oblast and city health administrations, All-Ukrainian Network of PLWHA, HIV-services organisations in the pilot cities that represent the interests of the drug-addicted women and provided outreach within the project.

Rights holders:

• Women, adolescents, youth, babies.

Time period and geographical scope:

Started in June 2011 the pilot was launched in three cities of Ukraine – Kiev City, Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava. In 2014 the project was expanded to one more city Krivui Rig, Dnipropetrovsk oblast.

The phases of the project:

• The initial phase June - December 2011aimed at assessment of situation and design of the project followed by establishment of partnership with stakeholders.
• The 1st phase of the project 2012 – 2013 service provision and building capacity of service providers.
• The 2nd phase of the project mid 2013 – 2014 continuation of the project and advocacy for inclusion of the model in the new five year National AIDS strategy for 2014 – 2018;

Rationale

Evaluation is undertaken when the pilot model is expanded in 2014 to four project sites and already demonstrates results that should be documented. It is especially important at the time when the government is increasingly interested in ensuring the provision of services to marginalized pregnant women and reaching the goals of EMTCT. There is a need to document and assess the results of the piloted model along with evidence of the project outcomes. Lack of information affects the government’s ability to design appropriate preventive and protective measures for vulnerable drug-addicted pregnant women both on a normative level (including standards, guidelines, and protocols) and on a service delivery level (including preventive programmes, reintegration programmes).

It is expected that the evaluation results will give an answers to the questions what could be done to reduce inequity in access to the PMTCT and of how to strengthen social services to identify women’s vulnerabilities at an early stage as an entry point to the system of integrated treatment and care for them and their children.

The findings of the evaluation should contribute to the design and development of PMTCT interventions that would ensure access to quality medical services and social support for women who are most vulnerable to HIV infection, including drug-dependent pregnant women.It is expected that the evaluation results will help the results primary users, such as national and regional health and social state authorities, as duty bearers, to inform the way forward in the national scale up of the pilot of integrated medical and social services for drug addicted pregnant. It will help to identify how this can be done and what type of actions is needed to achieve the goal of the pilot and how the model can be replicated on a national scale. It is also expected to be used for further national PMTCT policy development and adjustment.

HIV-services NGOs, as representatives of vulnerable groups of pregnant IDUs, will use the results of evaluation as advocacy instrument for inclusion of integrated service model in national policy, while participating in its development.

Findings will be used by UNICEF to advocate for the enhancement of the integrated services approach in view of national scale up and implementation through 2018. All stakeholders are expected to use the findings, conclusions and recommendations to further develop policy and framework to achieve positive impact for children and women, in particular those most vulnerable to HIV.

Devoirs et responsabilités

Objective

The objectives of the formative evaluation are as follows:

• To analyze whether outputs and activities within the project are leading to expected outcomes and goal of the project;
• To assess and analyze the bottlenecks and barriers, including policies, practices and other structural barriers in medical and social areas for the Project pilot implementation;
• To document lessons learned and good practices of the pilot project activities, along with evidence of outcomes;
• To demonstrate, based on evidence, whether or not a nation-wide scale up of the pilot approach and practice is possible and whether a scale up will effectively lead to closing of equity gaps in the area of work; and
• To develop strategic, policy and implementation recommendations of how the on-going pilot, if achieved its key outcomes, will be efficient and sustainable in future, thus informing policy development and framework of the national scale-up of the pilot.

The purpose of evaluation is to produce relevant information on the design and effectiveness of the pilot project and identify lessons learned and provide strategic policy and implementation recommendations. These recommendations would provide guidance on how to strengthen the on-going pilot, how to ensure that expected outcomes are achieved and how to ensure that relevant policies and support is provided to ensure that adequate models of service provision for drug-dependent women are adopted and sustained in the future.

Scope and Questions:

The evaluation will cover all period of the pilot project implementation from June 2011 when the project was launched in three cities of Ukraine – Kiev City, Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava until 2014 when the project was expanded to one more city of Krivui Rig, Dnipropetrovsk oblast. The scope of evaluation will focus on the progress in achieving expected results based on project outputs and outcomes. The evaluation questions (not exclusive to the list below) are grouped according to the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) evaluation criteria as defined in the UNICEF guidance on equity-focused evaluations, 2011:

Relevance:

• Was the project design relevant within the Ukrainian context: was this intervention in line with national AIDS priorities, strategies and goals?
• To what degree has the project objectives been relevant to the priorities and needs of women and children, particularly the most vulnerable groups of children in Ukraine?

Effectiveness:

• To what extent has the underlying theory of change been valid at this point? To what extent are the expected results chain occurring as planned?
• To what extent has the design of the pilot model and its evolution, including type of intervention, the choice of beneficiaries, funding, and stakeholder/beneficiary involvement enabled to achieve the project’s defined objectives?
• To what degree has the project contributed to removing bottlenecks hampering the improvement of MTCT rate in Ukraine?
• To what extent has the resources, including human resources and funding been used effectively and contributed to or hindered the achievement of results?
• Did the project result in better coverage, quality and uptake of services for pregnant drug dependent women in selected sites?
• To what extent has medical and social services been integrated within the project and how has it made an effect on the project results?
• To what extent has capacity building activities for service providers resulted in service quality improvement and increase of PMTCT coverage?

Efficiency:

• How cost effective are the project activities compared to similar activities in Ukraine?
• Has the initiative used resources (funds, expertise, time) in the most economical manner to achieve the results?

Impact:

Primary beneficiaries:

• To what extent have the primary beneficiaries experienced increased access to various integrated services, or increased ability to demand/seek support?
• To what extent have the primary beneficiaries satisfied with the quality of services available for them up until now?
• To what extent have the primary beneficiaries perceive that their unique needs and sensitivities are reflected in the established services?
• To what extent have the primary beneficiaries been able to take up (use) on the available services?
• To what extent has the equity gap closed (or likely to close) in the access to services of vulnerable groups of drug using pregnant women?
• To what extent has the gender, human and child rights and capacity-building issues, including cross sectoral cooperation between medical and social sectors, taken into account in the pilot model and to what extent have they have contributed to achieving of the results?

Local and national authorities:

• How has the project influenced or affected local and national authorities and the wider community to provide integrated health/social services targeting vulnerable groups of women?
• To what extent has the project changed behaviours and attitudes of local and national authorities towards the rights of vulnerable groups of women including drug using pregnant women (or likely to change)?

Sustainability:

• To what extent have partnership and stakeholders’ involvement at different stages of the project been decisive for the project in attaining its expected results up until now?

These questions are intended to give a more specific and accessible form to the evaluation criteria and articulate the key issues of concern to stakeholders, thus optimising the focus and utility of the evaluation.

Limitations to the evaluation – Evaluator will have access to all sources of information, available at the time of evaluation, including state statistics, research and study data and data related to the project budget and implementation. The project clients in all sites, as representatives of vulnerable groups, will be involved during the in-country phase of the evaluation to the possible extent for interview and meetings as well as national and local stakeholders. The availability of key informants (i.e. those directly involved in the project) for interview and clients for focus group discussions during the in-country phase of the evaluation could be limited due to the summer holidays season.

Other limitations for evaluation related to the methodology, source of information and baseline will be identified and documented by the evaluator during the preparation phase of the evaluation while developing desk review and methodology.

Data quality, reliability, and validity – All data provided for evaluator for desk – review and further analysis, are from the official sources and validated by the authorities, thus reliable. This includes state statistics and the Ministry of Health Information bulletins. Ukraine’s state authorities, including Ministry of Health, State Statistics Service of Ukraine, and Ministry of Social Policy all have a wealth of statistics and data relating to the project both within the pilot sites as well as nation-wide, which would be useful for the evaluator.

Approach

While designing the evaluation methodology, and implementing the evaluation, the following approaches should be applied:

•  Keep evaluation procedures (e.g. interviews) brief and convenient to minimize disruptions in respondents work process;
• Ensure that potential participants can make an informed decision about the process and duration of face to face interview;
• Follow the principle of confidentiality;
• Accurately and impartiality in data collection and analysis of information and reported findings.

Elements of a successful modelling

The pilot model should be assessed and analysed according to the 6 elements of modelling , specified as following:

• An equity-based hypothesis (H) to describe the pathways from model to the national system of care and treatment for vulnerable to HIV groups of pregnant women, in particular drug-addicted;
• Expected equity-based Overall Results formulated as Child Rights Realisation and which meet international HR standards, technical protocols and guidance;
• Baseline as a basis for (H) above, including equity-increasing impact indicators;
• Set Sustainability/Exit Strategy and Termination date agreed with partners;
• Monitoring mechanisms, including for process indicators; and
• Strategies and budget to disseminate results of evaluation (communication, advocacy).

The evaluation should follow the UNEG Norms and standards (see Hyperlink available in English and Russian). http://www.uneval.org/normsandstandards/index.jsp?doc_cat_source_id=4.

Methodology

The evaluation methodology should be comprised of a mixed-method evaluation design, which includes of site visits and observations, face-to-face interviews of key informants, including with drug-dependent women, service providers and stakeholders. Qualitative and quantitative components are conducted in parallel.

The evaluation combines collection and analysis of quantitative data, from both surveys and secondary data, with more in depth quality methods. The principal data collection methods are a sample of focus groups selected in the pilot sites, combined with structured interviews and direct observation of services provided at health/community facilities. The primary data will be complemented by an analysis of the extensive secondary data available from national record and other sources. Secondary data will be used as an independent source to triangulate with primary survey data in order to test for consistency.

Data collected during the on-site stage of the evaluation (interviews, meetings etc.) will be complemented by a desk-based research and review of existing reports, documents and secondary data that has been collected during the planning and implementation of the project:

• A number of studies and researches conducted in 2010- 2011. They focused on drug-addicted women and provided situation analysis regarding their access to services, social and demographic characteristics and determinants of mother-to child transmission, the level of coverage by medical and social interventions, identified the estimated number of drug- addicted women of reproductive age and pregnant HIV-positive women inter alia. All obtained data formed a baseline and used for setting up the targets within the pilot project.

Internal and external monitoring and evaluation data of the project:

• Report of external mid-term evaluation of the pilot project conducted by international expert in 2012;
• Monitoring visits data, project observation, documenting the results and databases of clients and services, including detailed budget and records of expenditure of the project.
• State statistics (Ministry of Health Informational Bulletins, state PMTCT M&E forms).

(see Annex 2 ‘Key documentation for the evaluation’).

Evaluation approach and data collection to be human /child rights based and gender sensitive.
Evaluation methods should include analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data, including baseline indicators and established targets (Annex 3 ‘Indicators’).

Work Plan

Evaluation phases include key stages with the following timeline:

Preparation phase

• Initial desk review , development of methodology and Instrument/tools for the pilot evaluation – (4 days);
• The validation of methodology and instruments to be done by UNICEF CO and the Steering Group established within evaluation (representing UNICEF CO, partners and other stakeholders) - (3days);
• Desk review of research, studies available and documentation from other sources which evaluator finds relevant and useful - (3 days).

Field phase

• In country data collection, including visits to four project sites – (10 days);
• Preliminary analysis - (1 days);
• Presentation of preliminary finding and analysis to Steering Group meeting in the country – (1 day).

Synthesis phase

• Final analysis of finding - (4 days);
• Draft of the pilot evaluation report for review and comments by the stakeholders and UNICEF – (4 days);
• Revision of the draft of evaluation by stakeholders and UNICEF – (3 days).

Feedback and Dissemination

• Finalization of evaluation report – 3 days;
• Presentation of report to Steering Group and dissemination of report among stakeholders – (to be done by UNICEF CO as part of communication and advocacy strategy) by 20 July 2014.

All deliverables to be submitted to UNICEF in electronic form for feedback and evaluation. The evaluator should be available for follow-up clarification and revisions of the report until its finalization.

Structure of Evaluation report

The evaluation report to be produced must be compliant with the UNICEF Evaluation report standards: http://intranet.unicef.org/epp/evalsite.nsf/0/2BDF97BB3F789849852577E500680BF6/$FILE/UNEG_UNICEF%20Eval%20Report%20Standards.pdf and the GEROS Quality Assessment System
The final pilot report produced and presented to UNICEF should be presented in the following format:

Executive Summary

• Detail information on the purpose of the evaluation, approaches and the process of evaluation.
• Evaluation methodology and limitations;
• Overall overview of state policies and issues in PMTC, social protection and child care sphere.

An overview of the government’s current policy and priorities in the sphere of PMTCT, social protection and child care, including a review of key strategic documents. An overview of the key problems identified at national and local levels and the link with local practices.

• Key findings;
• Conclusions and Recommendations (plan of follow up actions).

Conclusions:
 
Based on evidence, whether or not a nation-wide scale up of the pilot approach and practice is possible and whether a scale up will effectively lead to closing of equity gaps in the area of work. Recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of integrated medical and social services for drug addicted pregnant women vulnerable to HIV and their children within the country. Develop strategic, policy and implementation recommendations of how to ensure the model’s efficiency and sustainability in future and inform policy development and framework of the national scale-up of the pilot.

Compétences

• Ability to manage multiple, complex tasks being undertaken concurrently;
• Ability to conduct key informant interviews and focus group discussions;
• Ability to analyze, interpret and synthesize information from a number of sources;
• Ability to work in a team;
• Strong communication skills.

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education:

• At least a university degree in a relevant discipline.

Experience:

• Minimum 8 years’ experience of consulting at National level with government departments, development partners etc;
• Solid and demonstrated knowledge and understanding of PMTCT and social protection thematic area;
• Clear understanding of child/human rights and gender equality issues and how they should be applied in the respective area of evaluation;
• Proven experience and skills in conducting qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis;
• Experience with the execution of assessments, reviews or evaluations;
• Experience in writing analytical reports.

Language:

• Fluent in spoken and written English.
  

Ethical Issues:

All interviewees, including children, should be provided the “UNICEF Principle Guidelines for the Ethical Reporting on Children and Young People under 18 years old” and should be informed about the objectives of the analysis and how findings will be used; they also should be informed that collected data and any statement about the programme will be kept confidential and respondents will not be named or identified in the reports with regard to their statements.

All interviewees should agree without coercion to take part in the analysis and be given the option to withdraw or not to participate at any time during the process. All gathered data should be confidential and names of individuals deleted from the data and replaced by codes in the analysis notes.

Ownership of all data/information/findings gathered, databases and analysis prepared for the analysis lies with UNICEF. The use of the data/information/findings for publication or any other presentation or sharing can only be made after agreement with UNICEF.

Definition of supervision arrangements:

The HIV/AIDS Officer, UNICEF Ukraine in close coordination with the UNICEF Ukraine Monitoring and Evaluations Specialist will supervise consultant.

Description of official travel involved:

Travels are envisaged to the sites within the in-country pilot evaluation mission. The local travel will be paid separately. No travel shall be undertaken prior to completing the UN Basic and Advanced Security in the Field Courses.

UNICEF recourse in the case of unsatisfactory performance:

In the event of unsatisfactory performance, UNICEF reserves the right to terminate the Agreement. In case of partially satisfactory performance, such as serious delays causing the negative impact in meeting the programme objectives, low quality or insufficient depth and/or scope of the assessment completion, UNICEF will decrease the payment by the range from 30 to 50%.

Support provided by UNICEF:

Day-to-day support for the assignment will be provided by the HIV/AIDS Officer and will include relevant information sharing via e-mail, briefing and de-briefing sessions, and facilitation of the researcher’s meetings with UNICEF counterparts when necessary.

The deadline for submission of applications is 30 April 2014.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
Applicants that fulfil the above requirements are requested to complete the United Nations Personal History Form (P. 11) available at www.unicef.org/employ and submit it together with a CV and a cover letter describing your professional interests in working for UNICEF.

Applications should be sent to:

UNICEF Office, 1, Klovskiy Uzviz, Kyiv, Ukraine
Fax No. 380-44-230-2506
E-mail: recruitment_kiev@unicef.org, ttarasova@unicef.org

(Please indicate ‘International Consultant for the evaluation of the pilot project Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission and Improving Neonatal Outcomes among Drug-Dependent Pregnant Women and Children Born to Them in Ukraine’ in the subject of your application).

UNICEF does not charge any fees or request money from candidates at any stage of the selection process, nor does it concern itself with bank account details of applicants. Requests of this nature allegedly made on behalf of UNICEF are fraudulent and should be disregarded.