Empleos en el PNUD - 109829- National Consultant

National Consultant – Comprehensive Joint Review of the National HIV and TB Programmes; Review of HIV NSP and Writing of Funding Request

Localidad :

Station based, SOUTH SUDAN

Tipo de contrato :

Individual Contract

Fecha de comienzo del contrato :

14-Nov-2022

Fecha límite de postulación :

07-Nov-22 (Medianoche Nueva York, Estados Unidos)

Nivel de puesto :

National Consultant

Duración del contrato inicial :

120 days

Idiomas requeridos :

Árabe Inglés

Duración esperada del puesto :

From 14 November 2022 to 30 April 2023

El PNUD está comprometido con lograr la diversidad de su personal en términos de género, nacionalidad y cultura. Se alienta por igual a las personas que pertenecen a grupos minoritarios, a pueblos indígenas o que tienen alguna discapacidad a presentar su candidatura. Todas las solicitudes se tratarán con la mayor confidencialidad. UNDP no tolera la explotación y el abuso sexual, ningún tipo de acoso, incluido el acoso sexual, ni la discriminación. Por lo tanto, todos los candidatos seleccionados serán sometidos a una rigurosa verificación de referencias y antecedentes.

Antecedentes

The Republic of South Sudan (RSS) gained independence in 2011 to become the 55th country on the African continent. However significant civil, political, socio-economic and environmental challenges have substantially curtailed or reversed the health and develop gains that were anticipated since that time. As a result, over a decade later, the country struggles to move out of deeply entrenched fragility and instability leaving much of the population struggling to obtain or sustain the basic necessities of survival. While the signing of a peace agreement in 2018, and subsequent progress on governance reform, recovery and peace-building, has begun to move the country forward, a serious humanitarian crisis continues to affected more than half of the countries population of approximately 13 million. Some 8.3 million people are in immediate need of humanitarian assistance. Data on population health are neither comprehensive nor current. On many core indicators, such as maternal and child health, the country remains amongst the lowest performing nations continentally and globally.

Progress to Address HIV

HIV prevalence is modelled in South Sudan as there are no recent population level data. The adult (15-49 years) HIV prevalence is estimated to be 2.1%, 1.6% for males and 2.5% for females. The epidemic is continuing to expand with an estimated 17,000 new infections in 2021 along with 8,000 AIDS-related deaths. The country continues to make progress regarding its 95-95-95 commitments but remains at some distance from achieving these goals by 2030. By December 21, 35% of PLHIV knew their HIV status and 27% of all PLHIV were on ART (77% of PLHIV who knew their status). Viral load coverage remained low but of the 40% of PLHIV on ART that received a viral load test, 84% had achieved viral suppression. Coverage of PMTCT and paediatric HIV interventions, although increasing, is well below what is minimally required to achieve durable public health benefits to address or prevent vertical transmission of HIV. Progress for other aspects of the national, multi-sectoral HIV response was minimal, largely due to the absence of sufficient investment from either external or domestic sources in primary prevention programming and for social enablers, including reduction of HIV-related stigma and discrimination. The HIV response remains guided by the Revised National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan 2021-2023 and a National HIV and AIDS Monitoring and Evaluation Framework 2018-2023.

Funding for HIV and TB Programmes

Financing for the HIV and TB programmes is almost exclusively dependent on external sources. For HIV, in the year 2021, approximately 40% of the overall annual programme budget of US$79 million was contributed through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS (the Global Fund), Tuberculosis and Malaria and 60% was contributed by the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. However, specifically for HIV-related commodities, 98% of funds was contributed by the Global Fund. The TB programme remains almost exclusively dependent on the Global Fund receiving approximately US$5 million in the 2021 programme year. The Ministry of Health contributes minimally to the national HIV and TB responses through the periodic payment of health worker salaries and the provision of some infrastructure for the delivery of HIV and TB services in communities.

Requirement to Conduct Programme Reviews and Update Strategic Plans

As a component of eligibility for Global Fund grants, South Sudan is required to conduct regular reviews of its HIV and TB programmes and to main up-to-date and costed national strategic plans for these health challenges. South Sudan is anticipating submitting new requests to the Global Fund in the first quarter of 2022 for support for its HIV and TB programmes.

The country's HIV and TB programmes were last reviewed in 2019 in preparation for the 2021-2023 funding cycle. The revised National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan 2021-2023, adopted in 2020, has not be reviewed, nor has the National TB Strategic Plan 2020-2024, also adopted in 2020. It is timely to commence such work to ensure that all reviews and revisions are completed in time for the next funding cycle.

Coordinated Approach

To undertake the review, the MOH and its partners have proposed a coordinated approach, particularly given the close linkages between the HIV and TB programmes in the country context. The approach will involve the engagement of one international public health expert to design and lead the reviews. Additional national (HIV and TB) and international (TB only) consultants will be engaged to support the reviews. The MOH will provide leadership and oversight through the review process. The reviews will be supported by UNDP as the Principal Recipient for the HIV and TB grants in South Sudan. UNDP will also draw on its global technical resources and partnerships to ensure high quality outcomes for the HIV and TB programmes in South Sudan

Deberes y responsabilidades

Purpose of the Assignment

Assignment 1: TB/HIV Programme Reviews

The overall purpose of the first assignment is to provide high quality technical inputs for the comprehensive joint review of the HIV and TB programmes as guided by the Team Leader for the Comprehensive Joint Review, and the TB Programme Review and NSP Consultant. The national consultant will provide a range of contribution to the review process in collaboration with UNDP, the other consultants, MOH focal points, partners and other stakeholders.

The specific objectives of the assignment will include the following:

To contribute focused expertise to specific components of the review process, as guided by the Team Leader.
To undertake data collection and analysis, and facilitate consultation amongst key stakeholders linked to the assigned components.
To participate in site visits and other review activities (such as workshops), as guided by the Team Leader, linked to the assigned components of the review.
To generate text and other inputs for the findings report, as guided by the Team Leader.

Assignment 2: Review and Completion of the South Sudan National HIV and AIDS National Strategic Plan (NSP) for 2023 to 2026

Rationale for the NSP Review and Completion

The utilization of the draft NSP as a response guiding document has been limited. This has largely been due to the fact that the NSP performance framework lacks adequate hard evidence in form of values for baselines, annual, midterm and end of term targets which limits effective programming, interventions coverage planning, resource mobilization, process evaluation as well as results measurement. The review and completion shall therefore not fundamentally change the interventions and strategic prioritization of the NSP but will instead add value to their focus and potential to response acceleration. It is due to these limitations that South Sudan wishes to review the draft NSP to address these inadequacies to have a more effective and enabling programming and response guiding framework.

Objectives of the NSP Review and Completion

To review the draft NSP by way of updating the body of evidence to inform/ enhance the epidemiological analysis and performance framework
To review the NSP to have it more user-friendly in regard to volume, content and content outlay or presentation

To review and strengthen the performance framework by updating the indicators, provision of evidence-based data on baselines and targets to the achievable standards, and to re-costing the reviewed NSP

Assignment 3: Write up of the funding request for the New Funding Model 4 (NFM4)

Rationale for write up of funding request

South Sudan is applying for the Global Fund NFM4 HIV/TB/RSSH funding the implementation of which runs from 2024 to 2026. The write up of the funding request requires coordination and leadership of consultations with key stakeholders, and the provision of high quality technical inputs for the write up of the funding request on time. The national consultant will be supporting the Team Leader and the country’s technical working group in the gap analysis, write up of the rationale for the funding request, selection of interventions and activities for implementation and implementation arrangements that will be put in place in the country. This will be carried out in collaboration with UNDP, current NFM3 Sub-recipients, MOH focal points, partners and other key stakeholders.

The specific objectives of the assignment will include the following:

To provide programmatic gap analysis of the HIV programme through focused expertise
To facilitate consultation amongst key stakeholders linked to the NFM4 write up
To lead the write up of specific components of the Funding Request of NFM4 as assigned by the lead consultant
To provide inputs to the budgeting team on assumptions for proposed activities in collaboration with UNDP, sub-recipients and other stakeholders.

Competencias

Corporate Competencies

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP.
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional

Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products.

Project and Resource Management

Ability to produce high quality outputs in a timely manner while understanding and anticipating the evolving client needs.
Ability to focus on impact and results for the client, promoting and demonstrating an ethic of client service.
Strong organizational skills.
Ability to work independently, produce high quality outputs.
Sound judgment, strategic thinking and the ability to manage competing priorities.

Partnership building and teamwork

Demonstrated well developed people management skills.
Strong ability to manage teams; creating an enabling environment, mentoring and developing staff.
Excellent negotiating and networking skills.
Demonstrated flexibility to excel in a multi-cultural environment.
Provides constructive coaching and feedback.

Communications and Advocacy

Strong ability to write clearly and convincingly, adapting style and content to different audiences and speak clearly and convincingly.
Strong presentation skills in meetings with the ability to adapt for different audiences.
Strong analytical, research and writing skills with demonstrated ability to think strategically.
Strong capacity to communicate clearly and quickly.
Strong inter-personal, negotiation and liaison skills.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

A university degree in Medicine or Public Health, Epidemiology, Statistics, Health Economics, or Social Sciences.

Experience:

Previous experience in managing health program/project especially in the areas of HIV or similar public health programmes;
Solid understanding of the situation of HIV in South Sudan the progress of the national responses to address the HIV epidemic;
Solid understanding and experience within the health sector in South Sudan;
Ability to manage and work in a team setting;
Excellent communication and presentation skills;
Presentation and report-writing skills in English.