Job Opportunity: Health Specialist (Health Information Systems) – United Nations Children’s Fund

Staff Writer October 28, 2016

3 minutes read

About Us:
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is mandated by the UN general assembly to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.

Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.

Job Summary:
The Health Specialist (Health Information Systems) will coordinate and manage day-to-day support to strengthening of UNICEF sponsored Health Information System program activities. This includes institutionalizing health information system support at Ministry of Health(MoH) through strengthening government structures, ownership and management by the MoH; engaging potential partners and providing feedback to supervisors on uptake and usage of health information systems; supporting development of health information systems using user-centered design approaches; supporting integration of UNICEF C4D strategies into MoH health information systems; supporting deployment and providing regular follow-up of MoH health information systems; working with and building capacity of UNICEF ZO’s and District Local Government (DLG) to develop and implement training and supervision plans; conducting routine programme analysis and evaluation, and providing regular updates to UNICEF and MoH staff; documenting all aspects of the programme; and ensuring that Health Information Systems including CHMS / FamilyConnect and eHMIS are aligned and contributing to broader UNICEF outcomes in the 2016-2020 CPD, including decentralized monitoring and planning.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Guide and facilitate national scale-up of UNICEF supported health information systems within the MoH through its technical programs as well as within UNICEF CSD section. These systems include eHMIS (mTrac, DHIS2), U-Report, the Community Health Management System and FamilyConnect, with support required including guiding National and DLG micro-planning, developing training curriculum and materials, advising on M&E frameworks, and implementing end-user monitoring, testing and feedback strategies. This will be guided by the National eHealth policy, UNICEF CPAP, and RWPs.
Offer support in technical alignment and integration of relevant health information systems, including the RMNACH scorecards in DHIS2, development of programme specific dashboards within DHIS2, and alignment of other MoH platforms – including Health Workforce Registries (iHRIS) and Logistics & Information Management (LMIS) systems – into DHIS2 management tools including the Bottleneck Analysis (BNA) module.
Strengthen usage of data by MoH and DLG, including addressing issues of availability and quality of data. This will entail working with the MoH, UNICEF ZO’s and DLG to develop and implement targeted interventions (including data quality assessments) and strengthen existing supervision structures based on national policies and guidelines including the HSSIP 2016 – 2021.
The incumbent will strengthen government institutionalization of relevant health information systems, including developing evidence-based investment cases, costing models and financing strategies. This should include usage of WHO approved toolkits, including the mHealth Assessment and Planning for Scale (MAPS), Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) and The Lives Saved Tool (LiST).
Engage existing and potential partners to support technical alignment of Government and partner initiatives using internationally recognized standards (such as OpenHIE), with an aim to integrate and accelerate national scale up of UNICEF supported health information systems.
Actively contribute to donor, mid-year, annual reports, as well as regular documentation including articles, blogs and photos.[related-posts]

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The applicant for the United Nations UNICEF Health Specialist (Health Information Systems) job placement should an advanced university degree in one of the following fields: Information Technology, Information Systems, Application Architecture Design or a field relevant to Health Systems Strengthening, Health Informatics and / or Digital Health.
A minimum of five years of relevant professional work experience in programme development, scale-up and implementation of digital health systems within the Ugandan health context, including with national, regional and district government sub sectors. Professional work experience in applying health information systems to RMNCAH and community health programmes as well as supporting key health information systems currently deployed in Uganda, including but not limited to DHIS2, mTrac, and / or iHRIS is an added advantage.

Personal Competencies:

Core Values: Commitment, Diversity and Inclusion, Integrity.
Core Competencies: Communication, Drive for Results, Working with People.
Functional Competencies: Leading and Supervising, Formulating Strategies and Concepts, Analyzing, Relating and Networking, Deciding and Initiating Action, Applying Technical Expertise.

NB: UNICEF is committed to gender equality in its mandate and its staff; qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. UNICEF is a smoke free environment.

All suitably qualified and interested candidates who wish to join the United Nations UNICEF in the aforementioned capacity are encouraged to follow the link……Click Here

Deadline for submission is 3rd November, 2016