Consultancy: TAHub02 Call for Individual Technical Experts: SRHR Financing Specialists

Application requirement:

To be registered for future assignments kindly submit your CV and cover letter, as well as three relevant examples of your previous work.

Background of consultancy The 2gether 4 SRHR is a joint United Nations Regional Programme that brings together the combined efforts of UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, and WHO to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of all people in Eastern and Southern Africa.

One of the objectives of the programme is to provide timely and quality assured technical assistance (TA) to continental and regional economic communities, parliamentary fora, participating United Nations agencies, and countries.

To achieve this, the Programme developed a regional SRHR Technical Assistance Hub, which is a roster of pre determined quality assured technical experts, professional organizations, institutions, and partners working on SRHR in the region.

This call is for technical experts to apply for consideration to be added to the Technical Assistance Hub. Applicants will be assessed based on each call, relevant qualifications, previous experience and examples of previous work. Once included in the roster you will have preferential access to consulting opportunities to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all people in East and Southern Africa.

Selected candidates will be contracted by one of the four participating UN agencies of 2gether 4 SRHR (UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO) or other partners using their internal policies and procedures. Inclusion in the TA Hub does not constitute a contractual obligation by any participating party.

How you can make a difference UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA's strategic plan (), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to "build forward better", while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic on women's and girls' access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realise our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.

Purpose of consultancy This call seeks to identify technical experts to support the following areas of work:

• Provide technical assistance in the development of sustainable health financing policies and programs.
• Inform cross regional analysis of social sector financing and accountability mechanisms.
• Broker strategic partnerships to mobilise sustainable financing for SRHR.

The technical experts will provide evidence to drive advocacy towards increased investments in SRHR, scale up coverage for women and young people and keep SRHR at the forefront of health priorities, by directly supporting the following tasks:

1. Thought Leadership on SRHR Financing
2. Capacity Development and Support to Countries
3. Knowledge Management on Sustainable Financing
4. Strategic Partnerships

Scope of work: (Description of services, activities, or outputs) Selected technical experts will be invited to register for the TA Hub to provide technical assistance to regional institutions and countries in one or more of the following areas:

1. Thought Leadership on SRHR Financing

• Conduct comprehensive analyses, studies and assessments of relevant financing landscapes, policies, strategies, and plans that impact SRHR outcomes, including those related to health, education, youth, gender and social protection.
• Guide co creation of financing strategies and proven pathways for increasing domestic investments for SRHR, in collaboration with key internal and external entities.
• Contribute to global, continental, regional and national financing frameworks and strategies for integrating SRHR into Universal Health Coverage (UHC) benefit packages, financing and financial risk protection arrangements, national macroeconomic frameworks and development plans, and costed national strategic plans for relevant sectors including health, education, youth and gender.
• Contribute to policy advocacy efforts with the African Union, Regional Economic Communities and national Ministries of Health and Finance to advocate for increased domestic investments in SRHR.

2. Capacity Development and Support to Countries

• Lead and contribute to tailored capacity development of UN staff, regional and country colleagues, national governments and key stakeholders to actively participate in continental, regional, and country efforts for enhancing sustainable financing for SRHR.
• Strengthen governments' capacities to undertake core health financing assessment, including but not limited to resource mapping (including analysis of SRHR spending through national health accounts, covering government and out of pocket expenditures), fiscal space analysis and assessing the impact of health financing policies on SRHR outcomes.
• Support countries in conducting health budget and expenditure tracking analysis and cost and efficiency assessments.

3. Knowledge Management on sustainable financing

• Develop and contribute to documentation, reports, policy briefs and technical documents related to sustainable financing of SRHR.
• Curate and broker the generation and exchange of knowledge through South South collaboration and cooperation.
• Facilitate the dissemination of promising and best practices on securing sustainable financing for SRHR through high impact strategies and mechanisms across countries in the region.
• Regularly monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of financing policies, strategies, instruments and mechanisms with impact on SRHR outcomes. This will also include continuous tracking and monitoring to guide improvement and adaptation to emerging needs and challenges.

4. Strategic Partnerships

• Work collaboratively with traditional and non traditional partners within the financing landscape and policy space to influence and shape the political economy in favour of sustainable financing.
• Collaborate with Health Financing experts, Health Economists, Technical Leads and Specialists across UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNICEF, WHO, UNDP and the wider UN system to ensure a coordinated effort in strengthening and sustaining financing mechanisms for improved SRHR outcomes.
• Contribute to leveraging multilateral partnerships, including Multilateral Development Banks, International Financing Institutions, Global Fund, Global Financing Facility on Women, Girls & Adolescent Health, SDG Financing and bilateral partnerships for increased investments for SRHR including HIV and GBV.
• Engage with the African Union and its organs, other continental institutions, regional economic communities, parliamentarians, civil society, professional associations, academia and social and economic research institutions to strengthen the enabling environment for scaled sustainable financing for SRHR.
• Promote greater coordination and alignment of actions for SRHR financing.

5. Undertake any other tasks related to SRHR financing as assigned by and agreed upon with the supervisor.

Duration and working schedule Assignments will be determined based on specific technical assignments identified by the participating UN agencies, countries and other regional partners. Those specific assignments will include information on duration and working schedule.

Place where services are to be delivered Details will be determined based on the specific technical assignments identified by the participating UN agencies, countries and other regional partners.

Delivery dates and how work will be delivered (e.g. electronic, hard copy etc.) Details will be determined based on the specific technical assignments identified by the participating UN agencies, countries and other regional partners.

Monitoring and progress control, including reporting requirements, periodicity format and deadline The consultant will be required to provide regular updates via email to monitor adherence to tight schedules. Regular check in meetings.

Supervisory arrangements Technical experts will be contracted by the relevant UN agency and/or partner using their identified procurement processes.

Expected travel Travel will be based on the nature of the assignment that the technical expert may be contracted for.

Required expertise, qualifications and competencies, including language requirements Education

• An advanced university degree with a specialization in health economics, development financing, business administration, public health or a related field is preferred.

Knowledge and Experience

• Minimum 7 years of relevant professional experience, including at global, continental . click apply for full job details