Description
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, costed before they are procured and built on shared foundations that later investments can reuse.
The programme works along two lines. In eight countries, country offices are supporting governments to prepare investment-ready digital health blueprints (costed, government-endorsed roadmaps carrying the functional and interoperability requirements that finance ministries and lenders need), timed to the financing windows and preparation cycles of the World Bank, regional development banks and Gavi. In three further countries, the programme funds health information exchange enabling layers, such as registries, terminology services and interoperability components, without which point-of-care applications end up joined through workarounds and duplicated databases at high and recurring cost. The model has precedent: technical groundwork of this kind in the Pacific preceded a USD 245 million World Bank lending commitment with USD 30 million of UNICEF-managed implementation, and costed roadmap engagements with ten countries under Gavi's health systems and immunization strengthening support were followed by more than USD 50 million in health system financing.
Success is measured by the financing that follows and the national systems it builds. Country offices hold the government relationships and programme accountability throughout, with technical backstopping from the Health Centre of Excellence and a set of institutional technical partners, and UNICEF's role shifts from implementing on behalf of governments to accompanying them as a trusted technical adviser through the design, financing and early delivery of systems they steward, whatever the mix of financing behind them.
This consultancy strengthens what those country offices can do, and it has two purposes. The first, which accounts for most of the assignment, is to give the participating country offices the analysis, technical input and coordination that most of them do not have in-house, since few have a dedicated digital health lead and some have limited health programme staffing. The second is to build UNICEF's credibility and working relationships with international financial institutions (IFIs), including regional development banks such as IDB, CAF, ADB and AfDB, using the participating countries to demonstrate a model of technical accompaniment that can extend to other countries with comparable financing opportunities, including through regional public goods financed jointly by governments and IFIs. UNICEF staff hold these relationships at headquarters, regional offices and country offices, among Health Section colleagues in Panama, Nairobi and Bangkok, and the consultant's role is to prepare, facilitate and follow through on that engagement.
The consultant leads on digital health systems and interoperability, with emphasis on the health information exchange enabling layers being established in the three implementation countries, together with requirements and architecture input to investment blueprints across the programme and support to financing window analysis. The post works closely with Health Section colleagues in the COEs, particularly in Bangkok, and requires periodic face-to-face engagement there and working hours that overlap substantially with Bangkok's.
If you would like to know more about this consultancy, please review the complete Terms of Reference here: ToRTMC0007655.pdf
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have...
Education: Master’ in Health informatics, information systems, computer science, engineering, public health with an informatics focus, or a related field. A first-level university degree with two additional years of relevant experience may be accepted in place of an advanced degree.
Work Experience: At least eight years designing or implementing digital health systems in low- and middle-income countries, including at least five years on national-scale interoperability (requirements and enterprise architecture, facility, health worker and client registries, terminology services and health information exchange), with experience working with ministries of health on national digital health architecture and with vendors on technical specifications and acceptance of deliverables.
Skills: Hands-on FHIR experience, including profiling and implementation guides.
Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required. Spanish or French is an advantage.
Desirables: Experience in one or more regions of the participating countries.