Job Description

About UNFPA:

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 (2022-2025), 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 realising the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organisations, and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the various natural and man-made disasters on women’s, girls’ and young people’s access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recovering lost gains, and realising our goals. The Afghanistan CO is looking for a Maternal & Reproductive Health (MRH) Consultant who will provide technical assistance in promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) including through midwifery service provision, as well as ensuring the effective technical management of UNFPA’s donors’ supported projects. S/he will work in close collaboration with humanitarian agencies (UN and (I)NGOs) and national partners and civil society organisations to implement the scale up of existing MRH including family planning (FP) and maternal nutrition interventions and adaptation to the current humanitarian and Humanitarian, Development and Peace (HDP) contexts. The MRH Consultant will be responsible for ensuring integration of UNFPA mandate within the programme delivery including through midwifery, coordinating UNFPA’s projects with other stakeholders, overseeing the management of the MRH Unit, the implementation of its related projects and funds, coordinating the work with area sub-offices and provincial coordinators.

UNFPA is committed to delivering an integrated, multi-agency, nationwide response to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) needs.

Responsibilities: 

Coordination: 

● Coordinate with implementing partners on the coordinated implementation of the MRH component of the project, including through midwives. 

● Participate in meetings related to project (s) and prepare reports and proposals when required. 

● Build strong partnerships with MRH projects’ partners and stakeholders at national, provincial, and regional levels. 

● Participate in the Health Sector and Health Cluster coordination bodies. 

● Ensure integration of MRH in contingency plans of HDP actors. 

UNFPA Project Implementation: 

● Follows up and advise on all activities programmed MRH projects and contribute to the design and scale up whenever needed to any additional regions. 

● Provides technical support and guidance to the implementing partner, technical staff, and partner agencies to ensure good quality implementation of project activities. 

● In consultation with relevant UNFPA units, reviews and prepares work plans and budget revisions of the projects. 

● Builds capacity of newly recruited staff under the implementation partners, through coaching and on the job trainings 

● Oversees all training/awareness sessions/workshops on MRH as outlined in the project documents. 

Assessment, Monitoring, and Evaluation: 

● Conduct regular field missions to provinces and assessments as appropriate to inform strategic approaches and for addressing the issues around MRH and access to MRH services. 

● Monitor progress of the projects’ activities, identify sources of delays in the project implementation, contribute to feasible solutions, and ensure follow-up actions are being carried out. 

Reporting: 

● Prepares regular reporting on projects’ status (mainly for donors and CO) 

● Oversees quarterly work plans of implementing partners. 

● Any other activities as requested by the CO

Qualifications and Experience: 

Education:

Public Health Specialist with an advanced master’s degree in health care sciences, public health, or other related fields. 

Knowledge and Experience:

● Minimum 7 years of increasingly responsible professional and managerial experience in program or project management in the field of maternal health, including at least 3 years in a developing country. 

● Prior experience of working in multi-stakeholder environment including NGOs, bilateral and multilateral agencies 

● Familiarity with the UN Common System at the field and international level is an asset. 

● Willing to travel to remote parts of the country to monitor implementation of projects. 

● Ability to use Microsoft Office applications. 

● Strong communication and writing skills in English. 

● Fluency in English is required; Knowledge of other official UN languages would be an asset

Supervisory arrangements:

Under the overall supervision of the Country Representative, the consultant will be supervised directly by the Programme Coordinator and work closely with the Senior Management Team, various country office Units including Operations, Communications, M&E, Humanitarian, Humanitarian Access, AAP, Partnership and Mobilisation, PSS, and Heads of area/field offices.

Inputs/services to be provided by UNFPA or implementing partner (e.g. support services, office space, equipment):

The consultant will be working remotely and is expected to have access to required equipment (computer, wi-fi, etc.) at their own expense.

Other relevant information:

The consultant to be paid monthly based on satisfactory performance.

To apply, click or copy/paste below link:

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Disclaimer: 

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Fraudulent notices, letters or offers may be submitted to the UNFPA fraud hotline http://www.unfpa.org/help/hotline.cfm

In accordance with the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations, persons applying to posts in the international Professional category, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.