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Background and Purpose

Development of the National Community Health Strategy implementation guidelines The Government of Uganda, in line with the National Development Plan III (2021-2025), emphasizes the integration of services as a crucial aspect. Community-level health promotion and prevention programs have become national priorities for the health sector, aligned with the Government of Uganda's Vision 2040 and the goal of universal health coverage (UHC). By 2025, the government and stakeholders aim to enhance the capacity to provide integrated and quality health services, including preventive and promotional measures, at all levels of care, particularly within the community. Evidence-based decision-making and the availability of quality data are vital for improving service delivery.

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To deliver high-quality and equitable health services, especially to vulnerable and rural communities, a robust community health system is essential. The Ministry of Health (MoH) has been supporting the Village Health Team (VHT) model since 2001. VHTs, as part of Uganda's Community Health Workforce, actively engage in promoting key family care practices and disease prevention. They also play a crucial role in Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM), providing treatment for common childhood illnesses among children under 5 years. VHTs, considered as the health care system level 1 (HC1), collaborate with various community resource persons, including local council leaders, religious leaders, and teachers. The strength of the community health system relies on the extent and effectiveness of linkages between political, technical, and administrative functions.

In February 2023, the Community Health Department in the MOH developed the first-ever National Community Health Strategy (NCHS) for the period 2021/22 - 2025/26. The strategy aims to align stakeholders toward delivering community-level health services, strengthening community health systems, and leveraging existing policies, guidelines, and experiences. It also facilitates coordination and harmonization with other sectors such as education, gender, water, and agriculture to ensure quality access to primary, promotive, curative, preventive, and rehabilitative healthcare services. The overarching goal is to strengthen Primary Health Care and achieve Universal Health Coverage.

To effectively implement the Community Health Strategy, the consultant will assist the Ministry of Health in developing implementation guidelines at the sub-national level, starting from the district down to the household level. The strategy, rooted in seven strategic directions, requires revitalizing each building block and strategic direction. While the NCHS has already been disseminated at the national level, the development of guidance is needed to operationalize the strategy and achieve its objectives at the sub-national level.

Purpose of Assignment and Scope:

In close collaboration with UNICEF and MoH, the consultant will support MOH to develop guidelines and a road map for implementing the National Community Health Strategy.

Justification

The development of a National Community Health Strategy in Uganda has been a comprehensive and ongoing process spanning over five years. With the collaborative support of various partners, the Ministry of Health has formulated this strategy to drive a strategic shift from a predominantly curative approach to a more proactive focus on health promotion and prevention. This shift aligns with the global commitment to Primary Health Care (PHC) and community health, as highlighted in the post-Astana PHC Conference and reinforced by agencies like UNICEF and USAID. These agencies have not only reaffirmed their dedication but also increased their investments in promoting PHC and community health as essential strategies for achieving Universal Health Coverage and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

The Ministry of Health relies on the invaluable assistance of UNICEF, which has explicitly committed to providing technical and financial support to the Community Health and Planning Departments for the development of policies, strategies, and guidelines. This collaboration demonstrates a shared commitment to strengthening community health services and ensuring the successful implementation of the National Community Health Strategy.

To effectively realize the potential of the strategy, it is crucial to delve into the operationalization of its different strategic directions. This requires a detailed understanding of how the strategy will be executed at various levels, starting from the district, sub-county, parish, village, and down to the households. Developing implementation guidelines will facilitate the translation of strategic goals into actionable steps, enabling effective coordination and alignment of efforts at each level. By providing a clear roadmap for implementation, these guidelines will ensure that the desired goals and outcomes of the National Community Health Strategy are achieved throughout the country.

Objectives

Main Objective:

The main objective of this consultancy is to support the Government of Uganda in developing comprehensive minimum health services package at community level and implementation guidelines for the National Community Health Strategy (NCHS). These will serve as guiding documents for the successful operationalization of the NCHS, ensuring its effective implementation across all levels of care, from the national level down to the household level. The consultant will work closely with the Community Health Department and collaborate with stakeholders to provide technical guidance and expertise in developing these guidelines.

Specific Objectives:

• Review key global and national strategic documents covering the period up to 2030 to identify goals, targets, commitments and priority strategic actions that will inform the content of the NCHS Implementation guidelines.1

• Lead the development of an integrated Community Health package to incorporate multi-sectoral programmes and services at the community level. This should articulate linkages between essential community health services from other departments and stakeholders and package with the implementation guidelines.

• Lead the development of clear and detailed Community Health implementation guidelines complete with supervision and information flow that outlines the last-mile implementation strategies in both urban and rural settings. The guidelines should articulate linkages with and ensure alignment with the Parish Development Model and HIDH strategies

• Seek and incorporate stakeholder inputs, feedback and recommendations on the NCHS implementation guidelines, ensuring that the perspectives and expertise of various stakeholders are incorporated.

• Recommend a timeline for the staged rollout of the guidelines, outlining the necessary cascade training-of-trainers (TOTs) and implementation processes from the national level down to the household level.

• Prepare a comprehensive presentation for the Community Health Worker Technical Working Group at the Ministry of Health, providing a step-by-step process for implementing the NCHS at all levels and presenting a roadmap for the rollout of the strategy.

The Community Health Department of the Ministry of Health will be the counterpart and the consultant will work closely with the focal point from the department in the execution of this assignment:

• Liaise with MoH and key stakeholders,

• Organize stakeholder consultations

• Conduct field trips in 2 CHEW pilot districts as well as Kamwenge district where PHCCE is being implemented

• Provide the minutes of any meetings

• Discuss the outputs and outcomes with relevant MoH TWG members.

The consultant will need to accomplish the following tasks from 2 phase-approach during the period:

Phase 1 – Development of Community Health Package

1. Review, key strategic global and national strategic documents for running across the period 2020 to 2030 to identify, goals, targets and broad key priority strategic actions that will have implications for the community health package.
2. Work closely with the community health department and other line departments to support the development of the draft Community Health Package

- Obtain MOH departments and programs technical head meetings to develop an integrated community health package

- Obtain stakeholder inputs and feedback into the draft package

3. Organize one national stakeholder validation workshop
4. Produce a second draft of Community Health package
5. Conduct field visits to at least 3 districts including 1 CHEW pilot district and PHCCE Kamwenge district
6. Disseminate to line department TWGs (CES/CH, MCH, HIIRE, ICCM, FP, NTD, etc.)
7. Produce final ready-for-type setting and design document

Phase 2 – Development of NCHS Implementation Guidelines

1. Review, key strategic global and national strategic documents for running across the period 2020 to 2030 to identify, goals, targets and broad key priority strategic actions that will have implications for priority strategic actions for updating the guidelines
2. Work closely with the community health department and other line departments to support the development of the draft NCHS implementation guidelines
3. Conduct field visits to at least 3 districts to inform operationalization of the NCHS
4. Organize one national stakeholder validation workshop

- Obtain stakeholder inputs and feedback on the draft implementation guidelines

5. Produce a second draft of the NCHS implementation guidelines and presentation
6. Disseminate to line department TWG
7. Produce final ready-for-type setting and design document

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• Education

An advanced university degree (master's or higher) in Public Health, Health and Social Policy social sciences, social work, or related qualifications.

• Work Experience

1. Over 10 years of experience working in the public health sector in Africa is required
2. Core knowledge of government public health programs, strategies, methods, and processes used to plan, develop, implement, and evaluate results of health programs is required
3. Intimate knowledge of best practices for implementing community health programmes

a. globally with experience in developing guidance for implementation of community health

b. programmes

4. Previous experience working with the government of Uganda’s Ministry of Health is an

a. added advantage working knowledge of the objectives and operations of the MOH, or the public health activities of other East African communities, or international donor organizations, is required

5. Should have a good understanding of the power-related dynamics at district and community levels
6. Should have a good understanding of the national community health strategy and other community health programs like iCCM, CAPA, among others
7. Should have demonstrated negotiation and convening skills to bring together powerful actors in the Community Health area
8. Worked in data analysis and generated data-driven insights
9. Experienced stringent reporting demands and can write professional project plans and reports
10.  Has experience working with both Government and international NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations)
11. Engaged diverse stakeholders among public and private sectors as well as development agencies
12. Excellent written and verbal communication in English

• Technical knowledge

• Community health systems in Uganda & Region
• Human Resources for Health
• Public Health
• Health System Strengthening

• Language skills:

• Excellent written and verbal communication in English is required. Knowledge of the local language is considered as an asset.

Other desired attributes:

1. Communication: expresses opinions, speaks clearly has a sense of diplomacy while interacting with external stakeholders

2. Drive for results: passionate about action and helping to get things moving

3. Team spirit: enjoys working as part of a group with members of diverse backgrounds

4. Learning agility rapidly learns new tasks and demonstrates an understanding of newly acquired information

5. Independence: can take initiative and work with limited supervision to deliver results

6. Coping with pressure maintains a positive outlook at work and works productively in a pressurized environment and in a crisis while keeping emotions under control.

For every Child, you demonstrate... 

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values 

UNICEF competencies required for this post are… 

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people.  

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here. 

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. 

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. 

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable are encouraged to apply. 

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.