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And we never give up.

For every child, Innovation

The world has made promising progress in improving neonatal health over recent decades, however newborn mortality rates in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) remain among the world’s highest. Lesotho has neonatal mortality rates of 26 per 1000 live births. At the same time, too many women die unnecessarily while pregnant and during childbirth; in 2017, approximately 70,000 maternal deaths were recorded in the region.

At the 67^th World Health Assembly in 2014, 194 countries endorsed Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP), a road map to end preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths by 2035. Under the leadership of UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), ENAP lays out an interim goal aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), calling for a reduction to 12 or fewer newborn deaths and stillbirths per 1,000 live births, by 2030. Many countries in the region are far behind the global targets, particularly high burden countries including Lesotho.

Similarly, lowering the stillbirth rate has not kept pace. Over the past two decades, the world has suffered a total of 48 million stillbirths, with most deaths occurring in low resource settings. Globally, 2 million stillbirths occur each year; one every sixteen seconds, and in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of stillbirths is rising. More than forty percent of all stillbirths occur during labor – a loss that can be avoided with improved quality care during childbirth, including monitoring and timely access to emergency obstetric care when required.

The high institutional maternal and neonatal mortality rates in the ESA region are primarily caused by low quality health care. Countries and their communities suffer from both a shortage of health care workers, and a health workforce that often lacks adequate learning and training opportunities. Currently, there are limited pre-service learning opportunities and no formal in-service training programs in most ESA countries for health professionals. Instead, there are sporadic training initiatives executed by varying partners, which often fail to offer urgently needed post-training follow-up, mentoring and continuous, supportive supervision.

Globally, the benefits of on-the-job mentoring are well documented. However, governments and development partners have been unable to implement in-service training systematically in the region, resulting in limited traction within the health systems. Where there is mentorship, well-equipped training hubs and simulation centers are often missing. The centers would allow for continuous formation and training of healthcare workers both before entering service and while in-service. The absence of essential training resources results in limited competencies within the existing health care workforce, and drastically affects the quality of maternal and

newborn care. Without competent and compassionate health care workers, the vision to achieve the SDGs and ENAP targets will remain elusive.

To overcome this UNICEF has partnered with Latter-Day-Saints Church to support Ministry of health to set learning hub and simulation centers to improve the quality of care using the health system approach. This program equips with skills and knowledge to meet both the immediate and long-term needs of women and children. The goal for this initiative is to reduce the maternal mortality, stillbirth and neonatal mortality and morbidity in Lesotho by institutionalizing sustainable and scalable in-service education and continuous professional development mechanisms for health care providers. UNICEF has supported MoH as part of the Working group to develop the Learning hub guidelines, training curriculum and standardized patient’s guidelines which has been reviewed and endorsed by MoH and it is against this background that UNICEF is looking for consultant that will help designing and language editing of all these documents

The documents will be official documents to guide implementation of the learning hub and setting simulation centers in the country for in-service education and continuous professional development mechanisms for Maternal and Child health care providers.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of the assignment

Under the overall supervision of Child Survival Chief under Health Officer and MOH Team Family health head under Child health program manager the consultant

• Conduct high quality English language editing.
• Undertake high quality graphic design and layout designing for each product in two final versions (1) For printing (2) For online – normal PDF.
• Support the drafting and designing of the Lesotho health newsletter to be published on quarterly basis on UNICEF website and shared with partners and donors

UNICEF and MOH will be sharing with the consultant materials (text, photos etc.). It is crucial that designs for the work are stable, compelling in style, and in conformity with the UNICEF Style book.

Scope of work

The purpose of the assignment is to seek quality proposal from potential consultant to provide their professional services for language editing and document designing.

• Editing is done keeping in mind culture, gender, and other diverse sensitivities as per UNICEF guidelines.
• Expected to complete a comprehensive editing/proof-reading of the material provided ensuring clarity and correctness while considering the sensitivity of alternative care jargon and respecting the intentions of the writers and experts.
• Expected to verify that in the case of longer documents each chapter or section reads well by establishing flowing tones, cohesion, and proper structure
• Demonstrate a client-oriented approach, tact, and ability to work with people of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds.
• Ensure effective and efficient provision of services, full confidentiality in all aspects of assignment, management of information flow and follow-up on deadlines and commitments made.
• Deliver a final product of good quality in a timely manner and of publishable quality.

Scope of Work and Implementation Logic

Conduct high quality English language editing, graphic design and layout for: Learning hub guidelines, Training Curriculum, Checklists, Perinatal Problem Identification Program (PPIP) report, Integrated intrapartum (labour and delivery) emergency obstetric and post-natal care guidelines for Lesotho information for the health newsletter.

WORK ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW

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

Minimum qualifications required:

• Bachelors Degree in linguistics, translation, interpretation or any relevant field is required; or equivalent certification.*A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.

Work experience:

• A minimum of 2 years of relevant work experience focused on areas related to donor relations, reports writing, and quality assurance of donor reporting is mandatory Education.
• Experience in the areas such as public health, nutrition programme disaster risk management and response, social and economic development, international cooperation, communications.

Language

• Fluency in English

Specialized skills and/or training:

• Expertise in writing technical documents, applying analytical skills.
  • Ability to organize, compile and summarize inputs from different writers, provide clarity using result-based languages.
  • Ability to synthesize complex documents into key messages.
•  Following skills/experiences are an asset:
  • Experience with editing and proofreading UN documents and familiarity with UNICEF’s style and UN editorial manual desirable.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit  here.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic background, and persons with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. To create a more inclusive workplace, UNICEF offers paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. Click here to learn more about flexible work arrangements, well-being, and benefits.

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. In its Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy 2022-2030, UNICEF has committed to increase the number of employees with disabilities by 2030. At UNICEF, we provide reasonable accommodation for work-related support requirements of candidates and employees with disabilities. Also, UNICEF has launched a Global Accessibility Helpdesk to strengthen physical and digital accessibility. If you are an applicant with a disability who needs digital accessibility support in completing the online application, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

Interested candidates should indicate their ability, availability, and rate (daily/monthly) expressed in USD to undertake the terms of reference. Please indicate an all-inclusive fee (including lump sum travel and subsistence costs, as applicable) to undertake the tasks in the Terms of reference.

Remarks: 

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

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.