Job Identification : 13898
Locations : Suva, Fiji
Posting Date : 10/02/2023, 01:31 AM
Apply Before : 10/23/2023, 09:00 PM
Job Schedule : Full time
Grade : P4
Vacancy Type : Fixed Term
Rotational/Non Rotational : Non-Rotational
Contract Duration : 1 Year with Possibility for extension
Education and Work Experience : Master’s Degree – 7 year(s) experience
Required Languages : English
Vacancy Timeline : 4 Weeks
Job Category : Sexual & Reproductive Health
Job Description
The Position:
The post of Reproductive Health Commodity Security (RHCS) Technical Specialist is located in the UNFPA Pacific Sub-Regional Office (PSRO) in Suva, Fiji. Under the overall leadership and guidance of the Director and Representative/Deputy Director and Representative, the post is part of an integrated unit made up of technical advisors and specialists working in the thematic areas of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), including family planning and reports directly to the Technical Advisor, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights The position provides integrated technical, policy and programme advice on RHCS. You will lead the RHCS team and provide policy, programmatic and technical guidance, advice and oversight, as well as ensuring quality and the delivery of results, in all programmes in the areas of Reproductive Health Commodity Security (RHCS) including comprehensive condom programming.
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 (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 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 realize 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.
Job Purpose:
The RHCS Technical Specialist is expected to be part of a programme of engagement with the political and technical arms of intergovernmental sub regional and regional organizations as well as with relevant sub regional and regional NGOs, professional associations, regional economic commissions (RECs) and regional banks (Asia Development Bank, etc) and international development agencies to get family planning and RHCS programmes, ICPD 2030 agenda and relevant ICPD SDG goals into their focus, decisions and programmes, creating visibility for UNFPA’s leadership. The functions of the position in regard to Family planning/contraceptive and fertility management and RHCS issues will also extend to country programmes, in the context of the enhanced but supportive role that PSRO is expected to assume. Within the context of UNFPA efforts aimed at alleviating poverty and improving people’s lives, and meeting the SDG target of “ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes by 2030”, the RHCS specialist will provide policy, programmatic and technical guidance, advice and oversight, as well as ensuring quality and the delivery of results, in all programmes in the areas of Reproductive Health Commodity Security (RHCS). In the broadest definition, this post is multi-sectoral and cross-cutting, engaging in all issues affecting commodity security, policy, system strengthening, supply management, demand generation, quality, availability, accessibility and sustainability of RH commodities.
The primary roles of the RHCS Technical Specialist are:
- Country specific technical support
- Capacity development
- Evidence and knowledge development and dissemination
- Technical representation
A key accountability of the Specialist is the production of high quality products and outputs which enable UNFPA to contribute directly to enhancing national capacity to develop and maintain Reproductive Health Commodity Security as well as to building regional capacity to provide technical assistance throughout the sphere of RHCS including comprehensive condom programming, state of the art technical knowledge and, capacity to translate knowledge into tools for effective technical and policy dialogue with partners.
In all activities, s/he fosters collaboration with the Asia Pacific Regional office, and Headquarters, including TD and in particular CSB and HIV Branch, and the Programme Division, including Humanitarian Response Branch, ensuring the timeliness, adequacy, relevance, and quality of substantive outputs.
You would be responsible for:
A. Support to Policy and Programme Development and Implementation – Ensures reflection and complementarity of UNFPA corporate and regional strategies as well as national development plans in Country programmes and annual work plans:
- Contribute Pacific regional perspectives to the elaboration of UNFPA Strategic Plan and develop programmes with sub regional and regional intergovernmental entities in its implementation and with a specific reference to initiatives on RHCS standards and practices;
- Assist COs in identifying co-financing opportunities; liaise with donors at the regional level; liaise with Resource Mobilization Branch on the issues of resource mobilization and donor reporting, review and comment as necessary on co-financing Agreements, proposals and reports to ensure quality and compliance with UNFPA procedures and donor requirements;
- Provide inputs, at key stages and phases of the processes of all regional programme development, implementation and evaluation activities within and with sub regional and regional intergovernmental entities, international development agencies, sub regional and regional NGOs and professional associations;
- Provide inputs into the articulation of new or updated development policies, development frameworks, technical and programme guidance and tools in RHCS and Comprehensive condom programming;
- In coordination with the M&E adviser in the RO, support the COs in the development and implementation of results-based indicators, monitoring and evaluation plans and of necessary follow-up;
- Monitor and provide oversight to the development of key programme or management related documents from the assigned COs (e.g. Country Progress Reports, SIS reports and evaluation reports, Annual reports of UN Pacific Regional UNSCDF reports , etc.) to keep abreast of country situation and progress, to identify areas for support by RO and to advise Regional management of issues, opportunities, and/or required interventions;
- Analyze substantive reports on population and development and RHCS issues, recommending follow-up actions in review of policies, programmes and processes.
- Promote and contribute to regional advocacy efforts on RHCS, rooted in quality of care, continuing improvements to the national demand and access channels and systems including consistent availability of RH commodities;
- Foster and maintain relevant partnerships in RHCS with sub regional and regional institutions for capacity building and for advancing state-of-the-art knowledge;
- Coordinate the UNFPA RHCS community and networks, maintaining communication and feedback loops on all substantive work;
- Promote schemes to monitor RH commodity availability across different outlets (public, private, non-profit, subsidized and commercial) as well as related logistics information systems, and standards.
- Prepare subject matter documents including but not limited to briefing materials for policy dialogues and other programme uses at sub regional, regional and global levels and promote strategies for optimal utilization of technical knowledge, programme implementation evidence, best practices, lessons learned and success stories in the programming processes;
- Undertake representation tasks, if assigned, in area of work as well as in advocacy and policy dialogue at sub-regional, regional and other forums to elaborate regional and/or overall UNFPA’s perspectives;
B. Capacity development – Ensures an open exchange of state-of-the-art programmatic innovations in partnership with assigned CO Programme/Technical Specialists:
- Contribute to CO identification and assessment of technical and programme capacity needs and identify sources of knowledge to meet those needs;
- Provide inputs to the development and implementation of a capacity development strategy for the region;
- Identify capacity building needs of the country offices and follow-up through organization of capacity building activities with country office staff, national counterparts, and civil society partners; and
- Assist in networks and partnership building in the sub-region
- Design and implement effective institutional and human resources capacity building schemes in RHCS issues, developing and/or adapting existing training materials and manuals.
- Provide regional perspective into the preparation, revision, adaption of training materials, manuals, and tools, ensuring their availability and monitored use in order to assess their utility and effectiveness.
- Provide advice and strategic support and guidance in the area of work in the context of emergency preparedness, humanitarian assistance, recovery and transition.
- Maintain and utilize an active network of sub regional and regional experts of diverse skills mix and institutions as part of organic processes of regional programme development, implementation, and evaluation as well as for the larger objective of capacity building, transfer of skills and programme ownership.
C. Knowledge Management – Ensures an open exchange of best practices/lessons learned between HQ, COs in partnership with CO Programme/Technical Specialists:
- Support and assist COs to identify relevant programme opportunities, lessons learned and best practices;
- Consolidate CO documentation on lessons learned/best practices in the region and ensure that these are incorporated into the UNFPA knowledge sharing system;
- Undertake active environmental scanning (in area of expertise and work) at sub regional and regional levels and in liaison with country offices as well, in order to identify gaps and opportunities for timely UNFPA interventions – special attention would be placed on commodity stocks and the logistic systems of countries;
- Participate in UNFPA networks as needed for job performance, providing regional perspectives.
- Develop and implement collaboration schemes on substantive issues with UN agencies, academia, research and training institutions, think tanks, centers of excellence, professional societies in furtherance of UNFPA Strategic Plan in the area of work and in the advancement of ICPD agenda and SDG goals
- Participate in the developing and implementing strategies to spotlight UNFPA’s comparative advantage in the RHCS domain within the policies and programmes of political and technical arms of the sub regional and regional intergovernmental organizations.
D. Programme Management Support:
- Monitor the programme cycle and implementation of RHCS country programmes and operations; provide guidance and support to the field office operations in assigned countries where no representative is present in the areas of advocacy, resource allocation, resource mobilization, capacity building, administrative matters and operational aspects of program management;
- Undertake periodic review of programming and implementation systems, recommending and following up on measures to improve performance.
- Assess gaps and constraints to programme implementation on regional and country programmes and organize sub-regional, regional or inter-country training and capacity development activities, designing monitoring schemes to assess utilization of new skills-set.
- Participate in recruitment of country office staff, including national programme officers, JPOs and make recommendations on the country office staffing requirements.
E. Carry out any other duties as may be required by the Office of the Sub Regional Director or by the Sub Regional Deputy Director.
Qualifications and Experience:
Education:
- An advanced degree (Masters) in public health, medicine, procurement/supply chain, demography, economics, international relations, international development, public administration or other related field. A certificate in logistics, essential drugs and Management Information System (MIS) is an asset.
Knowledge and Experience:
Minimum Seven (7) years of increasing responsibilities at the national and/or international level in RH/FP or health programmes ideally with direct experience relating to logistics systems and supply chain management
- Sound knowledge of supply chain management: forecasting, procurement, warehousing, distribution, transportation and logistics information systems.
- General knowledge of the principles and operational aspects of integrated sexual and reproductive health and specific experience in family planning programming .
- Familiarity with UN development programmes and working procedures especially UNFPA policies and programming procedures, an asset.
- Proficiency in MS Office Packages, database management and the Internet.
- Experience in M-Supply software is desirable
- Certification in Supply Chain Management or Programme Management is desirable
Languages:
Fluency in English is required.
Required Competencies:
Values:
Exemplifying integrity,
Demonstrating commitment to UNFPA and the UN system,
Embracing cultural diversity,
Embracing change
Core Competencies:
Achieving results,
Being accountable,
Developing and applying professional expertise/business acumen,
Thinking analytically and strategically,
Working in teams/managing ourselves and our relationships,
Communicating for impact.
Functional Competencies:
- Promoting accountability and results-based management,
- Innovation and marketing development and management,
- Impact and influence, Organizational awareness,
- Promoting organizational learning and knowledge sharing,
- Advocacy/Advancing a policy-oriented agenda,
- Leveraging the resources of national governments and partners/building strategic alliances and partnerships,
- Delivering results-based programmes;
- Internal and external communication and advocacy for results mobilization.
Compensation and Benefits:
This position offers an attractive remuneration package including a competitive net salary plus health insurance and other benefits as applicable.
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.