Consultancy
Background
Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) is
the region carrying the largest share of the global burden of HIV and remains
the epicenter of the epidemic. In the last decade, much progress has been made,
but the gains are still fragile, and HIV continues to have a tremendous impact
on the lives of children, adolescents, and their families. In 2021 an estimated
1.74 million children and adolescents aged 0-19 years, in ESA were living with
HIV. Approximately 57,000 children and adolescents died of an AIDS-related cause
in the same year. Although declining, the number of new infections in children,
at 78,000, remains far too high. Testing and treatment coverage as well as
rates of viral suppression among children and adolescents living with HIV
significantly lag those for adults in this region. While antiretroviral therapy
(ART) coverage for adults stood at 79% in 2021, only 56% of children were
accessing lifesaving treatment in that same year.
In the face of these grave inequities,
global partners led by UNAIDS, UNICEF, and WHO together with networks of people
living with HIV, PEPFAR, and The Global Fund launched the Global Alliance to
end AIDS in children by 2030 (hereto referred to as the Global Alliance) at the
International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada July 2022. The Global
Alliance emphasizes the importance of a ground-up approach with local,
national, and regional stakeholders taking ownership of the initiative, and
engagement of a broad set of partners. The Global Alliance has four populations
of focus: Children and adolescents (0–19 years) living with HIV, children
exposed to HIV, pregnant and breastfeeding girls and women who are living with
HIV, and pregnant and breastfeeding girls and women who are HIV-negative. There
are four pillars of action for the Global Alliance as follows: 1) early testing
and optimized comprehensive, high-quality treatment and care for infants,
children, and adolescents living with HIV to achieve universal coverage of ART
and viral suppression; 2) closing the treatment gap for pregnant and
breastfeeding women living with HIV and optimizing continuity of treatment
towards the goal of elimination of vertical transmission; 3) preventing new HIV
infections among pregnant and breastfeeding adolescents and women and; 4)
addressing rights, gender equality, social/structural barriers that hinder
access.
Eight of the twelve inaugural Global
Alliance partner countries are in Eastern and Southern Africa. They include
Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
All eight have developed high-level action plans endorsed by their Ministers of
Health. Accountabilities for the Regional Office in the Global Alliance include
technical support to participating countries to operationalize national action
plans, liaising between the Global team and Country teams, collaboration with
UNAIDS and WHO regional offices, including in co-convening a regional hub for
the Global Alliance, knowledge management and resource leveraging in support of
the Global Alliance. While ESARO has a dedicated capacity for the elimination
of vertical transmission and adolescent HIV, the ESARO team is limited in
dedicated expertise on pediatric and adolescent HIV lacks expertise. It is to
support key regional accountabilities in the Global Alliance through additional
expertise that ESARO is seeking to recruit a senior consultant with a
particular focus on closing the treatment gap for children and adolescents.
How can you make a difference?
The overall goal of this consultancy
is to support the Global Alliance in Eastern and Southern Africa to accelerate
action and progress on closing the treatment gap for children and adolescents
and ending AIDS by 2030. The specific objectives for this consultancy are to:
provide expert advice and guidance to
at least eight countries (through UNICEF country offices and joint UN teams) to
operationalize the Global Alliance action plans, with a particular focus on
closing the treatment gap for children and adolescents,
lend expertise to the Regional Office
in operationalizing the Global Alliance regional hub and liaising with global
and regional partners for smooth information flow and timely implementation
inform action through knowledge
management, including the development of knowledge products, south-to-south
learning, and support for monitoring the implementation of the Global Alliance
in Eastern and Southern Africa
to provide technical expertise for
resource mobilization and leveraging for operationalizing the Global Alliance
and closing the treatment gap for children and adolescents.
Activities and Tasks
Expert
technical advice to Country Offices
Provide remote expert technical
guidance to the eight inaugural Global Alliance partner countries on closing the
treatment gap and other aspects.
Lend technical expertise to other
countries in the region on closing the treatment gap to ensure alignment and
continued progress across the region
Support
for the regional hub
Provide relevant technical expertise
in support of the Global Alliance regional hub and global partnership on behalf
of UNICEF ESARO
Provide technical advice and guidance
to support the translation of Global Alliance policies and initiatives to the
ESAR context, especially on closing the treatment gap.
Knowledge
Management
Develop, revise and technically edit
regional documentation products of UNICEF efforts/activities on closing the
treatment gap, including through PHC integration.
Provide remote expert technical
reviews of country documents related to the Global Alliance. closing
Develop evidence and programme
summaries on key HIV programme areas to support the Global Alliance, especially
on closing the treatment gap.
The specific products will be
determined in consultation with the regional team, country offices, and
partners as part of the work planning process and in line with developments
over time and are likely to include summaries of national action plans, input
to the 2023 SADC Health Ministers meeting, and documentation of promising
practices and learning from the operationalization of the Global Alliance.
Resource
mobilization and leveraging
Assess the programming and partner
context and make recommendations on promising concepts and initiatives for
resource mobilization.
In consultation with the Regional HIV
and PPP teams, provide expert technical inputs on concept notes and proposals.
To qualify as an
advocate for every child you will have…
Education: Advanced university degree
(Master’s or higher) in public health, social sciences, or related field.
Work experience: A minimum of ten
years of professional experience at the international level, including field
experience with expertise in HIV programming.
Prior working experience in Eastern
and Southern Africa on HIV programming with a specific focus on treatment and
viral suppression is an added advantage.
Ability to analyze complex technical
information and present it to non-technical audiences.
Accurate, creative, and versatile
writing skills
Experience in resource mobilization
and partner relations
Prior experience working with UNICEF
is highly desirable.
Language: Fluency in English is
required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French,
Russian, or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.
How to Apply
