PUBLIC HEALTH SPECIALIST – THE DEFEAT-NCD PARTNERSHIP (INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTOR) – RWANDA

Public health, health policy development, health system strengthening and transformation, primary health care, project planning and management, capacity building, health innovation.

UNITAR is an autonomous body within the United Nations that was established in 1965 pursuant to a UN General Assembly resolution. UNITAR’s mission is to develop the individual, institutional and organizational capacities of countries and other United Nations stakeholders through high-quality learning solutions and related knowledge products and services to enhance decision-making and to support country-level action for overcoming global challenges.

On 28 November 2019, at its 60th session, the UNITAR Board of Trustees took note of and endorsed, the Operations Agreement between UNITAR and The Defeat-NCD Partnership (dated 23″ July 2019) to host the secretariat of the Partnership. UNITAR houses the secretariat of the Defeat-NCD Partnership and other relevant strategic initiatives working in the field of noncommunicable diseases and addressing related risk factors – such as road crashes, deaths and injuries, and assisted technologies for improved health outcomes.

The Defeat-NCD Partnership is a multi-stakeholder partnership anchored in the United Nations and includes governments, multilateral agencies, civil society, academia, philanthropies, and the private sector. It was established in January 2018 to help tackle the most significant global health problems of the age: premature death, sickness, disability, and the associated social and economic impacts of selected non-communicable diseases (NCDs). It is based on the expert guidance and the technical norms and standards issued by the World Health Organization for managing NCDs.

The Government of Rwanda is part of the Governance Mechanism of The Defeat-NCD Partnership. Specifically, the Minister of Health is a member of the High-Level Council, and the Director, Non-Communicable Disease Control Progamme, Department of Public Health, Ministry of Health, is a member of the Consultative Group.

The purpose of this assignment is to provide technical advice on public health and lead design, implementation, monitoring and reporting of The Defeat-NCD Partnership programme activities in Rwanda, in support of the Ministry of Health. The incumbent will also be responsible to inform and ensure alignment with the public health service offering of the Defeat-NCD Partnership in other priority countries, starting with Myanmar.

This assignment will enable populations in Rwanda and the other priority countries to access a range of interconnected essential services and resources through four pillars of interventions:

NCD NATIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING (PILLAR 1):

Work with governments and other in country stakeholders to assess gaps in their NCD capabilities. Through technical support develop a multi-year NCD National Costed Action Plan. Facilitate engagement of relevant partners to ensure expansion of NCD services in line with national targets. The overall objective is to ensure that countries have institutional capacities, structures, systems, and financing in place to tackle NCDs.

COMMUNITY SCALE-UP OF NCD SERVICES (PILLAR 2):

Aim to demystify, democratise, decentralise, and where safely possible, demedicalise NCD service provision. Enable the earlier screening and management of risk factors as well as the mitigation of established disease. at the community level. By increasing the use of self-care interventions, improve patient compliance, resulting in better treatment and health outcomes. The overall objective is to bring more of the necessary prevention and management of NCD services directly to the communities and people who need them most.

AFFORDABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF ESSENTIAL NCD SUPPLIES (PILLAR 3):

To make the provision of NCD supplies simpler and more cost-effective by designing a Marketplace to create a fair, competitive environment that serves the interests of both buyers and suppliers. Using market-sizing and price-tracking studies, the Marketplace’s methodology will correct current market failures due to information imbalances. It will also help address regulatory bottlenecks in an appropriate manner. The overall objective is to enable the consistent provision of affordable essential NCD medicines, diagnostics, and equipment in low-resource countries.

SUSTAINABLE NCD FINANCING (PILLAR 4):

Governments need to invest more in health, with a greater share allocated to finance their national costed action plans for NCDs. While cost savings can be achieved by linking NCD programming with other conditions and improving service delivery and by reducing the cost of NCD supplies, additional and innovative financing will be needed outside of the ongoing aid support and expanding fiscal allocations. The overall objective is to establish a long-term sustainable financing model for NCD programming in low-resource countries.

Under the supervision and guidance of the Programme Coordinator for Rwanda, the Public Health Specialist will provide key technical and programmatic support to advance the Defeat-NCD strategy and implement the NCD work-programme in country.

The incumbent will perform the following duties:

1. NATIONAL NCD CAPACITY BUILDING

• Conduct and keep an updated situation analysis of the NCDs in Rwanda and lead country programme development.
• Support methodology design and development of the national costed action plan for NCDs.
• Support establishment of a Technical Working Group (TWG) for the national costed action plan for NCDs and facilitate its meetings to seek diverse stakeholder input.
• Develop and refine tools and methods on programme implementation at country level and identify technical resources requirements.
• Support the strengthening of the policy framework work for NCDs, including Monitoring Frameworks that improves data availability for better analysis.
• Support identification of institutional capacity needs of human resources to manage NCDs at all levels of the health services and develop plan to address them in a phased manner.
• Coordinate efforts for improving evidence based operational research on NCDs by key partners and ensuring its publication and availability for all stakeholders.
• Contribute to global knowledge-sharing by documenting lessons learned in capacity building in Rwanda.

2. COMMUNITY SCALE-UP FOR NCD SERVICES

• Design and lead the implementation of a nationwide NCD screening programme.
• Identify innovators and interventions to increase the provision of NCD services to communities in a cost-effective manner. Support institutional processes to transform some of these interventions as investible services to that can attract venture or private equity capital.
• Analyze existing or proposed primary health care systems and services on their inclusion of NCDs; identify needs for improvement and the methods and resources to accomplish such improvements.
• Provide leadership in developing new program proposals and work with partnership/financing teams to explore opportunities to raise new funding and capital to scale up the effort of NCD services at community level.
• Participate in annual planning, monitoring and evaluation exercises, program reviews and annual reviews with government and other counterparts.
• Build and maintain close working relationship with all health sector counterparts in country.
• Develop grants and agreements with identified implementation partners for managing the grant out activities in accordance with UNITAR rules and regulations.

3. AFFORDABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF ESSENTIAL NCD SUPPLIES

• Support efforts that result in making the provision of NCD supplies simpler and more cost effective in the country.
• Assess NCD drugs and supplies quality assurance practices and the country’s approved suppliers, and pre-qualification process.
• Contribute to the market monitoring studies and The State of the World’s Essential Medicines and Diagnostic Supplies for Noncommunicable Diseases report.

4. SUSTAINABLE NCD FINANCING

• Support analysis of health financing needs to implement the national costed action on NCDs.
• Contribute to the development of innovative financing instruments for meeting the financing needs of the NCDs.

1. First situation analysis for the country health programme sectors and NCD programmes are ready by the end of April 2020 and updated quarterly.
2. Memorandum of Understanding between The Defeat-NCD Partnership and potential implementing partners, and research institute/ public health university ready and signed by the end of April 2020.
3. Nation-wide screening programme is designed with a clear action plan, deliverables, timelines, roles of different partners identified and ready for implementation by the end of April 2020.
4. At least two services for improved primary care, self-care, diagnostics or last-mile delivery of NCD drugs and supplies are identified and designed.
5. Launch of an agreed NCD National Costed Action Plan for Rwanda (and related outreach) at the 75th session of the UN General Assembly during 15-30 September 2020. Plan needs to be ready for final discussion, editing and printing on August 1.
6. Amount/ percentage of funding (investments and grants) mobilised towards activities within the NCD National Costed Action Plan by its launch in September 2020.
7. Number of studies/ showcases/research results are identified and published in distinguished scientific/ public health platforms.
8. Timely and quality financial and narrative reporting to meet external and internal reporting requirements.

• Timely and quality submission of deliverables.
• Activities implemented with a high degree of effectiveness and efficiency.
• High degree of professionalism demonstrated by the individual contractor.

• Excellent analytical skills, ability to quickly understand and internalize different public health and partnership related topics
• Demonstrated diplomatic skills and excellent interpersonal skills with sensitivity to cultural and political differences.
• Proven background in health programme design and implementation with the ability to establish a high level of trust and confidentiality internally, externally, and specifically with communities.
• Good knowledge and experience of outreach and internal communication tools for a wide audience.