Immunization Specialist, NOC at UNICEF Nigeria

UNICEF’s mission in Nigeria is to help governments at all levels, organizations, communities and families provide every child with education, health, equality and protection.

UNICEF Nigeria is recruiting to fill the below position:

Job Title: Immunization Specialist, NOC
Job Number: VN-NGR-29-2012
Contract Type: Two years Fixed Term

Location: Bauchi, Enugu, Kaduna, Lagos

Job Description
The Immunization Specialists who will work in close coordination with partners in immunization activities and be responsible for supporting all immunization activities to strengthen systems and processes for the management and monitoring of the program at state, LGA and service delivery levels.

Job Responsibilities
Some of the major functions that the incumbent is expected to carry out are as follows

• Provide in-country leadership on Health policies, including advocacy in gender equality, emergency preparedness and response, with a particular focus on maternal, neonatal and child Survival;
• Play an active role in broader Health sector discussions such as Sector-wide Approaches (Swaps), Poverty Reduction Strategies sic;
• Advocate for and leverage resources for scaling-up and replication of effective maternal, neonatal and child Survival interventions;
• Provide technical leadership in the Health sector components of UNDAF and other UN harmonization processes; Contribute to the Institutionalization of State and LGAs Health programme review to ensure effectiveness, scalability and sustainability of Immunization services
• Strengthen equity-based approaches and service delivery models to address the issue of unimmunized children and missed children
• Support the development, implementation and financing of detailed sectoral work-plans and budgets for scaling-up of maternal, neonatal and child Survival interventions;
• Collaborate with Programme Communication Officer to ensure development of effective communication strategies to support community-based approaches and social mobilization efforts;
• Conduct field visits to monitor programmes and conduct periodic programme reviews with Government counterparts and other partners with particular emphasis on under-served populations;
• Document arid disseminate lessons learned of scaling-up maternal, neonatal and child Survival interventions, Share good practices in gender equality programming, scaling up good practices at the national level
• Lead timely, regular data-driven situational analyses (including epidemiological, gender equality and emergency assessments)
• Provide technical and operational guidance and support to government and non-government partners;
• Collaborate with Monitoring and Evaluation Officer to timely, efficiently, rigorously and transparently monitor, evaluate and report on Health program effectiveness and impact;
• Ensure programme, sectoral and/or inter-sectoral efficiency and delivery through a rigorous and transparent approach to evaluation;
• Participate in major evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sector review meetings with government and other counterparts:
• Support the preparation of the annual Health sector status reports;
• Ensure corrective action is undertaken to address bottlenecks identified during evaluation exercises; Submit transparent and timely reporting. to donors and other partners.

Minimum Qualification & Competencies

• Masters degree in one of the disciplines relevant to the following areas: Medicine, Public Health, Pediatrics Health, International Health, Health Policy and Management, Environmental Health Sciences, Family Health, , Epidemiology, or a field relevant to international development assistance in Health.
• Five years of relevant professional work experience. Field work experience in Immunization. Experience in facilitating technical support in health related emergency and humanitarian preparedness. Experience working in the UN or other international development organization an asset.
• Fluency in English and a second UN working language. A good knowledge of local working language of the duty station an asset.

Application Closing Date
13th December, 2012

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should a cover letter (one-page summary statement that describes how your experience and qualification relate to the job description) and  a scanned/PDF copy of the completed and signed UN Personal History Form to: nrecruit@unicef.org

Note:
Please put the position title you are applying for on the subject line of your email.

UNICEF. a smoke-free environment, is committed to gender equality in its mandate and its staff Well qualified candidates, particularly women are strongly encouraged to apply