The Position:
UNFPA works to ensure sexual and reproductive health and rights remain at the very centre of development. The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) draws a clear connection between reproductive health, human rights and sustainable development. When sexual and reproductive health needs are not met, individuals are deprived of the right to make crucial choices about their own bodies and futures, with a cascading impact on their families’ welfare and future generations. And because women bear children, and also often bear the responsibility for nurturing them, sexual and reproductive health and rights issues cannot be separated from gender equality. Cumulatively, the denial of these rights exacerbates poverty and gender inequality.
The Technical Advisor, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) provides technical leadership and plays a vital role in ensuring state of the art technical support and promoting partnership, synergy and strategic alliances with counterparts in government, multi-lateral and bi-lateral agencies and civil society in Nepal. S/he leads advocacy and policy dialogue in support of accelerating progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the ICPD Programme of Action, promoting human rights-based approaches and integrating SRHR in the Universal Health Coverage Package. S/he ensures linkages with other UNFPA programmes in the areas of adolescent and youth, gender equality and population dynamics, and provides technical support to the implementation of the federal, provincial and local programmes and action plans to ensure that SRH services are available to women and men when needed.
S/he will be located at the UNFPA Country Office (CO) in Kathmandu, Nepal. Under the overall guidance of the Representative, the incumbent will work in close collaboration with the Deputy Representative and the UNFPA sub-national teams and other teams in Kathmandu.
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:
Reproductive Health encompasses a continuum of care crucial for individuals across their lifespan, including comprehensive sexuality education, family planning, antenatal and postnatal care, and services to prevent sexually transmitted infections. Despite legislative protections, Nepal faces challenges, with high maternal mortality rates indicating systemic weaknesses exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. UNFPA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Population, has been pivotal in establishing policies, providing technical support, and ensuring access to essential reproductive health services, particularly in underserved regions such as Madhesh Province, Lumbini Province and Sudurpaschim Province. Efforts extend to enabling the federal structure to enhance service delivery, with a focus on marginalized groups, and humanitarian response, where UNFPA leads in providing lifesaving reproductive health and gender-based violence services during emergencies.
The Technical Advisor, SRHR will facilitate innovative approaches that will support strengthening the health system. At the technical level, s/she will play a key role in leading and providing technical guidance to the SRHR team of the CO, so as to ensure that there is integration of services at the service delivery points, focusing on developing and scaling-up an integrated care pathway for primary and secondary health care facilities and on improving the quality of contraception, pregnancy, delivery services. More specifically, s/he is expected to provide a technical lead in the areas of midwifery – including in strengthening the quality of midwifery education and ensuring that there are career pathways for existing cadres providing maternity and SRH care. Advocacy and leadership will also be required on the recruitment, deployment and retention of midwives and the necessary cadre to provide safe and respectful SRH care to women and girls.
The Technical Advisor-SRHR will also lead UNFPAs support to the national effort on scaling up the provision of quality Emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC) services at all service delivery points including creation of centers of excellence in the provision of EmONC services. The Technician Advisor-SRHR will lead the team to ensure the network of care is clearly defined and distributed and that efforts are made to ensure the availability of the seven and nine signal functions in basic and comprehensive EmONC facilities respectively, including improved referral services. Furthermore, the Technical Advisor-SRHR will provide lead in ensuring that maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response (MPDSR) systems are responsive, and that response plans are being implemented by districts in a timely manner. Additionally, the Technical Advisor-SRHR will also provide strategic technical, policy and programmatic leadership for the country office in the area of scaling-up meaningful adolescent SRHR interventions and HIV prevention.
You would be responsible for:
A. Policy Dialogue and Technical Support
● Lead policy advocacy engagements with Government, UN system, and other development partners to position SRHR in the broader development and humanitarian agendas, and within UN system wide frameworks. Contributes to the development of advocacy-specific theory of change that maps the route to influence the allocation of resources and greater political commitment.
● Promote awareness of the critical role of the ICPD Programme of Action in the achievement of the SDGs, in particular Goals 3 & 5, in relevant meetings, conferences and other fora. Provides inputs to the development of a transformative advocacy and communication strategy on SRH and FP.
● Build advocacy rationale to mainstream SRHR in the national development priorities by identifying policy gaps in the fulfillment of reproductive rights and translate knowledge gained from programming into policy recommendations, with a focus on sustainability.
● Represent UNFPA in high-level dialogue with government, international community, civil society, academic institutions, and other partners and participates in various high-level committees and events.
● Expand and strengthen partnership with a wide range of stakeholders including the government, civil society organizations, research institutes, academia, development partners, private sector, media and others to influence investment in the areas of SRH and Rights, promote policy dialogues and enhance accountability mechanisms for the realization of sexual and reproductive rights for all.
● Facilitates technical and programmatic support to the Government of Nepal in the areas of health system (HSS) strengthening and continuity of care. Provides technical assistance to the implementation of the national and provincial action plans to ensure that SRH services are available.
● Promotes state-of-the-art research work and learning culture in the team and ensures key findings are fully integrated within UNFPA-supported policies and programmes and promotes an integrated approach linked to other relevant thematic areas of work in UNFPA.
B. Programme leadership
● Contributes to effective implementation of the Country Programme by leading SRHR components as well as by providing substantive inputs to programme M&E and reporting.
● In collaboration with government counterparts, NGOs and other partners working in the area of SRH, contributes substantially to the formulation and design of the country programme and its components projects in line with government priorities and according to UNFPA programme policies and procedures.
● Expedites and coordinates programme implementation establishing collaborative relationships with implementing partners, experts, government counterparts and other UN agencies facilitating timely and efficient delivery of programme inputs.
● Support broad adaptation of training materials, manuals and tools by a wide range of stakeholders, specially by the government institutions at national and sub-national levels, in the areas of SRHR, ensure their availability and promote their use.
● Monitor implementation of programmes and projects in the areas of SRHR and address bottlenecks together with the senior management. He or she needs to ensure programme activities are in line with approved project result framework and budgets and advise programme teams and provincial/ district staff to implement programmes to produce results.
● Supports the effective integration and coordination with youth/harmful practices and gender teams.
● Provide technical advice and share programming knowledge to programme teams and implementing partners at the national and subnational levels for strengthening result-based management of resources.
C. Advocacy and resource mobilization
● Represent UNFPA on substantive issues in the country and elaborate UNFPA’s substantive mandate as well as perspectives in the area of SRHR , maintaining communication and feedback loops on all substantive work.
● Develops and maintains collaborative relationships with relevant Government counterparts, External Development Partners and other key stakeholders and asserts UNFPA’s comparative substantive role and contributions in advancing SRH and facilitating coordination and collaboration among the key partners, in development and humanitarian contexts.
● Develops policy briefs, analytical papers, presentations and other policy related documents. Prepares programmatic briefs on accelerating access to and utilization of SRH services in Nepal.
● Examines and interprets the political, social and economic environment and implications for UNFPA’s work in SRH and HSS; increases in Government budgetary allocations and expenditures for SRH; and identifies entry points to leverage national resources.
● Leads advocacy efforts for the integration of UNFPA-support evidenced-based good practices within national systems and processes and engages in strategic partnerships with other External Development Partners to accelerate the sustainability of SRH interventions.
● Contribute to the advocacy to advance the ICPD commitments and integration of SRHR in Universal Health Coverage as well as actions for acceleration for SDGs at the national and subnational levels.
● Analyze the country programme documents, project concepts and country strategies of the bilateral and multilateral partner organizations, identify opportunities for fundings / financing and develop relevant programmes to achieve 3 transformative results of UNFPA. Actively promotes, nurtures and participates in relevant networks and coalitions related to SRHR to keep abreast of the developments, share information, advance SRHR goals.
● Supports the advocacy and resource mobilization strategy of UNFPA Nepal by exploring funding opportunities, including from the public and private sectors; maintains partnerships with donors and key stakeholders; and oversees the preparation of good quality documentation, i.e. project proposals that are innovative and demonstrate potential for high impact, best practices and lessons learnt, and communication materials.
● Collaborate on substantive issues with UN agencies, academia, research and training institutions, think-tanks, centers for excellence, professional societies in the region.
D. Strengthen the CO’s strategic partnerships and Coordination
● Participates and contributes technical/programme inputs in UN and other inter- agency as well as national forums around SRHR to maintain collaborative relationships with counterparts in government, civil society, private sector, bilateral as well as multilateral development partners, etc.
● Collaborates with development partners and UN agencies to promote and provide coordinated and integrated technical support related to SRHR.
● Lead the Health Focus Group under the outcome 2 of the UNSCDF for coordination, integration, joint advocacy, monitoring, and result reporting.
● Lead and facilitate policy discussion, health sector coordination, especially SWOP, and joint monitoring of the international health partners group.
● Initiates, develops, strengthens, and monitors substantive and intellectual regional partnerships in SRHR, including for South-South technical cooperation with other countries for the implementation of the country programme.
● Actively participates in technical working groups in the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) strategic result areas and relevant national mechanisms to advance the ICPD Programme of Action.
● Promotes South-South cooperation for the achievement of ICPD goals.
● Contribute to the UN Common Country Assessment and the UNSDCF exercises in the country as part of broader UN Reform initiatives.
E. Others
● Collaborate with team members, programme partners, and sub-grantees to ensure safe implementation of programmes at the community level applying Do No Harm approach.
● Perform any other duties as requested by the Supervisor and the UNFPA Management team.
Qualifications and Experience:
Education:
Advanced Degree in Public Health, Health Economics, Medicine/Health Sciences, Nursing, Midwifery, Sociology, or related discipline is required.
Knowledge and Experience:
● A minimum of 10 years of relevant progressively responsible professional experience in SRHR, including experience at the international level, especially in the developing countries, is a must;
● Demonstrated expertise in the areas of SRHR including family planning, commodity, maternal and newborn health care including EmONC;
● Experience in Healthy Systems, Health Reform, Health Sector review, especially SWAPS is required:
● Strong understanding and hands-on experience in reproductive rights and gender dimensions in policy and programme formulation, implementation and monitoring;
● Technical knowledge and programming experience in integration of sexual and reproductive health care ad information, HIV prevention, and GBV response as is desirable;
● Knowledge on health economics/financing is an asset;
● Practical experience in SRHR programming in humanitarian setting and/or resilience building for climate change is an asset;
● Knowledge and hands-on experience on quality care is desired;
● Proven experience in facilitating high-level policy dialogue and advocacy;
● Proven experience in coordinating/managing a multi-disciplinary team of staff, experts and consultants;
● Track record in programme development and resource mobilization;
● Familiarity with UNFPA’s mandate, policies and procedures, and experience in programming and technical assistance with the UN system and/or other international organizations is desired;
● Demonstrated experience in coordination and liaison with government counterparts, non government organizations, UN agencies, private sector, and development partners;.
● Possess excellent interpersonal, emotional intelligence, negotiating, intercultural communication skills and political acumen;
● Strong verbal and written communication skills in English is required;
● Ability to work independently and in culturally diverse teams.
Languages:
Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of other official UN language is desirable.
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:
● Advocacy/ Advancing a policy-oriented agenda
● Leveraging the resources of national governments and partners/ building strategic alliances and partnerships
● Delivering results-based programme
● Internal and external communication and advocacy for results mobilization
Managerial Competencies:
● Providing strategic focus,
● Engaging in internal/external partners and stakeholders,
● Leading, developing and empowering people, creating a culture of performance
● Making decisions and exercising judgment
Compensation and Benefits:
This position offers an attractive remuneration package including a competitive net salary plus health insurance and other benefits as applicable. UNFPA Work Environment:
UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and healthy work-life balance. We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation and selection for all regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of UNFPA's workforce - click here to learn more.
Disclaimer:
Selection and appointment may be subject to background and reference checks, medical clearance, visa issuance and other administrative requirements.
UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process and does not concern itself with information on applicants' bank accounts.
Applicants for positions in the international Professional and higher categories, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.
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