Health Officer - UNICEF

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfil their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child,

In Ghana, UNICEF cooperates with the Government and other partners to defend the rights of children and help them fulfil their potential. With offices in Accra and Tamale, the UNICEF team seeks to achieve results in strategic programme areas.

The overall goal is for every child to survive and thrive, to live in a safe and clean environment, to learn, to be protected from violence and exploitation, and to have an equitable chance in life.

The current Country Programme of cooperation is aligned with the Government priorities, the UN Sustainable Development Partnership (UNSDP), and Key Results for Children (KRCs) in the West and Central African Region (immunization, nutrition, learning outcomes, ending child marriage, and ending open defecation). UNICEF's main strategies include evidence-based advocacy, system strengthening, integrated programming across sectors, emergency preparedness and response, and innovation.

To know more about UNICEF Ghana programming, kindly visit this link https://www.unicef.org/ghana/

How can you make a difference?

The position of Health Officer reports to the Health Specialist for close guidance and supervision and receives overall guidance and supervision from Chief Health.

The Health Officer provides professional technical, operational and administrative assistance throughout the programming process for the Health Programme, including in areas of routine immunisation, COVID-19 related activities and emergency preparedness and response within the Country Programme, from development, planning, to delivery of results, by preparing, executing, managing, and implementing a variety of technical and administrative programme tasks to facilitate programme development, implementation, programme progress monitoring, and evaluating and reporting of results.

• Conduct and update the situation analysis for the development, design and management of health-related programmes, including immunisation, COVID-19 and emergency preparedness and response. Research and report on development trends for higher management use to enhance programme management, efficiency and delivery of results.
• Contribute to the development and establishment of sectoral programme goals, objectives, strategies, and results-based planning through analysis of health, immunisation, COVID-19 and emergency preparedness and response needs and areas for intervention and submission of recommendations for priority and goal setting.
• Work closely and collaboratively with internal and external colleagues and partners to discuss operational and implementation issues related to immunisation, COVID-19 vaccines, logistics and cold chain maintenance.
• Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sectoral reviews with government and other counterparts to assess health programmes and to report on required action/interventions at the higher level of programme management.
• Monitor and report on the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets), and verify compliance with approved allocation and goals, organizational rules, regulations, procedures, as well as donor commitments, standards of accountability, and integrity
• Prepare regular and mandated sectoral programme/project reports for management, donors and partners to keep them informed of programme progress
• Conduct regular programme field visits and surveys and share information with partners and stakeholders to assess progress and provide technical support and/or refer to relevant officials for resolution.
• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with health sector government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to enhance emergency preparedness and response, COVID-19 response and immunisation programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to deliver concrete and sustainable results.
• Research information on potential donors and prepare resource mobilization materials and briefs for fund raising and partnership development purposes.
• Identify, capture, synthesize, and share lessons learned for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• A university degree in one of the following fields is required: public health, pediatric health, family health, health research, global/international health, health management, biostatistics, epidemiology, or another relevant technical field.
• A minimum of two years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas is required: public health planning and management, immunisation programming, maternal, neonatal and child health care, and/or health emergency/humanitarian preparedness.
• Familiarity with Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service structures and systems is preferred.
• Technical expertise and experience in managing an expanded programme on immunisation (EPI programme) at national or subnational level Experience working in a developing country is considered as an asset.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (1)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2)
• Works Collaboratively with others (2)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2)

• Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (2)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (2)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)