National Consultant: To conduct SRHR in Universal Health Care (UHC) Assessment and Consultative meeting, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The Position:

The consultant will work under the direct supervision the SRHR Programme Specialist  at UNFPA Country Office.

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:

To undertake an in-depth assessment to identify missing elements of SRH in UHC initiatives in particular UHC benefit packages, financing and financial risk protection arrangements by using the WHO’s UHC Compendium and UNFPA ESARO’s draft SRHR across the life-course matrix.

In the past 25 years, noteworthy progress has been made towards the realization of universal sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in most parts of the world, including in East and Southern Africa (ESA). The ESA region is home to more than 670 million people, with a third of its population between 10 to 24 years of age. 

Despite progress, the promise of universal access to SRH remains to be fulfilled for millions of people in the ESA region. Considering the current pace of progress, it could be concluded that the ESA region is unlikely to achieve universal access to comprehensive SRHR (Box-1) by 2030. 

Box 1. 'Universal comprehensive SRHR' in operational terms means ensuring universal access to nine bundles of SRHR services through people-centered, gender-transformative, and life-course-based approaches, which leave no one behind in development as well as in humanitarian settings.

Nine bundles of SRHR services:

(1) Education for Health and Well-being. 

(2) Counseling and services for sexual health and well-being.

(3) Counseling and services for modern contraceptives. 

(4) Safe abortion services to the full extend of the national laws, and comprehensive post-abortion care. 

(5) Antenatal, childbirth and postnatal care.

(6) Counseling, diagnosis and treatment services for infertility. 

(7) Prevention and treatment of HIV and other STIs.

(8) Detecting, preventing and managing reproductive cancers; and,

(9) Detecting, preventing and managing sexual and gender-based violence and other harmful practices. 

                                                                                                                                                                                        The good news is that the momentum around UHC (Box-2) is growing in the ESA countries. Most countries have committed to (a) progressively achieving UHC; (b) stopping the increase and reversing the increasing trend of catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditure by providing measures to ensure financial risk protection for eliminating impoverishment due to health-related expenses by 2030; and (c) progressively mobilize more resources for attaining UHC by following a life-course approach.

To accelerate progress towards UHC, most ESA countries are prioritizing the provision of a set or multiple sets of health services tailored to their country's needs and developing plans to progressively expand the number of services under UHC as health financing increases. 

The UHC frameworks of most of these countries include not only ‘what services are covered across the life-span of individuals’ (also referred to as UHC benefit package), but also ‘how they are financed’ (i.e., many countries are trying to refine the existing health financing and financial risk protection mechanisms and/or planning to initiate new mechanisms), and ‘how they are delivered’ (i.e., services delivered at primary, secondary and tertiary level through the public or public-private mixed delivery systems).

Rationale

The current momentum around UHC in the ESA region provides an opportunity to progressively include comprehensive Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH)[1] within the country-specific ‘UHC benefit packages’, ‘UHC Financing arrangements’ and ‘Financial risk protection mechanisms’ by following a life-course approach.

With support from ESARO, nine countries (Botswana, DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Namibia, South Sudan, and Zambia) conducted rapid assessments to identify bundles of SRHR services currently included in the country-specific UHC benefit packages, financing, and financial protection mechanisms.

Following these assessments, it has found to be important to undertake detail assessments in SRH in UHC. WHO has refined the UHC Compendium[2] which provides a database of proven health services and intersectoral interventions designed to assist countries in making progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The UHC compendium includes proven services by intervention areas including the SRH services. On the basis of the UHC compendium, CARMMA Plus, SADC and ESA strategies pertaining to SRH, UNFPA in partnership with HEARD at the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, has developed a draft SRHR across the life-course matrix. This draft matrix outlines proven services/interventions under each of the nine bundles of SRHR services[3]. Therefore, building on the rapid assessments, there is an urgent need to carry out an in-depth review to identify missing elements of SRHR services in country-specific UHC initiatives (i.e., UHC benefit packages, and financing and financial protection mechanisms) by using the WHO’s UHC Compendium and UNFPA ESARO’s draft SRHR across the life-course matrix. 

Based on this in-depth review, country-specific policy briefs to help enhance policymakers' and influencers' understanding of how to progressively integrate comprehensive SRH into UHC will also be developed. This brief will include potential actions for embedding missing elements of SRH in UHC across life-course to accelerate progress towards (a) universal SRH; (b) sustainable financing of SRH; and, (c) UNFPA transformative goals of ending unmet need for family planning, ending preventable maternal deaths, and, ending gender-based violence and harmful practices, and UNFPA ESA regional priority to end sexual transmission of HIV. The policy brief will also present arguments on how embedding comprehensive SRH within UHC, by following a life-course approach, is likely to improve the integrated delivery of services, and the defragmentation of multiple health planning, financing and delivery systems.  Five countries (Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Madagascar and Zambia) have conducted an in-depth analysis of SRHR in UHC and now other countries, including Ethiopia have expressed interest in undertaking the in-depth assessment.

[1] Comprehensive SRHR includes nine bundles of services as outlined in Box 1. The bundles of services pertaining to: Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE); Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and other harmful practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Child Marriage; and, Sexual Health well-being including Menstrual Health (MH) traditionally fall beyond the administrative domain of the ministries of health but these services require significant health sector responses.

[2] https://www.who.int/universal-health-coverage/compendium

[3] The matrix will be shared with the consultant. 

You would be responsible for:

The consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks listed below by closely working with relevant lead executive offices of MOH, UNFPA and partners. 

This in-depth assessment includes four steps: 

Step 1: Conduct country-specific SRH in UHC rapid assessment reports including identification of critical policies, and financing, delivery, and financial risk protection systems pertaining to UHC.

Step 2: In-depth review of the identified policies, and financing, delivery, and financial risk protection systems pertaining to UHC to identify missing elements of SRH services in these policies and programmes by using the ‘WHO’s UHC Compendium’ and ‘UNFPA ESARO’s draft SRHR across life-course matrix’

Step 3: Preparation of a report on the status of comprehensive SRH within UHC.

Step 4: Preparation of a policy brief and PowerPoint presentation to progressively situate comprehensive SRH into UHC (benefit packages, financing and financial risk protection mechanisms).

Delivery Dates and how work will be delivered No Activity/Deliverable Date 1 Inception report 09 Oct 2025 2 Undertake desk review and an in-depth assessment (KIIs) to identify missing elements of SRH in UHC 16 Oct 2025 3 Submit a draft report on the status of comprehensive SRH within UHC 22 Oct 2025 4 Prepare final draft report, a policy brief and PowerPoint presentation 28 Oct 205 5 Present the draft reports during consultative meeting with stakeholders and gather inputs 30 Oct 6 Submit final report, policy brief and power point presentation (in hard and soft copy) 05 Nov2015

Monitoring and progress control, including reporting requirements, periodicity format and deadline:

The consultancy work will be monitored based on the scope of the assignment by UNFPA CO. The consultant will submit detailed reports based on the agreed upon deliverables.

The consultant shall use an evidence-based approach and ensure the highest standard of work and timely deliverables at every stage of this assignment.

Selected members from the UNFPA Country Office (CO) and Integrated SRHR Team at UNFPA ESARO, led by the Coordinator of the Integrated Sexual and Reproductive Health Team, will serve as technical quality assuror for this exercise.  UNFPA CO and ESARO’s Communication Teams will support the exercise too.

Other relevant information:

Suggested format/sections for the Country Brief:

Qualifications and Experience: 

Education:  

Knowledge and Experience: 

Languages: 

Fluency in English; knowledge of Ethiopian regional languages and another UN language is an asset.

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,

Compensation and Benefits:

Please note that grade mention in the consultancy is for reference purpose  keeping in view the generic requirement of the consultancy and final lumpsum renumeration will be determined upon evaluation of requirement and candidate's profile. Apart from fee, an individual consultant is not entitled to any right, benefit, payment or compensation that is not expressly contained in the individual consultant contract.

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 diversity and gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women and person with disabilities 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.