• Country: Istanbul, Turkey
• No of vacancies: N/A
  
• Salary: N/A
• Organization: UNICEF
• Gender: Both
• Deadline: 2024-01-07

Evaluation Overview

As part of organizational learning and accountability towards UNICEF’s result areas, UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO) planned an evaluation of immunization programming as part of its Regional Office Management Plan, 2022-2025. As a flagship priority, the object of the evaluation was identified as part of the UNICEF
ECARO Management Plan, 2022-2025. This is a particularly relevant evaluation given the limited number of healthfocused evaluations in the region with only eight since 2017 per UNICEF’s Evaluation and Research Database. With the decreasing rates of immunization coverage, noted disparities within and across countries, and the growing increase in vaccine hesitancy, the evidence emerging from this evaluation will be instrumental to inform the region’s strategic approach to addressing immunization needs at the national and sub-national levels. The evaluation should further interrogate the progress in selected countries with the focus on outcomes and impacts, but also for looking specifically at key common bottlenecks, and exploring where and what types of effective solutions to those bottlenecks have been implemented by national governments including those conducted with support of UNICEF and why they were or were not successful. Therefore, the evaluation will be important for identifying good practices, and sharing experiences on what worked across the region to inform next stages of strengthening immunization programmes.
The purpose of the evaluation is to provide a rigorous assessment of national governments’ in selected countries and UNICEF’s results to date (outcome and impact level) in contributing to the immunization coverage – taking into consideration considerable variability across countries and sectors. This will provide objective assessment of strengths and weaknesses in approaches taken by different countries as well as insights on how to address possible system level bottlenecks. This evaluation will look at both supply and demand issues and will engage UNICEF Health and social behavioural change stakeholders.
The evaluative focus is on contribution of multi-layered strategies and policies to the observed outcomes and impacts. The evaluation will also be a formative and forward looking, being an important learning opportunity, both for UNICEF and its partners, especially governments in deriving lessons from the experience and existing evidence that can bring attention to the policies and good practices to successfully tackle more than one determinant to improve vaccination coverage.

The objectives of the evaluation include:

1. To assess the impact of immunization programming in the health care system, looking at both supply and demand, and understand what worked and what did not in improving immunization coverage, especially for the hard-to-reach individuals/communities, how and why;
2. To determine the effectiveness, impact, coherence, relevance and efficiency of immunization programming with a system’s lens;
3. To assess the actual and potential contribution of UNICEF work to the national and sub-national progress (outcome and impact) in immunization coverage, especially the hard-to-reach individuals/communities;
4. To draw lessons and provide recommendations for the refinement and potential scaling up of good practices to further support national governments in their efforts of strengthening immunization programming within the health care system.

The evaluation multi-country evaluation includes the following country case studies: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Tajikistan. For each country evaluation report, recommendations will target the UNICEF Country Office and potentially the government. A CO level management response will be required.

National Evaluation Consultant:

Given that Bosnia and Herzegovina will be a case study in this multi-country evaluation on immunization, UNICEF ECARO, in close coordination with UNICEF Bosnia and Herzegovina to recruit a national consultant to work with the Evaluation Team Leader and Lead Researcher on conducting the evaluation.
The chosen national consultant will work closely with the team responsible for the overall evaluation (the Evaluation Team Leader and Lead Researcher) and will collaborate closely with the immunization and evaluation focal points in the UNICEF Bosnia and Herzegovina Country Office. They will also interact as needed with the UNICEF ECARO Evaluation Manager responsible for the overall management of the evaluation.

Key Tasks include:

• Take part in regular meetings with the Evaluation Team Leader and Lead Researcher to be scheduled at intervals during the data collection and analysis phase
• Conduct a review of documents and quantitative profiling on immunization and UNICEF support to immunization at the national level
• Adapt and translate instruments to the local context, including: – Questionnaires, Interview Protocols, Site Observation Protocols, in consultation with UNICEF CO
• Consult with the UNICEF CO on the Stakeholder Map – identifying key national stakeholders for key informant interviews
• Carry out Key Informant Interviews with key stakeholders at central level
• Conduct site visits within and outside the capital to observe specific immunization and/or demand generation activities and interview selected participants
• Compile the results of document reviews, key informant interviews and site visits for review and discussion with the Evaluation Team Leader and Lead Researcher
• Conduct follow-up interviews and/or document reviews as required – to be determined in consultation with the Evaluation Team Leader.
• Take part in an in-person data consolidation and validation workshop at the end of the data collection phase with the full evaluation team in Istanbul (TBD).
• Participate in co-development of findings, conclusions, and recommendations (clear, realistic, and prioritized)
• Contribute to drafting of the country evaluation report.
• Support and participate in Bosnia and Herzegovina Evaluation Result Group (ERG) meetings and follow-up.
• Assist the Evaluation Team Leader and Lead Researcher in any required revisions and adjustments to finalize the country evaluation report

All major deliverables will be in English, unless noted otherwise.

The National Evaluation Consultant will be an integral part of the evaluation team and outputs. The consultant will work under the stewardship of the Evaluation Team Leader and will be responsible for supporting the overall country evaluation and corresponding tasks required to meet the Evaluation Deliverables.

The evaluation team will report to the UNICEF Evaluation Manager. All work assignments and outputs under this TOR will be under the leadership and guidance of the Evaluation Team Leader.

Deliverables

Estimated Duration of the Contract

38 working days from 01 January 2024 to 31 August 2024

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a remote consultancy involving one international travel to Istanbul, Türkiye (2 days) and local travel to carry out site visits outside the capital (5 days). Travel related expenses will be reimbursed separately by UNICEF.

The consultant will arrange her/his travel and will be reimbursed as when they take place based on actual costs in support for the Activities and Deliverables.

Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

Please propose a Professional Fee for 38 working days between 01 January to 31 August 2024 to undertake this assignment.

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

• Advanced university degree (Master’s) in in health services or health sector research (can include medical qualification
  or health systems or more specialized health research or a social science background focused on health systems and primary health services), or relevant field for the assignment

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required

• A minimum 5 years of experience in research in public health and primary health care with, preferably, a focus on immunization research.
• A First university degree combined with a minimum of 7 years of relevant work experience may be considered in lieu of the Advanced University degree.
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, preferably experience in evaluation.
• In-depth understanding of the design, management, monitoring or delivery of immunization services level. This could either be focused on the delivery of immunization services or demand generation and/or social behavioural change for immunization.
• Knowledge of UNICEF programming or other major health agencies a plus.
• Fluency in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and English

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