Project Officer

Call for Expressions of Interest

#023: Full time Project Officer to provide support to ‘Improving the Quality of Hospital Care to Reduce Maternal, Newborn and Child’

1. Background

In the past decade, many countries strengthened access and coverage of effective interventions for women, newborns and children. Governments and partners invested in scaling up of essential interventions, and through coordinated actions, accelerated the pace of achieving MDGs and SDGs. As a result, global under-five mortality declined by 53% and maternal mortality by 44% since 1990. However, each year nearly 300,000 women still die of complications during pregnancy or childbirth and almost six million children aged 14 and younger lose their lives mostly from preventable causes.

The World Health Organization recognizes that improved quality of maternity and pediatrics care and patient safety are among the highest priorities to reduce preventable deaths and disability. In addition, the available evidence indicates that adverse events in early life play a major role in susceptibility to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in adulthood.

To help countries develop best practices and lesson learnt on improving maternal and pediatrics quality of care, the Russian Federation government provided financial support through WHO to four countries, including Viet Nam. The initiative will incorporate quality of care interventions and health systems strengthening in order to improve the entire spectrum of maternal, newborn and child health care and services in four selected countries.

Although Viet Nam has made achievements toward achieving SDGs regarding maternal and child mortality rates, there is still a big parity between remote/rural and urban areas. Infant mortality rates were 8.2/1000 live births in urban and 16.7/1000 live births in the rural areas (GSO 2019). Maternal mortality rates were highest in the mountainous and highland areas, which were from 10 to 20 times higher than in the urban area (MDSR report 2019).

At the request of MOH, WHO will support for implementation of this project at center level and at 4 project provinces including Ha Giang, Thanh Hoa, Daklak and Soc Trang. The interventions aims to improve the quality of maternal and child health care, especially in remote areas, contributing to the reduction of maternal and child mortality in Viet Nam in the next period.

2. Planned timelines (subject to confirmation):

Start date: 15/07/2024
End date: 15/01/2025

3. Work to be performed

The Project Officer will be based in the Maternal and Child Health Department, Ministry of Health. He or she will work under the direction of the MCH department and report to the Team Coordinator of Universal Health Coverage and Disease Control (UHC-DC), WHO Viet Nam Country Office, with the following Terms of Reference:

• Assisting the focal point of the MCH Department to develop plans and to implement the project under the direction of the MCH Department.
• Work closely with CDCs and intervention hospitals to collect hospital plans as part of the project, review for comments, and coordinate with relevant partners/experts for comments.
• Work closely with provinces to support monitoring hospital planning implementation in quality improvement.
• Providing routine administrative and logistical support for project activities, including gathering materials, logistic arrangement of meetings and workshops, note-taking, minutes writing, translation, etc.
• Work closely with focal points of project provinces in the planning process and implementation, troubleshooting any issues, and reporting them to the focal point and the MCH Leaders and consulting with WHO Viet Nam.
• Supporting the focal point of MCH Department in preparing financial and activities reports for the project under the direction of the MCH Department.
• Performing other tasks for the project as directed by the leaders of the MCH Department and WHO Viet Nam when required.

4. Specific requirements

a. Qualifications required:

University degree in relevant areas including medicine or public health from a recognized university

b. Experience required:

• Experience in project implementation and management in the areas of public health
• Working experience with MOH and/or development partners

c. Skills/Technical skills and knowledge:

• Having understanding of Ministry of Health system from central to local levels, and the reproductive, maternal and child health system
• Having good communication skills and the ability to interact with locality, health professionals at various levels, and work with government officials and nongovernmental organizations.
• Having good computer skills and word processing software in Vietnamese and English (Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Internet), ability to draft reports and administrative dispatches.

d. Language requirements:

Good communication in English, proficiency in Vietnamese

e. Competencies

• Producing results
• Communicating in a credible and effective way
• Fostering integration and teamwork

5. Place of assignment

The Project Officer will be based in the MCH Department, Ministry of Health. He or she will work under the direction of the MCH department and WHO country office.

6. Medical clearance

The selected SSA will be expected to provide a medical certificate of fitness for work.

7. Travel

The SSA is expected to travel to project provinces to monitor and provide technical support for localities. The expected time for travel is expected at about 30%-40%.

8. Budget

Please take note of the following when submitting application:

- The contractor will be responsible for paying taxes, if any.3

Those who are interested can submit your most updated CV and application letter indicating post title and vacancy notice # on or before 24 Jun 2024 and should be addressed to:

Administrative Officer
World Health Organization
UN Building, 304 Kim Ma Street,
Hanoi, Viet Nam

OR
[email protected]

For further information on this TOR, please contact:
[email protected]