Recruitment notice: HIV/AIDS OFFICER at 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 fulfill 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, Survival

UNICEF Bertoua field Office covers the Eastern and Adamaoua regions with a population estimated at around 3 million inhabitants in 2023, spread over an area of 172,703 km (109,002 km² for the East and 63,701 km² for Adamaoua). These two regions represent more than a quarter (26%) of the surface area of Cameroon. They share a long border of almost 800 km with the CAR and host more than 270,000 Central African refugees, 70% of whom are integrated into the host communities and only 30% live in refugee camps. Furthermore, the Adamaoua region is home to more than 5,000 IDPs resulting from the socio-political crisis in the North-West and South-West. The Eastern and Adamaoua regions have among the lowest social and economic indicators in the country and are among the four most vulnerable regions in Cameroon.

In terms of HIV, despite the progress made, significant gaps persist for pregnant/breastfeeding women, children and adolescents living with HIV. To deal with this situation, UNICEF is supporting the Government through the HEALTH and HIV program on several priority areas: improving the quality and provision of newborn care, particularly Kangaroo Mother care and improving the availability and use of medical oxygen, support for vaccination and the implementation of community led interventions for the fight against the 3 killer diseases of children and the promotion of essential family practices through Multipurpose Community Health Workers (CHW), prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, pediatric care and combined prevention of HIV in Adolescents. It is essential to support the Regions and districts of these two regions to accelerate progress in these priority areas.

How can you make a difference?

The Health & HIV/AIDS Officer reports to the Chief of Field Office Bertoua. The Health & HIV/AIDS Officer provides professional technical, operational and administrative assistance throughout the programming process for the Health & HIV/AIDS Programme 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.

• Contribute to the development and establishment of sectoral programme goals, objectives, strategies, and results-based planning through analysis of health needs and areas for intervention and submission of recommendations for priority and goal setting.
• Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes by executing and administering a variety of technical programme transactions, preparing materials and documentations, and complying with organizational processes and management systems, to support programme planning, results-based planning (RBM), and monitoring and evaluation of results.
• Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to discuss operational and implementation issues, provide solutions, recommendations, and/or to alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and decisions. Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference and to capture and institutionalize lessons learned.
• 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. Report on issues identified to ensure timely resolution by management and stakeholders. Follow up on unresolved issues to ensure resolution.
• 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. Report on critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems for timely action to achieve results.
• Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners, and other country office partners/donors on the application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes, and best practices on health-related issues to support programme implementation, operations and delivery of results.

For more details, please click here to access to the Job description :  HIVAIDS Officer NO-2 Bertoua.doc

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have

• A university degree in one of the following fields is required: public health/nutrition, pediatric health, family health, health research, global/international health, health policy and/or management, environmental health sciences, biostatistics, socio-medical, health education, epidemiology, or another relevant technical field.
• Background/familiarity with Emergency.
• A minimum of two years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas is required: public health/nutrition planning and management, maternal and neonatal health care, or health emergency/humanitarian preparedness.
• 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.
• Fluency in French. Working knowledge of English required.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonableaccommodation for personswithdisabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children.

Remarks:

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be cancelled.

All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.