Job Purpose:
Papua New Guinea is a country with a high total fertility rate and a resultant growing working-age population. About 60 per cent of the PNG population is below 25 years old. It has a high maternal mortality ratio of 171 per 100,000 live births, among the highest in the world. It has a low contraceptive prevalence rate of 24.1 per cent, a high unmet need for family planning at 30 per cent, low coverage of skilled birth attendance and a high HIV epidemic prevalence at 0.8 per cent.
UNFPA started work in Papua New Guinea in 1996. It helps improve the quality of and access to maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health services, including for sexual and reproductive health (SRHR). Programmes support in achieving the national development plans, extending measures to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, and collecting and analysing population data for development planning.
The independent evaluation of the UNFPA Country Programme of Support to Papua New Guinea, 2018-2022 found that resource mobilization has been successful in population dynamics, health sector response to GBV and peace-building-related support but has proved more challenging for SRHR programming. Hence, the evaluation team highlighted the need to ensure a balance in the UNFPA programme across the various outcome areas and in its attention to adolescents and youth. With 50 per cent of the total budget of the programme in the period under review mobilized from non-core resources, the country office has been successful in rallying support for selected parts of the programme. However, there is a need for sustained focus on resources for the census, the SRHR and peacebuilding components of the programme. In terms of SRHR, it will be important to make use of the contribution that enhanced access to SRH information and services, in particular for adolescents and youth, can make to the realization of the demographic dividend and in turn to the achievement of sustainable economic development in PNG.
In Papua New Guinea (PNG), UNFPA is awaiting the approval by the Executive Board of its 7th CP in support of the PNG’s Medium Term Development Plan 4, the 2022-2025 UNFPA Strategic Plan, and the global Agenda 2030. UNFPA is also supporting the formulation of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. The new 7th Country Programme of Support to Papua New Guinea, 2024-2028 will contribute to accelerating the achievement of the three transformative results by 2030 in Papua New Guinea – ending the unmet need for family planning, ending preventable maternal deaths and ending gender-based violence and harmful practices.
Global megatrends have changed the conditions under which the world operates and are transforming the way we work. The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened the world’s most disadvantaged women and young people. Climate change, rising inequalities and technological changes all demand that UNFPA speeds up its efforts, do things differently and mobilize new partners. The strategic plan is a call to action. It calls for tackling harmful gender norms and inequalities, investing in young people and protecting the bodily autonomy of women and girls. It prioritizes early action and preparedness in UNFPA’s continuing work in humanitarian settings, where half of all maternal deaths occur. As a human rights organization, UNFPA will continue to emphasize its normative role and the promotion of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights, and advocate to dismantle inequalities through both our own work and the work of UNFPA-supported women and youth-led organizations that are organizing for change. UNFPA will do more to shift the focus from funding the ICPD Programme of Action agenda to financing it. This also means tailoring programmatic and technical assistance to better respond to the local context.
In this regard, an International Consultant will be hired to support the Country Office in the development of project proposals for leveraging and financing of UNFPA’s initiatives under its 7th country programme of support to PNG.
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.
Qualifications and Experience:
Education:
● Post-graduate degree in public health, gender, international development or related field;
Knowledge and Experience:
● At least five years of solid and recent experience in working on sexual and reproductive health, and gender-based violence prevention in development, peace-building and humanitarian contexts;
● Experience in working on population-climate change/environmental issues interlinkages will be an asset;
● At least five years of work experience in coordination with government entities and civil society organisations in the development of project proposals for financing; and
● Experience working with the UN/UNFPA for at least three years is strongly preferred.
● Proven track record of successfully mobilizing resources for project proposals for at least five years;
● Strong familiarity with key GBV and SRH (including ASRH) concepts and multi-sector response, in particular health response;
● Must be able to remain focused under pressure, with a commitment to working hard and long hours; and
● Must be meticulous - have a keen eye for details, looking for excellence/perfection in all technical matters.
Other Skills for the Consultant:
● A high level of proficiency in Microsoft Office (MS Word, Excel, and MS PowerPoint) is required.
Languages:
Fluency in oral and written English is required.
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.
We are no longer accepting applications for this position.
