Health (Digital Information System) Specialist

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For every child, Health

The United Republic of Tanzania is going through a rapid phase of development of its Primary Health Care systems, in both mainland and Zanzibar. As the access to and utilization of services has increased substantially over the past decade, the emphasis on quality, sustainability and system strengthening is a key priority of the government. The functionality, and use of health information is a core pillar to achieve this, and Tanzania has been at the forefront in digitalizing health management information systems in the Eastern and Southern Africa region. The National digital health strategy 2019-2024, which is currently being reviewed with support from UNICEF, articulates this commitment with its focus on innovative, data-driven, client-centric, efficient, effective, and integrated digital health solutions.

UNICEF Tanzania’s heath program is focused on strengthening the primary health care (PHC) system at facility and community levels to equitably deliver quality services for children. The quality of data systems is a core area of work in which substantial progress has been made over the past few years in close collaboration with the government and other partners:

• Improved functionality and usability of the government’s electronic Medical Records (eMR) system for PHC, GoTHOMIS, including its centralization and accessibility through a mobile application.
• Inclusion of the Tanzania Immunization Registry (TIMR) into GoTHOMIS
• Establishment of a digital client feedback mechanism for PHC (Mama na Mwana) which is currently in use across 19 mainland regions and where data is linked to HMIS and visualized in DHIS-2 dashboards.
• Integration of the Unified Community Solution (UCS) Health information system with GoTHOMIS and Mama na Mwana
• Integration of the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System with HMIS, including the roll out of the simplified death registration module
• Improvement of the digitized supportive supervision system (Afya SS)
  
  

UNICEF is uniquely positioned in the digital health space through its convening partner and ability to provide robust technical assistance. Through its convening power, the move towards defragmentation has been accelerated and partner alignment to government systems has increased. These efforts have been widely recognized, reflected for example by a recent agreement with the World Bank to provide technical assistance for the transformation of digital health information systems on Zanzibar. UNICEF is also co-chairing the sub-committee on health information in the National Community Health Taskforce for Tanzania mainland.

How can you make a difference? 

The overall objective of the position is to ensure continuity of UNICEF’s support to strengthen digital health management information systems through solutions that are holistic, integrated and fit for purpose in the Tanzanian context.

The specific objectives include:

• To provide high quality contextual technical assistance to the government and its counterparts in the area of strengthening health management information systems and in streamlining digital health solutions.
• To keep abreast of and contribute to the government’s digital strategies, data governance system structure, and on-going discussions in digital health, and ensure an alignment of what UNICEF investments and governments’ initiatives.
• To develop, sustain and build government capacity and ownership of platforms and supporting applications for facilitating evidence-based decision making.
nafasi za kazi

Scope of work.

1.Strengthen coordination with government and stakeholders in digital health.

• Promote alignment of partners with government health information systems through proactive dialogue and engagement, including through the Development Partner Group for Health (DPG-H), with implementing partners and academia.
• Participate and contribute to the government’s Technical Working Group (TWG) number 10 on ICT, Information Systems Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning on Tanzania mainland and the Digital Health TWG on Zanzibar.
• Co-chair the sub-committee on health information in the National Community Health Taskforce
• Maintain and strengthen working relationships with government counterparts (MoH, PORALG) including through capacity building and provision of hands-on technical advice.

2.Provide leadership in digital health across UNICEF Tanzania’s health program.

• Liaise and collaborate with colleagues in UNICEF health program section as well as with colleagues in other sections that work on health management information and associated systems (Nutrition, HIV, WASH, Child Protection)

• Manage the digital health component of the client feedback mechanism (Mama na Mwana), including the transition of the server to the government system and preparing for national launch.
• Provide technical assistance for the scale up of GoTHOMIS including the documentation of learning from the old to new (centralized) system.
• Oversee the improvement (Mainland) and development (Zanzibar) of the digital supportive supervision system (Afya SS).
• Supervise consultants and institutions contracted by UNICEF to provide dedicated support to the government in the field of digital health.
• Identify opportunities for development and strategic engagement.
• Contribute to the development of funding proposals with relevance for digital health. 

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

The following minimum requirements:

• A Master’s degree in one of the following fields is required: Health management information systems, Digital Health Information Systems, Information Technology, Knowledge management, or related field.
• A minimum of five years of professional experience in Health-related programs is required.
• Knowledge and experience of working with health information and planning systems in Tanzania is a required.
• Solid experience of program management, including the development of sound technical plans, budgets, reports, and presentations is required.
• In-depth knowledge of the TCP / IP protocol suite; security architecture; securing and hardening Operating Systems; Networks; Databases; and Applications
• Database Administrator certifications
• Fluency in spoken and written English and Kiswahili.

The following desirables:

• Additional relevant courses/degrees, such as public health, research methods, computer science, and data analysis and knowledge management are an asset.
  
  
• Experience of engaging in research and evaluation projects is an asset, including the use of open-source data capturing.
  
  
• Experience in IT or database administration and the following systems is an asset: Java GUI, Angular front-end development, SQL, Postgres, or equivalent database tools, Agile software development using JIRA, multiple OS platforms with strong emphasis on Linux (CentOS, Red Hat, Ubuntu), Mac OS X, and Windows systems

• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

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