Human Rights Consultant

Overview of position

The Federal Government of Somalia Ministry of Health (FGS-MOH) has developed a Community Health Strategy that it intends to deliver jointly with the Federal Member State Ministries of Health (FMS-MOH). The Community Health Strategy is linked with Somalia’s National Health Policy, National Health Sector Strategic Plan, and National Development Plan, which aims to achieve Universal Healthcare (UHC) and meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Somalia. The Female Health Worker (FHW) program is one component of this strategy. Previously, the FHW program was supported externally and in parallel with country systems. The FGS and FMS have requested the client to support the establishment of this program while developing country systems through a resilient and development approach for the Somali health sector. This support is through the client’s Recurrent Cost and Reform Financing (RCRF) Governance project.

The Mainstreaming Human Rights and Right to Health in the Somalia Female Health Worker Program seek to mainstream the human rights-based approach into the RCRF project and the FHW Program by addressing gaps affecting hard-to-reach nomadic and IDP communities, as well as minority women, and their rights to improved maternal and infant healthcare, adequate nutrition, and health-related education and information. MoHHS, through the RCRF, attempts to understand the level of access to health by fielding FHWs. After being equipped with competency-based skills, they reach out to communities in the five federal member states, visit households, make referrals to the nearest health facilities, provide communities with education and health information, and collect health data.

Role objectives

The objective of this assignment is to ensure access to community health service delivery and health information to different communities in Somalia, applying the principles of human rights, equality and non-discrimination. Specific responsibilities are as follows:

• Incorporate a Human Rights Based Approach, around the right to health, rights of women and girls, rights of children, minority rights, and IDP rights – to the FHW curriculum by editing and adding new material to the facilitator’s manual, participants’ training manual, and job aids. The training material should leverage multimedia content and ICT tools to deliver content in interactive ways and make refresher content more accessible to learners.
• Be available to deliver customized training sessions to FHW trainers and another set of customized training sessions to health officials in Somalia.
• Review data gathering tools and the core indicators and suggest changes to allow the project to capture and report on access levels to the right to health by different groups and the use of data by the decision-makers, FHWs, and service providers. Recommend ways to communicate the data given the sensitivities of such reports in Somalia.
• Develop beneficiary engagement campaigns and scripts – around the right to health, rights of women and girls, rights of children, minority rights, and IDP rights – for implementation by the Citizen Engagement Center in close coordination with the RCRF team, analyze the resulting data and follow up on recommended actions to allow behavior change on the part of right holders and duty bearers.

Project reporting

The consultancy is expected to take a maximum of 30 daysbetween October 1st 2022 and June 30th 2023. The contract may be extended in FY2024. The consultant will report to (TTL, Public Sector Specialist) and (Co-TTL and Lead Public Sector Specialist) and work closely with Citizen Engagement Expert.

Key competencies

• A minimum of 8 years of experience with Human Rights and Right to Health Programs in fragile states.
• Experience writing and revising training curriculums working with governments and other stakeholders to ensure ownership, preferably in fragile contexts.
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative data analysis and reporting.
• Evidence of a breadth of knowledge in global best practices in human rights programs (experience working on human rights programs at the international level is an advantage).
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Excellent, clear, and simple writing skills.

Team management

This role has no team management responsibility.

Further information

Qualified female candidates are encouraged to apply for this role.