The HSS Learning Programme will not be offered in 2022. 

Introduction

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognises health as a foundation for social and economic development and political security.  The Sustainable Development Goals call for a shift from an exclusive focus on ending preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths to also ensuring health and well-being for all and reducing inequalities in health. To deliver on these ambitious goals, UNICEF is moving to a health systems strengthening (HSS) approach to programming and advocacy. Strong, flexible and well-resourced health systems are essential to achieving universal access to a core package of services, or universal health coverage, and ensuring global health security, including resilience in the context of health and other emergencies.

Course objectives

This learning programme aims to improve UNICEF’s capacity to: 

  1. Institutionalise a health systems approach in country programmes;
  2. Position UNICEF as a strategic partner in supporting governments efforts to improve health systems, particularly for the benefit of disadvantaged children and women; and
  3. Interact strategically with partners and governments in the design of evidence based, sustainable HSS interventions that are aligned with UNICEF’s mandate on children.

The programme will build a critical mass of competent UNICEF program staff and partners who are equipped with timely and relevant knowledge and tools to support advocacy and programming related to national, regional, and local health systems, and to effectively contribute to the strengthening of health systems in order to improve equity, access, and health outcomes for civilians, especially children.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

  • Describe the key features of health systems and the ways they differ across and within countries, as well as the levels of health systems from the national capital to remote communities, appreciate how health systems interact with other sectors, and position UNICEF’s work within the systems;
  • Apply evidence-based tools and approaches in different contexts (e.g. emergency, fragile, low medium and high capacity), and identify how to improve processes related to data collection and analysis at the national, regional and local levels for both planning and monitoring progress;
  • Define key measures of inequity at a national level, and use these measures to identify vulnerable populations and the possible causes of their inequitable access to health services;
  • Adapt existing tools and approaches for strengthening community-based health systems and participatory health governance to fit different local contexts and sectors;
  • Demonstrate awareness of critical supply chain considerations in UNICEF’s HSS programming and emergency response;
  • Undertake analyses of the financial barriers to health care, drawing appropriate policy implications and identifying potential social protection interventions;
  • Describe how a rights based approach to maternal and newborn and child health can improve quality of care, identify priorities from other sectors required to provide an enabling environment for quality care, and apply appropriate approaches and relevant tools to monitor quality of health services;
  • Map key actors and partners in the private sector and civil society for effective leveraging and influencing, and identify opportunities and regulatory gaps.

Course content

The content consists of the following modules:

1. Introduction to Health Systems and Health Systems Strengthening: An overview of key features of health systems, how they differ within and across countries, how they interact with other sectors, and where UNICEF’s work fits within such systems.
2. UNICEF Analytical Framework: Explaining the shift in UNICEF’s RMNCAH approach towards HSS, and outlining the organization’s 7-step approach as an evidence-based planning tool.
3. National Level HSS Actions: Describing the national health planning cycle, factors that drive policy reform and why addressing health system inequities is needed to achieve improvements in RMNCAH.
4. Decentralized Management Capacity: Describing district health systems, their relationship with national systems, addressing the impact of decentralization, and discussing data challenges in sub-national planning.
5. Human Resources for Health: Reviewing issues of definitions, metrics, numbers and distribution at country and regional levels, strategies for effective task shifting, approaches to incentives and motivation and recent developments in health professional training and management.
6. Health Financing: Introducing the basic principles of health financing and universal health coverage in low- and middle-income countries; composition of Total Health Expenditure, government and donor funding, fiscal policy; fund collection, pooling and purchasing.
7. Community-Level Health Systems and Community Engagement: Describing community-based health systems including community health workers, the risks and opportunities inherent in integrating health services, and existing tools for strengthening community-based health systems and participatory health governance.
8. Data and Information for Action, Accountability and Learning: Discussing the importance of data for effective decision making for HSS, delving into the main types of national, regional & local data gathering methods and sources, and approaches to strengthen them.
9. Supply Chain Management: Describing & discussing the intersection of Supply Chain Management (SCM) considerations with HSS strategy, as well as critical supply chain considerations in different contexts including in UNICEFs emergency response.
10. Social Protection for Addressing Financial Barriers in Health Systems: Exploring the implications of financial barriers in the health systems, ways of identifying and analyzing such barriers, and describing potential social protection interventions to address them.
11. Quality of Care: Addresses three conceptual approaches to assess quality of care, identifies how quality of care fits into UNICEF’s strategic frameworks, and appropriate approaches and tools to monitor quality.
12. Private Sector and Civil Society (CSO) Engagement: Describes the roles of different private sector organizations / providers in low- and middle-income (LMIC) health systems, and identifies gaps and opportunities for UNICEF and partners to engage on with relevant stakeholders.

Course structure

This course is usually delivered through a blended-learning approach combining an online learning component with a face-to-face workshop. Due to the ongoing pandemic and travel restrictions, there will be no face to face workshops in 2021.

Phase I: E-learning

The program includes twelve 4-hour online modules focused on concepts and knowledge through application in real life or simulations.

Phase II: A 2-week face-to-face workshop (Cancelled for 2021)

Following the completion of the e-learning phase, there will be a 2-week face-to-face workshop, location of which is to be determined.  The workshop offers an opportunity to practically apply what has been learnt in the e-learning phase.

Who will benefit?

UNICEF programme and management staff in Education, Health, Nutrition, WASH, Child Protection, HIV/AIDS, Social Policy, Supply Officers, and other cross-cutting areas in the country office, regional office and HQ. Staff of National Committees could also benefit.

Nomination process:

The course is open to staff on Fixed term, Continuing or Temporary Appointment. Staff must be nominated by their office management to participate. This is an internal UNICEF learning programme, therefore there is no tuition fee. The sponsoring office will be responsible for travel and DSA in the event of face to face workshops. However, there will be no face to face workshops in 2021.

NOTE: All participants are expected to meet the performance criteria for the online components. The quality of the e-learning course depends greatly on the inputs and interactions of participants, so weekly contributions to online discussions count towards performance assessment. 

Dates:
-->> Deadline for Nominations: May 15, 2021 ****The Deadline has been extended for another 5 days****
-->> Phase I (E-learning): June, 2021

Application Process:

1- First obtain formal endorsement from your Direct Supervisor, using the attached Endorsement form. Scan a signed copy of the document in PDF.  

  • In case you do not have access to a scanner, printer...please follow this instruction: Seek an e-mail endorsement from your Direct Supervisor, then screenshot the approval (by using the free Snipping tool available on every UNICEF pc, or press "Alt + Print Screen", and insert the approval as an image/jpeg file into the Endorsement form which is in a MS Word document. Save and submit through the online registration process.

2- Fill in the online application form  and include an upload of the scanned copy to the application form.
Please note that we will not accept incomplete applications or applications sent y e-mail. Participants are requested to complete the online application form.

Contact details:

Vanya Kasakova
Learning and Development Specialist 
Learning and Knowledge Exchange Section
Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring
vkasakova@unicef.org

 

For content related queries, please address them to:

Dr. Claudia Vivas
Health Specialist, Health Section
Programme Division
cvivas@unicef.org