The Health Specialist is accountable for professional leadership in and contribution to the development, planning,implementation, monitoring and evaluation and administration of the Immunisation programme in conjunction with Child Survival and Development, Maternal and Child Health, Health and Nutrition components within the country programme,to achieve the UNICEF's Immunisation plus goals and objectives for the country.
The health specialist will provide UNICEF’s support for polio and immunisation in general in linkage with PHC and overall child survival agenda. The Immunisation Specialist is accountable for contributing to the planning, implementation,monitoring of the polio programme and the Somalia Polio Emergency Action Plan (SEAP) and Global Polio emergency procedures and its integration with immunisation programme and in in the context of GPEI and IA2030, Gavi 6.0 objective and the country plan to address zero dose agenda.

The Health Specialist will work with in-country and partners and Centre of Excellence (CoE) and HQ, GPEI partners, regional working group and donors to plan for and implement polio eradication strategies in Somalia, integrated with immunisation, plan and implement tailored immunisation strategies aiming to address immunisation gap in Somalia particularly in South Central Somalia as consequential geography for polio as per GPEI classification, introduce new vaccines, MNTE activities and other HSS strengthening interventions in collaboration with other programmes such as PEI (Polio Eradication Initiative) activities, Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition and WASH components to achieve the organisation's objective
of providing immunisation services in an equitable manner to control VPDs, integrating COVID-19 Vaccination into routine immunisation and PHC and stopping Polio transmission.

The Health specialist will support UNICEF Somalia CO to deliver on its accountabilities on the polio programme including planning, implementation and monitoring on strategic interventions in SEAP with the aim to achieve interruption of all remaining cVDPV2 transmission in Somalia by sustaining gains and closing population immunity gaps; further boost and maintain the population immunity against type 2 poliovirus, focusing on the key transmission areas with particular emphasis on South and Central Somalia; consistently reach high-risk and persistently missed populations, including inaccessible and security-compromised communities, zero-dose children, IDPs, mobile and nomadic populations, urban slum residents, and cross-border groups; integration of polio vaccine delivery with other live saving interventions or other
outbreak responses (e.g. Measles) in line with the Polio Eradication Strategy 2022-2026; and strengthen coordination,accountability, and cross-border collaboration, ensuring a unified, synchronized response across all consequential geographies

KEY END-RESULTS

1. Timely sectoral analysis, input, support and coordination contribute to the Situation Analysis with consistent integration of sex disaggregated data and its periodic update for effective project planning, development and management.
2. Quality contributions are made to the development and implementation of the Immunisation strategies and approaches including those targeting zero dose children and integration of COVID-19 vaccine through participation and collaboration with internal and external partnership.
3. Work plan and objectives are strategically established, technical support is effectively provided, and planned results are timely delivered through exercise of strong technical leadership to promote coverage and equity of immunisation services.
4. Project implementation progress is monitored and evaluated for adjustment, acceleration and improvement of program delivery and sustainability.
5. Technical support is provided to government and NGOs at all stages of the programme cooperation, including capacity building of government personnel and beneficiaries.
6. The capacities of Country Office staff are strengthened through effective capacity building programme in the development, implementation and management of the Immunisation programme.
7. UNICEF and Government accountability is ensured for supply and non-supply assistance and disbursement of programme funds for the sector.
8. Effective partnership and collaboration achieved and maintained for advocacy, technical cooperation, programme coordination, information sharing and knowledge networking.
9. The most relevant and strategic information is provided to support the Immunisation Programme by the effective implementation of integrated child survival monitoring system.
10. Emergency preparedness is maintained (including for outbreaks of vaccine preventable disease), emergency/outbreak responses with effective coordination are developed.
11. UNIICEF procedures and measures are applied and closely monitored with regard to Post Distribution Aid Diversion (PDAD)
12. Programmatic visits are planned and implemented to monitor implementing partners, NGOs supporting immunisation interventions.
13. All required programme reports are timely prepared in compliance with the established guidelines and procedures.
14. Emergency preparedness is maintained, and in emergencies, emergency responses with
effective coordination are provided.
15. Other assigned duties and responsibilities are effectively performed.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:  TORs_Health Specialist P3 SCO_11 June 2026.pdf

Minimum requirements

• Education: Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in Public Health, Epidemiology, Health Administration, child health, maternal and child health, global health, health policy, health management, biostatistics, health economics, environmental health, international health, health education and any other related fields.
• Work Experience: 5 years of professional work experience at the national and international levels in planning, programming, implementation monitoring and evaluation of health/Immunisation programmes. Professional work experience in a technical expert position related to Gavi immunisation engagement and SEAP and working with GPEI, as well as other immunisation partners.
  Minimum 2 years’ experience at a country office level with demonstrated experience working TWG, GPEI and Gavi partnership.
  At least 3-4 years of work experience in emergency countries and other developing countries. 
  Solid experience in developing Polio emergency plans, development of Gavi Full Portfolio Planning (FPP), budgeting for Gavi applications, development of vaccine portfolio optimisation and prioritisation (VPOP) and Cash prioritisation for Gavi 6.0 strategy.
  Demonstrated leadership and solid experience in development of new vaccine introduction plans
  Experience in immunization subnational level data analytics, data quality improvement plans
• Skills: Gavi, GPEI, Polio Emergency Planning, New Vaccine Introduction, subnational data analytics, Data Quality Improvement
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English and another official United Nations language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is required. 

Desirables

• Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language
• Somalia emergency experience
• Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts.

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

Advertised: 15 Jun 2026 E. Africa Standard Time
Deadline: 22 Jun 2026 E. Africa Standard Time