Country: United States of America
Closing date: 07 Nov 2014
1.Background:
UNICEF has been working to ensure that interventions to save the lives of newborns, children and mothers are based on scientific evidence. Credible data about children’s situations are critical to the improvement of their lives – and indispensable to realizing the rights of every child. In addition, conducting implementation research to document and understand what works and what does not work when scaling up proven interventions has become increasingly important to ensure UNICEF programs are having the intended impact. Donors have recognized the importance of conducting such research and have increasingly requested that this type of research be included in the projects/programs they fund.
UNICEF has a variety of mechanisms to conduct this research, including using consultants and outside institutions and increasingly UNICEF staff are conducting such research along with local counterparts, as both UNICEF and local counter parts best understand the complexities of implementing programs on the ground. However, to conduct high quality research requires not only expertise in epidemiology and monitoring and evaluation, but also statistical expertise to ensure studies are appropriately designed from the beginning and that analyses, especially when complex, are done properly.
When and what type of statistical support will be needed varies, and it is difficult to predict until a request for proposals or in some cases until the final grant specifications that spell out the research expectations are received. In both of these cases, which are the norm, statistical help is needed quickly to meet deadlines that are often very short. Also sometimes the types of tasks where statistical support needed may be very short, e.g. calculating sample size, or reviewing a proposal or reviewing an already conducted analysis.
Advertising and hiring a consultant for these quick turn-around products is time consuming and often will be impossible to meet deadlines. In addition, not having a pool of statisticians with a variety of expertise to draw from may mean that despite our best intentions to seek appropriate consultants, when having to do so quickly we may not find what we need. Having a more deliberate process to select a group of statisticians with a variety of expertise with pre-established rates will not only speed up the process but also better ensure we can get the right person for the task at hand.
2.Purpose:
To create a pool of individual statisticians, with documented areas of expertise, that can be deployed rapidly and be flexible to provide support as needed (note this can be used not only by health section but other sections, regional and country offices).
Statisticians must be proficient in their area of expertise and the pool of statisticians must be diverse in regards to skills to cover the following areas:
- Sample size and power calculations for surveys -- either simple random surveys or more complex household cluster surveys
Familiarity with and competencies in analysis of various type of datasets including data from large household surveys (nationally or sub--nationally representative), health facility surveys, routine administrative and program and other specialized surveys.
- Ability to conduct analysis such as frequencies, means, standard deviation, confidence limits
- Ability to analyze for statistical significance of findings using t-test, chi square, and other statistical tests.
- Ability to analyze data from cross-sectional, cohort studies, case control studies, quasi-experimental designs, stepped-wedge, and randomized cluster trials
- Ability to conduct complex multivariate analysis such as linear and non-linear regressions, differences of differences, and multi-level modeling
- Ability to compute sampling weights and conduct analysis using weights for cluster surveys.
- Ability to conduct spatial analysis.
- Ability to develop appropriate analytical model and conduct other specialized analysis to appropriately answer critical research questions of interest to UNICEF (e.g. Analysis of Lot Quality Assurance Survey data)
Annex 1 provides an examples of type of research studies that have been conducted in the past and the role of the statistician.
3.Expected results/deliverables
The specific roles and responsibilities will vary depending on the needs of the project or program under study
It is anticipated the consultants will be responsible for one or more of the following:
- Assisting with creation of study designs
- Reviewing study designs
- Reviewing data analyses
- Assisting with analysis of data
- Conducting analysis of data
- Reviewing methods portion of study reports or peer reviewed journal articles
- Writing up methods portion of study reports or peer reviewed journal articles
- Responding to questions regarding study design or data analysis from donors, implementers or reviewers
4.Timeframe
The purpose of this request is because of the difficulty in anticipating the timing and length of support needed from statisticians. Needs may vary from one day to a few months. These needs are ongoing and we anticipate at this point in time to request this mechanism remain in place till the end of the current strategic plan period which is 2017. However, yearly we will assess candidates availability and diversity of experience of candidates as well as evaluations of those candidates that provided services and remove or add candidates if needed.
5.Key competencies, technical background, and experience required
- A graduate degree in statistics, biostatistics or a graduate degree with strong quantitative training in public health or social science such as epidemiology, economics, demography, etc. (PhD or equivalent is preferred)
- Experience with implementation or operations research
- Experience working as a consultant or volunteer with a global health organization
- Co-author of multiple peer reviewed journal articles
- Proficiency in English
- Proficiency in French and/or Spanish is desirable
- Experience working with UNICEF would be an asset
- Experience working in the field in a developing country would be an asset
- Ability to travel
6.Duty station
The consultants will work remotely and may be asked to travel either to Head-quarters UNICEF, NY, regional or country offices as needed.
How to apply:
Qualified candidates are asked to submit a cover letter, CV, completed P11 form (which can be downloaded from our website at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc) and at least one peer reviewed manuscript to pdconsultants@unicef.org with subject line “Consultant for Pool of Statisticians-Health” by November 7th, 2014@ 5:00PM EST.
Please indicate in your cover letter your statistical abilities, availabiity, areas of expertise and daily/monthly rate to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications without a daily /monthly rate will not be considered.
Annex 1 – Examples of Research Studies and Role of Statistician
1) Quasi-experimental pre and post study with control area to assess outcomes of integrated community case management (use of community health workers to deliver treatments for pneumonia, malaria and diarrhea. - Baseline date consisted of household cluster survey to assess the proportion of ill children that had received treatment in the past two weeks for pneumonia, malaria and diarrhea in an intervention area and a control area. Endline consisted of the same sampling frame. The statistician was asked to do sample size calculations. Analyze data by creating weights and conducting analyses, conduct a differences of differences analysis at endline. In addition, the statistician participated in preparing a variety of peer reviewed journal articles.
2) Calculation of distance of patients from health facilities using GPS coordinates – As part of the household survey listed in 1) above personal digital assistants with global positions devices were used to collect data. In addition, we were provided with the GPS coordinates of all health facilities in the areas surveyed. A statistician was asked to take the data provided from both the household survey and GPS points of health facilities and calculate the distance from the house to the nearest facility.
3) Lot Quality Assurance Surveys as part of district health systems strengthening– As part of the data collection and analysis of district level health data we collected household survey data using Lot Quality Assurance sampling. The statistician defined the sampling frame and size and randomly selected areas for inclusion, trained staff on analysis of data, analyzed data and wrote reports.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar