Consultancy for the development of intake forms to complement the new Guidelines for the Management of GBV in Healthcare Settings of the MOHW in Jamaica

THE UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND (UNFPA)

Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean invites applications from suitably qualified individuals

PURPOSE OF CONSULTANCY

In line with the guidance and tools of the “Essential Services Package (ESP) for Women and Girls Subject to Violence”, the “WHO Clinical Handbook: Health care for women subjected to intimate partner violence or sexual violence”, the “GBVIms Forms” among other guidance and tools, develop the intake forms to complement the Guidelines for the Management of GBV in Healthcare Settings of the MOHW in Jamaica.

BACKGROUND

The European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) have embarked on a new, global, multi-year initiative focused on eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG) - the Spotlight Initiative (SI). The Initiative is so named as it brings focused attention to this issue, moving it into the spotlight and placing it at the center of efforts to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The SI Jamaica Country Programme uses a multi-sectoral, multi-layered, interlinked community-centered approach to achieve the implementation of the six Outcome Areas based on the socio-ecological model for addressing GBV:

• Pillar One: Legislative and Policy Frameworks
• Pillar Two: Strengthening Institutions
• Pillar Three: Prevention and Social Norms
• Pillar Four: Delivery of Quality, Essential Services
• Pillar Five: Data Availability and Capacities
• Pillar Six: Supporting the Women’s Movement and CSO

The Spotlight Initiative in Jamaica addresses all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG), including family violence, and focuses on three key priority areas: 1) child sexual abuse, 2) intimate partner violence (IPV) and 3) discrimination against vulnerable groups. The approach is guided by the ecological theory that underpins the connections between family and society.

Frontline health care providers such as physicians, nurses and midwives play a vital role in responding to the needs of those who have been exposed to all forms of VAWG. These health care providers are mainly found in primary care clinics, physicians’ offices as well as in the emergency rooms of the health centers and other hospitals. Over the past few decades, the international community has recognized that violence against women and girls is a serious public health problem and a violation of human rights. One out of every three women in the Americas reports experiencing intimate partner or sexual violence by a non-partner at some point in their lives. Preventing violence and responding to survivors, requires action from all sectors, and health services play a crucial role.

According to the Women’s health Survey (2016), 25.2% of Jamaican women have experienced physical violence by a male partner, and 7.7 per cent have been sexually abused by a male partner. Lifetime prevalence of intimate partner physical and/or sexual violence against Jamaican women was 27.8 per cent. 28.8 per cent of Jamaican women have suffered emotional abuse, and 8.5 per cent report having experienced economic abuse. As noted by the United Nations (UN) Secretary General’s in-depth study - health care providers are often the first professionals to come into contact with women and girls who experience violence. As a result, training health care professionals is an essential part of addressing violence against women around the world. When health care providers are adequately trained to identify survivors and provide them with compassionate and effective care, they have the unique opportunity to prevent the re-occurrence of violence, mitigate negative consequences and break the cycle of violence.

The importance of strengthening health systems’ capacity to identify and provide quality care to women survivors of violence was recognized in two mandates approved by Ministers of Health from PAHO and WHO’s Member States, including:

• Regional Strategy and Plan of Action on Strengthening the Health System to Address Violence Against Women (CD54/9, Rev.2) – approved by PAHO’s Directing Council in 2015
• Global Plan of Action on strengthening the role of the health system, within a national multisectoral response, to address interpersonal violence, against women and girls, and against children – approved by the World Health Assembly in 2016

Both documents call on countries to strengthen their health systems’ capacity to address violence against women, including through concerted efforts to train their health workforce. With the goal of supporting its Member States, PAHO/WHO have developed a series of tools that can be used to improve health care for women survivors and that are referred to in the reference section of this TOR.

Addressing violence against women requires a multisectoral response. Health systems have a critical role to play in this response. This includes:

• identifying those who are experiencing violence and providing them (and their children) with comprehensive health services;
• facilitating access to supportive services in other sectors that women who experience violence need and want;
• contributing to preventing the recurrence of violence by identifying early the women who are experiencing violence and their children, providing appropriate care and referrals, and addressing problems associated with violence such as harmful alcohol and substance use;
• integrating messages about the human rights violations and harmful health and other consequences associated with violence against women, the need to seek appropriate and timely care, and prevention into health education and health promotion activities with clients and communities;
• documenting the magnitude of the problem, its causes, and consequences, and advocating for coordinated multi-sectoral prevention and provision of effective responses.
  It is a necessity for the health system to count with a Model of Care to provide policy guidance for the MOHW IPV Clinical Care Guidelines.

Health care for women subjected to violence must be integrated into existing health services as much as possible rather than offered only as stand-alone services. Care to address violence against women may be integrated into:

• primary health centres and clinics
• district and regional hospitals and other tertiary hospitals
• one-stop centres.

During phase 1 of the Spotlight Initiative under Activity 4.1.5 of the Pillar 4 (quality of services) the MOHW was supported with the development of Guidelines for the Management of GBV in Healthcare Settings of the MOHW in Jamaica. These Guidelines offer the national framework for the provision of gender-sensitive and responsive services and present a model of care of service delivery, establishing referrals within the health sector (including for HIV and other SRH services) and other sectors along with FBOs and CSOs, in line with the guidance and tools for essential services and the WHO guidelines.

The Guidelines are an important policy document to assist in the country’s efforts to reduce the impact of Violence Against Women and Girls on Jamaica in keeping with the Vision for Health 2030 and targets and obligations under the Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 5. These Guidelines with the model of care presented contribute to reducing the number of visits and the number of providers that the women or girls have to contact, and to facilitating access to services they may need, in a manner that respects their confidentiality and prioritizes their safety.

They provide skills in line with the LIVEs (Listen, Inquire about needs and concerns, Validate, Enhance Safety, Support) and survivor and women-centered approaches. Accordingly, women and girls who have experienced violence are involved in the decision-making process, they can express what they need and want, and they are emphatically listened to and respected, they are provided all the information on which services are available and where they are located, and they can make an informed decision. The guidelines aim to provide evidence-based guidance to health-care providers on the appropriate responses to intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence against women, including clinical interventions and emotional support. They also seek to raise awareness, among health-care providers and policy makers, of violence against women, to better understand the need for an appropriate health sector response to violence against women. They were designed according to the LNOB principle to consider other forms of Gender-Based Violence, beyond IPV.

There is a need to complement the Guidelines with tools that will ensure its full implementation in adherence with quality standards. Under Phase 2 of the Spotlight Initiative, it is planned to:

• Develop and validate the Intake form to complement the Guidelines for the Management of GBV in Healthcare Settings of the MOHW in Jamaica. This will permit the collection and analysis of harmonized GBV information according to standards that respect the survivor centered approach and GBV principles (confidentiality, safety, respect, no discrimination) and in line with the guidelines and the quality standards it adheres to.
• Develop and validate an audit tool to complement the Guidelines with integrated CMO feedback. The tool will permit monitoring the implementation of the Guidelines in adherence to quality standards.

Scope of work – inter alia

The Consultant will be required to work in collaboration with the MOHW and with the technical assistance of PAHO and UNFPA to:

• Prepare an inception report with a comprehensive methodology, work plan including chronogram of activities as outlined in the terms of reference to be discussed and agreed upon with the MOHW, UNFPA and PAHO at the beginning of the consultancy.
• Conduct a desk review of relevant documentation. The consultant will need to analyze the relevant international quality standards, considering the forms created by the GBVims, guidance of PAHO on IPV, the most updated UNFPA material on Clinical Management of Rape and Intimate Partner Violence, and the ESP and consider the intake form already created in the framework of the Spotlight Initiative for the civil society organizations and other intake forms used in the health system in Jamaica and in other countries. (Some references are listed below in a specific session and will have to be the main references; UNFPA and PAHO will be available to share the most updated version as needed).
• Conduct consultations with different methods with internal and external stakeholders as identified between the Ministry of Health and Wellness, UNFPA and PAHO.
• Develop a draft of the intake forms based on the desk review and consultations and send the product for revision of the MOHW, UNFPA, PAHO. The intake form will have to be designed to permit the collection of GBV information according to standards that respect the survivor centered approach and GBV principles (confidentiality, safety, respect, no discrimination) and in line with the Guidelines of the MOHW and the international quality standards they adhere to. Other documents such as the consent for release of information could be adapted as needed. Thus, improving the way data can be compiled.
• After integrating the initial feedback of the above-mentioned agencies, pilot, and pre-test the intake forms in collaboration with the health facilities in the Parishes for a period of one month. The consultant should collect the feedback from the service providers in a systematic way using tools that can include a feedback survey form and other tools.
• Systematize and analyze all feedback received from the service providers and integrate into the intake forms the feedback received justifying the recommendations that were integrated or not integrated.
• Adapt the intake forms to the final version of the GBV Guidelines with integrated feedback from the CMO.
• After feedback and approval of the deliverable by MOHW, PAHO, and UNFPA in the intake forms, submit the revised version to the MOHW for submission to the forms committee; if the feedback from the Forms Committee arrives on time, integrate it.

Required expertise, qualifications, and competencies:

Candidates should count with the following qualification and experience:

• Minimum of postgraduate studies in a relevant area, including, but not limited to, Public Health, Gender Based Violence, Gender Studies, Social Science, Human Rights, International Development, HIV, Political Science.
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience of proven record of working in health systems and services and more concretely specific experience in developing policies, forms, and programmes for strengthening health systems and services.
• Previous training and/or working experience with VAWG.
• Previous working experience in VAWG in the health sector and or in the development of intake forms is an asset.
• Proficient in written and verbal communication with excellent technical writing skills.
• Excellent oral and written command of English and excellent drafting skills and accuracy and professionalism in document production and editing.
• Solid overall computer literacy, including proficiency in various MS Office applications (Word, PowerPoint, excel, etc.) and email/internet; familiarity with google survey, zoom and other online platforms that will be used for the assessment.

Submission Details

Interested Individual Consultants should submit their Application packages by Monday, June 12, 2023 23:59 Hrs (EST) by email to vacancy.sroc@unfpa.org ONLY and register in UNFPA Consultants Roster via this link: http://consultantroster.unfpa.org.  

To apply, kindly submit application letter and CV to:

Vacancy #: 2023/IFORM-MOHW

The Spotlight Initiative

14-20 Port Royal Street, Kingston
Email:  vacancy.sroc@unfpa.org

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Note:

• There is no application, processing or other fee at any stage of the application process. 
• UNFPA does not solicit or screen for information in respect of HIV or AIDS and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status. 
• UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, teamwork, respect for diversity, integrity and a healthy balance of work and life. We are committed to maintaining our balanced gender distribution and therefore encourage women to apply.