Nicola Richards

Experience

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  Northern DHB Support Agency

  Jul 2007 - Dec 2007

  Project Officer

  • The creation of a Consultation Plan for the Carer Support Strategy. This included a literature review of models of best practice, running stakeholder meetings, designing public consultation documents and planning public meetings• Developing a Chronic Care Management Model for refugee and migrant groups• Assisting the Regional Audit Team with the Funder Arm Review of Routine Monitoring and Audit Arrangements across the metro DHBs• I also acted as the Service Specification Coordinator for the Northern Region. In this role I acted as a conduit for information from the Ministry of Health to the DHBs and was in charge of collating feedback from the region on current issues Show less

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  Hepatitis Council of QLD

  Jan 2008 - Jun 2010

  Project Officer

  • Production of a national education and training resource that was current, widely accessible, applicable to all types of viral hepatitis, and compatible with other national and state education and information initiatives• Production of a quality assurance framework and a comprehensive set of evaluation tools• Improved service support for people with viral hepatitis by raising the level of education and understanding of psychosocial issues• Increasing the awareness of viral hepatitis risk factors and related health information in priority populations • Increasing the awareness and knowledge of viral hepatitis in Indigenous and CALD communities• Improving community collaboration through viral hepatitis education and communication strategies• Increasing the participation of a range of community service providers in opportunities for viral hepatitis education and prevention activities Show less

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  The University of Queensland

  Jul 2010 - Mar 2015

  2014 Cook IslandsTwo one-week technical visits to provide assistance to the Ministry of Health in assessing their health information system; developing a strategic plan for improvement; and producing other supplementary documents such as a core indicator list and meta-data dictionary. Training provided to approx 20 staff on communication and dissemination skills2014 KiribatiCo-ordination, teaching and technical assistance at the Data for Decision Making course; held in collaboration with SPC, WHO and CDC 2013 – 2015 Solomon IslandsTwo two-week contracts with the World Health Organization to provide ongoing assistance to the Ministry of Health and Medical Services as part of reporting on their core indicators (2014 and 2015)Five-week contract with the World Health Organization to work with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (Health Information Systems Unit) to develop the first Core Indicator Report (2013). This included data collation from various Program and Provincial Managers, data extraction from the District Health Information System (DHIS) at the HIS Unit, basic data quality checks, analysis, and dissemination2011 TongaInvited guest and speaker at the Annual Report Week hosted by the Ministry of Health (one-week)2011 – 2014 FijiTwo-week contract with DFAT (via the HRF) to assess the current health status of Fiji and functioning of the health system. This included interviews with a number of senior Ministry of Health staff, and donor partners including WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and JICACo-ordination, teaching and technical assistance at the HIS Leadership and Governance Forum, and PHIN HIS Workshop; held in collaboration with PHIN, UQ, SPC and WPRO (one-week)Co-ordination and teaching as part of the Health Information Systems Short Course held at Fiji National University (one-week)Co-ordination and presenting as part of the Pacific Health Information Network Health’s Health Information Systems Workshop held in Nadi (one-week) Show less • Investigating the HIS implications of non-communicable disease monitoring and evaluation for Pacific Island Countries and Territories• Mentoring a HIS fellow from the Ministry of Health in Kiribati for six weeks to help collate, analyse and critically assess their health data to produce an Annual Report• Providing technical and administrative assistance for implementation of the Pacific Vital Statistics Action Plan, including workshop preparation, agenda setting, and providing technical assistance • Development of a HIS module to be included in the Pacific Flagship Course run by the World Bank Institute and Harvard School of Business• Investigating the health information needs of senior decision makers in health (including a critical analysis of questions posed to Ministers in Parliament)• Investigating the use of information and communication technologies in health, including the development of a maturity model to assist developing countries in making informed investments• Writing and editing articles to be published in a special HIS edition of the Pacific health Dialog. Show less

  • International public health consultant

    Jan 2011 - Mar 2015

  • Research Assistant

    Jul 2010 - Mar 2015
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  Pacific Community-SPC

  Mar 2015 - Jun 2015

  Consultant

  Civil registration and vital statistics improvement, Kiribati and Solomon Islands

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  World Health Organization

  Jun 2015 - Jun 2017

  The purpose of this role was to provide technical support in strengthening health information capacity in the Pacific. Key activities included:To support the establishment of a sustainable mechanism to monitor country’s progress upon the outcomes of the Eleventh Pacific Health Ministers Meeting. This includes the development of key indicators of the Healthy Islands vision and a standardized mechanism for Pacific Island countries and areas to report progress towards the vision to the PHMM Secretariat.To provide technical support for country capacity building in health information collection, analysis and use.To develop training courses for data analysis and use. Show less

  • Consultant

    Jan 2016 - Jun 2017

  • Health Information System Officer, Western Pacific Regional Office

    Jun 2015 - Dec 2015
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  University of Melbourne

  Jan 2016 - Mar 2019

  Technical Manager, Knowledge Management and Capacity Building

  Ensuring the management and development of publishable resources of the findings of the Data for Health Initiative project and providing technical advice in the development of capacity-building resources for low- and middle-income countries.The Data for Health Initiative – Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) is based at The University of Melbourne in the School of Population and Global Health. The initiative is jointly funded between the Bloomberg Foundation and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The University of Melbourne Group heads a group of three partners in the Initiative to improve CRVS in a number of developing countries throughout the world. Show less

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  UNICEF

  Jan 2018 - Nov 2022

  Administrative Data Consultant

  Long-term consultancy to develop support materials for field practitioners on issues related to strengthening administrative data and data systems for better outcomes for children. Materials developed include those relating to:• Strengthening administrative data to close gender data gaps• Understanding the conditions of success for open-source software• Guidance on implementing unique identifiers• Understanding the role of administrative data in humanitarian settings• Guidance on assessing the value of biometric technologies in UNICEF-supported programs. Show less

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  Vital Strategies

  Nov 2019 - Jun 2020

  CRVS Consultant

  Technical support in reviewing and updating the 'Production of a Vital Statistics Report: Guide', including developing the associated template and workbook as part of the complete vital statistics report resource kit.

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  United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

  May 2020 - Dec 2020

  CRVS Consultant

  To develop a guidance note on strengthening linkages between civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems and systems for maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response (MPDSR), in both development and humanitarian settings.

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  World Health Organization

  Nov 2021 - Apr 2022

  International Public Health Consultant

  Lead author on the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan 2021 Annual Report for the Health Emergencies Programme at WHO.

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  World Health Organization

  Oct 2022 - Mar 2023

  International Public Health Consultant

  Lead author on 'WHO’s response to health emergencies: Annual report 2022' for the Health Emergencies Programme in Geneva.

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  United Nations ESCAP

  Nov 2022 - Aug 2023

  CRVS Consultant

  Consultancy to support implementation of the project on strengthening civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems in Asia and the Pacific. Specific deliverables included:• Organising and supporting the first Asia-Pacific CRVS Research Forum• Participating in the South East Asian Civil Registrar’s Network Meeting and developing meeting documents• Participating in the South Asia Civil Registrar’s Network Meeting and developing meeting documents• Participating at the Pacific Civil Registrar’s Network meeting and developing meeting documents. Show less

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  World Health Organization

  Jul 2023 - now

  Technical Writer

  Consultant technical writer for the Universal Health Coverage, Communicable and Noncommunicable diseases (UCN) Cluster at the World Health Organization's Regional Office for Africa. Lead author on: 'Ending disease in Africa: Progress report 2020–2022', 'Ending the neglect: Lessons from a decade of success in responding to NTDs'.

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  Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)

  Aug 2023 - now

  International Public Health Consultant

  Working as an international public health consultant as part of the Pacific Health Information Support Hub (PHISH), located at AIHW and working with a select number of Pacific Island countries and territories over the next two years.