State Project Manager Vacancy at Malaria Consortium

Posted on: Wed 10-02-2021

Malaria Consortium is one of the world’s leading non-profit organisations specialising in the comprehensive prevention, control and treatment of malaria and other communicable diseases among vulnerable and under privileged populations. We increasingly find our work on malaria can be effectively integrated with other similar public health interventions for greater impact and therefore expanded our remit to include child health and neglected tropical disease interventions.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: State Project Manager

Location: Jigawa

Grade: 9

Department: Management

Length of Contract: 3 years

Role Type: National

Country and Project Background

The Nigeria Country Office in Abuja, started operations in 2008, through the DFID / UKaid funded support to National Malaria Programme, SuNMaP (2008 – 2016). The office had presence in 23 states of the country and has managed at various times, about 15 projects. It follows the mandate of the parent organization in Nigeria and has been working specifically in the following areas:

Malaria control / elimination
Integrated community case management (iCCM) for malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea
Nutrition
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)
Malaria Consortium is a sub-recipient for the new grant of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GF) under the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) and Catholic Relief Services as the principal recipients.
The goal of the grant is to contribute towards reducing the malaria burden to preelimination levels and bringing malaria-related mortality to zero by 2025 in Nigeria.
This project aims to achieve seven objectives while delivering high quality malaria services in 14 states (MC implementing in 5 of the states – Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Niger, Yobe, and iCCM only in Jigawa and Niger) through improved service delivery mechanisms, demand creation and health system strengthening strategies.
Improve access and utilization of vector control interventions to at least 80% of targeted population by 2025.
Ensure provision of chemoprevention, diagnosis and appropriate treatment for 80% of the target populations at risk by 2025
Improve generation of evidence for decision making and impact through reporting of quality malaria data and information from at least 80% of health facilities (public and private) and other data sources including surveillance, surveys and operations research by 2025.
Strengthen coordination, collaboration, and strategic partnership to promote efficiency and effectiveness of malaria control activities towards achieving at least 75% improvement from baseline using a standardized OCA tool.
Improve funding for malaria control by at least 25% annually through predictable and innovative sources to ensure sustainability at federal and sub-national levels

Job Purpose:

To work with the country office team and GF Senior Project Manager to effectively manage project activities and resources, provide leadership and stewardship to the project team and maintain collaborative links with the project’s key stakeholders at national and sub-national level.

Key Working Relationships:

The State Project manager would be working with the state team and stakeholders in their States, especially the State Ministries of Health and LGA Departments of Health / PHC, manage the rollout and implementation of the malaria and iCCM activities in project states.
S / he would report to the Senior Project Manager.

Scope of Work:

The State Project Manager (SPM) would support the programme activities at state levels, being in charge of state to ensure timely project delivery of the programme to achieve given targets and objectives.

Key Accountabilities

Project management (60%):

Work with the programme team and other relevant personnel in the country office to lead activities for smooth project start up and planning in line with the GF Malaria Project Implementation Plan
Work with the relevant personnel to prepare all necessary project start up and planning tools on time
To build and performance manage an effective and technically unsurpassed GF project team in the states with their zone
Work directly with the SPM and be responsible for coordinating overall project implementation in the states within the zone and see that activities are carried out on time and within budget
Liaise regularly with the SPM to provide timely and comprehensive updates and reports as required
Liaise with other PRs, SRs and partners relevant for successful GF malaria implementation in the state
Work with the project team to develop and implement annual work plans
Work closely with the SPM to prepare the programme monitoring and evaluation plan in conjunction with the Project M&E Manager. Work with the project team to implement it
Work with the country finance team and project finance associate to prepare and track progress of project and activity budgets
Be responsible for zonal project budget management and reporting
Be responsible for preparing project Progress Update and Disbursement Request (PUDR) which is submitted to the Principal Recipient (PR) quarterly, including narrative reports on a timely basis
Work with the project Finance Associate and SPM to prepare quarterly financial reports
Work with the relevant country personnel and the SPM to prepare an exit strategy and to implement it, to see to the smooth end of the programme
Coordinate with other donors and implementers to ensure complementarity of implementation of the GF malaria project in project states by leveraging resources and harmonizing efforts where possible
Work with the Country Communication Manager, the Country Technical Coordinator, SPM, programme PRs and SR for social mobilization to see that a programme communications strategy is developed and implemented
Coordinate the documentation of GF supported activities in form of activity-specific reports and ensure proper archiving of such for easy access and reference
Contribute to quarterly preparations for PR-SR coordination meetings in form of progress updates and power point presentations
Be responsible for quarterly lessons identification and learning documentation and dissemination
Be responsible for building functional partner relationships among the project’s stakeholders
Oversee project partner’s inputs and subcontractors’ activities to deliver harmonized, aligned and effective outputs
Manage risks to Malaria Consortium including financial, reputation and security in a challenging environment
Work with the project M&E Officer and Country M&E Specialist to ensure that high quality project data is collected, analysed and disseminated to relevant stakeholders at all levels and reported to PI

Technical Contributions (10%):

Work with the project teams, SPM and the Country Technical Coordinator to determine technical support needs to implement the project effectively and with high quality. Liaise with the Country Technical Coordinator to obtain regional or global technical support
Contribute to the development and production of dissemination documents to allow wider sharing of Malaria Consortium’s experiences, lessons and successes

Technical Performance Management and Quality Assurance (20%):

Take the lead in monitoring and evaluating project performance
Keep abreast with evidence and best practices that are related to the project

Representation (10%):

Work with the Country Director, Country Technical Coordinator and SPM to participate in national level meetings and workshops to represent Malaria Consortium at programmatic and coordination events
Liaise regularly with CRS’s focal persons on respective project activities and the GF PMU through the SPM keeping the relevant Country Team in loop of communication
Work with the Country Director, Country Technical Coordinator and SPM to keep key national stakeholders abreast with the project
To exert influence and to advocate for Malaria Consortium’s key technical positions and promote best practice in malaria and iCCM interventions

Person Specification

Qualifications and Experience

Essential:

Postgraduate or Master's degree in Public Health, Health Policy, Epidemiology or another relevant specialty is a minimum requirement
Extensive experience of working at national or state level in developing countries
Excellent project planning, management and monitoring & evaluation skills
Experience managing project budgets
Proven leadership skills and team leading
Experience in advocacy and policy influencing
Excellent written and spoken English

Desirable: