Senior Health Systems Strengthening Advisor Vacancy at Malaria Consortium

Posted on: Thu 07-11-2019

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: Senior Health Systems Strengthening Advisor

Location: Abuja, Nigeria

Grade: 11

Role type: National

Travel involved: Up to 40%

Department: Technical Length of contract: Five years

Reporting to: Line manager: Team Leader, SUNMAP2

Direct reports: Supply Chain expert, Budgeting and financial management expert

Country and Project Background

Malaria is highly endemic in Nigeria and it remains one of the leading causes of childhood and maternal morbidity and mortality in the country. Nigeria is deeply committed to making progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and it recognizes the fact that, without firm efforts to control malaria, achievement of the targets related to child mortality, maternal mortality, and reducing the burden of communicable disease will not be possible. Malaria therefore constitutes a significant development challenge for Nigeria.
Interventions for reducing malaria burden in the country are documented in the national malaria strategic plan with Government taking the lead in its implementation with the support of all the RBM partners.
The DFID funded and Malaria Consortium led malaria programme, SUNMAP, provided technical assistance and other support to the Nigeria National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) covering the period 2008 to 2016.
The anticipated follow on project, SUNMAP2 has been designed to strengthen the management and technical capacity of NMEP, State Malaria Elimination Programme (SMEP) and their stakeholders to drive the implementation of the National Malaria Strategic Plan, 2014 to 2020 and achieve its ambitious targets.
This will include short term technical assistance and technical assistance embedded in NMEP in key areas of programme management, evidence generation and use, and capacity building across all project outputs and ultimately reducing Nigeria’s malaria burden and strengthening the Government of Nigeria’s health systems capacity to ensure long term programme and impact sustainability.

Job Purpose

The Health Systems Strengthening Expert will provide technical leadership on all aspects of health systems to improve the quality of service delivery in both the public and private health sectors using malaria as the entry point into the health system at Federal and State levels.

He/she will lead the design and oversight of interventions which use the WHO Health Systems framework and Malaria Consortium’s approach to health systems strengthening to facilitate changes required to embed and institutionalise SUNMAP2 into the Nigeria Health system at Federal, State and LGA levels.

The position holder will work closely with the project team and Short Term Technical Assistance (STTA) to implement evidence-based approaches to achieve the projects outcomes.

The position holder will serve as a resource for up-to-date technical information on how malaria can be used to strengthen health systems including providing technical support to NMEP, SMEP and other key stakeholders.

He/She will supervise a team of two experts and support them to implement work plans in a coherent and harmonised manner.

Scope of Work:

The position holder will lead the development, working with the project team and STTA, of SUNMAP2’s strategy on health systems strengthening using malaria as an entry point into the health system at Federal, State and LGA levels.

He/She will be the focal point for the DFID health systems programme to ensure coordination and harmonisation.

He/She will harness and coordinate expert inputs from STTA into strategy development, oversight and implementation. He/she will support project team members to adapt the strategy into all streams of work and build capacity of project teams and implementing partners to deliver the projects health systems strengthening strategy.

He/She will provide and coordinate HSS technical assistance to the National and State Ministries of Health, including their Malaria Elimination Programmes. This will require them to identify gaps which can be addressed through technical assistance.

He/She will support NMEP in its efforts in harmonisation, partner coordination and donor alignment.

He/she will also look to engage with broader health issues such as the sustainable goals for development.

The position holder will lead the projects efforts towards the institutionalisation of specific malaria control interventions such as seasonal malaria chemoprevention and integrated community case management.

He/She will represent the programme on relevant technical working groups, such as the Capacity Building working group under the Programme Management subcommittee.

Key Working Relationships:

The Senior Health Systems Strengthening Expert will mobilise and coordinate with a broad range of stakeholders to embed the project within the Nigeria health system at Federal and State levels.

They will work closely with the National Malaria Elimination Programme, State Malaria Elimination Programmes in the six SUNMAP2 supported states, public and private sector actors in the malaria control landscape and SUNMAP2’s STTA providers.

Along with the Team Leader/Project Director he/she will liaise periodically with DFID Nigeria.

He/She will be a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT) of the project.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Experience:

Essential:

Postgraduate Degree in Public Health or Development related fields, with a focus on health systems strengthening approaches
At least 8 years working in technical role with an excellent understanding of health systems
Significant experience in intervention design and implementation of large-scale health projects
Familiarity with the challenges and opportunities of strengthening health systems in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA)
Experience with value-for-money measurements
Familiarity with the Nigerian health system, including government planning and budgeting processes at Federal and State levels.

Desirable:

Significant knowledge in communicable diseases control

Experience of supporting development of learning processes and structures, ideally in an NGO context

Experience working with private sector actors involved in health services delivery

Work-based skills:

Essential:

Excellent skills in public health, and in particular related to malaria Strong analytical ability
Excellent writing and presentation skills
Management of high performing teams, including ability to delegate efficiently and technically support teams
Mentoring and coaching skills with respect to junior staff
Strong skills in negotiating with and engaging Ministry of Health Officials at all levels of the health system
Ability to work in a multicultural team
Results-oriented attitude to work
Excellent time management skills
Ability to work independently with little support
Practical organisational skills with the ability to manage a fluctuating workload, prioritise and reprioritise when necessary and meet tight deadlines
Able to travel to SUNMAP2 supported states for up to one week at a time to oversee implementation activities
Attention to detail
Problem solving mind-set
Positive work attitude; a team player