Senior Health Finance Advisor – Integrated Health Program – Abuja at Palladium Group

Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with foundations, investors, governments, corporations, communities and civil society to formulate strategies and implement solutions that generate lasting social, environmental and financial benefits.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Senior Health Finance Advisor – Integrated Health Program

Job ID: req11377
Location: Abuja (FCT)
Reporting to: The Technical Lead for Health Systems Strengthening
Employment Type: Full Time
Travel: Frequent travel to 3 – 5 States.

Project Overview and Role

Palladium is recruiting a Senior Health Finance Advisor who will support the USAID/Nigeria Integrated Health Program (IHP) to support activities related to health financing for universal health coverage.
These responsibilities will require a person with knowledge on national and state governments as well as the private health sector participation.
This is a full-time position based in Abuja, Nigeria with frequent travel to 3-5 states, and reporting to the Technical Lead for Health Systems Strengthening.
We are recruiting a Senior Health Financing Advisor to provide content knowledge, technical assistance, and support for the development and execution of health financing and economics activities.
Areas of expertise include fiscal space analysis, budget tracking, bottleneck analysis, system of health accounts, resource needs and financing gap analysis, domestic resource mobilization, risk pooling and health insurance, designing costed packages of services and strategic purchasing.
Methodologies that may be applied include systematic literature reviews, qualitative and quantitative surveys, governance/regulatory assessments, innovative financing and financial feasibility of proposals for expansion of health programs and risk-pooling schemes.
The Senior Health Finance Advisor will provide technical assistance to and build capacity of country policymakers, state program managers and decision-makers; design and or conduct studies; and write position papers, reports, and technical briefs to inform relevant audiences.
The candidate will be required to determine methods and procedures on new assignments, and both implement and manage other staff or consultants in carrying them out.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Provides health financing expertise/technical assistance to National and State activities of the project, working with other technical staff and host country government institutions.
Designs and executes the overall health financing strategy for the project and support the MEL team to track the achievement of project results for health financing under the USAID contract.
Provides remote and on-the-ground technical, managerial, and operational oversight, capacity building and mentoring to specific projects and activities in States settings related to areas of core expertise.
Works with the national and state level actors to establish and or strengthen multi sectoral health financing technical working groups (TWGs) to institutionalize ongoing health financing reforms.
Provides technical advisory support to the state’s contributory health agencies, state health trust fund agencies, and other relevant stakeholder platforms.
Analyzes the economic and financing implications of implementing enhanced health systems, increasing access to and improving quality of primary healthcare services, including integrated reproductive/family planning, maternal and newborn health, child health, nutrition and malaria.
Provides expert technical guidance towards the design and effective implementation of state contributory health schemes for improved revenue generation, increased risk pooling and shift to strategic purchasing.
Provides technical support to the National Steering Committee of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) to ensure funds flow through the NHIS and NPHCDA gateways to the states.
Provides guidance to NPHCDA, FMOH and state governments regarding budgeting and for service delivery activities and HRH, and innovative financing.
Uses various quantitative and qualitative techniques to perform financing and policy analysis tasks. Conducts health financing core analytics, expenditure analyses, economic evaluations and develop resource mobilization plans for sustainable health financing systems.
Participates in and prepares necessary technical and program-related reports, including presentations and white papers.
Organizes and facilitates as needed project/program trainings, conferences, workshops, and meetings. Is responsible for the development of health financing activity-specific work plans and budgets.
Ensures quality of services and compliance per project/program requirements.
Provide functional guidance to outside vendors/grantees working on health finance related tasks to ensure deliverables are met within timelines and budgets.
Represent IHP at health financing meetings/events and actively participate in the national health financing
Technical Working Group and other relevant technical committees.
Document health financing success stories/lessons learned and produce publishable health financing materials including policy briefs and peer-reviewed articles.
Performs other related duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Required Qualifications
The following may be acquired through a combination of formal or self-education, prior experience or on-the-job training:

Advanced degree (MA, MSc, PhD) in economics, health economics, relevant social sciences or public health with academic specialization in health financing or commensurate work experience in health finance
At least 5 years of health finance experience and broad knowledge in Nigeria’s governance and health finance landscape
Sound knowledge of methodologies used in health finance research, economic analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, quantitative analysis, and statistical/econometric analysis
Knowledge of relevant literature and state of the art interventions related to topic area
Demonstrated problem solving, analytic, financial, and evaluative skills
Attention to detail and ability to effectively and efficiently perform multiple tasks and balance competing priorities often within a required timeframe
Professional and mature demeanor and conduct
Ability to respond and adapt quickly to changing requirements and competing demands
Ability to take initiative and/or respond independently to situations
Appropriate software skills necessary to conduct research, and to conduct analysis of study data, such as STATA, SPSS, or equivalent
Strong written and oral communication skills for high-level policy audiences (writing examples may be required)
Fluency in English required, and local languages (Hausa) preferred
Ability and willingness to travel up to 50% of the time within Nigeria, including to states in the north.