Senior Technical Officer at Malaria Consortium

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 Technical Officer

Location: Niger
Department: Technical
Length of contract: 4-years
Role type: National
Grade: 8
Travel involved: In-country
Child safeguarding level: TBD
Reporting to: Programme Manager

Country and Project Background

• In Nigeria, many women of child bearing age (44,000) and children under-five (940,000) die annually from preventable and treatable causes (UNICEF/WHO 2012). While the trends show that Nigeria has made progress since the 1990s in reducing under-five and maternal mortality rates, the country remains the second largest contributor to under-five and maternal deaths in the world (UNICEF 2018).
• Niger State Government is committed to improving her Health sector and articulated this state health plan and adoption of ‘primary health care under one roof’ policy to reduce fragmentation of services and to bring their management under one authority. The state leadership is also committed to increasing the number of primary health care centres in compliance with the national standards by having a focal centre per ward.
• Niger State Government has also entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to strengthen its primary health care (PHC) system. The BMGF component of the MoU is delivered through technical assistance grants implemented by other partners with a focus on strengthening: leadership and governance of health services, health care financing, Human Resources for health, health information management, access to affordable medical products, service delivery and community engagement in health service delivery.
• Malaria Consortium has recently received Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation four (4) year grant to provide ‘wrap- around’ technical assistance for implementation of the community based health service delivery component of the state plan through harmonizing and integration of the various health service interventions at the community level including maternal and child health services.

Job Purpose

• S/he will work with the state Programme Manager to set up and implement the technical assistance (TA) management and quality assurance (QA) systems and processes.
• This will also include the identification of TA needs and organisation of appropriate capacity building activities required.

Scope of Work:

• The Technical Officer (TO) will support Niger State community-based PHC programme activities through provision of TA to the State Ministry of Health (SMOH) and SPHCDA to scale–up quality CHIPS (Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Services) delivery (both supply and demand side).
• S/he will work with the project manager and team to ensure the TA provided by the project (both long and short term) are of high quality and timely and meets the need as documented in the state plan.

Key Working Relationships:

• The TO working under the line-management of the Programme Manager (PM) and in close collaboration with the state (SPHCDA and SMOH), LGA, community actors, stakeholders and partners, will deliver aspects of the project as per the specified job tasks and expected deliverables.

Key Accountabilities 
Technical contributions (70%):

• Contribute to the design and implementation of a situation analysis prior to the commencement of the CHIPS roll out.
• Support the identification of gaps and TA needs in the state and contribute to the development of a TA plan for the project.
• Work closely with the PM and other stakeholders to provide TA in state wide roll-out of CHIPS strategy.
• Provide technical input in the development of training plans and manuals for the roll-out of CHIPS
• Coordinate technical assistance on project strategies, development and review of work plan, implementation of activities; and ensure that the QA process is implemented.
• Provide technical support for the drafting of terms of reference, quality-assuring deliverables, tracking of assignment status, as well as other required logistics for project activities.

Project Delivery (10%):

• Work with the relevant personnel to prepare all project start-up and planning and implementation tools on time.
• Contribute to quarterly lessons identification and learning documentation and dissemination.
• Preparation and submission of project service delivery activity reports to Programme Manager
• Contribute to project exit strategy as part of project design and ensure inclusion of relevant activities to promote sustainability within the work-plan and smooth transition of the project to government.

Technical performance management and quality assurance (20%):

• Take the lead in ensuring roll-out of project service delivery activities meets international standards of quality
• Document evidence and best practices that are related to the programme
• Support the design of a system/tool for community-based PHC supervision drawing from the results of the situation analysis.
• Adapt Malaria Consortium’s TA quality assurance (QA) systems to the project and take the lead in rolling them out.
• Assess the capacities of State and LGAs and address identified challenges including building the transformational leadership capacities at the SPHCDA level

Person Specification

Qualifications and Experience
Essential:

• Degree in Medical, Public Health, Health Policy, Epidemiology or another relevant specialty is a minimum requirement
• A minimum of 3-5-years’ experience in a similar environment and a related role
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• A good understanding of the Nigerian health systems as well as community health delivery systems

Work-based Skills and Competencies
Essential:

• Knowledge of Public health principles and approaches with emphasis on Nigeria
• Excellent project planning, technical, management, monitoring & evaluation skills
• Technical knowledge and skills in management and prevention of childhood illnesses, maternal health, and other public health diseases.
• Excellent knowledge of community engagement, training and learning techniques
• Familiarity with monitoring and evaluation of community-based health programmes
• Excellent report writing and presentation skills are also needed

Core Competencies 
Delivering results:
LEVEL C – Supports others to achieve results:

• Displays a positive and enthusiastic approach and is not deterred by setbacks, finding alternative ways to reach goals or targets
• Supports others to plan and deliver results
• Supports others to manage and cope with setbacks

Analysis and use of information:
LEVEL B – Uses evidence to support work:

• Identifies and uses various sources of evidence and feedback to support outputs
• Uses evidence to evaluate policies, projects and programmes
• Identifies links between events and information identifying trends, issues and risks
• Ensures systems are in place to address organisation needs

Interpersonal and communications:
LEVEL C – Adapts communications effectively:

• Tailors communication (content, style and medium) to diverse audiences
• Communicates equally effectively at all organisational levels
• Understands others’ underlying needs, concerns and motivations and communicates effectively in sensitive situations
• Resolves intra-team and inter-team conflicts effectively

Collaboration and Partnering:
LEVEL C – Builds strong networks internally and participates actively in external networks and think tanks

• Builds strong networks internally
• Participates actively in external networks and/or think tanks
• Engages with relevant experts to gather and evaluate evidence
• Shares and implements good practice with internal and external peers

Leading and motivating people:
LEVEL B – Manages own development and seeks opportunities

• Actively manages own development and performance positively
• Learns lessons from successes and failures
• Seeks and explores opportunities within Malaria Consortium which develop skills and expertise

Flexibility/ adaptability:
LEVEL B – Remains professional under external pressure:

• Able to adapt to changing situations effortlessly
• Remains constructive and positive under stress and able to tolerate difficult situations and environments
• Plans, prioritises and performs tasks well under pressure
• Learns from own successes / mistakes

Living the values:
LEVEL C – Supports others to live Malaria Consortium’s values:

• Demonstrates personal integrity by using role position responsibly and fairly
• Cultivates an open culture within the wider team, promoting accountability,

Salary
Competitive.

Application Closing Date
25th March, 2019.

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