CHARITY JOBS IN AFRICA

Organization: Tiyatien Health
Country: Liberia
Closing date: 02 Mar 2015

Director, Health Systems Policy and Planning

ABOUT LAST MILE HEALTH

Founded by survivors of Liberia’s civil war, Last Mile Health (LMH) (known in Liberia as Tiyatien Health) is committed to saving lives in the world’s most remote villages. Working in remote jungle communities cut off from even basic life-saving health services, LMH is building a health system that reaches everyone—by bringing health care to villagers’ doorsteps. LMH trains community members to be health practitioners for their villages and connects them with rural health clinics to offer every person access to the care they deserve. These Frontline Health Workers are able to prevent, diagnose, and treat the top ten most life-threatening health conditions. LMH plans to leverage this experience to help the Liberian government design, deploy and sustain a national network of community health workers that can have a transformative impact on maternal and child health outcomes across Liberia.

Over the past six months, an unprecedented Ebola outbreak has demonstrated that weak, inequitable health systems leave everyone vulnerable. To match a historic crisis with a historic response, LMH is launching a significant expansion of the organization’s rural healthcare model, integrated with a package of Ebola treatment and health facility strengthening efforts across the southeast. This project aims to deploy a comprehensive health system—from life-saving essential primary care services in remote communities to inpatient Ebola treatment and tertiary care in health facilities—and to work with the Liberian government to sustain that system and expand it to the rest of the country in the coming years.

GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:

LMH is building a health systems policy and planning team, based in Liberia’s Ministry of Health (MOH) in Monrovia. This team will provide technical support to the MOH to marshal a comprehensive Ebola outbreak and transition response that strengthens the overall health system in the long-term for everyone’s benefit – no matter where they live. LMH will help design and implement a nation-wide Community Health Worker program and ensure national health system improvements are realized at the community level. To achieve this, a health systems policy and planning team consisting of highly-motivated, diplomatic, and experienced specialists will provide technical advice to MOH officials, support the implementation of community health programs in coordination with other NGO and institutional partners, conduct focused capacity-building projects, and provide long-term analysis and thought leadership for the Liberian public health system.

The Director of the Health Systems Policy and Planning team will be a trusted advisor and the principal institutional liaison to senior MOHSW officials, as well as provide technical leadership and management to the team itself. The Director will help the MOHSW direct attention and resources towards national community health priorities outlined in the national Community Health Roadmap such as national deployment of community health workers. The Director will initiate and steer new projects, leverage the appropriate expertise within the Health Systems Policy and Planning team to ensure these priorities are featured in the government’s decisions ranging from health financing, human resources for health, and clinical protocols. The Director is also responsible for overseeing all aspects of program management activities, including but not limited to program planning, budgeting, staffing, qualitative and quantitative analysis and reporting.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

Provide Strategic Support to MOHSW

• Serve as a trusted advisor to MOH to ensure that major new and ongoing Ebola response efforts are designed and implemented to strengthen all levels of the public health system over the long-term.
• Work alongside senior MOH officials to identify community health system strengthening initiatives and leverage the expertise of the appropriate health systems policy and planning specialists to support their implementation. This includes identifying technical assistance needs within MOH and with relevant partners such as the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the World Bank.
• Actively participate in planning and coordination meetings among senior MOH officials and other stakeholders to identify and mobilize resources for community health priorities such as the expansion of a national community health worker program and other components of the national Community Health Roadmap.

Program Management

• Along with the organization’s senior leadership, assist in setting the overall direction and goals of the Health Systems Policy and Planning team, defining targets, setting aggressive milestones and measuring program performance.
• Manage the operational and administrative aspects of the Health Systems Policy and Planning team, including budgeting, human resources and internal and external reporting requirements.
• Prepare team members’ workplans with clear objectives and achievement benchmarks, long-term and short-term priorities, implementation plans, financial projections and tools for evaluation.
• Ensure work streams effectively address health system weaknesses at the community level and contribute to Liberia’s broader MDG progress and other health sector goals.
• Hold weekly coordination meetings with the team and provide strategic guidance to individual team members.

Relationship management and thought leadership

• Engage and manage relationships with senior MOH leaders and key development partners to identify new opportunities to collaborate with partners to leverage expertise that benefits new and ongoing projects under the health systems policy and planning team.
• Drawing on guidance from the LMH Programs team, and the expertise of the Health Systems Policy and Planning team, identify, articulate and advocate for specific opportunities to address health system weaknesses at the community level in senior government and partner forums.
• Manage external relations by representing the project and the organization in the public and ensuring the distribution of information about project achievements and lesson learned among relevant actors and across departments within the organization.

REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS:

REPORTS DIRECTLY TO: Country Director

WORKS DIRECTLY WITH: MOHS staff and officials, partners, and Liberia-based Programs team, including Medical, M&E, and Frontline Health Systems Directors

SUPERVISES: Health Systems Policy and Planning Specialists

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

• A Master’s degree in business administration, public health, or related subject
• Minimum of 5 years work experience, preferably in influencing health system policies alongside government counterparts
• Demonstrated experience in project and operational management in complex and uncertain environments
• Experience motivating and empowering multiple direct reports to achieve aggressive milestones
• Ability to navigate complex government processes and negotiate and achieve consensus with multiple influencers
• Demonstrated success in working with supporting high-level officials and stakeholders
• Generosity of spirit, sensitivity/diplomacy, and willingness to make sacrifices in service of the mission
• Commitment to health and social justice
• Excellent verbal, visual and written communication skills
• Experience working in a post-conflict or resource-poor setting
• Flexibility and ability to handle multiple tasks at one time in time-sensitive manner
• Comfort working with a casual but high-performing team
• High degree of English fluency required

SUCCESS FACTORS:

The successful Director of Health System Policy and Planning will exhibit excellent diplomatic and strategic skills to establish credibility and provide thoughtful guidance to senior MOHSW officials to affect positive change to Liberia’s health system. This individual will be a great mentor, manager, role model and team player who demonstrates exceptionally high performance and harnesses the same from a diverse, talented and dynamic Health Systems Policy and Planning team based in Monrovia.

Commitment: 40 hours/week, Minimum 12-month commitment (24 months preferred)

Location: Monrovia, Liberia

Compensation: Salary commensurate with experience; housing, R&R, and medical benefits available

How to apply:

Applications accepted on a rolling basis via Last Mile Health website