Sierra Leone National Health Coordinator

National Health Coordinator Sierra Leone JOB REFERENCE: MM/NH/SIL

Concern Worldwide is an Irish-based non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries. Job Title: National Health Coordinator Reports to: Assistant Country Director Programmes Job Location: Freetown with frequent travel to the programme area in Tonkolili Contract Details: 2 year, grade B, Unaccompanied Job Purpose: To lead Concern’s health programme in Sierra Leone and be responsible for overall implementation and achievement of strategic objectives of health programme.

Main duties & Responsibilities (Including Training Role): Programme Development and Management •Lead the processes of developing five year’s country health programme in line with Concern Sierra Leone’s new country strategic plan for 2011-2015. •Design, implement and manage overall Health Program including WATSAN at the field and national level with high quality and participation of community and other stakeholders in line with the country strategy. •To provide technical backstopping to the health team, and ensuring the development and utilization of best practices for specific technical interventions and ensuring coherence and programming excellence of the same. Also, ensure that Concern’s programme remains relevant to the external environment and needs of the targeted communities. •Ensure that the core principles and policies of Concern regarding equality, Programme Participants Protection Policy, HAP Standards, Community Based Complaint and Response Mechanisms are implemented across health programme, monitored and reported.
•With support of Mainstreaming Coordinator/Advisor and other relevant team members, ensure effective mainstreaming of HIV and AIDS, equality, DRR, and application of RBA across health programme. •Conduct risk and vulnerability analysis in the health sector to identify issues related to inequality, GBV, vulnerability to HIV and AIDS, DRR and develop action plan to address those issues through ongoing programme activities. Ensure that activities planned to address these activities are not add ons rather fully integrated with the health programme •Overall management and supervision of construction works related to health programmes in close coordination with Programme Engineer, Watsan Coordinator and Construction Manager. •Be the focal point from Concern Sierra Leone to manage WATSAN Consortium project. •Proposal Development, Grants and Financial Management •Analyse the funding requirements and opportunities and develop funding proposals of high quality in consultation with line manager, relevant communities and other stakeholders. •Effective management of all aspects of donor grants for health sector. Prepare high quality donor reports as per the donor agreement and submit in time. •Prepare health sector annual budget, monthly forecast, monitor the expenditures on monthly basis. Highlight any variances with justifications •Review the budget three times a year in line with activity plan and with participation of all team members. •Ensure that all expenditures of health sectors are correctly coded. •Develop annual procurement plan for health sector and review it on quarterly basis along with Systems team. Send the entire supply request in time with correct specifications and budget code. •Human resource development •Conduct training needs assessment of staff and partners, develop a training calendar and organise training and exposure visits as per the need. Advise ACD-Programmes and HR manager regarding human resource development of the staff on the sector. Develop a strategy for capacity building of staff and assist in providing training / facilitating workshops, as required, for internal HRD activities.
•Directly line manage 4 national staff and one international health trainee. Review and develop clear role and responsibility for each staff, set clear objectives and conduct annual performance review of all staff and give feedback in appropriate way. •Provide effective mentoring and coaching to health programme team at individual level to build their capacity. •Develop clear job description for any new position in the health team. •Ensure clear communication with the health team on key priorities, conduct regular meetings to discuss the key priorities and develop realistic plans and follow up closely to achieve those plans.
•Monitoring, evaluation and learning, Innovation •Prepare annual sector and operational plan including M&E system of the district health and watsan programme. •Regular monitoring and support visits to the field areas, strengthen direct dialogue with the community. •Develop clear indicators at outcome level as well as for process. Integrate these indicators in the regular reporting systems. Develop a system for collection of information on key indicators with high accuracy and timely manner. Do regular analysis of information and give feedback to the team.
•Conduct monitoring and evaluation of programme regularly and as required and document learning to share with colleagues and stakeholders. •Visit at least 3-4 communities every month to monitor programmes and support the team in the field. •Organise review meetings and measure the progress as per the indicators and milestones set up in the logical framework •Prepare monthly report of the health sector with high quality and submit to ACDP in time. •Prepare annual report of health sector with high quality and submit to ACDp in time. •Ensure to maintain record of all the regular activities and special events including minutes of internal and external meetings •Produce, procure and disseminate information, education and communication materials and promote culture of learning and sharing within organisation. •Take lead of preparing case studies, media briefs and other reports on health. •Based on individual and organizational learning, initiate to pilot new ideas / innovative approaches in local setting to influence outcome and impact of the programme in general and specific to policy.
•Initiate and conduct research on relevant issues in health sector to achieve objectives of health sector. •Programme integration and partnership development •Strengthen partnership with Ministry of Health and Sanitation at central level and decentralized government at districts level. •Initiate and develop relevant partnership with local NGOs, CBOs and collaborate with other line ministries, national and international organisations at national and district level for the similar activities. Follow Concern’s partnership guidelines, conduct assessment of potential partners using CLOFAT and CLOSAT. •Collaborate and integrate health programme with Food Income and Market (FIM) and Education programmes and implement programmes in more holistic way in line with Concern’s global strategy.
•Networking, Liaison and Advocacy
•Act as Concern Health programme’s representative (in consultation with CD and ACDP) with the government, non-state actors, and donors at district, national and related international fora, particularly with a view to sharing Concern’s experiences and contributing to policy debates. •Initiate advocacy on relevant issues in the health sector to achieve strategic objectives of Concern Health Programme in Sierra Leone. Identify issues of advocacy, develop a clear advocacy strategy and plan integrated with health sector annual plan and implement it with high standards. •Support the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to develop mechanisms for an equitable primary healthcare programme especially, components of Reproductive Child Health and Water and Sanitation. •Be responsible to liaise and participate in health initiatives by Alliance 2015 in Sierra Leone and when requested, participate in Regional initiatives and networks on health as required. •Regularly participate in health INGO meeting, health sector implementing partners meeting and other forums as requested by ACDP and CD. Prepare a short report of each meeting and update CD and ACDP. General Responsibility •Ensure the efficient and transparent use of all Concern’s resources in order to maximize the benefit to the targeted communities. •Promote and ensure compliance with the requirements of Concern’s Programme Participants Protection Policy to ensure maximum protection to programme beneficiaries. •Support Country Management Team in strengthening coordination and collaboration within teams and across all teams, maintain and ensure constructive communications, contribute to a positive working environment •Promote and protect the reputation of Concern in external settings, ensuring that the organization’s experience and expertise is well communicated and consistently presented, and that we are looked to as a professional organization.

Person specification: Essential: •Qualified health professional with strong Public/ Community Health experience in development context •Minimum of 7-8 years experience of implementing and managing primary health care, WATSAN and Reproductive & Child Health programs in a development context •Experiences of project planning, monitoring and reviews, budget planning and management •Working with communities, local NGO partners and government officials •Strong advocacy experience and skills •Experience of capacity building of national staff and members of the community •Experience of liaising, networking, advocating with and influencing senior Government officials and policy makers •Experience in training and application of participatory methods and rights based approaches •Experience of fund raising and donor grants management, monitoring of large programmes •Proven ability to report on impact/result of the health programme

Desirable: •Experience in: working with partner organizations, strategic development of country level health programming especially in post war contexts, mainstreaming of cross cutting themes like HIV and AIDS, equality •Graduate in community development; Public health/ Community Health or other related subject •Training or experience in health system reforms; reproductive health; HIV/AIDS •Training of trainers & facilitation skills

Special Skills, Aptitude or Personality Requirements: Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, honest and transparent in resource management, good team building skills and attitude, mentoring and coaching, strong innovative skills in analysis, advocacy and action research; proven skills in programme planning, development, management, analysis, operations management, assessing and reporting to external grants providers; excellent English writing skills, strong negotiation and representation skills; proven skills in monitoring and review with a special emphasis on impact/result monitoring; Good understanding of development issues with emphasis on participation and sustainability; Common sense and team approach.

All applications should be submitted through our website at www.concern.net/jobs before the closing date.

Please note that CV’s should be no longer than 4 pages in length.

Concern has a Staff Code of Conduct and a Programme Participant Protection Policy which have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organization, and the standards of behaviour expected of them. In this context staff have a responsibility to the organization to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment. By signing the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct candidates acknowledge that they have understood the contents of both the Concern Staff Code of Conduct and the Programme Participant Protection Policy and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these two documents Concern receives a substantial amount of funding from external donors each year. Increasingly donors are introducing requirements whereby future funding is conditional on Concern ensuring that the names of any new employee or volunteer do not appear on terrorism lists generated by the European Union (List of person, groups and entities to which Regulation (EC No. 2580/2001 applies), the US Government (Office of Foreign Assets Control list of specially designated Nationals and Blocked Persons) and the United Nations (Consolidated List).
Any offer of employment (either paid or voluntary) with Concern Worldwide will not be made pending a clearance check being conducted on the applicant. For additional information please consult our web site or contact the Human Resource Division in our Head Office. Concern Worldwide is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.