Health Manager, Sierra Leone

VSO is the world's leading independent international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries. VSO's high-impact approach involves bringing people together to share skills, build capabilities, promote international understanding and action, and change lives to make the world a fairer place for all. VSO has around 1,500 volunteers working with partner organisations in 36 countries.

A volunteer placement is currently open in Sierra Leone.

Employer: Bo District Health Management Team
City, Country: Bo District, Southern Province
Start date: 1 December 2012
Length: 12 months

In this placement you will be working with the District Health Management Team (DHMT) of Bo District. The DHMT is a government institution under the Ministry of Health and Sanitation which manages overall health activities in the district, working closely with the district’s government hospital and the periphery health units. The DHMT’s tasks also include organising monthly health sectoral meetings with various stakeholders in the district and solicit support for funding from donor agencies. This is a very unique opportunity to contribute strategically to the improvement of health status of the people in Sierra Leone.

What does the role involve?

You will be assisting the Bo DHMT in the following:

• Developing new plans and identifying implementation strategies for existing plans of the district health services
• Improving the working system and the teamwork within the District Health Management Team
• Coordinating monitoring and evaluation activities
• Coordinating with the Periphery Health Units in implementing the health plans as well as providing management trainings for the staff in the periphery

Skills, qualifications and experience required
This placement requires you to have at least 3 years experience in a management role (preferably in a public health or hospital setting), including practical experience in human resource, financial, and project management. You’ll need skills in teaching/coaching/training as well as in team building. An excellent communication and inter-personal skills, ability to work on own initiative, problem solving attitude, flexibility and adaptability, and a good sense of humour are essential for this placement.

And the rest...
You will be based in Bo, which is the main town in Bo District, Southern Province. It is located 4-hour drive from the capital city, Freetown, and as the second largest city after Freetown, it has relatively better facilities than any other districts and infrastructure is improving. There are currently two VSO volunteers in Bo until August 2012 and December 2012 respectively.
We’ll ask you to commit 12 months to make a sustainable contribution to development goals and in return we’ll provide you with invaluable training before your placement, a local living allowance, return flights, accommodation and insurance. When you return to your home country we’ll help you resettle and we’ll invite you to stay involved with us through campaigning, development awareness raising and fundraising.

To apply for this role please visit VSO Netherland vacancies and put the following reference on your application form: S0293/0002/0001