Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) Advisor at Save the Children

Role Purpose 

He/she will be responsible for overall technical leadership and guidance for developing and implementing a broad health system strengthening framework to improve organization and delivery of nutrition & health services in the NAWIRI project. The HSS Advisor will work to embed sustainability mechanisms for stronger county health systems in the project. He/she will be responsible for implementation of Health Systems Strengthening component in close liaison with the Nutrition & Health Technical Lead, the Chief of Party, the other technical advisors and the rest of the project team.  She/he will work the County Management Health Teams (CMHT), and other counterparts in health & nutrition service delivery.

Management Role: In addition, he/she has overall responsibility for the strategic management of the project’s implementation and operation activities, in accordance with Save the Children’s policies and practices, its vision, mission and values. 

NAWIRI is a 5 year U.S. Government (USAID and Food For Peace) funded project designed to tackle persistent acute malnutrition rates in northern Kenya. The project is co-created, co-implemented, and co-measured to address problems and solve them at the county level. Save the Children is a member of the Mercy Corps-led consortium and will be implementing in Samburu and Turkana counties.

Key Areas of Accountability

Technical assistance and capacity building

• Provide programmatic and strategic leadership, setting priorities in designing and managing the implementation of NAWIRI activities in collaboration with the other technical advisors and the implementation team
• Provide overall technical guidance and leadership for implementation of health & nutrition HSS activities
• Provide leadership for Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement measures in child survival and nutrition
• Contribute to the capacity building of NAWIRI, MoH staff and CHVs competences in HSS for quality & sustainable service provision
• Review and analyze data for performance monitoring and utilize the data to take corrective actions

Project management:

• Ensure that the project receives adequate support services from the Country Office support functions (supply chain, HR, Admin, Awards and Finance) to deliver high quality programmes. Also ensure gaps are identified, prioritized and communicated to the CO operations team effectively.
• Ensure that the Monthly Awards Progress Review Meetings are held in a timely manner and minutes sent to Awards Manager and DPO.  Also ensure follow up actions are implemented and challenges or issues are identified at both at Project and CO levels.
• Ensure that the principles of child safeguarding and ‘do no harm’ are embedded in all programme planning, implementation and reporting and that staff receive regular, up to date training on same. Ensure transparency in targeting beneficiaries, delivery of services and participation of beneficiaries and partners in planning and monitoring of process is reflected in programme delivery
• In close coordination with Award and Finance Units, ensure that all programs progress in accordance with grant agreements, are completed within time and on budget
• Ensure compliance with all grant provisions and timely fulfilment of all project programmatic reporting requirements including donor reports and internal reports such as pipeline analyses and monthly reports.
• Oversee the development and successful implementation of work plans linked to indicators and budget for the project; 
• Oversee timely expenditure of approved budgets, avoiding under both spending and overspending on grant line items, and implementing plans for expenditure modification.
• Coordinate activities and prepare annual results report,  resource  requests, quarterly reports  and pipeline analyses

Representation and advocacy

• Represent NAWIRI in relevant internal and external fora including donor meetings (as appropriate)
• Represent Save the Children in relevant internal and external fora including donor meetings (as appropriate)
• Work closely with the Head of Health and Nutrition, Head of Advocacy and Campaigns, PDQ and operations teams to develop policy research and advocacy strategy in child survival and nutrition in line with the Country Strategic Plan and global strategy of Save the Children
• Work with consortium members to further Save the Children’s mission for children

People management, mentoring and development

• Have overall management responsibility for the direct reports. Lead and motivate the team to ensure effective project implementation. 
• Manage the direct reports; define expectations, provide leadership and support as needed, and evaluate performance regularly
• Ensure the recruitment, training, and promotion of staff as appropriate; ensure availability of and support appropriate professional development opportunities for staff in NAWIRI
• Incorporate staff development strategies and Performance Management Systems into team building process. 

Assessment, monitoring, evaluation and documentation

• Participate in the annual work planning process in close collaboration with USAID & FFP, MOH and County health teams and the project staff
• Ensure technical and administrative compliance with donor requirements
• Prepare narrative and financial reports for the donor and Save the Children as required, ensuring these are of a high quality and submitted for review in a timely manner. This will involve compilation of information from a range of project staff and MoH partners
• Monitor program outputs and results and work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Research team to ensure that results are documented and reported accurately and in a timely manner
• Work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Research team and take a lead in ensuring that all HSS components have robust monitoring plans, baselines, reviews and evaluations in line with the project design and donor guidelines
• Facilitate appropriate dissemination of research findings and good practices documentations in the project internally and externally to donors, governments, consortium partners and other key actors strategic for immediate and sustainable development of children in Kenya
• Ensure that the monthly field office APRM has MEAL and accountability as a standing agenda.
• Escalate complaints and feedback of a serious nature to field manager/Technical Head and child safeguarding focal point.
• Support MEAL staff to ensure that an accountability status report is developed and shared with all project staff at least twice a year
• Ensure that all project-learning meetings have as a standing agenda, review of the project accountability mechanisms and trends analysis of complaints and feedback.
• Ensure that all staff within the project are collecting feedback/complaints.

Knowledge management

• Serve as a technical knowledge, skills and experience hub for the sector in NAWIRI in documenting and sharing best practices and innovations for replication and advocacy together with quality programme team.
• Work with technical resources among Save the Children members to facilitate sharing and learning in child survival and nutrition good practices and leverage their support for strengthening HSS related studies, assessments, innovations, advocacy and capacity building in favour of children in Kenya   

Contract Duration: 1 year with possibility of extension

Number of Vacancies: 1

Work Location: Samburu

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Master’s degree or higher in public health, or related field.
• Minimum of eight years of experience with progressively increasing responsibility managing designing and implementing large and complex public health programs, ideally in Sub-Saharan Africa. 
• Experience leading a highly successful health systems strengthening program in Kenya or in a similar setting.
• Demonstrated understanding and knowledge of decentralized nutrition and health delivery programs within Africa
• Five+ years of experience demonstrating technical expertise in health systems strengthening activities, as well as integration with several areas including: nutrition; WASH; community malaria/family planning/maternal and child health programs; quality improvement/quality assurance; gender; and the use of health-related data in program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• A minimum of three years of experience managing and supervising a team
• Proven experience building capacity of programs with local NGOs and government bodies in-country and working collaboratively with partners and/or key stakeholders.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.  Fluency in English required. 
• Proven experience and skills in research and advocacy and influencing institutional, private and/or corporate donors and writing up high quality donor reports
• Experience of working with local/national governments and capacity building of systems, partners and staff
• Willingness to be based in the Samburu for months at a time, with frequent travel to project offices and field sites within the county
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international and matrix management environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures
• Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mindsets
• Experience of solving complex issues through analysis, definition of a clear way forward and ensuring buy in
• Ability to present complex information in a succinct and compelling manner
• Fluency in English, both verbal and written, required
• Demonstrates Save the Children’s core values of accountability, collaboration, integrity, ambition, and creativity.
• County natives encouraged to apply

The Organization

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard. 

 We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated