Immunization and Integration Officer at International Rescue Committee

Requisition ID: req9432

Employment Category: Fixed Term

Employment Type: Full-Time

Open to Expatriates: No

Location: New York, NY HQ USA

Job Description

This position will be based in New York or Nairobi.

The IRC’s vision is to lead the humanitarian field by implementing high-impact, cost-effective programs for people affected by crisis and by using our learning and experience to shape policy and practice. To achieve that vision, the IRC’s Program Quality Unit (PQU) provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and shares what we learn to influence policy and practice.

The Program Quality Unit has three central objectives that we work towards:

• Guide program design to achieve outcomes by incorporating the best available evidence
• Build technical capacity of country program staff to implement, measure and continuously improve programs
• Influence the IRC, peer agencies and donors to use proven interventions and generate new evidence to achieve change in peoples’ lives

The Program Quality Unit is comprised of seven technical Units, all of which have deep expertise in their respective sectors: Education, Economic Wellbeing, Gender Equality, Governance, Health, Violence Prevention and Response, and Research Evaluation and Learning (REL).

The health technical unit is organized in four sectors; primary health, reproductive health, environmental health and nutrition. The structure emphasizes a clear division of roles between technical assistance core and important functions versus other specialized support/thought leadership functions in order to best meet the needs of country programs and regions. In 2017, the health technical unit supported programming in 6 regions and 27 countries.

Position Scope

This position is responsible for providing technical support to the Philips Foundation funded TU-led child health project that will be implemented in Uganda and Chad.In addition, this position will be responsible for supporting selected country programs on IRC’s work in child health- i.e. IMNCI, iCCM and immunization. The position will provide the technical assistance and oversight necessary for strategic, TU-led projects—including considerable research and/or evaluation components focused on improving child health outcomes.

Specific Responsibilities

It is expected that the Child Health Officer will spend at least 75% of their time providing technical support to TU-led projects. The remaining 15% of their time will be focused on the provision of technical support to improve the quality of country-led child health programming, in close collaboration with Primary Health Care Technical Advisors (PHC TAs).

Thought Leadership

The Officer’s specific responsibilities are as follows:

• Identify and/or develop global tools/resources/curricula in collaboration with PHC TA for Great Lakes relevant for quality child health programming and research.

oWork with PHC TAs, and country program staff when applicable, to operationalize these tools/resources/curricula.

• Represent IRC at targeted conferences and support development of specific publications related to Philips and other child health projects (issues papers, technical documents, presentations and peer-reviewed articles) relevant to advancing IRC’s mission and strategy, related to child health program strategies and research results.

TU-led Project Coordination

Engaging in program design and business development

• Support efforts related to proposal development, including:

oSupport writing of technical narrative, when necessary.

oIndicator and output/outcome selection.

oCoordination of budget development.

oDetermination of role divisions among partners and sub-grants negotiation.

oReview of final technical proposal, focused on intervention design and alignment to IRC’s outcomes.

Project coordination/implementation

• Support recruitment of project staff and their onboarding.
• Support grant opening meeting activities.
• Oversee project implementation and quality of service delivery, including:

oDevelopment of monitoring & evaluation plan and tools.

oOversight of data analysis to inform periodic course correction along with PHC TA. For each country

• Coordinate with Health Unit Country Coordinators the technical assistance country programs receive.
• Ongoing remote support and regular field visits (i.e. facilitation of capacity building, quality improvement work streams, planning and preparatory efforts related to child health and program start-up/implementation).

Representation and engagement

• Represent the project with Ministries of Health and other key technical stakeholders at global and national levels, as needed.
• Communicate with project donor(s) as necessary.
• Represent the project internally.

oPromote project strategy and/or results for increased visibility opportunities and internal resources, where applicable.

Core and Important Technical Assistance Responsibilities for Country-led Child Health Programming:

Engaging in program design and business development

• Review and provide input on technical quality of proposals, at the request of PHC TA focal points, including review of child health interventions, results, indicators, and alignment to IRC’s outcomes.

Building technical capacity of country program staff

• Conduct technical trainings and ongoing technical coaching for country program staff related to quality improvement.

Supporting child health program implementation including supporting the quality improvement work stream

• Support rolling out of child health tools, monitoring of child health programs, etc. in Yemen, Chad, Uganda and other selected countries

Knowledge Transfer

• Share latest relevant evidence and cross-context learning with PHC TAs, and country program staff when applicable.

Qualifications

Education: University degree in related field plus a post-graduate degree in Public Health or equivalent.

Work Experience: Minimum 5 years in managing or providing technical assistance in the field of international public health and minimum 5 years direct experience supporting child health programs in several developing countries, preferably in Africa. Full-time field experience and experience in implementation of iCCM programs necessary. Strong experience in development of technical materials and monitoring and evaluation is highly desired.

Demonstrated Skills And Competencies

Demonstrated expertise in working with donors, project design, proposal development, and monitoring and evaluation, with the ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable action. Able to work with remote, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams. Strong interpersonal verbal and written communication skills and ability to facilitate collaboration. Ability to transfer technical knowledge and skills. Demonstrated commitment to renewing and maintaining with current best practices and evidence-based child health interventions.Additional competencies include:

• Experience working with ministries of health, international agencies and/or NGO public health programs in Africa and other developing countries.
• Knowledge of strategies for health systems strengthening to improve immunization, IMNCI and iCCM programming.
• Proven ability to independently assess child health programming needs and support stakeholders in the development and implementation of successful program interventions, including prior experience with: 1) national or sub-national child health planning; 2) capacity building for improved service delivery; 3) design of community-oriented strategies to increase coverage; 4) use ofchild health data for monitoring and decision making; and, 5) other actions to sustain quality child health services –(immunization, IMNCI and iCCM)
• Ability to work independently, and meet deadlines, with attention to detail and quality.

Language Skills: Fluency in English required; proficiency in French and Arabic is desired/an advantage.

Working Environment: Ability to travel 30% of the time. This position will be based in New York or Nairobi.