Senior Health Finance Advisor at Palladium International

Project Profile
Palladium has recently been awarded a sub-contract from Pathfinder International to help implement the USAID Afya Pwani project in Kenya. The project?s purpose is to contribute to the USAID/Kenya Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) Development Objective 2, ?Health and Human Capacity Strengthened? in Kilifi, Kwale, Lamu, Mombasa, and Taita Taveta counties, while engaging with the larger USAID efforts to make devolution successful and support the country?s economic growth. Afya Pwani?s goal is to contribute to USAID/Kenya?s Sub-Intermediate Result 2.2.2, ?Improved county-level accountability, institutional capacity, leadership, and management of health service delivery,? with an aim to ?Improve and increase access to and utilization of quality health services in Kenya through strengthened service delivery and institutional capacity of county health systems.?
Pathfinder International formed a team to implement Afya Pwani that includes Pathfinder, Plan International Kenya, and Palladium.

The project has three sub-purposes:
1) Increased access and utilization of quality HIV services.
2) Increased access and utilization of focused MNCH/FP/WASH & nutrition services.
3) Strengthened and functional county health systems.

Under the guidance of the Pathfinder Chief of Party and in collaboration with other partners, Palladium has the lead for the third sub-purpose, which has five key outputs:

• Output 3.1: Partnerships for Governance and Strategic Planning, including Healthcare Financing
• Output 3.2: Human Resources for Health (HRH)
• Output 3.3: Health Products and Technologies (HPT)
• Output 3.4: Strategic Monitoring and Evaluation Systems, including EMR
• Output 3.5: Quality Improvement Systems

Palladium is recruiting an 11 person team to work within the Afya Pwani project team to help achieve these outputs. The team will be led by a Senior Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) Advisor/Team Leader and based in Mombasa, Kenya, covering work in Mombasa, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Kilifi, and Lamu counties. Palladium staff in Nairobi and our international offices will provide routine technical and administrative support and assistance

Responsibilities

The Sr. Health Finance Advisor will provide leadership, direction, and content to health finance in Afya Pwani counties, including strategy development, technical analysis, stakeholder consultation, and writing of reports and briefs, with particular attention to output 3.1. Responsibilities require knowledge of health finance issues in Kenya as well resource allocation at county level. The Sr. Health Finance Advisor will report to the Senior Health System Advisor and will supervise two Economist/Budget Analyst positions.

Key Responsibilities

• Participates in the design and implementation of technical support activities related to health finance in Afya Pwani counties
• Stays abreast of key developments in health finance and resource allocation at the national and county level including shareable revenues and user fees
• Prepares health financing analyses, briefing notes, recommendations, and assessments for internal and client use.
• Supports CHMTS in the development of the framework for performance based financing
• Participates and guides the health sector at county levels in preparation of annual plans and Program Based Budget (PBB) as required under the Public Financial Management Act, 2012.
• Mentors county program and budget personnel to improve budgeting to target priority programs
• Provides assistance to others on matters related to topic area of research and evaluation and applies relevant methodologies to programmatic issues of importance
• Supervises short-term local consultants in Kenya assigned to health finance activities
• Conducts all work to accepted standards of research ethics
• Performs other related duties and responsibilities as assigned

Requirements

Educational Background and Experience

• Advanced degree (MA, MSc,) in economics or health economics with academic specialization in health financing or commensurate work experience in health finance.
• Three-four year's experience using Masters-level qualification in health economics, with at least 1-2 years in Kenya
• Fluency in English required and Swahili preferred
• Solid understanding of Kenya's health financing landscape particularly in the context of decentralization;
• Detailed understanding of public financial management
• Significant experience in government planning, budgeting, health finance and health economics in the context of Kenya
• Reasonable knowledge of the devolved system of government in Kenya
• Sound knowledge of methodologies used in health finance, health research, costing analysis, quantitative analysis, and statistical/econometric analysis
• Excellent interpersonal and facilitation skills, with experience working with government officials at the national and sub-national levels
• Knowledge of relevant literature related to topic area
• Appropriate analytical skills necessary to conduct research, and to conduct analysis of study data, (such as STATA, SPSS, or equivalent) and be able to convey technical concepts