Health Systems Strengthening Manager US Non-profit Careers – Mercy Corps
Job Title: Health Systems Strengthening Manager
Organization: Mercy Corps
Duty Station: Uganda
About US:
Mercy Corps is an International NGO that exists to alleviate poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. Mercy Corps has been fully registered in Uganda as an operational NGO. Currently Mercy Corps has an office in Kampala and is implementing Food Security programs which comprise of Water and Sanitation, Livelihood and Agriculture and Conflict Mitigation Management Program in North and North Eastern Uganda. We implement programs in the northern districts of Pader, Kitgum, Agago, Lamwo, Kaabong, Abim and Kotido with funding from USAID, USDA, Walmart Foundation, SDC, DFID as well as other private donations.
Job Summary: The primary focus of the Health System Strengthening (HSS) Manager will be to strengthen the capacity of health governance structures to improve coordination and quality of service provision for food and nutrition security. The HSS Manager will implement and support a program that improves the organizational performance of Hospitals, HCIVs, HCIII and HC Il-level facilities with emphasis on the Health Unit Management Committees (HUMC), which is in line with government standards and priorities. Support will be strongly focused on health governance will work closely with other partner supporting other HSS components i.e. Health Information Systems, health workforce, service delivery, essential medicines and financing. This will include a focus on advocacy for accountability of health resources and improving the communication between the facility and the community it serves. This will be achieved by strengthening HUMCs and other health governance structures at national, regional and district level. The HSS Manager will work in coordination with the MCHN Manager other purpose 2 (Mother Care Group and Community Behavior Change, Resource Transfer) and all staff working to achieve Apolou Purpose 2.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Program Implementation
- Collaborate with Ministry of Health to build the capacity of District Health Team to functionalize all health governance structures including Health Unit Management Committee at lower health facilities in Moroto, Kotido, Kaabong and Amudat.
- Collaborate with MOH to refine and disseminate HUMC guidelines to simplify roles and responsibilities of HUMC members and ensure that youth, women and PWD are represented.
- Work with Save the Children and Gender sector to support mechanisms for targeted and age specific educational trainings around SRH to VHTs and include a clear referral pathway for SGBV into the health system.
- Collaborate with MOH and district-level HUMC focal person to improve government led mentorship of the committees, strengthen their understanding of roles, responsibilities and community linkages
- Document and communicate findings and key lessons for improved accountability at community, sub county, district, regional levels and among stakeholders.
- Facilitate close coordination and linkages between health structures in Kotido and the purpose two components; Mother Care Groups, Male Change Agents and resource transfer
- Take lead in updating Apolou files containing MCHN progress reports, work plans and related documents at district and Sub-county level.
- Provide technical and supervisory oversight for the HSS officers while implementing routine program activities like training and mentorship of health governance structures, Dialogue for Health (D4H) meetings, learning visits among others.
- Provide financial oversight to MCHN activities by participating in the budgeting process, submitting timely cash projections and managing expenditure of HSS activities across all four districts.
- Work closely with the Apolou Senior Nutritionist to support Nutrition Coordination Committee activities at district and Sub-county level.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
- Together with Nutritionist, be the focal points for health and nutrition information sharing of program data between Apolou and the Ministry of Health or District Health Office
- Participate in program implementation and review by supporting workplan development, incorporating best practices and utilizing M&E information to improve MCHN activities.
- Comply with M&E procedures and policies to ensure program impacts and achieves desired results
- Analyze project implementation strategies to identify constraints to program success and provide timely recommendations.
- Contribute to the establishment of procedures and guidelines to monitor and evaluate the progress and impact of health facility support work including setting and measuring benchmarks along results chain.
- Lead on report writing for the HSS sector to include weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports that will be indicative of program progress during implementation.
- Where needed support external evaluations by research partner Feinstein International Center and other organizations.
Influence and Representation
- Collaborate with DHOs and MCHN team leads across the region to organize or participate in regular health and nutrition coordination events like; Karamoja Health Nutrition Partner forum, Technical Working Groups, health sector quarterly review meetings among others.
- Coordination of field activities with other NGO and local government partners to avoid duplication of services and support an enabling environment for health promotion.
- When needed, support visits from district and sub-county government, regional and HQ based staff and external visitors, such as donors and media, in collaboration with MCHN Manager and DCoP.
- Advise MC staff on standard operating procedures when engaging the district or municipality, mentor staff on letter writing, points of entry and protocol in the health sector.
- Conduct spot checks in collaboration with the team to ensure program files kept in district and Sub county offices are up-to-date.
- Represent Mercy Corps to external stakeholders including the District Local Government and the Municipality
- Assure that routine support supervision takes place in the field and that debrief meetings occur to allow the district and municipality to take ownership and have buy-in the HSS activities.
- Liaise with M&E manager, DCoP and COP to assure platforms exist for learning events to be conducted at least annually between programs and DLG.
- Promote team accountability, coordination, quality and a sense of urgency with responsiveness to the district and municipality needs.
- Keep Government informed of any changed to government and civil society allowances and assure zero tolerance to any form of fraud, corruption, abuse, harassment or exploitation. Validate with DI-G emerging events/issues like epidemic outbreaks, security situation and any threat posed within the district/region and coordinate with HOO for staff to be updated.
- Request for relevant programmatic documents, policy guidelines, SOPs, curriculum from DI-G officials as needed by MC.
- Security: Ensure data protection policies are adhered to, establishing security controls for software, hardware and archive beneficiary databases.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- The applicant for the Mercy Corps Health Systems Strengthening Manager job must hold a Master’s degree in Public Health, nursing or related field with at least 3 years of professional experience working with the government health system OR a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health, Nursing or related field with at least 6 years of contextualized experience in managing and implementing health systems strengthening programs
- Previous experience working on health accountability and governance program especially conducting dialogues and delivering capacity building for HUMCs is the desirable candidate
- Demonstrated experience providing technical assistance at individual and district government levels and in-depth understanding of Uganda healthcare system
- Proven ability to establish and maintain strong interpersonal and professional relationships with local government officials, and other key stakeholders in the health and nutrition sector
- Demonstrate knowledge and experience in strengthening HMIS data collection, analysis & reporting is an added advantage
- Demonstrable writing and analytical and quantitative skills.
- Ability to ride a motorcycle and he/she should be in possession of a valid driving/riding license
- Proven skills in networking, collaboration, community consultations and organizational development
- Excellent reporting, communication and representation skills, Proven knowledge and capacity in using computer basic applications MS Word, power point, Excel and internet
- The successful candidate is to innovatively and effectively further strengthen health governance structures especially the HUMCs and increase their sustainability of which district level advocacy will be the position’s main success factors.
- The second success factor will be the degree to which the HSS Manager pushes forward accountability-driven, leadership and management-focused support to district and sub-county and health center staff. Lastly, success will be measured by the degree to which he/she drives results, making critical decisions and producing scheduled outputs at deadline and to expected quality.
How to Apply:
All suitably qualified and interested candidates should send their E-mail applications including a cover letter clearly stating the salary requirements, updated CV (with three professional referees), and copies of academic qualifications/certificates addressed to the Senior HR and Legal Manager, Mercy Corps Uganda to: ug-mcjobs@mercycorps.org
Deadline: 8th August 2019
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