Fresh Jobs at Malaria Consortium

Job purpose

The job purpose is to work with State Programme Manager (SPM) to effectively manage project activities and resources. top provide leadership and stewardship to the project team and maintain collaborative links with the project’s key stakeholders at the LGA level.

Scope of work

The project officer will support the SPM in the implementation of the MDA-AZM project across the state. S/he will work with LGA Field Assistants and will be responsible for liaising with the focal persons at the Local Government Level. 

Key working relationships

The PO would be line managed by the SPM and would work with the LGA Field Assistants in-charge of the assigned LGAs (presumably within a specific senatorial zone of a state). S/he would also maintain relationships with the country office departments, including Finance and Logistics. Key external relationships would be with staff at the LGA and State Malaria Elimination Programme (SMEP), LGA health staff and leading community members and gatekeepers. S/he would lead micro-planning, training and coordination, through drug administration and supportive supervision, to reporting of activities at the LGA level. S/he would maintain close communication with stakeholders and influential persons in the assigned LGAs through the agreed frameworks.

Key accountabilities

Programme Management (70%)

Support the SPM and the state management team to lead activities for smooth programme management in the assigned LGAs in the following areas:

• Liaise and work with the  SMC project team in the assigned LGAs;
• Be conversant with and guided by Malaria Consortium, policies, guidelines and the SMC Handbook towards the delivery of MDA-AZM in assigned LGAs;
• Planning (microplanning, selection of implementers at the local levels, training, database finalization, last mile distribution, MDA-AZM and reverse logistics);
• Engagement of stakeholders including government, communities and beneficiaries;
• Implementation (MDA-AZM) including QA and innovations, including the use of technology;
• General management including security, HR including line management, risk management, work planning and budgeting, VFM, optimization of grant, etc.;
• Risk Free operations including ensuring that all staff comply with MC values and start-to-finish (SFG) policies; and
• Coordination with other levels of government and internally, all MC functions.

Technical  (20%)

• Support M&E activities, including reporting of MDA-AZM and lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS); and
• Support programme review including end of cycle (EoC) reviews, end of round (EoR) reviews and EoR coverage survey.

Representations & Knowledge Management (10%)

• Lesson identification and use including adaptive management;
• Harmonization with other partners; and
• Representation especially at the LGA levels.

Person specification

Qualifications and experience:

Essential          

• Training in Nursing or Public Health;
• Five years’ experience of working in the Public Health sector;
• Experience in programme management at the LGA/state level;
• Excellent project planning, management and monitoring & evaluation skills.
• Experience managing project budgets;
• Experience in using digital data collection tools in SMC campaigns and other health programmes; 
• Some practical experience in Health Information and Disease Surveillance Systems, interoperability, and international standards; open Global Health Information System software and open data sources, such as, but not limited to, DHIS2, ODK, KoboCollect;
• Experience working at the LGA and community levels;
• Experience working on campaign style interventions (delivery of integrated interventions or social mobilization and SMC would be an added advantage).

Work-based skills and competencies:

Essential

• Good understanding of the Nigeria health system;
• Understanding of communication for behaviour change and social mobilisation;
• Team player and demonstrated ability to work within a team as well as individually;
• Ability to travel to LGAs outside of state capital at least 80% of the time;
• Ability to perform under pressure;
• Excellent communication skills in English and the dominant local language in assigned state;
• Evidence of being resident in state of assignment.

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Key working relationships

The officer working under the line-management of the M & E Manager and in close collaboration with the state, LGA, community actors, stakeholders and partners would deliver aspects of the project as per the specified job tasks and expected deliverables.

Key accountabilities

Technical contributions 50%

• Plan and implement M&E activities related to SARMAAN II in the approved work plan under the guidance of the Project Director and SCTC
• Ensure high quality data are available on a regular and timely basis for programmatic decision making
• Manage the information-gathering process for results and performance reports, in addition to other briefings, summaries, papers, presentations, etc. for various audiences as needed. (I suggest ‘manage the data collection and management processes before, during and after each round of mass SARMAAN II drug administration, including sentinel site monitoring)
• Coordinate the documentation of SARMAAN II activities in form of reports and ensure proper archiving of such for easy access and reference
• Assist State project managers to develop robust monitoring plans for quantitative and qualitative reporting on project performance indicators.
• Adapt and maintain a high quality database for the project in line with the regional standards.
• Contribute to work plans, sub agreements, budgets, pipelines, technical reports, and deliverables.
• Routinely monitor project performance against targets and prepare periodic reports on M&E activities for SARMAAN II Project.
• Participate in project assessments, evaluations and design including development of survey protocols

Program Management (10%)

• Support State senior M & E officers with coordinating program management activities, by ensuring that the staff provide the needed technical support and ensure coordination meetings hold at the LGA and state levels.
• Work with state Senior M & E officers staff to ensure that reports are obtained from all health facilities within the state through appropriate state-specific mechanisms.
• Ensure and support State M & E officers undertake monitoring and supervisory visits to health facilities and ensure that action plans are developed for identified gaps.
• Support state Senior M & E officers with ensuring that all items in the action plans from health facilities are addressed and all outstanding gaps are closed.

Accountability (10%)

• Support programming staff to engage key populations in monitoring and evaluating program’s performance and to incorporate participatory methods into M&E systems in Nigeria.
• Orient program staff and partners on the basic principles and practices of beneficiary accountability in Nigeria.
• Support the development and implementation of feedback and response channels to reflect the preferences of community members and beneficiaries.
• Ensure that beneficiary feedback is adequately documented, addressed, analysed, and utilized by program teams.

Knowledge Management and Learning (20%)

• Ensure that state M&E and program teams regularly review and accordingly adjust M&E plans and tools in the light of changes and needs in the field context based on monitoring data and reflection sessions.
• Support learning-to-action events and reflection sessions to systematically analyse data for programmatic use for the state, and to document and incorporate lessons learned into program design and implementation.
• Conduct regular data review and analysis for feedback to states for program improvement, and for updates to national level (MC and government).
• Support program staff in key activities including development of a learning agenda, organizing regular learning events, supporting operations research, and reflecting, documentation, and communication of learning initiatives.
• Support knowledge management systems and practices to gather, document and share best practices with project team, MC country office, government and technical partners. Collaborate with M&E and program staff to develop learning briefs, project bulletins and other materials for dissemination.
• Promote adoption of the best practices in knowledge management by other project staff and government partners.

Representation (10%):

• Liaise with technical counterparts in the State Ministry of Health, and other local stakeholders engaged in malaria activities in Nigeria.
• Participate in events/ meetings related to Monitoring, Evaluation and research, including quarterly Principal Recipient and Sub-recipients quarterly review meetings.
• Actively participate in the M&E Community of Practice and government M&E staff.

Qualifications and experience:        

Essential:      

• Degree in statistics, demography, mathematics or any other relevant quantitative relevant discipline
• Minimum of 5-years’ experience
• Demonstrable contextual knowledge of local issues, community priorities, social and cultural constraints and realities related to community assessment, project design, evaluation and implementation
• Cognate experience in monitoring and evaluation of community-based interventions is highly desirable
• Experience in managing HMIS and CLMS as well as familiarity with Nigerian public sector health systems will be added advantages.
• Experience in survey design and implementation, development of data bases and analysis and write up of survey results
• Demonstrated skills in data management and quantitative data analysis

Desirable: 

• Fluency in written and spoken English

Work-based skills and competencies:           

Essential:      

• A solid understanding of health systems strengthening
• Proficiency in database management especially DHIS; Excel, Word, PowerPoint and demonstrable experience with statistical software packages (Stata, SPSS, Epi Info)
• Strong analytical skills and experience interpreting a strategic vision into an operational model
• Proven writing, communication and presentation skills in English
• A collaborative and flexible style, with a strong service mentality
• Facilitation and coordination skills
• The ideal candidate must be attentive to detail, highly organised, flexible and self-motivated with excellent communication skills in written and oral communication
• He/she must clearly display the ability to effectively prioritise and perform tasks to meet tight deadlines

Desirable: 

• Skills in qualitative research