State Coordinator at Palladium Group

Duration: A term of one year, with a possibility of renewal.

Project Overview and Role   

• Health Policy Plus (HP+) is a USAID-funded five-year $185 million project awarded to Palladium in August 2015. HP+ has a mandate across global, country, and subnational levels to strengthen and advance health policy priorities in HIV, family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH), and maternal health.
• It aims to improve the enabling environment for equitable and sustainable health services, supplies, and delivery systems through policy development and implementation, with an emphasis on voluntary, rights-based health programs, and by strengthening in-country partners’ capacity to navigate complex environments for effective policy design, implementation, and financing aligned to their priorities.
• HP+ provides technical assistance to governments, civil society, and the private sector to effectively engage in domestic resource mobilization (DRM), put in place sustainable financing and accountability mechanisms, and make progress toward global, national, and subnational health goals.
• HP+ has been engaged by the USAID Nigeria Office to conceptualize and design activities to improve sustainable financing for Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and tuberculosis (TB) programs at the national level and in two USAID priority states – Lagos and Kano.
• These activities will span an initial period of 2 years, will continue efforts started by the Health Finance and Governance (HFG) project and complement current Strengthening Integrated Delivery of HIV and AIDS Services (SIDHAS) and Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus projects’ activities. 

Responsibilities   
Overall Responsibilities:

• The State Coordinator, Sustainable Health Financing is a full-time position in Kano State responsible for providing overall leadership and management of the HP+ Nigeria Sustainable Health Financing of HIV/AIDS and TB Programs activity.
• Specifically, the incumbent should demonstrate familiarity with organization and status of the Kano State Contributory Healthcare Scheme (KSCHS) and access to key stakeholders and decision makers in the state, with ability for advocacy and leadership to develop and strengthen partnerships and coordination to achieve a sustainable and state-owned impact. 
• S/he will work closely with principal staff from the State Ministry of Health (SMoH), KSCHS, Regional and State offices of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and other relevant institutions to ensure successful implementation of the workplan.
• S/he will work closely with the State PFM Consultant and collaborate with the Technical Advisors and Program Coordinator at the national level to ensure to ensure delivery of Kano State-related outputs per project workplan.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide overall leadership and management for HP+ Sustainable Health Financing of HIV/AIDS and TB Programs activity in Kano State.
• Lead in the engagement of major decision makers and other stakeholders in the State.
• Lead in the conduct of high-level advocacy actions as required in the state.
• Ensure adequate visibility is given to program activities in the state.
• Provide technical support as necessary to support development of national blueprints for HIV and TB integration at the state level.
• Participate in co-design and development of an outcome-based provider payment model for TB at the state level. 
• Support the conduct of assessments of current user fees among PLHIV with a view to informing the design of interventions to reduce or eliminate these fees in the future.
• Review inputs from the State PFM Consultants and collaborate to finalize on consultants’ deliverables. 
• Provide financial and administrative leadership to project activities at the state level
• Participate in design, preparation and facilitation of workshops and roundtable engagements with stakeholders as necessary.

Requirements   
Required Qualifications and Experience

• Master's Degree in Public Health, Public Policy, Political Science, Public Administration, Communication or a related technical degree
• Experience in Health Economics/Financing in Nigeria.
• Sound understanding of TB, HIV epidemic and programs in Nigeria.
• Significant experience in HIV/AIDS, TB programming; health insurance. 
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite (MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc).
• Evidence of a strong track record of successfully engaging with key decision makers in the state; familiarity with the SMOH, KSCHS preferred.
• Strong program management and supervisory skills.
• Strong interpersonal, writing, presentation, and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated problem solving, analytic, financial, and evaluative skills.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Strong English writing, oral communication, and reporting skills.
• Flexibility, adaptability, and resourcefulness. Ability to take initiative and/or respond independently to situations.