Senior Program Associate, Nigeria at Results for Development (R4D)

Senior Program Associate, Nigeria (#133)
Job Description
Project Summary:
In 2014, the Government of Nigeria (GoN) committed to reforming health care financing and service delivery in a Presidential Summit on Universal Health Coverage and enacted the Nigeria National Health Act. The Act officially recognized Nigerians’ right to health and established a Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) to make financial resources available for primary health care (PHC) services. These reforms have the potential to greatly strengthen Nigeria’s PHC system and improve population health. Federal and state governments in Nigeria are currently working with local and international partners to implement systems for channeling these new health care funds for service delivery and financing, and setting up state-level health insurance mechanisms.

To support these reforms, Results for Development Institute, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Agency for International Development, and Abt Associates, will work with public actors and a consortium of development partners in Nigeria to erect a federal level technical assistance program for health care financing policy development and implementation. Overall, the work will engage key national and state-level stakeholders in joint policy dialogue, generate evidence to inform health financing design options, and help to develop implementation “know how” to support the roll-out of health financing reform at the state level. Doing so will provide an enabling environment for creating health impact via financing and programmatic interventions by the public sector, BMGF, and other development partners in Nigeria.

Opportunity:
R4D is seeking a Senior Program Associate (SPA) based in Abuja, Nigeria to support the day-to-day operations of the Nigeria Healthcare Financing Technical Assistance Program, alongside other members of the DC and Nigeria based project team and under the guidance of the Program Director (PD) and another team leads. The SPA will play an integral role in administrative, operational, and technical aspects of the project.

Other responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Leverage the evidence base to support development of appropriate health financing policies and strategies to inform decisions of governments, donors and other stakeholders
• Conduct in-depth primary and secondary research and analyses, including through critical review of literature and interviews with experts, to support policy development
•  Support internal administrative projects that are critical to the development of a rapidly growing team and organization
• Support the organization of meetings, workshops and stakeholder consultants in Nigeria, including logistics, invitation lists and agendas, and producing meeting summaries
• Develop and maintain positive relationships with stakeholders, including federal and state level government officials, development partners, and Nigeria based partner organizations
• Support the formulation of high impact policy recommendations and deliverables

Qualifications / Requirements:

• BA with 3-5 years of relevant global health experience
• Experience and interest in healthcare, healthcare financing, and policy development
• Strong qualitative and quantitative analytical skills
• Proven experience effectively working with and meeting the needs of various stakeholders, both in Nigeria and globally
• Ability to think and solve problems in structured, logical and creative manner
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with ability to prepare compelling presentations and written reports
• Effectively able to work collaborate in a team-based environment as well as independently to work on complex work streams/projects
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to connect with a wide variety of different stakeholders
• Comfortable working with a diverse team located in different geographies
• High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, Powerpoint, and Word
• Availability for 5-10% international and domestic travel

Local applicants encouraged to apply

• Preferred Skills:
• Experience working on large scale, multi-partner, donor funded and/or government projects in Nigeria is highly desired
• Relevant work experience in a research institution, government, bilateral or multilateral development agency, consulting firm, NGO, or think tank
• Prior work experience in healthcare financing, economics, and/or political science