Newborn Health Technical Advisor at Jhpiego - John Hopkins University

Locations: Bauchi, Kebbi and Sokoto
Reports To: Technical Director
Supervisees: TBD

Overview

• Newborn Health Advisor will be responsible for providing leadership in capacity building and in the technical area of newborn health (NH) for an upcoming USAID award in Nigeria.
• The Advisor will provide technical assistance at the State primary health care level activities.
• This integrated health project aims ‘to contribute to reductions in child and maternal morbidity and mortality in target states, and to increase the capacity of health systems (public and private) to sustainably support quality PHC services. The project will operate over a 5-year period.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical guidance on Newborn health (NH) that is sound, evidence-based and responsive to the needs of the State and USAID.
• Provide technical leadership, and build local capacity using proven training approaches and quality improvement methodologies.
• Provide trainings (providers and training of trainers) as well as follow-up support and clinical mentoring as necessary for New born health Support basic newborn health cars (birth planning, birth preparedness, safe delivery, essential newborn care, care of sick new born, small babies and their nutrition) at IHP— primary health care State sites.
• Develop strategies for increasing the percentage of babies not breathing at birth and successfully resuscitated, including successful outcome for sick newborns and small babies.
• Supervise Service/Quality improvement coordinators as needed.
• Advocate with State Ministry of Health for adoption of new evidence based newborn health (NH) best practices at health facilities in project sites.
• Advocate with other ministries, community, NGO's, and religious leaders to support and promote NH components.
• Contribute to and coordinate with the progra's monitoring and evaluation (M&E) team on activities to ensure that the program meets set targets in accordance with national and USG standards.
• Represent program at state level stakeholder meetings and technical working groups in relation to New born (NH) and related technical areas.

Management:

• Contribute to annual work planning, training plans and quarterly reports and other required technical reports. Contribute to timely, accurate and appropriate reporting of program activities and results.
• Ensure quality program implementation consistent with MOH Nigerian Guidelines, global best practices and USAID Nigerian Strategic Directions.
• Evaluate program progress against deliverables on a quarterly basis.
• With the State Technical Director, oversee program design, implementation, quality assurance and monitoring of work plan.
• Coordinate with the other members of the technical team and NGO partners to develop and implement feasible facility and community-based approaches.
• Perform other duties as assigned by supervisor which contribute to the achievement of program goals.

Required Qualifications

• The Newborn Health Advisor must be a proven leader in the field of international maternal, newborn & child health (MNCH) with senior-level management experience in public health programs.
• S/he must be well recognized by the NH community in Nigeria. The Technical Advisor must be intimately familiar with the context in Nigeria and have in-country experience with USAID programs.

Additional qualifications include:

• A Medical doctor, an experienced midwife or any other closely related health care professional; specialization in pediatrics or Public Health and other health related courses (e.g. MPH, MSC or other relevant degree) will be an advantage.
• Minimum 8 years of experience working in NH in Africa, preferably in Nigeria.
• Demonstrated expertise in working directly with host-country senior government officials and policy makers in NH.
• Experience working with host-country partners, organizations, and institutions.
• Strong skills in design, implementation and monitoring of program components; e.g. services, training, advocacy and coordination.
• Demonstrated capacity to work with African experts and partners in developing technical materials and providing training to improve service delivery, advocacy and resource mobilization for expanding newborn health (NH).
• Experience with technical leadership for programs funded by USAID and/or other donor programs in developing countries, with significant Nigeria experience.
• Strong verbal, listening, writing, and intrapersonal skills essential for effective coordination among several institutions and staff involved ins broad range of activities
• Ability to multi-task will be highly desirable.
• Fluent in English, (written and oral communication) and Hausa and/or Fulfulde.
• Willingness to travel throughout Nigeria as necessary.