Child Health and Immunization Specialist at Save The Children

ROLE PURPOSE:

Under the COP, the Child Health and Immunization Specialist will lead the implementation of the technical and research aspects of the programme within the state. S/he will be accountable for the quality of interventions and for the capacity building of health workers at state, LGA and health facility. S/he will be responsible for ensuring timely provision of high-quality technical assistance by in-country and UK based technical advisers and external consultants (if appropriate).   S/he will support the State Programme Manager to ensure that planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation as well as donor reporting functions are executed efficiently and effectively so that the project achieves its purposes and outputs.   

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Programme Quality:

• Provides technical expertise and oversight to ensure programs are of high quality and comply with the country and SCI standards.
• Coordinates in-country and UK based technical advisers and external consultants as needed. 
• Supports the COP and State Programme Manager in the development of high-quality programming, annual plans, and budgeting processes for the programme, as and when necessary. 
• Contributes to the formulation of key program questions that will help to advance the evidence base and leads design of targeted evaluations.
• Ensure the programme operational and analytical research, coordinate the publication and dissemination of results, and ensure that research informs advocacy. 
• Actively contribute to the process of learning, evaluation, capturing and disseminating lessons from the programme for continuous improvement of programme performance and overall outcome.
• Work closely with the programme team to ensure that other technical sectors are coordinated, integrated, and support each other to optimize the project purposes and objectives.
• Contribute to the preparation of quality quarterly and annual reports and timely submission of deliverables.
• Any other duty assigned by the Chief of Party.

Capacity Building:

• Identify learning and training opportunities for project staff, and work as a mentor and role model for less experienced staff. 
• Build capacity of health workers and other sector staff to implement quality programs.

Representation & Advocacy & Organisational Learning:

• Represent the programme on all technical working groups, partners, and stakeholders’ forums. 
• Create partnerships with Ministries of Health and other relevant organizations, WHO, and UNICEF to maximize program impact and harmonize agendas. 
• Ensure that Save the Children's work is coordinated with efforts of other agencies and Government, and take a leadership role within the Health Sector, ensuring the specific needs of children are being addressed. 
• In collaboration with the Advocacy team, assist in advocacy activities that target decision-makers at all levels.
• Ensure that learning, experiences, and evidence generated on the research component of the project is documented and presented to the right forum.

Safeguarding:

• Support safeguarding team in carrying out safeguarding risk assessment and develop a mitigation plan when needed.
• Flag safeguarding concerns noticed during programme implementation as well as share good practices identified in the field.
• All children and programme beneficiaries are provided with ongoing, age-appropriate verbal or written information in relevant languages about Save the Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct.

Additional Job Responsibilities:

• This position is responsible for ensuring that the project team and SCI programmes in the assigned state are implemented with the highest standards and safe programming.
• The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in medicine, health, nursing, public health is required; a health professional (MD or nurse) with clinical training skills (pre-service and/or service clinical training) preferred. 
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience implementing and delivering technical assistance to maternal, newborn and child health programs in developing country settings. 
• Demonstrated expertise in program development and management of child survival and strong experience in immunization service delivery. Program design and implementation required; must have experience facilitating training, supportive supervision.
• Excellent writing and oral communication skills.