Health Adviser G7 at British High Commission

Main purpose of job:

FCDO Nigeria is looking for a passionate and experienced public health expert to drive our response to the UK’s commitment to work with others to end the preventable deaths of mothers, babies and children. The post will work in the FCDO Nigeria Health Team to lead our work to deliver on pillar three of ‘Ending Preventable Death’s approach paper: ‘healthier lives and safe environments’. The post-holder will work with governments at different levels (federal and state), development partners, multilaterals, and non-governmental organisations to help deliver against our collective objectives to end preventable deaths. The successful candidate will report to the senior health adviser and health team leader, and will work across the British High Commission with relevant teams and disciplines.

Roles and responsibilities:

The key functions of this role are as follows:

• Lead development of our objectives for delivering progress on ‘healthier lives and safe environments’ in Nigeria, with a focus on nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), but also providing support to the wider pupilar aims as necessary, such as climate and health – to help direct our positive influencing and engagement with government and non-government partners.
• Work with FCDO Nigeria sectoral experts and programme managers to help shape Nigeria’s cross sectoral approach delivering the  ‘healthier lives and safe environment’ pillar, and ensuring alignment and coordination with our wider policy objectives.  
• Lead on development, design and oversight of FCDO Nigeria and FCDO headquarters resources to deliver a joined-up UK offer to support policy objectives on nutrition and WASH (and wider ‘healthier lives and safe environments’ objectives), aligned with FCDO’s country plan and Government of Nigeria priorities and plans. 
• Develop strong relationships with relevant government and non-government partners, including (but not limited to): Federal Ministry and relevant agencies;  State Ministries; development partners;  UN agencies; and civil society organisations.
• Lead FCDO technical input to government policy and programmes, and lead coordination with government counterparts on nutrition and WASH for FCDO Nigeria, including on integration of these areas into the Government of Nigeria’s Health Transformation Agenda
• Take a proactive role in relevant development partner groups on WASH and nutrition, representing FCDO on these bodies, and working with the wider membership to support the formation and delivery of collective policy objectives and improve donor coordination.  
• Provide health, nutrition and WASH technical support to the humanitarian and north-east team, and other teams as required.
• Be an effective member of the wider British High Commission team in Abuja.  The Adviser will be expected to play an active and constructive role in the wider British High Commission.  This will include producing high quality briefings, supporting senior visits, and completing/contributing to corporate returns as required. The post holder will also be expected to contribute proactively to team as well as cross office/mission people, policy, programme and corporate initiatives.

Essential qualifications, skills and experience 

• A post-graduate qualification in public health, together with at least 5 years experience working in public health in progressively more senior roles.
• Experience working on both health systems development and the wider determinants of health, including experience working on nutrition and WASH.
• Personal resilience to work in a fast-paced multi-disciplinary supportive team, with an ability to lead on a complex agenda, working on multiple responsibilities concurrently, sometimes to tight deadlines.
• A respectful and proactive approach to engaging with colleagues across teams and a range of partners, using influencing and diplomacy skills to find areas of mutual benefit, develop and build strong relationships and work through areas of tension.
• A strong track-record of working on evidence-based engagement, policy and analysis, with demonstrable experience and skills in the areas of WASH and nutrition, including through a prism of ‘leave no one behind’, including women and girls.
• A proactive approach and a focus on continuous improvement of self and service, with an appetite to work with others to improve effectiveness.
• The successful candidate will have a demonstrable track record of delivering health outcomes at expert level through strong capability in the Health  competencies. As an expert he/she will be recognised for deep specialist or technical knowledge and/or skill, underpinned by extensive experience applying it in practice on complex issues; connected with other experts. More information is available in the  the Health Technical Competency Framework - here
• Advanced written and spoken English.