Health Governance Assistant at International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Location: Maiduguri, Borno  Application Link

Location: Damaturu, Yobe  Application Link
Sector: Governance
Employment Category: Regular
Employment Type: Full-Time
Open to Expatriates: No

Background / IRC Summary

• The International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s largest humanitarian agencies, supporting victims of natural disaster, oppression, and violent conflict in over 40 countries to survive, recover, and gain control of their lives. IRC entered Nigeria in October 2012 in response to a widespread flood disaster. Since then, the IRC has expanded its scope and size of the programs in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe States.
• The IRC’s response includes integrated health and nutrition services, reproductive health care and women protection services, Environmental Health, Child Protection, Economic Recovery and Development, Education, General Protection, and Governance. IRC’s programming in Northeast Nigeria is supported by a team of more than 700 staff. 
• Together, we aim to provide the best possible impact for some of the most vulnerable children, women, and men. In all that we do, IRC strives to deliver through IRC’s core values of Integrity, Accountability, Service and Equality.
• The Testing Problem-driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) for Social Accountability in Health project aims to test the effectiveness of PDIA as a social accountability approach to increase the participation of service users in health facility management and the resolution of problems within these health facilities. 
• PDIA is a step-by-step approach which helps decision makers break down their problems into their root causes, identify entry points, search for possible solutions, take action, reflect upon what they have learned, adapt, and then act again. It is a dynamic process with tight feedback loops that allows decision makers to build their own solution to their problem that fits their local context.

Job Overview / Summary

• In this context, the IRC is seeking three Health Governance Assistants, one based in Maiduguri, Borno State and two based in Damaturu, Yobe State, working under the supervision of the Health Governance Officer, based in Maiduguri and Damaturu respectively, and in close collaboration with the Health Governance Manager in Maiduguri.
• The Health Governance Assistants will be in charge of implementing project activities, under the guidance of the Health Governance Officers. This role will run until December 31st, 2021, with no possibility of extension.

Major Responsibilities

• Work as part of the Health Governance team to ensure the successful delivery of the project and PDIA approaches;
• Build own capacity on the PDIA approach, process, and tools (capacity strengthening will be provided by the Governance Technical Advisor)
• Support logistical preparations for project activities, working in close collaboration with the Health Governance Officer, IRC Supply Chain, and IRC Finance Teams;
• Provide direct administrative support to the team, including copying, dissemination of documents, assisting the preparation of procurement-related documents, tracking purchase and payment requests, etc.;
• Lead community engagement activities, including community mobilization and facilitation of community-based sessions;
• With support from supervisor, facilitate PDIA process in a portion of selected facilities:
• Communicate with relevant health authorities and facilities;
• Develop activity plans, reports and other relevant documents;
• Plan and organize community-level and facility-level meetings;
• Plan, prepare content for, and facilitate workshops;
• Provide day-to-day technical and logistical support to PDIA teams.
• Communicate with the team/partners (MoH and facilities) a clear and exciting vision for the work of the PDIA project;
• Collect information, compile data, produce reports, and organize files as requested by supervisor;
• Document the process of PDIA and collect relevant information as per guidance received from the SRMNH Research and Innovation Lead and the SRHR Research and Innovation Manager;
• Facilitate the organization of key informant interviews and focus group discussions between project research staff and facility staff/community members/project staff;
• Ensure adherence to monitoring and evaluation guidelines, frameworks and indicators for the project.
• And all other duties as assigned by the supervisor.

Key Working Relationships

• Position Reports to:  Health Governance Officers, based in Maiduguri and Damaturu
• Position directly supervises:  N/A
• Indirect Reporting: Sr. Urban Resilience Manager and Health Governance Manager, both based in Maiduguri
• Internal: SRHR Research and Innovation Manager, based in Maiduguri, other IRC Health Research staff based in Nigeria
• External: Ministry of Health, Health Facility staff, Community Leaders and Members

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Community Development, Public Administration, Law, International Development, Project Management or other relevant field;
• Minimum two (2) years of professional humanitarian/development experience; Experience in governance and health systems a plus;
• Experience with community engagement and participatory processes, including: previous facilitation of group work with relevant populations, active participant in community groups, and experience with capacity building or training exercises.
• Strong presentation skills and writing ability;
• Able to solve complex problems through a reciprocal and consultative approach;
• Prior experience working with government actors and/or community leaders is required;
• Fluency in written and spoken English is required. Fluency in written and spoken Hausa and/or Kanuri is obligatory.