Health Governance Manager at International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Location: Maiduguri, Borno  Application Link

Location: Damaturu, Yobe   Application Link

Sector: Governance
Employment Category: Fixed Term
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. For more information on PDIA, see https://bsc.cid.harvard.edu/.

Job Overview / Summary

• In this context, the IRC is seeking a highly skilled, dynamic and experienced Health Governance Manager working under the supervision of the Senior Urban Resilience Manager, based in Maiduguri, and in close collaboration with the and SRHR Research and Innovation Manager, based in Maiduguri, the SRMNH Research and Innovation Lead, based in Washington, DC, USA, and the Governance Technical Advisor, based in Brussels, Belgium.
• This position will provide leadership and technical expertise on all components of the project.

Major Responsibilities
Study Preparation:

• Review of research proposal to assure contextual appropriateness;
• Communication with health districts of the targeted health facilities to ensure buy-in and continued support throughout implementation;
• Build own capacity on the PDIA approach, process, and tools (capacity strengthening will be provided by the Governance Technical Advisor).

Management and Technical Leadership of study implementation:

• Provide technical leadership and ensure that the project is fully designed and implemented according to the approved project proposal and in accordance with donor requirements;
• Lead the project team and oversee the effective coordination and implementation of the project in both Borno and Yobe state, ensuring compliance of all activities with donor rules and regulations;
• Oversee the facilitation of the 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.

Human Resources, Training and Capacity building:

• Supervise and provide leadership to a team of Health Governance Officers and Health Governance Assistants responsible for facilitating the PDIA process in the remaining selected facilities;
• Identify training needs of staff recruited to support project and implement relevant training activities;
• Continuously strengthening staff capacity through on-the-job training.

Representation and Communication:

• Coordinate with Health Governance Officers to communicate with the team/partners (MoH and facilities) a clear and exciting vision for the work of the PDIA project;
• Represent and communicate the PDIA project initiatives to relevant stakeholders;
• Ensure effective communication and information sharing between partners (MoH and facilities) and with other relevant actors and stakeholders;
• Support drafting of donor reports, project overviews, regular updates, and other communication materials as needed. 

Monitoring & Evaluation:

• Collaborate closely with the SRMNH Research and Innovation Lead and the SRHR Research and Innovation Manager to ensure the implementation team properly follows research processes;
• 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:  Senior Urban Resilience Manager, based in Maiduguri
  Position directly supervises:  Health Governance Officers, based in Maiduguri and Damaturu
• Indirect Reporting: SRMNH Research and Innovation Lead, based in Washington, DC, USA, and the Governance Technical Advisor, based in Brussels, Belgium.

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

• 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 four (4) years of experience in local governance, social accountability, public administration, institutional development, public-sector capacity building or related technical areas;
• Strong knowledge and understanding governance in service delivery, in particular health;
• Solid experience in participatory, flexible, conflict and gender-sensitive programming and implementation;
• Experience or knowledge of the Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) and/or adaptive management a plus;
• Strong track record in working in partnership with governments and civil society at various levels;
• Demonstrated ability to negotiate and partner with communities, civil society, and government representatives;
• Fluency in written and spoken English is required. Fluency in written and spoken Hausa and/or Kanuri is preferred.

Working Environment:

• The IRC is a team-work environment and requires a person who will work with colleagues from many cultural backgrounds, understand and contribute to the organization’s goals, work well as a member of a group/team, and respect the thoughts and opinions of others in the team.
• The security situation in North East Nigeria continues to be volatile with security level currently at 3 (orange), though subject to change.