Technical Health Advisor at GIZ Nigeria

The Project:

Backup Health

BACKUP Health is a technical cooperation partner of global initiatives for health (GHIs) that works to improve the efficiency of investments towards sustainable impact. The programme advises partners across the different pillars of health systems strengthening (HSS), including health financing, towards improving provision and access to quality healthcare services. Specifically, it seeks to:

• Strengthen alignment and coordination of fundings from global health initiatives at global and country level by building synergies across invesments to improve efficiency and value for money; 
• Provide tailored support to improve framework conditions for investments through GHIs using advisory services on building up systems for health and developing health policies and strategies; 

Strengthen capacity of key actors in the national health system for better decision making on programming, oversight, governance and coordination;   

• Provide partners with lessons learned that can be scaled up and incorporated into further planning and implementation of GHIfunded interventions.
• In all activities, GIZ and BACKUP put a particular focus on gender equality, human rights, and civil society engagement.

Responsibilities tasks:

Responsibilities

The Technical Health Advisor will have the following responsibilities:

• Establishing partnerships with national, bi- and multilateral stakeholders in the Nigerian health sector and global health landscape
• Based on overall BACKUP strategy and mandate, contributing to the ongoing development of the BACKUP portfolio and technical assistance approach in Nigeria
• Supporting the coordination and monitoring of implementation by ongoing projects of global health initiative, particularly the Global Fund, Gavi and GFF, where relevant to the BACKUP portfolio   

Tasks

Partner engagement and advisory

• Identify technical assistance needs and opportunities for support in the BACKUP intervention areas national coordination and governance, health system strengthening, integrated health services and mitigation of C-19 impact on disease control.
• Assess capacity development needs of national health partners and civil society, develop, and implement capacity building plans, and develop benchmarks/milestones to monitor impact of interventions.
• Provide technical assistance based on the identified needs as well as analyze and incorporate cross cutting issues of community, rights and gender related to the interventions.
• Provide technical contributions to policies, guidelines and other coordination and implementation tools as may be required by partner activities.
• Jointly with partners, support the assessment of technical capacities against mandates and organize, conduct and/or facilitate training sessions on the relevant areas of work.
• Support in-country coordination for the implementation of global health initiatives through close engagement and collaboration with global secretariat teams and country-level mechanisms (e.g the Country Coordinating Mechanism of the Global Fund)
• Support the collation of information around partner engagement in the planning and implementation of global investments and inform global policy discourse on mechanisms/strategies for promoting the efficiency of investments.
• Contribute to policy discourse in line with development policies of commissioning and co-financing parties.
• Provide advisory services to country missions/delegations and the German Embassy
• Contribute to the provision of advisory services on the global health investment landscape and implementation with a country perspective (conceptualizing and commenting on position papers, constituency statements, feedback on grant applications ahead etc)

Technical coordination and administration 

• Support strategic and operational planning processes for technical assistance and ensure alignment with national policies and strategies.
• Provide advisory services to the different technical working groups of health systems strengthening thematic areas at country and global levels. 
• Work together with the other technical advisors and development partners in preparing, attending, and reporting on programmatic and technical working group coordination meetings in the Nigerian health sector.
• Provide technical backstopping to local and international technical assistance providers and support coordination and planning of travels and other field related activities. 
• Support knowledge management for BACKUP by collecting and documenting good practices and lessons learned in relation to programmes/processes and technical assistance approaches of global health financing initiatives.

Communications and networking

• Represent BACKUP in adhering to the programme’s principles, guidelines, and agreements in all related interventions.
• Promote partnerships and linkages between key stakeholders related to the Global Health Initiatives (such as Global Fund, Gavi and GFF) as well as other health system actors.
• Support transparent communication and information sharing between all involved institutions and counterparts related to the Global Health Initiatives
• Generate and communicate evidence from BACKUP interventions and contribute to the development of communication materials or dialogue platforms for dissemination of lessons and other knowledge materials for scale-up.
• Support BACKUP communication and public relations through national, regional, and global publication of project outcomes (e.g. in journals, news feeds and social media).
• Contribute data and information for annual reports in close coordination with other teams and components. 

Other duties/additional tasks

• The position holder performs other duties and tasks at the request of the BACKUP management.

Required qualifications, competences, and experience.

Qualifications:

• MSc/MBA in Public Health (different streams), Public Policy, Health Financing, Health Economics or other related fields of study.

Professional experience

• Minimum of 7 years of professional experiences in a comparable position in the health sector
• Work experience in the Nigerian health sector with/in public institutions (Federal Ministry of Health, disease control, health systems strengthening, community engagement etc)
• Experience working with development partners and other international aid organisations, or in/with programmes financed by these organisations an added advantage.

Other knowledge, additional competences

• Good understanding of global health architecture and country level operations 
• Experience working with the Global Fund and/or its implementing partners at country level an added advantage.
• Highly motivated professional with excellent interpersonal skills and ability to effectively interact in complex cooperation systems with various stakeholders (including senior government offices, civil society organisations and key populations, programme implementers, client communities)
• Experience working with German Development Cooperation desirable.
• A team player that takes responsibility for dedicated work packages and is results oriented with desire to ensure sustainability and impact in all investments. 
• Experience/competency in writing articles and other communications materials. 
• Good organizational skills (managing complex tasks and stakeholders) with positive attitude to change.
• Language: English (professional level for reading, speaking, and writing)
• Good IT knowledge
• Willingness to travel regularly.

(Please include vacancy no. 026 in mail subject)