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Position – Public Health Specialist (SWAN Project)

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Public Health Specialist is in charge for high quality programming, policy engagement and advocacy outcomes of Save the Children’s development and humanitarian programs in public health work in north Ethiopia. Support the design and technical assistance of the technical elements of health and nutrition projects with relevant health specialists and technical advisors to ensure the projects contribute to the achievement of the thematic program plans. Represents SCI values and principles in interactions with staff and external audiences, including frequent interaction with CO technical staff. These values and principles include commitment to the mission of Save the Children, team orientation, quality management and leadership development, introducing systems and procedures to strengthen staff motivation and productivity.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Strategic Program Development and Representation

• S/he responsible for ensuring good integration of key organizational principles and approaches such as child participation and MEAL throughout the project cycle. Among other tasks, the position holder will be responsible to ensure lessons derived through implementation of projects are well articulated, documented and disseminated both internally and externally. Provide technical training and capacity building support to project staff so that they have the necessary skills and competencies to design, implement, monitor and evaluate projects.
• S/he will represent the organization in all external technical working groups and task forces, and meetings (seminars/workshops) at regional level; and, will engage with policy makers and work to achieve advocacy objectives to realize greater change for children.
• Technically support/lead the internal program planning for public health and review meetings for the health and nutrition teams, as well as related inputs to quarterly and annual reports.
• Oversees the implementation of emergency health in SWAN Project implemation areas and ensuring that the quality standards and state of the art are met.
• Ensures effective start up, management, implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of emergency health across the implementation areas.
• Provide support and guidance to implementing partners; assess response needs & provides technical assistance for government /partnres on need assessment and response plan prepation
• Support MEAL for the documentation of program achievements including the rollout of the quality benchmark and other initiatives
• Communicate program achievements against agreed strategic objectives and milestones, and any emerging new evidence for a wide range of internal and external audiences
• Actively communicate and coordinate with other sectors, senior emergency health specialists and project managers to ensure integrated approaches across themes that take into account current good practices
• Maintain and cultivate key external relationships including with the regional health bureaus and other regional government sectors offices, multi-lateral organizations, and INGOs

Program Development

• Ensure current technical knowledge, research and current/previous programming lessons learned and good practices are used in program implementation.

Program Quality and Effectiveness

• Carry out technical assistance to need assessment and M & E; ensures regular and timely support to field projects through TAs
• Provide relevant, timely, and high-quality technical support to all public health projects throughout the project cycle
• Work closely with Program Operations teams to support quality implementation including incorporation of recommendations for technical improvements
• Involve actively in the development of a vigorous evidence-based learning to support program implementation, development and advocacy. Proper documentation of lessons learned and good practices, their effectively dissemination and, where appropriate, incorporation into wider advocacy initiatives
• Work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) team to ensure quality benchmarking is in place for program implementation and all evaluations are conducted at a high level of quality
• Work with MEAL to ensure dissemination of learning and knowledge to humanitarian, PDQ, relevant program operations and partner staff through the active use of one or two communities of practice.
• Understand cross-cutting issues of resilience, gender, child participation, and others to ensure their incorporation into program implementation
• Support Program Operations and Awards in submitting quality donor reports by providing timely and thorough technical review of such reports including recommendations on how these reports could be improved.
• Policy Analysis, Policy Engagement and Advocacy for Policy Change
• Actively support the development and implementation of Save the Children’s H&N advocacy work. Provide technical assistance and guidance to advocacy efforts (objectives, messages, targets, approaches) and manage the achievement of each specific objective
• Ensure that the voices of children heard throughout project cycle
• Keep up-to-date of national policies and global trends/good practices in the area of public health analyze and share with relevant staff- ideally through the community of practice
• Participate in relevant regional working groups, task forces, seminars and related forum in the thematic area; and among donors, UN agencies, International NGOs, and sub-national government counterpart,

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modellng Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves (and their team), takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages others to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated thinks strategically

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency

Job Requirement

In order to be successful you will bring/have

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE

• First /Postgraduate degree in public health, nursing or related health fields with extensive experience in emergency health programming.
• Minimum five years’ work experience in public health programs
• Able to demonstrate experience working with government counterparts and other partners with progressive capacities from lower levels to high levels
• Excellent understanding of the relevant public health response sectors in Ethiopia both at policy and implementation levels
• Proven experience in emergency health response programming
• Demonstrable experience and skills in designing, implementing and M&E frameworks in public health
• Very good advocacy, communication and representation skills
• Strong analytical, writing, and problem solving skills
• Strong conceptualization, strategic thinking and planning, presentation and facilitation skills
• Proven ability to manage complex and demanding workload in emergency situations
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, training, mentoring, English language, and computer skills
• Good supportive supervision skills and ability and willingness to travel to the field and support projects in urgent situations
• Good presentation, training and facilitation skills; fluency in spoken and written English; good computer skills (particularly Excel, Word and databases)
• Familiarity and working experience with public health donors, implementing partners
• Commitment to Save the Children values.

We offer a competitive package in the context of the sector. The duty station of the position holder will be in Tigray Region. This role is offered on the basis of national terms and conditions only.

The Organization

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday

• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,

• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.