Child Safeguarding:

Level 3 - the role holder will not have contact with children and/or young people, or access to personal data about children or young people, as part of their work; therefore, a police check will not be mandatory unless the content or location of the role changes, in which case the Child Safeguarding level will be reviewed. 

ROLE PURPOSE:

Ethiopia has registered substantial progress in reducing newborn and child morbidity over the past decades due to a strong leadership of the Ministry of Health (MoH) and RHBs, coordination of efforts and intensive investment in the health system by government, development partners, and the community at large. The under-five mortality rate has declined by two thirds significantly from the 1990 figure of 204/1,000 live births to 59/1,000 live births in 2019. Disaggregation of the mortality data by age reveals that the decline in neonatal mortality is not as impressive as the infant and child mortality figures. Save the Children has been contributing for this remarkable achievement for more than two decades through designing and implementing evidence-based projects that improve Newborn and Child Health in the country.

To further scale up key lifesaving interventions for the reduction in child mortality and to improve the status of newborn health, Save the Children will implement an innovation project tosupport identification and referral of low birth weight babies born at home and in the community to the formal health system.  The Specialist will lead in the implementation of the newborn research project by effectively designing and developing implementation strategies and detailed implementation plans to ensure successful implementation of the pilot project across all health facilities in the pilot area. The Specialist will closely work with and under the guidance from the Project Steering team, Program Area Director, Operation Team, Senior Health Advisor, Sr. Evidence, Learning and Innovation Advisor and all the national/international Innovation Team. The Specialist will coordinate the design of research protocol; facilitate IRB approval, and will support implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and documentation of the interventions. A key responsibility of the role and findings. The post holder is to ensure effective data collection to support hypotheses testing and decision-making during the proof-of-concept phase of the pilot.will have a strong programmatic/clinical background with some experience of research processes.  

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to:  Hawassa Field Office Manager

Dimensions: Save the Children works in all regions in Ethiopia with a current staff complement of approximately 1,600+ members and current expenditure of approximately $90+ million each year.

Staff directly reporting to this post: none

Length of Contract-  January 2023 – December 2023

Place of Work – Hawassa with regular travel to implementation area and coordination meetings at national and regional level

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Technical Support and Management of Program Implementation

• With the support from the FOM and country office technical advisors ensure the efficient and effective delivery and management of Newborn Health Project activities;

• Monitor the implementation of NH footlength program interventions in the implementation woredas, health facility and health post level;

• Liaise with the project steering team with regard to project progress and adaptions.

• Develop and timely submit work plans and budgets for Newborn Health Innovation Pilot Project activities

• Organize and facilitate orientation trainings and discussion forums with community influential members to create awareness of both  the solution and its benefit and improve acceptance at community level

•  Support the develop of relevant training on the intervention and care of preterm and low birth weight babies appropriate to the pilot.

• Technically support Regional Child and Newborn health taskforce at RHB on neonatal health issues especially on preterm and low birth weight new-borns programs.

• Work with relevant RHB departments and directorates to ensure integration and regular reporting of relevant indicators on child health program particularly care for preterm and low birth weight newborn in the DHIS2

• Ensure that cross-cutting themes like gender, safeguarding and advocacy elements are well integrated into the project plans and implementation

• Lead on the preparation of regular reports and project final report on newborn health program progress and share and disseminate the report to relevant bodies for policy and advocacy.  

Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Knowledge Sharing

• In consultation with Country TAs on Health and MEAL, collaborate with Regional University Team on the development of the research protocol for the newborn health research

• Support in the development of the tool and coordinate data collection with University Team

• Serve as a key team member on technical evaluation panels and project steering team for the research proposal and tools.

• Facilitate Regional Ethical Clearance to conduct the newborn research

• Facilitate trainings for Regional/Zonal/Woreda NCH Experts to orient on the tool and engage in the implementation

• Facilitate trainings and consultation meetings with HWs/HEWs on the digital solution and its implementation 

• Facilitate data collection and oversee quality throughout the research implementation process

• Facilitate/organize dissemination workshop/learning platforms to share the findings of the studies to inform scale up and future project design

• Regularly collect, analyse, share, validate, and utilize relevant data on the implementation of the digital solution, progress on identification and referral of LBW babies and on key NCH indicators

• In collaboration with the Learning and KM team, lead, collaborate, and oversee the process of documenting best practices in form of case studies, success stories, in addition to the routine quarterly, bi-annual and annual reports.

• In collaboration with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team ensure that data collected is accurate and valid and captures process and outcome indicators.

Representation, Networking and Advocacy 

• Closely work with and contribute on the regional child survival taskforce and subgroups (facility and community based working groups).

• Represent SC in Regional Newborn and Child Health TWG meetings/ coordination platforms and other events for purposes of sharing learnings and strengthening collaboration and partnership on newborn health.

• Facilitate effective partnership with stakeholders engaged in the implementation of newborn and child health program.

• Advocate for resources and commitment for scaling up of the gains from project implementation

• Represent SCI in relevant working groups, task forces, seminars and staff health related fora

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children in ensuring staff health and safety

• Holds staff accountable to deliver on their responsibilities to ensure all staff working in safe working environment - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary support to improve staff health and safety practices 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 Requirements

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Master’s degree or above on public health

• A health care professional (medical or nursing) with experience in MNH or pediatrics.

• A minimum of 8 years’ experience in program designing, planning, monitoring, implementation and evaluation of new born & child health programs both at community & facility level (specially on ICMNCI, IMNCI & CBNC, NICU, KMC, ENC and etc.)

• Substantive research experience in development contexts, preferably with solid research experience in health science,

• Strong monitoring and research analysis skills in both quantitative and qualitative research methods

• Experience at national level in the MOH or Regional Health Bureaus in the area of newborn and child health, research and knowledge management (desirable).

• Good knowledge and experience of the Ethiopian health systems and health policy

• Experience in working with/guiding national level technical working groups, working with government partners, with partner agencies.

• Good skill in communicating, persuasion, organizing group discussion, and presentation

• Good computer skill (MS word, MS excel, MS access and other data generating tools)

Commitment to Save the Children values

How to Apply

Application Information:

Please attach a copy of your CV and cover letter with your application, and include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. 

Use the below link to apply :   CLICK HERE

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.