Country: United States of America
Closing date: 30 Jan 2017
Program Overview
Pathfinder’s technical staff members provide guidance and expertise in a variety of technical areas to strengthen Pathfinder field offices and government and NGO partners, who implement Pathfinder projects. These areas of technical expertise include contraception, abortion and post-abortion care, maternal and newborn health, HIV and AIDS, adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health, and cross cutting areas such as behavior change, community engagement, capacity building, quality, health systems strengthening, digital health, and implementation learning. Technical staff at Pathfinder HQ provide overall technical direction to the organization for their focus areas, work with field offices, field staff and partner agencies to provide technical support and are responsible for the development of relevant curricula and tools to support project implementation. This position will be part of the Integrated System Strengthening team described below.
The Integrated System Strengthening (ISS) Team concentrates on strengthening community and health systems and their interaction. The team promotes ISS in Pathfinder’s programs by adopting an integrated and cross cutting approach to provide technical assistance to our country programs. The team is made up of experts focusing on health systems, community engagement, capacity building, behavior change, and digital health, and works to strengthen public and private institutions as independent entities and cohesive and integrated networks and systems; works with communities to analyze, address and advocate for their needs, and invests in building the relationship between health system and communities to improve their interaction and responsiveness to one another.
Position Purpose
Pathfinder is seeking a health systems strengthening leader to be based at its Headquarters in greater Boston, MA. The Advisor will bring expertise in low- and middle-income countries, with field experience working with public and private health systems and expertise in health financing and service delivery. The HSS Senior Advisor will provide technical assistance to support in health systems strengthening and health financing to country teams and have a track record of working with national, district and community health systems, and be committed to community engagement in health and people-centered health systems. He/She will be equipped with the skills to adapt and shift to the global movement towards achieving UHC and able to articulate responses towards health financing issues, quality of service delivery, and advocacy for budgeting and planning within country governments, ensuring that Pathfinder is responsive to the changing landscape in the countries where we operate. He/She will be responsible to develop tools and resources as appropriate. S/he will also provide technical guidance and mentoring to staff strengthening their capacity in this area.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide technical leadership for Pathfinder’s health systems strengthening work globally
- In coordination with other TAs, provide remote and in-country technical support and assistance to country projects in the design, development, and implementation of health systems strengthening and financing
- Develop and implement HSS strategies, and approaches, while staying at the forefront of global trends, particularly as countries transition and move towards UHC
- Work with Pathfinder projects to support supply- and demand- side health financing initiatives, ranging from results/performance based financing, private sector contracting, and cost effectiveness, to community based health insurance, and demand side voucher schemes
- Lead or contribute to the development of briefing notes, strategy documents, guidelines, curriculum, and toolkits on key health system themes and priorities
- Focusing on the systems that support service delivery, provide technical guidance for design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of program activities
- Lead the technical design of proposals/programs and/or write, contribute and/or review proposals
- Develop, liaise and nurture relationships with USG and non USG donors and partners
- Manage strategic relationships with donors, governments, implementing agencies and academic institutions
- Contribute to high level policy dialogue on health systems and health financing, with missions and counterparts (such as Ministry of Health and Finance) in Pathfinder countries
- Help lead efforts to document results and lessons from projects, in white papers or journal articles, in close collaboration with other technical staff
- Provide thought leadership in engagements with donors, private foundations and other stakeholders
- Represent the organization at external technical events, including conferences, webinars and others events hosted by Pathfinder or partner organizations.
- Build the skills of Pathfinder staff in health system strengthening and health financing
- Any other duties that may be assigned
Basic Requirements
- A minimum of 15 years of field experience implementing and/or providing technical assistance in health systems strengthening programs, with a focus on service delivery and health financing in Asia and Africa
- Extensive experience working on both supply- and demand- side health financing
- Senior level experience in developing, managing and leading global health service delivery programs and strengthening institutions in resource poor settings
- Familiarity with sexual and reproductive health programs
- Demonstrated experience with USAID funded projects
- Track record in systems that support service delivery including planning and budgeting, human resource management, performance based financing, demand side financing, management systems, and procurement, and bringing them together to improve service delivery for SRHR services
- Prior experience designing and facilitating workshops and trainings
- An established track record of responding to large USAID or other donor solicitations, and
winning major USAID and other multi-lateral funded proposals
- Deep familiarity with global health financing mechanisms and universal health coverage
- International and domestic travel 30% of time
- Previous experience supervising staff; with a track record of leading teams to achieve results
- Excellent interpersonal skills.
- Excellent networking skills with a strong professional network of peers and colleagues working in global health
- Excellent verbal and written skills in English required, Professional proficiency in French desired
Preferred Qualifications
- Master’s degree or higher in health economics, management or public health with a health financing focus
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
- Experience working with ministries of health and finance and track record of effectively interacting with both key actors
- Experience in bilateral, multilateral and private donors approaches and programs
- Demonstrated experience and knowledge of financing initiatives, and approaches in Africa and Asia
How to apply: