Health Programme Coordinator – Sierra Leone Freetown Mid level

About the role: This is a 2 year, new role with unaccompanied terms based in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with a salary of Grade 4 €44,133 – 49,038

You will report to Sierra Leone Programme Director (PD) and will lead on the strategic development of Concern’s growing Health Programme in Sierra Leone. You will be responsible for the effective and quality implementation of projects within the health portfolio, line management of Health Project Coordinators and Managers, and play a key role in mobilising resources to continue to expand the programme.

We would like you to start early January 2024.

Your purpose:

This is an exciting opportunity for the right candidate to support the significant growth of Concern’s Health Programme in Sierra Leone, in partnership with key line ministries and (I)NGO partners. Concern has recently been awarded the FCDO-funded Saving Lives in Sierra Leone 3 as consortium lead, which is an exciting new flagship programme for Concern and of significant importance for Sierra Leone. You will provide leadership and management to the health sector, and technical support to ensure Concern is delivering high quality, relevant, impactful and accountable programming that targets hard to reach, underserved communities living in conditions of extreme poverty. This includes oversight of Concern’s existing health portfolio which takes an integrated and system strengthening approach across 4 pillar (Community Health Seeking and Health Systems (including Adolescent Sexual & Reproductive Health (ASRH) and Nutrition, in close collaboration with the livelihoods sector).; Formal Health System Strengthening (at district and national levels); Disease Prevention (including vaccination programming); and Humanitarian response – technical support to the Emergency Coordinator on health related emergency preparedness and response). All pillars underpinned by gender and equality, protection, climate and environment, conflict and disaster risk reduction. You will also play a key role in positioning Concern towards new funding opportunities in Sierra Leone and developing high quality proposals. You will be responsible to maintain and build strong relationships with donors, partners and the Sierra Leonean government – relevant line ministries.

You will be based in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with frequent travel to the other districts where Concern works.

Reports To: Programme Director (PD)

Direct line reports: Health Project Coordinators and Managers (2 presently).

Liaises With:

• All Sector Coordinators (Education, Livelihoods, Emergency, Programme Development & Quality), PDQ team, Grants Manager, Partnership Manager and wider health team;
• Country Management Team, Business Development and Knowledge Capitalisation Manager (BDKC); Finance, Logistics and Procurement, and HR;
• Concern Desk Officer and relevant technical advisors at head office
• Partner/consortium agencies, Health NGOs Group, relevant Donors, Ministry of Health & Sanitation (MoHS), Ministry of Social Welfare (MSW), SUN Secretariat, National Disasters Management Agency (NDMA).

You will be responsible for:

Programme Leadership and Development:

• Reporting to the PD, lead the implementation of Concern’s Country Health Strategy. Updating in line with Concern Sierra Leone’s country strategic plan which will be updated in 2024.
• Design, implement and manage overall Health Programme at the national level with high quality and ensure participation of community and other stakeholders; Ensuring alignment with Concern Worldwide’s health & organisational policies & strategies.
• Ensure the Concern health development projects are designed in line with global best practices, relevant in country evidence, and in line with the needs of beneficiaries, programme participants and partners in the intervention including Ministry of Health guidelines and strategy.
• Provide technical backstopping to the health teams, ensuring the development, review and utilisation of best practices for specific technical interventions.
• Ensure that the core principles and policies of Concern regarding Concern’s Code of Conduct & Associated Policies (especially the Programme Participants’ Protection Policy and Child Safeguarding), Equality, Accountability commitments, Community Based Complaint & Response Mechanism, and Anti-Fraud Policy are implemented across the health programme, monitored and reported.
• With support of Concern advisors, ensure effective mainstreaming of equality, partnership, protection, environment and disaster risk reduction including how Concern Understands Extreme Poverty approach

Programme integration and partnership development

• Support the project leads to ensure successful roll out of health projects with a collaborative approach (particularly essential for any integrated projects).
• Maintain effective partnerships particularly with Health Development Partners, Ministry of Health at national level and other relevant ministries (e.g. Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, National Secretariat for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy, Ministry of Social Welfare).
• Initiate and develop partnerships with relevant international and national NGOs and CBOs. This includes working with the Partnership Manager to identify and support in the assessment of potential strategic partners.

Development, Grants and Financial Management

• In line with the country Programme strategy, and in collaboration with the PD, BDKC Manager and Country Finance Controller, analyse funding requirements and opportunities, support positioning and lead/support developing funding proposals of high quality to expand appropriately the health program.
• Prepare health sector annual budget and analyse the need to seek additional funding based on the health Programme strategy.
• Overall responsible for, and to build capacity of direct reports to ensure:
• Effective management of all aspects of donor grants for the health Programme and with the preparation of high quality donor reports as per the donor agreement and submitted on time;
• All projects are on track in terms of implementation and quality of activities as well as budget expenditure through effective planning and monitoring; Manage risks and escalate to line manager when necessary, with suggested solutions/actions
• Monthly cash forecasts and monthly management accounts are prepared/reviewed with comments and tracked by Project Managers/Coordinators and adjust planning accordingly to ensure that budgets are spent effectively;
• All healthprojects have annual budgets, Detailed Implementation Plans (DIP), with realistic timeframes and milestones, and procurement plans. With the support of the PD, and liaising with relevant departments, ensure that all resources needed (technical, financial, HR) are in place to implement DIP. Regularly review the budget, DIP and procurement plan and update relevant components at least quarterly with project and finance staff.
• Lead in starting up new projects and hand over appropriately to the respective Project lead.
• Support the project leads to close out projects according to internal Concern and donor guidelines.

Human resource management and development

• Line manage direct reports, and ensure they are appropriately managing their teams. Set clear performance objectives, provide regular feedback and conduct performance reviews (in line with Concern processes), holding staff accountable for meeting agreed success criteria.
• Design appropriate and effective mentoring, coaching and career development plans for members of the Health team to build their capacities. This includes liaising with HR to ensure an effective induction when new staff join Concern and regularly providing ongoing technical and managerial support as needed
• With HR, lead in the recruitment process for Livelihoods project teams. This includes updating job descriptions as needed and periodically reviewing the livelihoods sector team staffing structure – with recommendations for any changes to the PD and HR.
• Ensure that work within the Livelihoods team(s) is planned and organised in a way which will meet the organisation’s needs in the most cost effective manner possible; ensuring that team members are given appropriate workloads and are working efficiently.
• Provide technical support to Project managers/coordinators – and wider team with specific focus on clinical and health technical support.

Monitoring, evaluation and learning, Innovation

• Regularly visit programme locations to monitor implementation and quality and coach and mentor staff and partners.
• With the PDQ team:
• all health projects have strong MEAL plans in place, in line with Concern policies and systems, using standard and approved tools, and that the MEAL plans are feasible; indicators set for projects are reflective of project aims and are realistic and measurable;
• evaluation and learning from monitoring is regularly shared with teams and partners for improved performance; Support partners to equally engage in effective MEAL planning and implementation;
• Review meetings (internal and external with partners, project stakeholders and programme participants) are conducted and learning used to adjust programming as necessary;
• Case stories and lessons learnt are captured and shared;
• Fully incorporate Concern’s Accountability and CHS commitments in Health programming design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.
• Ensure production of high quality timely donor reports, monthly internal reports, reports for Service Level Agreements for the Government – that reports reflect contributions from the whole team and partners.
• Lead on writing the country annual report for the health sector with high quality ensuring it reflects contributions from the whole team.
• Ensure that health project related documentation is continuously input and updated in Concern’s grants management system (GMS).
• Chair regular health sector meetings to share learning, challenges and solutions and to ensure beneficiary feedback and project learning is recorded and shared with a wider audience.

Accountability

In line with Concern’s commitments under the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS):

• Actively promote meaningful community participation and consultation at all stages of the project cycle (planning, implementation, M&E);
• Work with relevant colleagues to ensure that the Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) is functional and accessible, that feedback and complaints are welcomed and addressed;
• Work with relevant colleagues to ensure that information about CRM, safeguarding and expected staff behaviour is disseminated among programme participants and communities.

Visibility

• Ensure Concern is represented at a range of national and international technical fora related to our work or future strategic direction (delegate where applicable to Direct reports).
• In collaboration with the PDQ team, ensure that information products, programme briefs and capacity statements are produced and shared within Concern and with external partners and platforms.
• Represent the work of the Health sector through presentations of our work and learning where opportunities allow (and delegate where applicable to the Direct reports).

Staff health and wellbeing

• In collaboration with the procurement and HR departments, give technical inputs to the staff health insurance renewal annually.
• Where necessary and in collaboration with the country management team and HR, ensure staff can access reliable and up to date information on health emergencies.
• In collaboration with the HR team, put forward suggested staff health initiatives to the CMT that can improve the health and wellbeing of Concern Sierra Leone staff.

General

• Promote and protect the reputation of Concern in external settings, ensuring that the organisation’s experience and expertise is well communicated and consistently presented, and that we are looked upon as a professional organisation, guided by policies and our Code of Conduct.
• As a humanitarian organisation, all staff are required to engage / support in emergency response work as may be necessary (training and other support will be provided as appropriate). Actively participate in the periodic updating of Concern in Sierra Leone’s Preparing for Effective Emergency Response (PEER) plan.
• Contribute to the ongoing reviews and updating of Concern in Sierra Leone’s Security Management Plan (SMP), the country strategic plan, and other Concern initiatives.
• Ensure the efficient and transparent use of all project resources in order to maximize the benefit to the targeted communities. Ensure adherence to Concern policies and procedures.
• Promote Equality, especially gender, within the organisation and across programmes, in line with Concern’s Equality Policy and ensure targeting and project implementation is fully informed and led by How Concern Understands Extreme Poverty (HCUEP).
• Any other tasks as may be mutually agreed with the Programmes Director and /or the CD.

Your skills and experience will include:

Essential:

Education

• Master’s degree in Public health/Community Health /WASH/Reproductive Health or other equivalent relevant experience.

Experience

• Minimum of 3 years international management experience and experience of implementing and managing health programs (including programs relating to primary health care, WASH, Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health, maternal and child health) in development and fragile contexts.
• Experience with Health Systems Strengthening approaches.
• Experience of implementing project cycle management – project planning, monitoring and review and adaptive management.
• Skills and experience in budget development and management, including expenditure tracking
• Skills in leadership, management and communication, building strong performing teams.
• Experience in the capacity building of national staff.
• Skills and experience of liaising, networking, advocating with and influencing senior Government officials and policy makers.
• Experience of fundraising and donor grants management, monitoring of large programmes.
• Proven ability to report on impact/result of programmes with strong technical writing skills.
• Experience in training and application of adult facilitation, participatory methods and rights based approaches.

We also value the following special skills and aptitudes:

• Experience in West Africa preferred
• Experience with donors such as FCDO, USAID or other large health-programme donors
• Experience in mainstreaming gender and equality, protection, conflict, environment/climate and DRR into programming.
• Training of trainers & facilitation skills.
• Working with/managing partner organisations and managing consortia projects.
• Experience in strategic development of country level health programming especially in fragile contexts
• High level of critical thinking and problem solving abilities.
• Experience in Community Based Complaint & Response Mechanism and the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) is an added advantage.

To apply:

CVs should be submitted through our website at https://jobs.concern.net by closing date.

Early application is encouraged as Concern reserves the right to appoint a suitable candidate before the formal closing date.

Concern is an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all section of the community.

Concern has an organizational Code of Conduct (CCoC) with three Associated Policies; the Programme Participant Protection Policy (P4), the Child Safeguarding Policy and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Policy accessible here. These have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation, and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organization, and the standards of behavior expected of them. In this context, staff have a responsibility to the organization to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Concern Staff Code of Conduct and Associated Policies as an appendix to their contract of employment. By signing the Concern Code of Conduct, candidates acknowledge that they have understood the content of both the Concern Code of Conduct and the Associated Policies and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these policies. Additionally, Concern is committed to the safeguarding and protection of vulnerable adults and children in our work. We will do everything possible to ensure that only those who are suitable to work or volunteer with vulnerable adults and children are recruited by us for such roles. Subsequently, working or volunteering with Concern is subject to a range of vetting checks, including criminal background checking.

Your Personal Data

During this job application, you will provide Concern with your personal data. Concern takes its responsibilities towards this personal data very seriously and is committed to complying with all relevant data protection legislation.

Concern receives a substantial amount of funding from external donors each year. Increasingly donors are introducing requirements whereby future funding is conditional on ensuring that the name of any employee or volunteer (existing or new), does not appear on terrorism lists generated by the European Union (List of person, groups and entities to which Regulation (EC No. 2580/2001 applies), the US Government (Office of Foreign Assets Control list of specially designated Nationals and Blocked Persons) and the United Nations (Consolidated List).

Any offer of employment (either paid or voluntary) with Concern Worldwide will only be made following a successful clearance check being conducted on the applicant and such checks may be updated periodically during the course of the period of employment.

By submitting a formal application for paid or voluntary employment to Concern, you agree to Concern carrying out a clearance check as outlined above and that Concern will not proceed to recruit you should your name appear on any of the aforementioned lists.

In certain circumstances, donors may request that personal data relating to employees to work on the activities that they fund be provided directly to them – so that they can perform their own counter terrorism checks. This may involve transferring some basic personal data outside the EEA. It will be a condition of your employment contract that Concern be allowed to share this information with institutional donors for these purposes.

For additional information please consult our web site or contact the Human Resource Division in our Head Office.

You have certain rights under data protection legislation. For more information on how to exercise those rights please visit www.concern.net/about/privacy

Please only apply for this position if you are satisfied with the proposed processing of your personal data as outlined above.

Concern Worldwide is an Irish-based non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries.

Tagged as: Concern Worldwide, Sierra Leone