Position No.: 1

Location: Surkhet, Karnali Province, Nepal

Contract: USAID’s Strengthening Systems for Better Health Activity

Supervisor: Program Director 

SSBH provides strategic technical support for USAID’s Health Direct Financing Project. In Karnali Province, this activity is implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Development and Health Services Directorate and selected municipalities across four districts (Surkhet, Jajarkot, Salyan and Dailekh). Technical support interventions are tailored to the needs of the province and municipalities, focusing primarily on evidence-based planning and budgeting, management and oversight for delivery of quality health services, overall strengthening of health systems, and coordination between all three levels of government for effective implementation of the government-to-government (G2G) support in health.

Reporting to the SSBH Program Director, the Provincial Manager/Health Governance Lead will be based in Surkhet, provincial capital of Karnali Province. S/he is responsible for providing oversight for province office operations, administrative and financial support for program activities, ensuring excellent operational support to field level activities, and adherence to Abt Associates, USAID and Government of Nepal rules and regulations governing finance and operations. S/he also ensures that SSBH health systems strengthening and governance activities are planned, implemented and well coordinated with province, district and municipal priorities. S/he will be the senior representative for SSBH in Karnali Province, provide overall leadership to the SSBH team in the province, and manage partnerships and collaboration with the Ministry of Social Development, Health Services Directorate, Training Center and local health officials, other USAID implementing partners and other stakkeholders in the province. Specific tasks include:

A. Provincial Management:

• In collaboration with the SSBH Senior Management Team (SMT), plan, manage and oversee project interventions at provincial and municipal levels, ensuring both the technical quality of the work and compliance with approved workplans and budgets and focusing on strengthening health system governance.
• Serve as the key liaison with the Karnali Province government and health officials and foster robust working relationships with these counterparts, engaging them in planning, implementation and monitoring as appropriate, keeping them apprised of project progress and challenges.
• Provide direct supervision and manage the performance of the technical and finance/admin team in the provincial office, ensuring that technical staff have the tools and resources to engage with province/municipal level counterparts and supervise the work of the multidisciplinary teams at municipal.
• Coordinate closely with other USAID implementing partners and other health sector actors to ensure collaboration, reduce duplication, and share data/information as appropriate.
• Provide oversight for management of SSBH financial resources in the province and municipalities; ensure adherence to Abt Associates and USAID financial management policies, procedures, and regulations.
• Provide oversight for office operations and administrative support for program activities, ensuring excellent logistics support to field level operations.
• Ensure accurate and timely submission of all required technical reports and deliverables for the project in general and the governance and health systems strengthening component in particular.
• Ensure that the SSBH office premises in Birendranagar are orderly, well-organized and reflect positively on both the Activity and on USAID.

B. Health Governance and Systems Leadership:

• Provide direction, leadership, and on-going technical support to SSBH technical teams for health systems and governance interventions, including activities to support G2G programming, municipal strategic planning, resource allocation, legislation/regulation and human resources planning and management.
• Work closely with province-level technical staff to provide technical support to provincial health counterparts for effective planning and management of health systems strengthening activities – with emphasis on G2G program management.
• In collaboration with the SMT and other SSBH technical leads, support district- and municipality-based multi-disciplinary teams to provide technical assistance for planning, management, and governance of G2G-funded activities.
• Provide mentoring and facilitation to the multi-disciplinary teams and health system officers and ensure that all the planned health systems and governance activities are implemented effectively and efficiently.
• Participate in and facilitate province, district and municipal level annual reviews and planning events as appropriate.
• In close coordination with other colleagues (including GESI Officer) analyze the strengths and areas of improvement of the systems to address issues of women, poor and the excluded and enhance GESI integration.

C. Skills Prerequisites:

• Master’s Degree (minimum), in Public Health, Health Administration, Management or other relevant field.
• More than eight years of relevant professional experience, focused on health systems strengthening; demonstrated knowledge of Nepal’s health system and federal structures preferably in the I/NGO sector.
• Experience in project and people management in Nepal.
• Experience with donor funded health programs in Nepal highly desirable and USAID experience is preferable.
• Excellent writing, computer use, management, and organizational skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and communication skills, initiative, and good judgment.
• Ability to independently plan and execute complex tasks while addressing daily management details and remaining organized and focused on long-term deadlines and strategy.
• Willingness to work in Karnali Province, with at least 30% of time on field visits to district and municipal-level operational areas.

Preference will be given to qualified candidates from Karnali Province.

SSBH is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender and culture. Women and Individuals from minority groups and differently-abled persons are encouraged to apply. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for further selection process. Canvassing at any stage of the process shall lead to automatic disqualification.