Deputy Health Systems Stabilisation and Delivery Manager At Montrose

MONTROSE is an international development project management and consultancy company providing support to clients operating in the developing world. Specialised in the sectors of health, education, rural livelihoods and private sector development, our clients include bilateral and multilateral development agencies, the private sector, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and other development stakeholders.

Background

The Health Pooled Fund began its third phase (HPF3) in July 2018 and is supported to run until 2023 by the British Government’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Government of Canada, the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency (SIDA), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European Union (EU). A consortium led by Crown Agents and including Montrose is responsible for managing and implementing HPF3.

HPF3 merges two previous health programmes – Health Pooled Fund 2 (HPF2), which provides healthcare at health facility level, and the Integrated Community Case Management 2 (ICCM2) programme, which provides healthcare to children under five within more remote communities. HPF3 supports delivery of community level essential primary health care, secondary health care and referral health services, stabilisation of local health systems, and procurement and supply chain management of essential medical commodities.

HPF3 supports services in eight out of 10 states of South Sudan: Eastern Equatoria, Central Equatoria, Western Equatoria, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Western Bahr el Ghazal, Warrap, Unity, and Lakes.

The programme impact will improve the health and wellbeing of the population through increased coverage, access and utilisation of quality lifesaving health, sexual and reproductive health and nutrition services under the following five outputs:

Output 1: Delivery and increased availability/readiness of quality health services at facilities.

Output 2: Community level interventions that increase awareness, prevention and treatment of common conditions.

Output 3: Availability of safe, effective and quality essential medicines and supplies.

Output 4: Stable health systems that enhance accountability and responsive to the needs of the people.

Output 5: Funds and processes that are efficient, effective, inclusive and offer value for money.

To attain these outcomes, the HPF3 team is responsible for:

• Effective programme management, including robust risk management
• Ensuring continuity of and support to service delivery, with a focus on improving quality
• Specialist technical assistance covering health service delivery, community engagement, nutrition, health planning, information and human resources for health
• Procurement and supply chain management of essential medical commodities
• Management of the implementing partner fund
• Management of fiduciary risk associated with use of donor funds

Position summary

The Deputy Health Systems Stabilisation and Delivery Manager (DHSSDM) will be responsible for supporting and deputising for the Health Systems Stabilisation and Delivery Manager (HSSDM) whenever the need arises to ensure that the HPF3 programme is implemented in accordance with donor requirements and is able to achieve its intended impact, outcome and outputs. The individual will be responsible for supporting the HSSDM in leading the Health Systems Stabilisation and Delivery (HSSD) team of technical specialists, providing them with strategic guidance and quality assuring their work. The DHSSDM will provide technical support to implementing partners on delivering health services in HPF3-supported facilities and monitor their implementation progress and adherence to Basic Package of Health and Nutrition Services (BPHNS) and other Ministry of Health (MoH) guidelines and policies, as applicable. The DHSSDM plays an important role in supporting the HSSDM with external representation for the HPF programme and is expected to successfully engage with other relevant stakeholders in the health sector in South Sudan.

Responsibilities

• Support the HSSDM with the development and implementation of the HSSD work plan, ensuring quality outputs and timely completion of programme deliverables.
• Proactively lead and line manage some [GH1] of the HSSD team members including ensuring that at a minimum a monthly individual catch-up and quarterly performance meeting is held with each team member managed by the DHSSDM, and ensuring that monthly timesheets are reviewed and signed off in a timely manner.
• Supporting the HSSDM to ensure that there is continual oversight and guidance for all HSSD activities supported by the HPF programme through the implementing partners.
• Support the HSSDM to collaborate and coordinate with other partners (including clusters, UN agencies, NGOs) and funding agencies on health systems stabilisation issues.
• Participate in the technical evaluation of any proposals submitted by the implementing partners, including the proposals to access emergency preparedness and response funding.
• Provide technical support to implementing partners on delivering key elements of the BPHNS.
• Monitor implementing partners on implementation progress and adherence to BPHNS and other MoH guidelines and policies.
• Support the HSSDM with consolidation and quality assurance of inputs from the HSSD team for client reporting deliverables, providing timely feedback to HSSD team members to strengthen their analytical report-writing skills.
• Support the continual risk and issue management and mitigation processes on the programme.
• Support the HSSDM with the HSSD teamwork planning and budgeting and ensure that an up-to-date workplan and budget are in place at all times.
• Coordinate HSSD team technical assistance and supportive supervision visits as appropriate, ensuring that there are Terms of Reference in place for each visit and trip reports are submitted in a timely manner.
• Where necessary, monitor the HSSD team budget and provide monthly variance analysis of actual expenditure against the forecast budget to the Senior Leadership Team.
• Provide support to the MoH on health policy matters (e.g. contribution to technical working groups).
• Represent HPF3 at meetings with external stakeholders, where necessary.
• Where necessary, stand in for the HSSDM to represent the HSSD team at the Senior Management Team meetings.
• Deputise for the HSSDM in all activities and tasks as required.
• Any other relevant duties commensurate with experience as designated by the Line Manager.

Requirements

Qualifications:

• At least 10 years’ working experience in a related field.
• Master’s qualification in International Public Health, Health Services Management or related field is desirable.
• Clinical background desirable (medical doctor, clinical officer, nurse or related).

Skills and experience:

• Demonstrable experience of successfully working at senior manager level in a large development programme team or for a development organisation.
• Excellent people management and team leadership skills.
• Proven ability to enable his/her team to perform beyond expectations.
• Experience of working in the South Sudan health sector an advantage, with a good understanding of the stakeholder landscape and importance of coordination with other actors in the sector.
• Proven experience in health systems strengthening and service delivery in South Sudan an advantage.
• Clear and articulate communicator in English, both in writing and verbally.
• Experience of providing external representation at high-level meetings.
• Demonstrable ability to write reports and provide critical analysis and quality assurance of the work of others.
• Solid experience of developing accurately costed work plans and monitoring budgets.
• Excellent inter-personal relationship skills.
• Computer literate: at a minimum must be able to use Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook proficiently.
• Preferably already based in South Sudan due to travel restrictions.

Reporting and communication

• This position reports to the HSSDM.
• The DHSSDM is responsible for the direct management of a team of up 5 to technical specialists.
• The DHSSDM will work closely with counterparts in the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), Operations, and Grant teams and, where necessary, will stand for the HSSDM as a member of the Senior Management Team.