Job For Budgeting and Financial Management Specialist at Malaria Consortium, 18th January, 2019

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Malaria Consortium is one of the world’s leading non-profit organisations specialising in the comprehensive prevention, control and treatment of malaria and other communicable diseases among vulnerable and under privileged populations. We increasingly find our work on malaria can be effectively integrated with other similar public health interventions for greater impact and therefore expanded our remit to include child health and neglected tropical disease interventions. We are recruiting to fill the position below:     Job Title: NG BFMS - Budgeting and Financial Management Specialist Location: Abuja, Nigeria Department: Technical Length of Contract: 5 years Role Type: National Grade: 9 Travel involved: Up to 40% Child safeguarding level: TBC Reporting to: Senior Health Systems Strengthening Specialist Country and Project Background

• Malaria is highly endemic in Nigeria and it remains one of the leading causes of childhood and maternal morbidity and mortality in the country. Nigeria is deeply committed to making progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and it recognizes the fact that without firm efforts to control malaria, achievement of the targets related to child mortality, maternal mortality, and reducing the burden of communicable disease will not be possible. Malaria therefore constitutes a significant development challenge for Nigeria.
• Interventions for reducing malaria burden in the country are documented in the national malaria strategic plan with Government taking the lead in its implementation with the support of all the RBM partners.
• The DFID funded and Malaria Consortium led malaria programme, SUNMAP, provided technical assistance and other support to the Nigeria National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) covering the period 2008 to 2016. The anticipated follow on project, SUNMAP2 has been designed to strengthen the management and technical capacity of NMEP, State Malaria Elimination Programme (SMEP) and their stakeholders to drive the implementation of the National Malaria Strategic Plan, 2014 to 2020 and achieve its ambitious targets.
• This will include short term technical assistance and technical assistance embedded in NMEP in key areas of programme management, evidence generation and use, and capacity building across all project outputs and ultimately reducing Nigeria’s malaria burden and strengthening the Government of Nigeria’s health systems capacity to ensure long term programme and impact sustainability.

Job Purpose

• He/she will support the SUNMAP2 team to implement the strategy at State and Local government level and will work closely with stakeholders at Federal government level to implement the strategy.
• He/she will support NMEP to review and revise its Financial Management System (FMS) by addressing critical weaknesses.
• The position holder will work closely with their line manager, the project team and Short Term Technical Assistance (STTA) to implement evidence-based approaches to achieve the projects outcomes.
• The Budgeting and Financial Management Specialist will provide technical direction on relevant aspects of budgeting and financial management through a health systems strengthening framework to improve the quality of service delivery in both the public and private health sectors using malaria as the entry point into the health system at Federal, State and LGA levels.
• He/she will contribute to the development of an approach for supporting the budgeting process at Federal, State and Local government including expenditure tracking on malaria which is embedded into the health systems strengthening strategy.

Scope of Work:

• The position holder will contribute to the development, working with the project team and STTA, of SUNMAP2’s approach to health budgeting and financial management within the strategy on health systems strengthening using malaria as an entry point into the health system at Federal, State and LGA levels.
• He/She will be the focal point for the health budgeting and financial management issues to ensure coordination and harmonisation.
• He/She will work with expert inputs from STTA into approach development, oversight and implementation.
• He/she will provide and coordinate relevant technical assistance to the National and State Ministries of Health, including their Malaria Elimination Programmes.
• This will require them to identify gaps which can be addressed through technical assistance.
• He/She will support NMEP in its efforts in harmonisation, partner coordination and donor alignment.
• He/she will also look to engage with broader health issues such as the sustainable goals for development..
• He/She will represent the project on relevant technical working groups, such as the Health Care Financing working group, a platform in FMOH.

Key Working Relationships:

• The Budgeting and Financial Management Specialist will mobilise and coordinate with a broad range of stakeholders to embed the project within the Nigeria health system at Federal and State levels.
• They will work closely with the National Malaria Elimination Programme, State Malaria Elimination Programmes in the six SUNMAP2 supported states, public and private sector actors in the malaria control landscape and SUNMAP2’s STTA providers.
• He/She will work under the stewardship of the Senior Health Systems Strengthening Specialist to ensure that the approach to budgeting and financial management is within a coherent health systems strengthening strategy which uses malaria as an entry point into the health system.

Key Accountabilities Strategic contributions (10%):

• Contribute to the development of a framework for technical quality improvement for the project
• Provide technical support to the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), including support in the coordination of partners, harmonisation of tools and approaches, and donor alignment.
• Contribute to the development of project’s approach on health budgeting and financial management system strengthening in which malaria is an entry point into the health system. This should include financing for sustainable programme impact and alignment with the sustainable goals for development.
• Contribute to the development and improvements in the projects value-for-money approach, in particular related to the optimisation of cost-effectiveness.

Technical leadership and oversight (40%):

• Facilitate and support the project’s technical team, in an effective approach to healthcare financing within WHO’s Health Systems Framework, the National Malaria Strategic Plan, 2014 to 2020 and SUNMPA2’s health systems strengthening strategy. The approach will include involvement of the private sector.
• Support the institutionalisation of malaria interventions implementation into the health system at Federal and State levels, from intervention design to quality assurance of implementation. Specifically related to health budgeting and financial management as one of the pillars of health systems, i.e. healthcare financing, and contributing to the sustainable development goals.
• Periodically participate in sustainability capacity assessments, working with the Senior Health Systems Strengthening Advisor and the Senior MEAL Specialist in this regard.
• Provide technical support to Ministry of Health in areas such as Budgeting, Financial Management including public expenditure tracking. This includes sustainability of interventions such as SMC and iCCM.
• Work with the Senior Health Systems Strengthening Specialist and the Senior Malaria Specialist to embed malaria control activities into the broader health systems to improve programme and impact sustainability.
• Remain abreast of relevant technical developments in healthcare financing and share them with the project team and with NMEP and SMEP.
• Facilitate the use of data and experiential learning to inform quality improvement of project implementation and technical assistance
• Contribute to the use of information management tools such as dashboards to support decision-makers at national and state levels to make better use of financial data, include data from SUNMAP2

Learning, sharing and positioning (25%):

• Work with the Senior Health Systems Strengthening Specialist and Senior MEAL Specialist to lead the documentation of relevant experiences and lessons learnt from the project including production of learning briefs, learning papers and general documentation (e.g. narrative reports, infographics)
• Disseminate lessons learned to national and global audiences through conference presentations, peer-reviewed publications, and technical reports
• Work with the Senior Health Systems Strengthening Specialist and Senior MEAL Specialist to facilitate the use of a learning agenda approach including accountability within the project and amongst key stakeholders such as NMEP and SMEP.
• Help to operationalise the learning agenda approach, results measurement and documentation
• Develop guidance documents on how budgeting and financing of malaria interventions should be embedded within the health systems and monitored using the project results measurement framework. This may require checklists, SOPs or guidance instructions.

Technical quality and continuous improvement (10%):

• Facilitate the regular use of project and other financial information for technical quality improvement
• Facilitate the development and embedding of standards of annual operational planning and budgeting into NMEP and SMEP.

Capacity building and institutional strengthening (10%):

• Lead in building project capacity in strengthening health budgeting and financial management approaches through writing of capacity building tools and work guidance documents.
• Organise periodic technical strategy meetings to update the project team on new developments and current trends in using malaria as an entry point into health systems strengthening in Nigeria, in the region and globally.
• Work closely with long term technical assistance (LTTA) to NMEP to strengthen its institutional capacity for programme management, and health systems strengthening.
• Contribute to capacity building efforts to strengthen both individual and institutional technical capacities within the National Malaria Elimination Programme, and State Malaria Elimination Programme (SMEP) and LGA levels working with State Malaria Service Delivery Experts.

External Representation (5%):

• Participate in national or regional technical working groups as relevant
• Make presentations at national and regional conferences showcasing the HSS approaches we are using in the project, including how programme and impact sustainability are achieved.

Person Specification Qualifications and experience: Essential:

• Postgraduate Degree in Health Economics, Health Financing or Development related fields, with a focus on health budgeting and financial management.
• At least 5 years working in technical role with an excellent understanding of health financing including budgeting and financial management.
• Significant experience in intervention design and implementation of large-scale health projects specifically related to health policy, planning and financing.
• Familiarity with the challenges and opportunities of strengthening health systems in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA)
• Experience with value-for-money measurements
• Familiarity with the Nigerian health system, including government planning and budgeting processes at Federal, State and Local government levels.
• Experience in private sector accounting to provide support to SUNMAP’s commercial sector partners.

Desirable:

• Significant knowledge in communicable diseases control
• Experience working with private sector actors involved in health services delivery, including public-private partnerships
• Experience with cost-effectiveness analyses
• Experience in innovative health care financing approaches

Work-based skills Essential:

• Practical organisational skills with the ability to manage a fluctuating workload, prioritise and re-prioritise when necessary and meet tight deadlines
• Able to travel to SUNMAP2 supported states for up to one week at a time to participate in implementation activities
• Attention to detail
• Problem solving mind-set
• Positive work attitude; a team player
• Excellent skills in health financing with emphasis on health budgeting, financial management and expenditure tracking.
• Familiar with costing methodology of various plans (strategic, operational plans) including evidence informing them.
• Strong analytical ability
• Excellent writing and presentation skills
• Providing technical assistance to government actors in the health sector.
• Mentoring and coaching skills with respect to government officials
• Strong skills in negotiating with and engaging Ministry of Health Officials at all levels of the health system
• Ability to work in a multicultural team
• Results-oriented attitude to work
• Excellent time management skills
• Ability to work independently with little support

Desirable:

• Excellent project management and planning skills
• Demonstrable publication writing skills include peer reviewed publications
• Advocacy skills

Core Competencies Delivering Results: LEVEL C - Supports others to achieve results:

• Displays a positive and enthusiastic approach and is not deterred by setbacks, finding alternative ways to reach goals or targets
• Supports others to plan and deliver results
• Supports others to manage and cope with setbacks

Analysis and use of information: LEVEL C - Works confidently with complex data to support work:

• Interprets complex written information
• Works confidently with data before making decisions: for example, interpreting trends, issues and risks
• Acquainted with the validity, relevance and limitations of different sources of evidence

Interpersonal and communications: LEVEL C - Adapts communications effectively:

• Tailors communication (content, style and medium) to diverse audiences
• Communicates equally effectively at all organisational levels
• Understands other’s underlying needs, concerns and motivations and communicates effectively in sensitive situations
• Resolves intra-team and inter-team conflicts effectively

Collaboration and partnering: LEVEL C - Builds strong networks internally and participates actively in external networks and think tanks:

• Builds strong networks internally
• Participates actively in external networks and/or think tanks
• Engages with relevant experts to gather and evaluate evidence
• Shares and implements good practice with internal and external peers

Leading and motivating people: LEVEL C - Effectively leads and motivates others or direct reports:

• Gives regular, timely and appropriate feedback.

Salary Competitive     How To Apply Interested and qualified candidates should: Click here to apply Click Here For More Information (PDF)   Application Deadline 29th January, 2019.

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