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Job
Title:          Health
Systems Strengthening Manager 

Organization: Mercy
Corps

Duty Station: 
Uganda

About US:

Mercy Corps is an
International NGO that exists to alleviate poverty and oppression by helping
people build secure, productive and just communities. Mercy Corps has been
fully registered in Uganda as an operational NGO. Currently Mercy Corps has an
office in Kampala and is implementing Food Security programs which comprise of
Water and Sanitation, Livelihood and Agriculture and Conflict Mitigation
Management Program in North and North Eastern Uganda. We implement programs in
the northern districts of Pader, Kitgum, Agago, Lamwo, Kaabong, Abim and Kotido
with funding from USAID, USDA, Walmart Foundation, SDC, DFID as well as other
private donations.

Job Summary:  The primary focus of the Health System
Strengthening (HSS) Manager will be to strengthen the capacity of health
governance structures to improve coordination and quality of service provision
for food and nutrition security. The HSS Manager will implement and support a
program that improves the organizational performance of Hospitals, HCIVs, HCIII
and HC Il-level facilities with emphasis on the Health Unit Management
Committees (HUMC), which is in line with government standards and priorities.
Support will be strongly focused on health governance will work closely with
other partner supporting other HSS components i.e. Health Information Systems, health
workforce, service delivery, essential medicines and financing. This will
include a focus on advocacy for accountability of health resources and
improving the communication between the facility and the community it serves.
This will be achieved by strengthening HUMCs and other health governance
structures at national, regional and district level. The HSS Manager will work
in coordination with the MCHN Manager other purpose 2 (Mother Care Group and
Community Behavior Change, Resource Transfer) and all staff working to achieve
Apolou Purpose 2.

Key Duties and Responsibilities: 

Program
Implementation

• Collaborate with Ministry of Health to build the capacity of
  District Health Team to functionalize all health governance structures
  including Health Unit Management Committee at lower health facilities in
  Moroto, Kotido, Kaabong and Amudat.
• Collaborate with MOH to refine and disseminate HUMC guidelines to
  simplify roles and responsibilities of HUMC members and ensure that youth,
  women and PWD are represented.
• Work with Save the Children and Gender sector to support mechanisms
  for targeted and age specific educational trainings around SRH to VHTs and
  include a clear referral pathway for SGBV into the health system.
• Collaborate with MOH and district-level HUMC focal person to improve
  government led mentorship of the committees, strengthen their
  understanding of roles, responsibilities and community linkages
• Document and communicate findings and key lessons for improved
  accountability at community, sub county, district, regional levels and
  among stakeholders.
• Facilitate close coordination and linkages between health structures
  in Kotido and the purpose two components; Mother Care Groups, Male Change
  Agents and resource transfer
• Take lead in updating Apolou files containing MCHN progress reports,
  work plans and related documents at district and Sub-county level.
• Provide technical and supervisory oversight for the HSS officers
  while implementing routine program activities like training and mentorship
  of health governance structures, Dialogue for Health (D4H) meetings,
  learning visits among others.
• Provide financial oversight to MCHN activities by participating in
  the budgeting process, submitting timely cash projections and managing
  expenditure of HSS activities across all four districts.
• Work closely with the Apolou Senior Nutritionist to support
  Nutrition Coordination Committee activities at district and Sub-county
  level.

Monitoring,
Evaluation and Learning

• Together with Nutritionist, be the focal points for health and
  nutrition information sharing of program data between Apolou and the
  Ministry of Health or District Health Office
• Participate in program implementation and review by supporting
  workplan development, incorporating best practices and utilizing M&E
  information to improve MCHN activities.
• Comply with M&E procedures and policies to ensure program
  impacts and achieves desired results
• Analyze project implementation strategies to identify constraints to
  program success and provide timely recommendations.
• Contribute to the establishment of procedures and guidelines to
  monitor and evaluate the progress and impact of health facility support
  work including setting and measuring benchmarks along results chain.
• Lead on report writing for the HSS sector to include weekly,
  monthly, and quarterly reports that will be indicative of program progress
  during implementation.
• Where needed support external evaluations by research partner
  Feinstein International Center and other organizations.

Influence and
Representation

• Collaborate with DHOs and MCHN team leads across the region to
  organize or participate in regular health and nutrition coordination
  events like; Karamoja Health Nutrition Partner forum, Technical Working
  Groups, health sector quarterly review meetings among others.
• Coordination of field activities with other NGO and local government
  partners to avoid duplication of services and support an enabling
  environment for health promotion.
• When needed, support visits from district and sub-county government,
  regional and HQ based staff and external visitors, such as donors and
  media, in collaboration with MCHN Manager and DCoP.
• Advise MC staff on standard operating procedures when engaging the
  district or municipality, mentor staff on letter writing, points of entry
  and protocol in the health sector.
• Conduct spot checks in collaboration with the team to ensure program
  files kept in district and Sub county offices are up-to-date.
• Represent Mercy Corps to external stakeholders including the
  District Local Government and the Municipality
• Assure that routine support supervision takes place in the field and
  that debrief meetings occur to allow the district and municipality to take
  ownership and have buy-in the HSS activities.
• Liaise with M&E manager, DCoP and COP to assure platforms exist
  for learning events to be conducted at least annually between programs and
  DLG.
• Promote team accountability, coordination, quality and a sense of
  urgency with responsiveness to the district and municipality needs.
• Keep Government informed of any changed to government and civil
  society allowances and assure zero tolerance to any form of fraud,
  corruption, abuse, harassment or exploitation. Validate with DI-G emerging
  events/issues like epidemic outbreaks, security situation and any threat
  posed within the district/region and coordinate with HOO for staff to be
  updated.
• Request for relevant programmatic documents, policy guidelines,
  SOPs, curriculum from DI-G officials as needed by MC.
• Security: Ensure
  data protection policies are adhered to, establishing security controls
  for software, hardware and archive beneficiary databases.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience: 

• The applicant for the Mercy Corps Health Systems Strengthening
  Manager job must hold a Master’s degree in Public Health, nursing or related
  field with at least 3 years of professional experience working with the
  government health system OR a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health, Nursing
  or related field with at least 6 years of contextualized experience in
  managing and implementing health systems strengthening programs
• Previous experience working on health accountability and governance
  program especially conducting dialogues and delivering capacity building
  for HUMCs is the desirable candidate
• Demonstrated experience providing technical assistance at individual
  and district government levels and in-depth understanding of Uganda
  healthcare system
• Proven ability to establish and maintain strong interpersonal and
  professional relationships with local government officials, and other key
  stakeholders in the health and nutrition sector
• Demonstrate knowledge and experience in strengthening HMIS data
  collection, analysis & reporting is an added advantage
• Demonstrable writing and analytical and quantitative skills.
• Ability to ride a motorcycle and he/she should be in possession of a
  valid driving/riding license
• Proven skills in networking, collaboration, community consultations
  and organizational development
• Excellent reporting, communication and representation skills, Proven
  knowledge and capacity in using computer basic applications MS Word, power
  point, Excel and internet
• The successful candidate is to innovatively and effectively further
  strengthen health governance structures especially the HUMCs and increase
  their sustainability of which district level advocacy will be the
  position’s main success factors.
• The second success factor will be the degree to which the HSS
  Manager pushes forward accountability-driven, leadership and
  management-focused support to district and sub-county and health center
  staff. Lastly, success will be measured by the degree to which he/she
  drives results, making critical decisions and producing scheduled outputs
  at deadline and to expected quality.

How to Apply:

All suitably
qualified and interested candidates should send their E-mail applications
including a cover letter clearly stating the salary requirements, updated CV
(with three professional referees), and copies of academic
qualifications/certificates addressed to the Senior HR and Legal Manager, Mercy
Corps Uganda to: ug-mcjobs@mercycorps.org

Deadline: 8^th August 2019

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