The Ugandan Jobline

Job Title:  Country Director

Organisation: Jhpiego

Duty Station:  Kampala, Uganda

About US:

Jhpiego is an international non-profit health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University. The group was founded in 1973 and initially called the Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynaecology and Obstetrics, but is now referred to simply as Jhpiego.

Job Summary:  Jhpiego seeks a Country Director/Project Director (CD/PD) in Uganda. The CD/PD provides vision, leadership and direction to ensure the strategic, programmatic, technical, and financial integrity of Jhpiego’s programs in Uganda. This includes guiding the strategic planning, design and implementation for country programs and achieving the planned results.

The Country Director will likely also serve as the Project Director for one of Jhpiego’s ongoing projects, and be responsible for the day-to-day management of the project, will ensure the project is progressing appropriately, and will serve as the principal liaison to USG and other donors. S/he will play a key role in ensuring the award meets its objectives on time and on budget. This will be accomplished through the use of adaptive management across the organization, at all levels. The Project Director will be an effective manager and will lead his/her team through changes to business processes, systems and technology, job roles and organization structures. A high degree of demonstrated technical expertise combined with excellent communication and management skills are essential for this position.

The CD/PD works closely with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to streamline efforts and ensure complementarities of projects, serves as the primary point of contact for donors, stakeholders and partners and is responsible for managing relationships and collaboration with international and local partners. The CD/PD also ensures timely and cost-effective project implementation, reporting of activities, and project deliverables.

This position is applicable to Ugandan nationals only.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

• Provide leadership and strategic direction to ensure programmatic and financial integrity of Jhpiego’s efforts in country
• Develop and revise, or update as needed, the Country Strategy
• Develop and maintain outstanding working relationships with donors and potential donors, MOH, relevant Government departments, county governments, national and international implementing partners, and others who can help in Jhpiego’s efforts to strengthen support to the country
• Ensure that all Jhpiego activities are in line with country priorities, and include substantial engagement of national partners
• Ensure that the Country Office goals are aligned to the Global strategic plan
• Engage regularly and early on with the Regional Director and Vice President, Global Programs on issues that could positively or negatively impact country operations.

Technical and Program Quality Assurance

• Provide oversight of program activities, ensuring that the programs are technically sound, follow organizational standards and are responsive to the needs of the country
• Ensure the quality and sustainability of all program approaches; work with program staff, partners and funders to continually improve programs to address challenges and meet needs and ensure achievement of the goals, objectives and targets of each project
• Provide programmatic and/or technical leadership in the design, analysis, and synthesis of interventions
• Work with Monitoring, Evaluation and Research (MER) staff to ensure MER frameworks are developed, conduct relevant implementation research and data/results are effectively tracked and appropriately reported.

Financial and Management Compliance

• Ensure the development and maintenance of appropriate financial policies, procedures, and systems in-country
• Ensure preparations and timely submission of all programmatic and financial reports to Jhpiego and donors
• Ensure that Internal Control Reviews (ICR) and external audit findings are documented and corrected in a timely manner
• Ensure the program is working within available resources and that the program is fiscally sound
• Ensure compliance with Kenya laws, Jhpiego policies and donor rules and regulations as well as all contractual requirements
• Provide guidance, and take overall responsibility for ensuring accountability of subcontractors and sub-grantees
• Oversee finance and project staff to ensure that realistic budgets are developed and expenditures tracked
• Engage regularly and early on with Regional Director and/or relevant HQ officers regarding any irregularities in financial management or compliance
• Ensure Zero tolerance to fraud in the Country Office

Human Resource Management

• Identify and recruit highly qualified and experienced staff
• Mentor, support, supervise and manage a team of highly qualified staff and align their efforts to ensure rapid and sustainable results
• Conduct annual staff evaluations and support professional development for staff
• Align team members’ efforts to ensure rapid and sustainable results
• Revise staffing strategies to meet the changing needs of the country office
• Ensure all personnel policies are universally followed and equitably applied
• Lead in promoting a Culture of Respect and Trust in the Country Office
• Encourage feedback through open door policy and take action on feedback from staff

New Program Development

• Lead intensive efforts to develop new business/program opportunities; this will include identifying and developing opportunities; negotiate for new partnerships, leading program design efforts; and identifying and coordinating proposal development teams
• Provide input into technical, program, financial, and partnering components of proposal
• Work closely with Jhpiego’s home office staff to ensure effective, timely and coordinated responses to new program opportunities.

External Relations and Communications

• Represent Jhpiego’s interests and present progress, achievements and lessons learned to donors and other key stakeholders in public and professional circles through meetings, conferences, and presentations
• Lead by example in communicating Jhpiego key messages to external audiences and complies with Jhpiego standards for submission of communication deliverables
• Designate a communications liaison who delivers at least 3 communications pieces (success stories, high profile events with stakeholders and photo assets) annually to Global Engagement and Communications Office (GECO) for use in Jhpiego newsletter, corporate website and social media
• Build the capacity of staff to serve as Jhpiego public spokespersons on intervention areas.

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Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• The applicant must hold an advanced degree – MD, Masters in Public Health, Health Administration, International Health or a related field at the minimum;
• Previous experience serving as COP/Project Director or DCOP/senior level management
• 10+ years’ experience successfully managing large, multi-partner, multi-year international health sector development projects that have implemented successful activities in health system strengthening
• Demonstrated experience and knowledge in establishing project systems and overseeing project start-up and close-out
• Experience working on USAID programs and in-depth knowledge of USAID projects, regulations, compliance and reporting requirements
• Progressively responsible professional development experience, a significant portion must include managing international health projects in a developing country, with several years including general management experience
• Demonstrated experience in institutional capacity development/systems strengthening in public health and in working effectively with a broad range of counterparts, including high level government officials and organizations
• Previous experience working in Uganda, with intimate understanding of the local health system and health systems strengthening gaps and opportunities, and solid relationships at government agency and related levels, preferred
• Experience hiring and supervising personnel and ensuring they acquire the necessary training and skills to meet evolving project needs
• Excellent diplomacy skills and a proven ability to establish and maintain interpersonal and professional relationships with USAID, host-country counterparts and representatives from other key stakeholders such as NGOs, CSOs, and the private sector
• Demonstrated outstanding leadership, strategic thinking, organizational, team-building, and representational skills
• Capacity for analyzing technical and programmatic challenges that impede efforts to provide improved health care to populations, and building skills of staff to do the same
• Ability to develop technical solutions to these challenges and assisting in the design of operational research that could yield appropriate solutions
• Ability to work in a complex environment charged with multiple tasks, short deadlines and intense pressure to deliver
• Excellent communications (written and oral English), interpersonal, presentation, and coordination skills to fulfill the diverse technical and managerial requirements of the activity and to coordinate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders
• Excellent skills in facilitation and team building
• A team player accustomed to building team capacity, delegating working teams, and developing communities of learning among host country partners and counterparts
• Proficiency in word processing and Microsoft Office
• Ability to travel in Uganda and internationally up to 30% of the time

How to Apply:

All candidates should apply online at the link below.

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