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Job Title:  Technical Director

Organisation: Jhpiego

Duty Station:  Kampala, Uganda

About Organisation:

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 Technical Director to provide technical leadership and project oversight in the area of Urban Health for an upcoming USAID-funded Urban Health Activity in Uganda. The Technical Director will provide technical assistance at the national, district and community level. The project aims to strengthen urban health systems, to improve equitable health outcomes among all urbanites by working with municipalities and city corporations on strengthening urban health systems to provide quality, equitable public health, optimize available resources and strengthen private sector capacity as part of sustainability efforts.  The Uganda Urban Health Activity will address poor quality of care, congested public health facilities, uncoordinated referral system, weak community structures, limited private sector capacity, and gaps in enabling environment results in poor health outcomes in Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso. The project will have a geographical scope covering the Kampala metropolitan area comprising of Kampala city, Mukono, and Wakiso districts. The project is expected to operate over a five-year period.

The position will operate under the leadership of the Chief of Party and Jhpiego’s senior management team and will oversee and ensure the technical and methodological soundness of all project activities. In collaboration with project team and partners, the position will support the design and implementation of service delivery strategies based on scientific evidence.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide technical oversight, strategic direction, and definition of appropriate project activities
• Establish and implement a system to ensure technical quality of project activities
• Develop and/or update evidence-based training materials, standards, job aids, and curricula, supervisory systems needed for implementation of the Project to meet the needs of USAID and the Government of Uganda
• Provides technical guidance to support the linking of health facilities, CBOs and communities within the project areas.
• Engage local stakeholders in conducting mapping exercises to identify existing resources, including quality private practitioners and private clinics, NGOs and CBOs, local community groups and organizations, social support services, nutritional support services and religious or other counseling/support.
• Introduce effective performance and quality improvement measures to bring urban health communities and clinics together.
• Engage local stakeholders to ensure that Project interventions meet the health needs of the urban slum dwellers and are responsive to the needs of Uganda.
• Provide mentoring and capacity building at the individual and organizational level in specific areas of expertise including but not limited to: (Maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH); family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH); nutrition; and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)/infection prevention and control (IPC) health services at national, district, facility- and community-levels)
• Provide technical assistance for conducting site assessments and strengthening referral systems, in-service and/or pre-service education, and supportive supervision
• Coordinate advocacy, demand generation, and policy support, across project sites as required
• Lead the formulation of innovative approaches for scale up of targeted health services
• Actively participate in relevant technical advisory/working groups and professional forums representing Jhpiego
• Work with health care providers, local authorities, community members and project team members to identify service delivery issues that impede access to care and uptake of services
• Identify and implement appropriate facility- and community-based strategies to address health services delivery gaps
• Identify training needs for clinical and community healthcare providers and assist in the design and implementation of measures to address those needs
• Work closely with the Chief of Party on setting project priorities and directions, and responding to requests for support from local counterparts
• Work with Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) staff to develop M&E frameworks and effectively track data/results
• Collaborate with all local stakeholders and implementing partners, especially the Ministry of Health and other US and international implementing partners, to ensure that all activities conform to the requirements and regulations
• Ensure private sector training institutions and facilities (faith-based and private-for-profit) contribute to the overall objectives of Urban Health Activity
• Assist in developing the private sector market for training and capacity of training institutions to capitalize on this market
• Advise the Urban Health Activity team on private sector inspired approaches to increase sustainability of activities.
• Document successes, lessons learned and challenges in implementation as well as reports of project activities and results to the project and donor, including routine quarterly and annual reports and other reporting requirements as requested
• Document and maintain an inventory of successful tools and approaches for Urban Health
• Author/co-author abstracts, presentations, and articles for journals and conferences
• Supervise technical staff
• Manage technical contributions of subgrantees, including defining scopes of work
• Maintain excellent relationships with USAID and in-country stakeholders and develop rapid responses
• Provide technical leadership to the development the project strategic plan, work plan, and project monitoring, in close collaboration with MOH, donor, other stakeholders to ensure timely implementation and compliance to the requirements and regulations of the award

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• A Medical Degree (doctor or nursing), and Master of Public Health preferred
• At least 10 years of experience implementing and/or providing technical assistance in Urban health
• At least 10 years of experience in implementing and/or providing technical assistance of $5-10 million per year in donor-funded projects and in the design and implementation of overseas health projects; preferably in in Uganda in public and private facilities, local government institutions systems

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working in or with private sector health care providers or entities
• Demonstrated experience training clinical and community-based healthcare workers on [ Maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH); family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH); nutrition; and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)/infection prevention and control (IPC ]
• Demonstrated experience providing capacity building assistance at individual and organizational levels
• Skilled in at least two or more of the following technical areas: strengthening service delivery projects; training; pre-service education; performance and quality improvement health (FP/RH); nutrition; and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)
• Demonstrated in-depth understanding of Uganda healthcare system, particularly the public health system, experience living and working in Uganda preferred
• Familiarity with USAID’s administrative, management and reporting procedures and systems
• Proven track record managing a project team composed of several technical experts and fostering team work
• 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
• Expertise in research to practice—identifying and adapting best practices to specific project contexts
• Excellent verbal, written interpersonal and presentation skills in English
• Ability to travel nationally to project sites

How to Apply:
All candidates who wish to join Jhpiego should apply online at the link below.

Click Here

Deadline: 2nd December 2024

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