Jhpiego seeks a Technical Advisor for Contraception and Family Planning to provide technical leadership and program oversight and direction in the area of contraceptive and family planning services for a USAID integrated health project in Zimbabwe. This project aims to improve maternal and child health status in targeted areas through a combined maternal and child health and family planning activity. The project will operate over a five-year period.
The Technical Advisor will be responsible for providing leadership and technical guidance in the development and implementation of family planning activities in range of short-term and long-term methods of contraception under the leadership of Jhpiego Technical Director. This position will ensure the technical and methodological soundness of activities and, in collaboration with the project team and partners, support the design of service delivery strategies, based on sound and current scientific evidence.
This position is contingent upon award from USAID. Zimbabwean nationals are strongly encouraged to apply.
Responsibilities:
- Champion high impact practices in contraception and family planning
- Provide assistance, mentoring and capacity building in specific areas of expertise including short-term and long-term methods, postpartum and post abortion family planning and future planning for adolescent reproductive health.
- Refine service delivery strategies for integrating FP/RH services with MNCH services in public and private facilities
- Work with colleagues to develop and support a cadre of FP/RH champions who will facilitate links to other community-level health programs/services
- Develop new and review current evidence-based clinical training materials, job aids, and curricula, supervisory systems and other training materials needed for implementation of the project to meet the needs of USAID and the Government of Zimbabwe
- Provide mentoring and capacity building at the individual and organizational level in specific areas of expertise including but not limited to short-term and long-term methods, postpartum/post abortion family planning and future planning of adolescent reproductive health
- Provide “train the trainer” sessions, site strengthening, in-service, follow-up and supportive supervision to project-supported health facilities
- Coordinate assessments, site strengthening, follow-up and supervision, advocacy, demand creation, policy support, capacity-building and M&E across project-supported sites as required by project activities
- Lead the formulation of approaches for scale up of family planning services
- Actively participate in all Technical Advisory Group Meetings, and represent Jhpiego in professional forums by participating and presenting in pertinent meetings and conferences, as well as technical working groups
- Analyze potential family planning strategies within the context of the project and explain these, as necessary, to policymakers, funding agencies, and/or program staff
- Work with health care providers, local authorities, community members and project team members to identify clinical, community-based service delivery issues that impede access to care and identify appropriate facility- and community-based strategies to address family planning service delivery gaps
- Identify clinical training needs and assist in the design and implementation of measures to address those needs
- Advocate with national, district and community-level health institutions to raise awareness about their role in improving health outcomes in family planning
- Guide Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC), professional associations, other national stakeholders in the revision/development of evidenced-based standards for competency in family planning
- Collaborate with all local stakeholders and implementing partners, especially the MOHCC and other US and international implementing partners, in order to ensure that all activities conform to the requirements and regulations
- Conduct regular reporting to the Technical Director, of successes, challenges and lessons learned in implementation related to areas of technical expertise
- Document and maintain an inventory of successful tools and approaches for family planning
- Contribute to the development of business proposals, technical reports and publications as they relate to family planning
- Author and co-author abstracts and presentations for journals and conference
- Document successes, lessons learned and challenges in implementation as well as reports of project activities and results to the program and donor, including routine quarterly and annual reports and other reporting requirements as requested
- Maintain excellent relationships with USAID and in-country stakeholders and develop rapid responses to USAID/DC and Mission requests
- Work closely with the Technical Director on setting project priorities and directions, and responding to requests for support from local counterparts.
- Work with M&E staff to design, implement a plan to track data/results related to family planning
- Provide technical leadership to the development the project strategic plan, work plan, and program monitoring, in close collaboration with MOHCC, USAID, and other stakeholders
- Ensure timely implementation of all program inputs related to family planning, including planning and implementing assessments, site strengthening, follow-up and supervision, advocacy, demand creation, policy support, capacity-building and M&E across program sites, in close coordination and collaboration with USAID and MOHCC
- Assist in the preparation of donor reports and project reports
- Contribute to ensuring availability of resources/facilitate the procurement of equipment and supplies required for project implementation
- Ensure compliance with USG family planning program requirements,
- Complete reporting for serious adverse events for family planning-related programing
- Collaborate with Jhpiego internal offices as needed, including the Technical Leadership Office, among others
Required Qualifications:
- A clinician with advance degree (doctor or nursing) and/or Master’s in Public Health
- 5+ years’ experience successfully implementing large, multi-partner, multi-year international health sector development projects (approximately $3-5M per year) that have implemented successful activities in family planning/reproductive health, preferably in Zimbabwe
- experience training health workers on clinical aspects in family planning
- Skill in at least two or more of the following technical areas: strengthening service delivery programs, training, performance and quality improvement
- Experience with a mix of practical technical skills necessary for strengthening family planning service delivery at the regional, national, clinical and community-level
- 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
- Previous experience working in Zimbabwe with intimate understanding of local health system and family planning gaps and opportunities, and solid relationships at government agencies
- Knowledge of USAID programs, regulations, compliance and reporting requirements
- Experience in research to practice—identifying and adapting best practices to specific project contexts
- Excellent skills in facilitation, team building, and coordination
- Excellent verbal, written interpersonal and presentation skills in English
- Ability to coach, mentor and develop technical capacity in regional and national programs and technical staff
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office
- Ability to travel nationally 50% of time
More Information
- Job City Harare