Job Vacancies at Options Consultancy Services Limited, 5th September, 2018

Options Consultancy Services Limited was established in 1992 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marie Stopes International. We are a consultancy organisation providing technical and management expertise in the health and social sectors to governments and international development partners to transform the health of women and children.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

 

Job Title: Technical Officer
Location: Kano, Nigeria (also covering Jigawa State)
Programme:Overseas Programmes for Women’s Integrated Sexual Health (WISH)
Reporting to: Health Financing Lead, WISH Nigeria
Responsible for: N/A
Hours: Full time, 40 hours per week
Type of contract: Fixed Term, up to 36 months

Main purpose of Job

• The Technical Officer will support monitoring, evaluation and learning activities of national ownership activities in Nigeria, keeping track of indicator and deliverables, helping to gather supporting evidence and documenting learnings.
• The post-holder will work closely with the Health Financing Lead and the Evidence and Accountability Advisor and provide support in key technical areas as requested.

Main Duties
Support monitoring, evaluation (M&E) and learning of national ownership activities in Nigeria:

• Through an M&E tracker tool, keep the national ownership country team informed of when deliverables and indicators need to be achieved;
• Support the development of reporting and documentation templates to help the team in reporting against national ownership activities;
• Support in evidence and information gathering and documentation to provide achievement of indicators, milestones and deliverables;
• Ensure the country logframe is up to date and regularly tracked;
• Support in writing and review of M&E and learning as requested.
• Provide technical inputs to national ownership activities as requested in Nigeria
• Provide technical input in areas related to SRH and Family Planning (FP) commitments and policies, health budget advocacy and tracking, evidence and accountability as requested by the national ownership team.
• Support the coordination of consultants
• Coordinate with project consultants on short-term assignments or long-term programmes, as required.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in Health Economics, Health Management or related field.

Experience:

• Experience of supporting a health programme for at least one year.
• Experience of producing and/or contributing to external reports and/or research papers.
• Demonstrable experience conducting relevant technical work in similar organisations.

Excellent Excel and quantitative skills.

• Experience in supporting and co-ordinating technical work in similar organisations, particularly in the field of advocacy and evidence-based policy.
• Experience of working across Africa in a relevant capacity and with governments; international agencies and local NGOs.

Skills and Attributes:

• Ability and willingness to respond independently to requests for technical inputs.
• Experience in supporting and co-ordinating technical work in similar organisations, particularly in the field of advocacy and evidence-based policy.
• Excellent skills in communication, written and verbal.
• Proven ability to network and manage relationships with partners, consultants and technical resource persons.

Other requirements:

• Commitment to equal opportunities.
• Fluency in written and spoken English.
• Fluency in written and spoken French.

Benefits

• Basic salary will include the following allowances and benefits: housing, transportation and meals.
• Medical insurance
• 25 days paid annual leave per annum in addition to local bank or public holidays
• Pension scheme including an employer contribution of 10% of your basic salary

 

 

Job Title: Health Financing Lead, WISH Lot 1 Nigeria
Location: Kano, Nigeria (also covering Jigawa State)
Programme: Overseas Programmes for Women’s Integrated Sexual Health (WISH)
Contract type: Full time, fixed term contract – up to 36 months
Reporting to: Regional National Ownership Lead, WISH Lot 1 Nigeria
Responsible for: Evidence and Accountability Advisor and Technical Officer
Hours: Full time, 40 hours per week
Type of contract: Fixed Term, up to 36 months

WISH Consortium and Options
DFID’s Women’s Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) programme (Lot 1) will provide up to £78m to deliver integrated Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) services in eleven countries across West Africa. The WISH programme builds on previous successful initiatives supported by DFID and others to expand sexual and reproductive health care services across Africa and Asia. The programme will increase access to family planning and integrated sexual and reproductive health services for women, men and young people across the two continents through a combination of: (i) rights-based provision of private sector sexual and reproductive health information and services and, strengthening of public sector health information and services; (ii) addressing barriers to family planning uptake at individual, interpersonal, community and institutional level; and (iii) improving policies, government financing and commodity security to create an enabling environment for family planning and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The programme is designed to contribute to the following four outputs:

• Community / individual choice: people have the knowledge and community support to make informed SRHR decisions and advocate for quality services;
• National Ownership: improved policies, government financing, commodity security and public sector SRHR capacity and services;
• Private Sector Access: access to quality, voluntary Family Planning (FP) and other Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services, eliminating barriers for young and marginalised women;
• Global Goods: evidence-based innovations and practice shared globally to increase women’s choice and access to SRHR services, [particularly about medical abortion].

WISH Lot 1 is led by Marie Stopes International (MSI) with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF); IPAS; DKT International; Options Consultancy Services (Options); Leonard Cheshire and Thinkplace as consortium partners. Options is responsible for leading output 2 (National Ownership).

Our approach to National Ownership comprises of four strategies: increase government commitment to SRH outcomes through domestic financing; use evidence-based advocacy and effective partnerships to strengthen policy and legislation; use evidence to hold government to account for SRH outcomes; and promote quality control and standards of service provision and care.

Liaison with:

• Senior Technical Support (STS) for WISH Lot 1, based in London
• Technical Advisor, Health Financing based in London.
• Stakeholders working on budget advocacy in Kano State
• National Ownership and Health Financing Leads in DRC and Burkina Faso.

Main Purpose of Job

• The Health Financing Lead is responsible for leading and coordinating the implementation of strategies to increase government commitment to SRH outcomes through domestic financing in Kano and Jigawa States.
• This will be achieved through context specific activities, that are founded on an analysis of the political economy and health markets.
• S/he is responsible for the achievement of the quarterly Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and logframe indicators relating to domestic financing for Nigeria.
• The Health Financing Lead will also line manage the Evidence and Accountability Advisor who will also be based in Kano State.

Main Duties
Provide technical support to government for increased allocation and more efficient spending on SRH and Family Planning (FP) in Nigeria:

• Build effective relationships with the State Ministries of Health and parliamentarians in Kano and Jigawa States and undertake budget tracking and advocacy activities jointly with them in order to build their capacity and secure their buy in;
• Work with MSI and other consortium partners to support the analysis, interpretation and packaging of health budget data and support its use for decision-making;
• Support the Ministries of Health in Kano and Jigawa States to effectively engage with the State Ministries of Finance to secure increased investments in SRH/FP;
• Support the Ministries of Health in Kano and Jigawa States to make better use of domestic resources for SRH/FP including through high impact interventions that are proven to be efficient;
• Undertake a market analysis of essential commodities to support more accurate budgeting;
• Build the capacity of Ministries of Health staff in Kano and Jigawa States to strengthen the use of data from facilities during quantification and budgeting processes;
• Support the Ministries of Health in Kano and Jigawa States to leverage financing mechanisms such as the Global Financing Facility (GFF) and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS);
• Contribute to budget advocacy processes at the Federal level by sharing lessons and tools with the Regional National Ownership Lead, WISH Lot 1 Nigeria.

Build effective partnerships with other actors engaged in budget advocacy for SRHR in Nigeria:

• Maintain relationships with key stakeholders engaged in budget tracking and advocacy, including WISH consortium partners;
• Build capacity of civil society organisations to package budget data and effectively engage in the budgeting process.

Support the Evidence and Accountability Advisor to ensure effective use of data to hold government accountable for SRH/FP outcomes:

• Support the development of specific messages and materials for promotion of increased domestic financing for family planning;
• Support the packaging and use of data from global and regional initiatives such as Track 20, PMA2020, FP2020, Advance Family Planning (AFP) to reinforce national ownership.

Report on progress towards domestic financing for SRHR/FP through the consortium monitoring, evaluation and learning system.:

• Contribute to the development of logframe indicators relating to domestic financing for Nigeria;
• Collect baseline data and milestones for these indicators during the inception period;
• Ensure the achievement of the KPIs relating to domestic financing for Nigeria and ensure the availability of evidence required as proof of this achievement.

Lead and manage a small team of technical experts:

• Provide management support to the Evidence and Accountability Advisor and the Technical Officer to enable them to deliver to the highest technical quality, on time and to budget.

To succeed in this role, you will:

• Provide technical support to government for increased allocation and more efficient spending on SRH and Family Planning (FP) in Nigeria
• Build effective partnerships with other actors engaged in budget advocacy for SRHR in Nigeria
• Support the Evidence and Accountability Advisor to ensure effective use of data to hold government accountable for SRH/FP outcomes
• Report on progress towards domestic financing for SRHR/FP through the consortium monitoring, evaluation and learning system.
• Lead and manage a small team of technical experts.

Note: this job description reflects the present requirements of the post. As duties and responsibilities change and develop the job description will be reviewed and be subject to amendment in consultation with the job holder.

Person Specification
Qualifications:

• Undergraduate degree in Health Economics, Health Management or related field

Experience:

• At least three years’ work experience in a highly competitive and busy work environment
• Solid understanding of the health sector, including the relationship between national and state levels
• A solid understanding of Public Financial Management (PFM) including annual budget cycles, Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEFs) and the principles of transparency and accountability
• Strong analytical skills with experience in analysing and interpreting annual budgets

Skills and attributes:

• Excellent time management and organisational skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with experience interacting with government officials at the national and district level
• Excellent influencing skills, with an ability to identify and act on opportunities to build buy-in and support among decision-makers
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with a demonstrable ability to present complex financial concepts in easy to understand language for a range of audiences
• Proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint

Other requirements:

• Commitment to equal opportunities
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Fluency in written and spoken French

Salary & Benefits

• Salary is commensurate with experience.
• Basic salary will include the following allowances and benefits: housing, transportation and meals.
• Medical insurance
• 25 days paid annual leave per annum in addition to local bank or public holidays
• Pension scheme including an employer contribution of 10% of your basic salary.

 

Job Title: Evidence and Accountability Advisor
Location: Kano
Programme: WISH Lot 1
Contract Type: Full time, fixed term contract – up to 36 months

Description

• We’re recruiting an Evidence & Accountability Advisor for the UKAID funded Women’s Integrated Sexual Health programme.
• The successful applicant will work closely with the Options team & consortium of partners to leverage existing coalitions & enable effective accountability mechanisms to track Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) & Family Planning (FP) commitments and outcomes in Kano and Jigawa.

Main Purpose of Job

• The Evidence and Accountability Advisor will be responsible for facilitating the use of evidence to hold the State governments of Kano and Jigawa accountable for their SRH commitments.
• S/he will leverage existing coalitions to facilitate effective accountability mechanisms to track SRH and Family Planning (FP) commitments and outcomes
• The Advisor will work closely with the Health Financing Lead based in Kano as well as the Regional National Ownership Lead based in Abuja; Options’ staff in London, and consortium partners to ensure evidence and accountability approaches strategically strengthen government stewardship over SRH/FP in Nigeria.

Main Duties
Lead the implementation of accountability approaches in Nigeria:

• Develop state-specific advocacy and accountability tools to track domestic financing, quality assurance and policy commitments;
• Identify and establish accountability mechanisms, including building capacity of civil society, media and others to undertake tracking and advocacy
• Where existing mechanisms are in place (e.g. State Level Accountability Mechanisms set up by Options), support the broadening of their mandate to include SRH and FP priorities;
• Support existing civil society coalitions to strategically use evidence to influence budget allocation and spend for SRH and FP;
• Strengthen capacity of civil society and other stakeholders to ensure commitments and resources for SRHR are met by the Kano and Jigawa State Governments.

Support the development and the review of Costed Implementation Plans (CIP) or Action Plans:

• Work with Kano and Jigawa State Ministries of Health and Technical Working Groups (TWGs) to identify blockages and priority areas to include these into an action plan with clear indicators;
• Work with State Governments to identify a core set of activities and indicators linked to commitments that can be tracked internally by the respective Ministries of Health, TWGs and externally through accountability mechanisms.

Support the routine generation and use of SRHR data for decision-making and advocacy:

• Engage with consortium partners and service delivery teams in Nigeria, particularly in Kano and Jigawa States, to develop and implement a coordinated approach to ensure local data is used to inform and influence national priorities;
• Support use of data for decision-making, advocacy and accountability in Kano and Jigawa States;
• Engage with service delivery teams to generate and use quality of care data from public and private sectors in Kano and Jigawa States;
• Use relevant data and tools such as FP2020 rights and empowerment principles and Advanced Family Planning’s principles of advocacy, ownership and use of evidence to facilitate programme implementation in Nigeria;
• Contribute to the generation (where relevant), analysis and packaging of evidence to inform and influence state-level ownership of SRHR programmes;
• Support the development of State scorecards to track SRHR coverage and policy commitments;
• Work with service delivery leads to make evidence understandable, relevant and meaningful to different stakeholders (i.e. Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), influencers, parliamentarians) to guide accountability and advocacy efforts;
• Work with the Health Financing Lead to ensure strategic use of budget tracking scorecards with Ministries of Health and Finance;
• Support the implementation of an evidence driven culture to facilitate decision-making for better investment and coverage of SRHR services.
• Ensure effective reporting of progress towards evidence and accountability
• Contribute to the development and achievement of logframe indicators relating to evidence and accountability for Nigeria;
• Support the collection of baseline data and set milestones (or targets) for these indicators during the inception period Ensure regular progress and reporting of achievements as per logframe and contribute to wider learning;
• Ensure deliverables are met related to evidence and accountability activities.
• Coordinate short-term technical assistance to support delivery of evidence and accountability activities
• Provide guidance and inputs on short term technical experts needed to support the delivery of evidence and accountability activities in Nigeria.

Note: this job description reflects the present requirements of the post. As duties and responsibilities change and develop the job description will be reviewed and be subject to amendment in consultation with the job holder.

Person Specification
Qualifications:

• Undergraduate Degree in Public Health, Health Management or related field.

Experience:

• At least ten years’ work experience, with significant experience in the provision of technical assistance including remote support
• Strong work experience on quality of care, accountability, advocacy and evidence use
• Solid understanding of the health sector, including the relationship between national and sub-national levels
• Considerable experience in leading the delivery of donor-funded programmes, particularly those funded by DFID

Skills and Attributes:

• Excellent influencing skills, with an ability to identify and act on opportunities to build buy-in and support among decision-makers
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with experience interacting with government officials, development partners, civil society and other health sector stakeholders
• Excellent time management and organisational skills
• Excellent management skills, including in the provision of remote management support
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with a demonstrable ability to present complex concepts in easy to understand language for a range of audiences
• Sound monitoring evaluation skills, including the design and delivery of logical frameworks
• Proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint

Other Requirements:

• Commitment to equal opportunities
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Fluency in written and spoken French

Benefits Include

• Basic salary will include the following allowances and benefits: housing, transportation and meals.
• Medical insurance
• 25 days paid annual leave per annum in addition to local bank or public holidays
• Pension scheme including an employer contribution of 10% of your basic salary

 

How to Apply 
Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV’s with a summary note of your skills and experience to “Claire Gaulier” via: wish@options.co.uk Candidates should state the role in the subject header.

 

Application Deadline 28th September, 2018.

 

Note

• Applications will be reviewed and invited to interviews on a rolling basis.
• Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted for an interview. Interviews will be organised directly with shortlisted applicants on a rolling basis.
• Options is an equal opportunities employer
• Overseas candidates require to have the right to work in Nigeria.