Health Financing Specialist

Background

Health financing affects the provision and utilization of health care services with implications for efficiency, equity, and quality. The national and county governments continue to increase strategic investments in health to attain Universal Health Coverage (UHC) however counties are yet to fully attain efficient financing systems due to and among other reasons, insufficient government funding/budgetary allocations, low health insurance adoption, and lack of familiarity with the planning and budgeting process used in budgetary allocations. To achieve UHC, counties need to strengthen health financing functions to ensure both national and county levels in addition to external resources are generated and pooled effectively, and the purchasing and allocation functions are carried out equitably and efficiently.

To this end, SoCha, on behalf of the Council of Governors and USAID, is seeking a Health Financing Specialist to provide technical expertise to the COG Health Committee in advocating for increased revenue allocation for health care and streamlining of domestic resource mobilization. The Health Financing Specialist will work closely with the Chairperson of the Health Committee and the Committee’s Technical Lead.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Lead economic analysis of health financing policies and strategies including assessing, designing, and County Health Plans in line with Kenya Health Act and government agenda on UHC.
• Strengthen the Monitoring and Evaluation of County Health Sector planning and activities.
• Contribute to policy dialogues, workshops, and conferences to promote evidence-based policy development and resource mobilization for health.
• Develop guidelines on best practices around resource mobilization and management for healthcare in the counties.
• Provide up to date briefings related to health financing in counties.
• Support the County Executive Committee Members for Health and Finance on best practices around budgeting for healthcare.
• Support institutionalization of county health planning units to plan, coordinate, and formulate budgets within the medium-term expenditure frameworks.
• Perform any other tasks that may be assigned by the Project Coordinator.

Skills and Competencies

• Manage complexity and ambiguity effectively: demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, and diplomacy in a complex, fast-paced environment.
• Effective communicator: Develop and deliver communications that convey complex issues in a clear and concise manner to high level Government of Kenya officials and other broad and diverse audiences.
• Analysis: Ability to identify issues, formulate opinions, make conclusions and recommendations.
• Advocacy: Ability to build and sustain formidable alliances on health financing issues affecting counties
• Ability to effectively work virtually, and conversant with virtual meetings apps e.g. Zoom, Google Meets, etc.
• Capacity building: Ability to design, develop and implement capacity building programs for county officials on health economic analysis.
• Interpersonal skills using tact, patience, and courtesy.
• Excellent mathematical and analytical skills.
• Team spirit and time management skills.

Minimum Qualifications and Experience

• Minimum Master’s degree in health economics, or any other relevant discipline such as public financial management, decision sciences, operations research, or a related quantitative social science field.
• A minimum of ten (10+) years of relevant work experience developing health-focused econometric models using decision analysis software (e.g., TreeAge, SPSS, advanced Excel), health systems strengthening, research and development preferably in African country settings.
• Track record of analytical/diagnostic work: preparing high-quality technical reports, policy briefing materials, and presentations to influence health financing policy decision making and implementation at national and county levels.
• Deep understanding of the Kenyan Health System at National and County Levels, preferably on-the-ground experience in both levels.
• Specific experience consulting for or working for Intergovernmental Relations institutions (Former Constitution Implementation Commission, Former Transition Authority, CoG, Ministry of Devolution, or the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee) preferred.

Period of Performance

12 months

Location

Nairobi, Kenya with local travel