Senior Country Manager, Country Support (Core Countries)

Position title:

Senior Country Manager, Country Support (Core Countries)

Position type:

ASAP until August 2023

Location:

Geneva

Purpose of the position:

The Senior Country Manager has primary responsibility for the oversight of overall Alliance engagement with Gavi-eligible countries. S/he ensures Gavi’s full range of support is brought to bear towards Gavi’s strategic goals, most notably in reaching zero-dose children and under-immunized communities. As such, s/he is the Gavi Secretariat’s key representative dealing with Government and in-country partners.

Department:

Country Programmes

Team:

Core Team

Reports to:

Segment Head, Core Team

N° of positions supervised (if applicable):

Career step level:

4

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership committed to saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health by increasing equitable use of vaccines in lower-income countries. The Vaccine Alliance brings together implementing country and donor governments, the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. Gavi uses innovative finance mechanisms, including co-financing by recipient countries, to secure sustainable funding and adequate supply of quality vaccines. Since 2000, Gavi has contributed to the immunisation of more than 888 million children and the prevention of more than 15 million future deaths.

THE ROLE

Senior Country Managers play a pivotal role in Gavi’s mission to ensure that children in the world’s poorest countries are vaccinated against deadly diseases such as hepatitis B, diarrhoeal disease, pneumococcal disease, measles, meningitis A, and cervical cancer.

The hands-on work of Gavi’s Senior Country Managers is fast-paced, demanding and rewarding. Together with governments and partners, they enable the uptake of life saving vaccines in many countries that previously couldn’t afford them. They work towards the global eradication of polio and the deployment of the cutting-edge cervical cancer-preventing vaccine. They will also contribute to the introduction of a vaccine against COVID-19.

Senior Country Managers are responsible for several countries within their assigned team, and divide their time between Gavi’s Geneva headquarters and field visits. They ensure countries deploy Gavi supported vaccines, direct financial support and technical support effectively and transparently. They assess and manage risks and they monitor the performance of Gavi-funded programmes. They lead the solving of problems that hold back programme implementation. Moreover, Senior Country Managers may actively participate in internal Gavi Secrtariat’s working groups (i.e fragile countries, innovation, demand generation, knowledge management, , partnership engagement,etc…) to influence and shape Gavi policies.

Reaching zero-dose children is at the heart of Gavi’s new strategy and Senior Country Managers are expected to champion this goal. They must use all levers of support available, including advocating for this with senior government officials and partners; identifying potential new partnerships and innovative approaches that will accelerate identifying and reaching missed communities; and ensuring rigorous performance monitoring mechanisms are in place to track progress and course correct when necessary. He/she will also work closely with in-country partners to ensure an effective delivery of the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccine.

To this effect, Senior Country Managers build and manage relationships with a wide range of senior representatives from governments, United Nations and donor agencies, International NGOs and CSOs. Chief among these are Gavi’s alliance partners, which include the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank and CDC. Senior Country Managers are also supported in their work by colleagues from various technical teams within the Gavi Secretariat. SCM has the responsibility to coordinate the work of the technical teams to ensure an effective engagement with the countries under her/his responsability. Among others, this implies engagement and coordination with experts in Monitoring & Evaluation, Health System Inmunsaiton Stregthening, Vaccine Management and implementation, Stock Management and Forecating, Finance, Inmunisation Financing, Knowledge Management and Communications, etc.

Senior Country Managers in the Core Team will be responsible for two or three countries. In many of these, engagement is also expected at the sub-national level. In some cases countries could be placed in different regions. As a result, a different set of language skills may be needed. Moreover, the SCM will also have to manage relationship with distinct Alliance partners’ regional offices, which requires an understanding of its functioning and further flexibility and adaptability. Working across multiple countries across a wide range of technical and political issues with little support is a complex undertaking, requiring sound judgement, an ability to work under pressure and comfort in multi-tasking and prioritising. Based on Gavi’s differentiated Portfolio Management approach, and in cases where more than two countries are managed by a single SCM, the extent of expected engagement with some of these countries will be reduced.

Key functions and deliverables:

• Increased immunisation coverage and equity in assigned countries, with a particular emphasis on reducing zero-dose children and reaching missed communities;
• Working closely with the Office of the Covax Facility to help drive the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines in countries of responsibility;
• Strengthened and sustainable routine immunisation programmes:
  • Proactive identification, reporting and resolution/mitigation of issues and risks related to management and use of Gavi investments in assigned countries;
  • Quality, timely analysis and recommendations in relation to assigned portfolio of countries appropriately shared and used;
  • High-performing, mutually-supportive country team;
• Excellent relationships and productive collaboration with country stakeholders, including senior government officials and partners, and good understanding by them of Gavi policies, initiatives, decisions, etc;
• Significant contributions to advancing Gavi stewardship-based portfolio management approach and implementation.

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

Overall engagement

• Facilitate overall Alliance engagement with country against a holistic theory of change;
• Policy dialogue and advocacy at highest government level, including on priorities, financing, sector coordination;
• Ensure country voices and lessons learnt from the field are reflected in Gavi policies /guidelines development;
• Lead and prepare organisation of Alliance’s high-level engagement, including joint missions, bilateral meetings with Gavi’s Executive Office; joint missions would occur 1-2 times during a strategic period for Core countries;
• Influence government to increase their domestic financing, and/or other donors to increase their support to immunisation and in Core countries, to counter-balance the decrease in Gavi support to these countries during Gavi 5.0;
• Regular engagement with in-country donors, technical partners, NGOs, CSOs, and other critical stakeholders.

Portfolio Management – Plan & Design

• Taking into account Gavi’s differentiated approach to country engagement:
  • Engage with and influence development of National Immunisation Strategy, other strategic documents, and broader alignment across health sector and partners;
  • Facilitate Full Portfolio Planning in collaboration with Gavi’s Health Systems Team: identify data gaps, ensure clear roadmap, inclusive participation, integrated evidence based approach across funding streams;
  • Work with countries to identify the right partners (e.g. CSO, private sector) based on their comparative advantage and engage them based on the in-country implementation of technical assistance needs;
  • Engage with countries to identify ways to incorporate greater innovation into their immunisation programme and/or broader primary healthcare.
• Engage government and partners to identify, broker, and prioritise Technical Assistance needs, and facilitate performance reviews, in alignment with other streams of support;
• Ensure most effective & efficient fiduciary management arrangements in place, including funding channels, building on Gavi’s principles of sustainability and national ownership; and
• Engage with sub-national levels, as appropriate, to plan and design tailored strategies.

Portfolio Management – Review, Approve, Disburse

• Based on Gavi’s differentiated approach to country engagement, coordinate quality assurance, compliance and pre-screening across teams before the review of the Independent Review Committee (IRC); provide contextual inputs into IRC deliberations;
• Finalise grant-making post IRC review: multi-year approval; budget and workplan; Grant Management Requirements; grant agreements; and timely disbursement.

Portfolio Management – Implement & Monitor

• Taking into account Gavi’s differentiated approach to country engagement:
  • Monitor and pro-actively mitigate programmatic and fiduciary risks;
  • Facilitate regular performance reviews of Technical Assistance, in alignment with other streams of support;
  • Ensure effective Alliance-wide preparation of Joint Appraisals, monitoring missions, and other joint engagements, and lead these.
• Ensure programme implementation is effective, impactful, and in line with Theory of Change, across all streams of support, with pro-active coordination of reprogramming against needs;
• Performance management through using timely and quality reporting from the country (e.g vaccines stock reporting, financial and programmatic progress reporting, follow up on vaccine introductions and campaigns, etc.);
• Facilitate regular programme audit.

Corporate tasks

• Taking into account Gavi’s differentiated approach to country engagement:
  • Ensure updated country information and progress updates are available to internal Secretariat stakeholders;
  • Support Gavi corporate resource mobilisation efforts with country information and in-country donor engagement;
  • Liaise with and provide updates to Gavi’s bilateral donors thorough their country offices.
• Contribute to development of Gavi operational policies, procedures and tools;
• Contribute to development, implementation, and improvement of sound practices for stewardship-based grant management, strategic information gathering, risk assessment, knowledge sharing, etc.;
• Lead country updates for high-level Alliance bodies such as the IRC and HLRP; and
• Support Alliance strategy and policy processes as well as global and regional level events and forums (e.g. RWG meetings, WHA, UNGA, EO conferences).

Note: The essential functions listed in this section are not exhaustive of the job responsibilities; other duties may be assigned consistently with the department needs.

QUALIFICATIONS

ACADEMIC

• Advanced university degree in public health, health economics, development or social sciences, business administration (with experience in international development) or related field, or other relevant qualification.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of 8 years of professional experience working in public health or international development;
• Experience in immunisation programmes or health systems a great asset;
• Extensive experience working in developing countries on technical issues required;
• Significant grant-, project- and/or programme-management experience required, including in situations of considerable complexity, challenging environments and political sensitivity;
• Experience in bilateral and multilateral aid environments a requirement (experience in both headquarters and in the field is an advantage).

SKILLS/COMPETENCIES

Strategic and proactive problem solver

• Ability to develop strategic, transformational approaches in line with Gavi strategy;
• Critical thinking, problem-solving and creative mindset;
• Proactive identification, reporting and resolution/mitigation of issues and risks;
• Systems-thinking, with macro-understanding of global and country context and interdependencies;
• Political acumen and ability to drive change and improvements in challenging, inter-cultural and complex environments;
• Excellent interpersonal negotiation skills, including ability to problem solve and manage conflict, including with senior government counterparts.

Decisive and flexible

• Flexible mindset & ability to adapt quickly, focusing on value creation;
• Applies a timely and pragmatic approach with critical lens to make judgments & effective decisions;
• Champion evidence-based and data-driven decision making.

Outwardly engaging and effective influencing

• Authority in the representation of Gavi as a trusted and strategic partner, advocating and promoting Gavi’s mandate and vision;
• Effective consultations with & influencing counterparts at all levels;
• Builds and maintains effective working relationships to influence and drive for impact;
• Ability to identify, engage and leverage existing and new partnerships.

Innovative

• Proactively explores opportunities to introduce new ideas & enhance solutions;
• Creates a path forward, takes informed risks and pushes ambitious and ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking.

Portfolio manager

• Conducts and facilitates the various steps of the Gavi grant management process, incl. due diligence, steering, course-correct, etc.;
• Coordinates, works effectively with others, structures work to meet deadlines, including effective prioritisation;
• Excellent know-how in project financial management;
• Ability to analyse and synthesise qualitative and/or quantitative information;
• Pro-active performance management across Gavi investments and wide range of partnerships.

Effective communicator

• Able to communicate ideas & draft strategic papers / policies in a logical and cohesive way;
• Delivers clear, concise and coherent messages – in both written and oral formats – adapted to intended audience.

Knowledgeable about context

• Good knowledge of policies, systems and procedures in global public health settings;
• Understand the country’s health and epidemiological context, and immunisation-specific profile at a national and sub-national level, including inequities and related gender dimensions;
• Ability to work with wide range of stakeholders across the spectrum of government, donors, technical partners, civil society, other expanded partners etc.;
• Knowledge of the architecture and drivers of performance of immunisation programmes;
• In depth knowledge of Gavi’s mandate, model, governance and ecosystem.

Strong interpersonal skills

• Models positive team behaviours that foster teamwork and trust, both internally and externally;
• Conflict management and resolution;
• Multi-cultural sensitivity;
• People management and leadership skills.

Ability to work successfully in an international, multi-cultural, multi-partner environment, with significant travel.

LANGUAGES

• Written and spoken fluency in English essential;
• Written and spoken fluency in French, Portuguese or Russian is a requirement depending on the countries to be covered.

CONTACTS

• Gavi Secretariat;
• Developing country governments;
• Gavi’s alliance partners;
• UN;
• Multilateral & bilateral donor agencies;
• Humanitarian actors
• Civil society organisations.

How to apply

If you wish to apply, please provide a cover letter and resume through our Careers webpage and apply by clicking on “Senior Country Manager, Country Support (Core Countries)”. Deadline for applications is 17 June 2022.

Please note that as a vaccine organisation and in order to provide duty of care towards its employees, Gavi is requiring its new employees to confirm that they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition for pursuing employment with us. You can find out more by visiting this link.

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Gavi brings together the public and private sectors to save lives and protect people’s health by increasing equitable and sustainable use of vaccines against 18 infectious diseases. You will be joining an organisation at the centre of the international COVID-19 response, at the most critical time in global health in a lifetime. You will work in a culturally diverse environment with over 70 nationalities. You will collaborate with partners such as WHO, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank – and from business, civil society and government. And you will work in the first global health organisation to receive equal gender salary certification. Your unique experience, skills and talents can help us achieve our vision of leaving no one behind without the life-saving power of vaccines.

In support of Gavi’s commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion, we hire globally and welcome applications regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, national origin, family status, sex, gender identity or expression, physical characteristics, race, religion, spirituality or sexual orientation.