Senior Manager, Country Health Systems

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 1 billion children and the prevention of more than 17.3 million future deaths.

THE ROLE

• Working closely with Alliance partners, Gavi Senior Country Managers (SCMs), technical leads within Health Systems & Immunisation Strengthening (HSIS) and other Secretariat teams, ensure that countries receive high-quality strategic guidance and technical input in planning, implementing, and monitoring Gavi support to enhance equity and sustainability of immunisation programmes and strengthen health systems;
• Work with Alliance partners and Secretariat country teams to drive new thinking and innovative approaches to enhancing the equity and sustainability of immunisation programmes and strengthening health systems;
• Work with countries, partners and Secretariat country teams to monitor the progress and impact of Gavi support, and support efforts to address challenges and course correct as needed;
• Help deepen and broaden the Alliance’s partnerships on health systems at country level and within different country segments (e.g., High Impact, Fragile and Conflict and Core countries);
• Support learning and continuous improvement of the Alliance’s approach to enhancing equity and sustainability of immunisation programmes and strengthening health systems.

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide strategic guidance to countries and Secretariat Senior Country Managers and country teams, in coordination with Alliance Partners, to design, implement and monitor Gavi investments to reach zero-dose and under-immunised children and enhance the sustainability of routine immunisation programmes and health systems, notably through the Full Portfolio Planning (FPP) process:
– Identify barriers, opportunities and strategies to enhance equity and sustainability;
– Identify and help scale-up innovations and new approaches to programming as part of programmatic strategies;
– Ensure that all Gavi support in strengthening health systems – including political engagement and advocacy, Health systems and immunisation strengthening (HSIS) grants, technical assistance and innovation – is strategic and coherent, with a clear theory of change, underpinned by a robust budget, workplan and monitoring and learning plan;
– Work with SCMs to identify countries experiencing programmatic delays or challenges and help identify solutions to course correct as required.
• Support SCMs to facilitate and support in-country dialogue processes (e.g., monitoring missions and Joint Appraisals) to design and review Alliance investments in strengthening routine immunisation programmes, including design of robust monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks;
• Working with colleagues across the HSIS team and Secretariat, facilitate in-country stakeholders’ awareness and usage of the Alliance’s latest global guidance (e.g., programme funding guidelines, PFGs) and programmatic strategies and innovations, as well as best practices and lessons learned from other, countries, in areas including equity and scale in service delivery, supply chain, demand generation, community engagement, gender-transformative approaches, data quality, leadership, management & coordination, and health worker capacity-building;
• Provide technical expertise and guidance to Secretariat country teams in health systems related programmatic areas, in close collaboration with HSIS colleagues leading technical areas in the CVM (Comprehensive Vaccine Management) and EIP (Equitable Immunisation Program) sub-teams of HSIS;
• Help strengthen relationships and collaboration with existing core and expanded partners, bilateral donors and local institutions at country and regional level to ensure strategic and aligned support for strengthening health systems and reaching zero-dose children; Help country teams and countries to identify and engage new partners as required;
• Work with SCMs to engage health sector partners and donors at country level to align health systems strengthening investments and maximise impact on the equity and sustainability of immunisation programmes;
• Work with other members of the HSIS team to provide regular monitoring and systematic analysis of the design, performance, and impact of Gavi’s health system strengthening investments, and identify, synthesise and disseminate key trends, best practices and challenges / risks countries and the Secretariat / Alliance;
• Provide input and evidence and document best practices to help strengthen Gavi’s policies, processes and programmatic approaches to strengthen health systems and enhance the equity and sustainability of immunisation programmes;
• Other duties and activities as required.

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, Social Sciences, International Development or related fields. Specialisation in health systems or health policy is an asset.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of 8 years of experience in roles related to health policy, immunisation and/or health systems;
• Proven experience working in diverse, multi-partner environments;
• Experience working at both global level and in developing countries;
• Demonstrable experience in strategic programme design, project management, managing partnerships and multi-stakeholder task forces;
• Experience in fragile and conflict settings is preferred.

SKILLS/COMPETENCIES

• Distinctive strategic thinking, programme planning and problem-solving skills;
• Deep understanding of health systems, with substantial experience of programme planning and management in low- and middle-income countries;
• Competency across programmatic areas including equity, service delivery, supply chain, demand, community engagement, gender, data quality, programme management, and health worker capacity-building;
• Understanding of gender responsive and gender transformative programming in a variety of country settings is an asset;
• Excellent quantitative and qualitative analytic skills, with ability to evaluate and synthesise complex challenges
• Diplomacy, tact and discretion;
• Excellent organisation and coordination including demonstrated ability to prioritise;
• Strong collaboration skills and demonstrated ability to work across multiple, multicultural teams and organisations in pursuit of a common goal;
• Proven ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines;
• High sense of responsibility, efficiency, reliability and results-focus;
• Compelling oral and written communications;
• Demonstrated ability to engage credibly with senior counterparts across multiple sectors.

LANGUAGES

• Written and spoken fluency in English;
• Fluency in French strongly preferred;
• Fluency in Portuguese and other languages of Gavi-supported countries an asset.

CONTACTS

• All Gavi Secretariat teams;
• Gavi Alliance partners, including UNICEF, WHO, civil society, and academic institutions;
• Implementing country governments;
• Gavi donors.