Health Finance Specialist

Job Description

Do you believe that everyone deserves access to affordable, quality healthcare? Are you inspired by exceptionally talented, diverse, impact-oriented colleagues? Do you thrive in a dynamic, high-growth, fast-paced environment? Most importantly, are you fed-up, even disgusted, with the status quo of foreign assistance in the health sector? Then consider a job with ThinkWell.

We are looking for a Health Financing Specialist to provide support in the areas of health financing, costing and public financial management to a cutting-edge portfolio of projects aimed at creatively disrupting the status quo of health sector development in favor of a pragmatic, country-centered approach. The Health Financing Specialist will work with our growing global team to develop tailored health financing approaches to help low- and middle-income countries achieve universal health coverage. This exciting role requires a combination of exceptional analytical skills, including quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis as well the ability to effectively synthesize and visualize findings, and translate messages for various audiences.

The position is based in our Geneva office.

Health Financing & Health Economics

• The Health Financing Specialist will lead and support a mix of activities, some individually and others as member of a team. Potential assignments include:

• Support the development of an investment case for health tailored to specific country contexts to resonate with ministries of finance and/or other target audiences;
• Design and implement in-country studies to evaluate the cost of specific health interventions and programs;
• Provide support to ministries of health on budget planning & preparation, budget advocacy, and the development of national health financing strategies, including domestic resource mobilization;
• Carry out analyses on fiscal space, out-of-pocket spending, benefit incidence, or a national health accounts exercise;
• Develop a financial resource allocation framework, including budget allocation criteria and a tool;
• Design and implement a pilot to evaluate increased budget autonomy at subnational level;
• Support the design of national health insurance programs, including the overall structure, benefits package development, premium-setting, and claims systems;
• Support the design and implementation of performance-based financing (PBF) systems;
• Organize a webinar series on public financial management (PFM) for country-level stakeholders.

Cross-cutting activities

• Contribute to activities of the Design Lab (our center for ideation and innovation), including desk research, technical input, and proposal writing;
• Produce high quality written reports and presentations, including technical documents, project status reports, policy briefs, and publications for conferences and journals;
• Represent ThinkWell through networking with donors, program partners and other stakeholders at technical meetings and events, as required.

• Action-oriented problem solver with an ‘anything is possible’ ethos;
• Burning penchant to fearlessly challenge conventional wisdom, and committed to catalyze transformation of the status quo of the development sector;
• Systems thinker with grounded, pragmatic understanding of the complexities of achieving development outcomes;
• Ability to flourish in a dynamic organization that fundamentally values evolution through iteration over stability and predictability;
• Strong willingness and thirst to learn;
• Ability to externally represent and convey ThinkWell’s passion, conviction, and desire to see change;
• Independent thinker who thrives working in a team;
• Open to and empowered by critical feedback;
• Intuitive ability to relate and connect with people from different cultures, orientations, and operating lenses (political, technical, funder, business partner, etc.); with special acumen on maintaining positive relations in a virtual world;
• A combination of humility and confidence.

• Master’s degree in health economics, economics, or public health with a health financing focus;
• At least 7 years of relevant work experience in health financing and health economics;
• Experience working with ministries of health and finance, donors and implementing agencies, and strong communication skills to knowledgably and effectively interact with key actors;
• Established track record of carrying out analytical work and preparing high-quality technical reports, policy briefing materials, and presentations;
• Strong quantitative skills and research capacity, proficiency in Stata or another statistics software is highly desirable, or may be substituted by exceptional command of Excel;
• Strong and compelling writing skills;
• Experience living and/or working in a low- or middle-income country is highly desirable;
• Fluent command of English; working proficiency in French is desirable;
• Ability and willingness to travel to low-income countries and fragile states 20-25% of the time.

About the Organization

ThinkWell is a health systems development organization that is in a major growth phase. Our focus is on driving transformation in the global health space through navigating pathways that will lead to more effective use of public and private resources in the health sector and ultimately better health for all.