Senior Manager, Health Workforce (temporary)

Job Description

Position title:

Senior Manager, Health Workforce (temporary)

Location:

Geneva

Purpose of the position:

Support the development and implementation of Gavi’s approach to supporting Frontline Health Workers (FHW) and their supervisors

Department:

Country Programmes

Team:

Health Systems & Immunisation Strengthening

Reports to:

Senior Specialist, Health Systems & Immunisation Strengthening

N° of positions supervised:

N/A

Career step level:

4

Duration:

24 months (starting ASAP)

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 developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, 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 nearly 700 million children and the prevention of more than 10 million future deaths.

BACKGROUND

An adequate number and appropriate distribution of well performing frontline health workers and their supervisors is critical for reaching missed children with safe immunisation services as well as for delivering other primary healthcare interventions. Current programmes and activities to improve their performance, accountability and behaviours, whether funded by Gavi or other donors, are often ad-hoc rather than strategic and follow traditional methodologies with limited use of innovative approaches and unclear impact. Gavi is thus revisiting its approach to investing in health workers.

A key focus of this new approach is how to better support countries to strengthen and maintain frontline health workers’ performance. This requires continued professional education and learning programmes leveraging innovative and digital technologies that are rapidly scalable. It also aims to build capacities for data-driven health workforce planning and management at national, sub-national and facility level.

KEY FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The advertised position is central to developing, testing and scaling up this new way for Gavi to invest in frontline health workers and supervisors over the next two years, to become a central piece of Gavi’s next 5-year strategy. This will involve:

• Convening and engaging Alliance and new partners to transform the way countries and development partners invest in health workers;
• Developing innovative and strategic models for adult learning of frontline health workers in immunisation with broader applicability to Primary Health Care (PHC);
• Designing new approaches and learn from successful experiences in performance management of frontline health workers;
• Identifying opportunities for catalytic Gavi investments in the area of data driven health workforce planning in a set of countries;
• Managing the testing and roll-out of these tools in a set of countries and outline a roadmap for scale up within the Gavi Alliance and beyond.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Drive the identification, adaptation creation and uptake of learning and performance management content and tools (e.g., training methods, online platforms, machine learning and natural language processing);

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

QUALIFICATIONS

Academic:

• Advanced university degree in education, learning, public health, health economics, social sciences, international development or a related socioeconomic field.

Work experience:

• Minimum of 8 years of experience in roles related to education, workforce development, continuous learning in an international context. Experience in health systems strengthening is an asset;
• Proven experience in working with innovative adult learning content and methodologies, including digital technology is required;
• Proven expertise working in diverse, multi-partner environments;
• Professional experience working with governments and other stakeholders on the ground in lower income countries is required;
• Demonstrable experience in project management, managing partnerships and multi-stakeholder task forces, as well as organisation of meetings and events;
• Private sector experience desired.

Skills/Competencies:

• Excellent conceptual and analytical problem-solving skills, including ability to structure and shape new approaches from scratch with limited guidance;
• Ability to think innovatively, strategically and flexibly and see the broader picture;
• Aptitude to plan, organise and prioritise work effectively, and to meet deadlines and multi-task in a fast-paced environment;

• Excellent representational and communication skills, including facilitation of team processes with a mix of background and culture;

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with colleagues in a global, multicultural context;
• Influencing skills and ability to advance priorities in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment;

• High level computer skills, including office applications (Microsoft Project, PowerPoint and Excel);
• Tact and discretion.

Languages:

• Fluency in written and spoken English required;
• French and other languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Russian) are an asset.

Contacts:

• Gavi Alliance Partners (Gavi Secretariat, WHO, UNICEF, World Bank, CDC);

• Gavi-eligible countries;
• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation;
• Other significant donors in the area of Frontline Health Workers (e.g., GFF, The Global Fund);
• The Rockefeller Foundation;
• Key and emerging actors in education, learning and digital technology;
• Other partners and stakeholders as required.

Gavi is committed to diversity within its workforce and encourages applications from all qualified candidates.

If you wish to apply, please visit our Careers webpage and apply by clicking on “Senior Manager, Health Workforce (temporary)” Deadline for applications is 03 February 2020.

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About the Organization

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 developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, 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 nearly 700 million children and the prevention of more than 10 million future deaths.

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