Senior Community Health Program Specialist
Liberia
JOB DETAIL
Description
Position Title: Senior Community Health Program Specialist
Reports To: Community Health Program Director
Location: Maryland County, Liberia
Organizational Profile:
Partners In Health (PIH) is an international health organization relentlessly committed to improving the
health of the poor and marginalized. PIH partners with local governments to build local capacity and
works closely with impoverished communities to deliver high-quality health care, address the root
causes of illness, train providers, advance research, and advocate for global policy change. Our delivered
services in the field are based on our partnership with the Governments and Ministries of Health and
the support to education, training, and mentorship to Health care workers and students is one of our
pillars for the Health Care system strengthening.
PIH currently has implementation programs in Haiti, Rwanda, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Peru, Mexico,
Russia, Sierra Leone, and Navajo Nation. Through our partnership with Harvard Medical School and the
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, we support a wide range of programs in dozens of other countries
around the world.
Partners In Health (PIH) is committed to the fundamental principle of equal opportunity and equal
treatment for every prospective and current employee. It is the policy of PIH not to discriminate on the
basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, age, religion, creed, disability, sex and gender,
sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, military or veteran status, or any other
characteristic protected under applicable federal, state or local law. PIH works in and with a number of
governments in and outside the U.S., and to the extent applicable, this statement is intended to
incorporate the prohibition of any unlawful discrimination covered by applicable laws in such countries,
states, and municipalities.
Position Overview:
The Senior Community Health Programs Specialist will work closely with the Director of Community
Health Programs (CH Director) in overseeing all of PIH’s community health programs in Liberia. He/she
will have a firm understanding of PIH’s mission and approach to community health programming around
the world. They will ensure that PIH is providing the highest-quality programs to patients, providing a
supportive working environment for community-based staff, understanding and addressing the socio-
economic drivers of poor health, linking clinical programs and community programs, and working to
further social justice. The Programs Specialist will also ensure that all activities are aligned with the
priorities and policies of the Liberian Ministry of Health. The successful candidate will support the CH
Director to develop tools and processes to facilitate efficient management practices, support fundraising
and effective budget management, and support overseeing the day-to-day management of the
program.
Qualified candidates will have prior experience working to build progressive, paid community health
worker models that understand the socio-economic drivers of poor health. They will also have
experience managing a team of professionals, in non-profit or governmental organizations, in a
developing world setting. It is imperative that the candidate has strong interpersonal skills, coordinating
with a host of managers and directors across a team that s/he does not directly manage. Success is
predicated on forming high-trust relationships with PIH and County Health Team colleagues, providing
cogent advice, and perseverance. Humility and a commitment to the accompaniment, of colleagues and
patients, are paramount. This is a position that relies heavily on both technical skills and expertise, and
that focuses greatly on capacity building to support an already strong and growing Liberian-led
team. This person will be willing to live in rural Southeastern Liberia nearly full-time.
Finally, this individual will be expected to lead by example, embodying the values of PIH, including doing
whatever it takes to provide the highest level of service to our patients; treating every member of our
organization and community with equal respect and dignity; fostering a sense of generosity and
teamwork; and working patiently, yet persistently, to accompany our government partners to achieve
our shared goals.
Specific Responsibilities:
PIH-Liberia Leadership
– Support the CH Director in strategic planning and budgeting for PIH’s CHW program. This includes
identifying and helping to support fundraising opportunities to expand PIH Liberia’s community programs while not compromising on the values and mission of the program.
– Collaborate closely with multiple PIH departments (Clinical, M&E, Operations, Policy and
Partnerships, and the Executive Director). In particular, work closely with the Clinical team,
supporting the Director to seamlessly integrate the CHW program into our facility-based
healthcare programs. This includes monthly meetings and daily troubleshooting as needs arise to
communicate program progress, challenges, and strategic planning.
– Ensure that PIH Liberia’s community health programs align with PIH Liberia’s overall strategy and
growth, with a particular eye on ensuring that clinical and community health programs are
aligned to support patients throughout the continuum of care.
Accompaniment and technical support
– Support the CH Director in skills development to strengthen the Liberian-led team. Skills building
should focus particularly on program design, writing and communications skills, performance
management, reporting and documentation, strategic planning, and computer skills.
– Support the Director to evaluate other CHW program designs, successes, and strategies that have
been implemented across the world at PIH and non-PIH sites. Consider how lessons learned
from these other programs can support the growth and development of PIH Liberia’s community
health programs, and how cross-site knowledge exchange can be enhanced.
– Collaborate with the CH Director to provide financial and technical support to the Ministry of
Health in the implementation of the Community Health Promoter Program (CHP) and technical
support for the Community Health Assistant Program (CHA). Support the CH Program Director and
other community health program staff to identify ways to align these different programs to
maximize their clinical and socioeconomic impact on vulnerable patients. Review different
community health programs from around the world, and support the team to implement ideas to
strengthen, integrate, and grow community health programming.
– Liaise with the MEQ team in improving community health reporting tools and processes to
appropriately measure performance and outcomes.
– Work with the CH Director to provide technical assistance to the National Community Health
Services Division (CHSD) in the areas of curriculum development, standard operating procedures,
log frame, outcome indicators, reporting tools, and CHW professional development scheme.
Program Management
– Manage grant compilation and reporting of all community-based activities.
– Provide supervision and mentorship to the community health team, including Community Health
Officers, Community Health Quality Improvement Officers, and Social Protection Officers.
– Ensure financial compliance of all PIH CHW program activities at national and district levels.
– Work closely with the CH Director, CH Officers, and the MEQ team to build and implement a
mHealth system for CHW reporting. Once implemented, ensure that the system meets program
needs and is used regularly to review CHW effectiveness and patient care and inform
programmatic decisions. Particular attention should be spent on how to link community and clinic
data and how to distill metrics into tangible actions that can be taken by the CHW team.
– Support the development of research initiatives, prepare abstracts and manuscript submissions to
public health journals, and knowledge-sharing opportunities related to CH program successes and
lessons learned alongside the CH Director and other members of the leadership.
– Depending on the need that arises, act in a mobile, decentralized role that could also provide
accompaniment support to the CHSD of the Ministry of Health.
Building Partnerships
– Work with the CH Director and PIH Liberia leadership to support strong working relationships
across the public health sector at National, County, and District levels, including with the CHSD,
County Health Team (CHT), District Health Teams (DHTs) and hospital clinical and administrative
management team. Particular attention should be placed on policy discussions around community
health at the national and international level and how PIH Liberia’s community programs can fit
within, and/or influence them.
– Lead engagement with other implementing agencies and technical partners [e.g. NGOs, UNICEF,
Global Fund, GIZ] to identify new areas for collaboration, ways to strengthen our programs, and
avenues for expanding our base of support.
– Collaborate with the OnePIH cross-site team, members from the county, district, and national
MOH, and other international organizations to share best practices for community-based
programs.
– Collaborate with County Health Team’s Community Health Department and appropriate county-
level focal persons to review CH program progress, constraints, and strategic action plans on a
regular basis, and to provide non-financial technical support to the National Community Health
program implementation.
Safeguarding
Partners In Health (PIH) has zero tolerance for the Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of
beneficiaries. Prevention of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment (PSEAH) is everyone’s
responsibility and all staff are required to adhere to the Code of Conduct, which enshrines the
principles of PSEAH, always during and after work hours. This post holder will assume additional
responsibilities for promoting PSEAH.
Qualifications:
– Advanced degree in Public Health, social services, or a related field preferred.
– At least 3 years of experience developing, managing, implementing, and evaluating health
programs.
– Strong background in understanding a variety of community health strategies strongly
preferred. Applicants who have worked with paid community health worker programs are strongly
preferred.
– Budget development and management experience.
– Budget development and management experience.
– Prior experience with mHealth platform management and GIS mapping programs is a plus.
– High level of comfort in analyzing, interpreting, and organizing quantitative and qualitative data.
– Experience conducting research and designing accompanying protocols is highly valued.
– Experience in curriculum development, training, and workshop facilitation, preferably with a low-
– literacy audience. Experience providing quality assurance assessments post-training to feed into
the training improvement cycle.
– Strong administrative and organizational skills, especially the ability to plan, organize, and follow
through with a variety of constituencies, handle multiple assignments, prioritize workflow, adapt
to fluctuating workloads, and meet deadlines.
– Prior experience working in resource-poor settings.
– Sense of humor and flexible disposition essential. The candidate should have a demonstrated
ability to be flexible and effective in the face of unexpected challenges.
– Humility and the willingness to put Liberian colleagues first.
– Ability to live in rural Southeastern Liberia full-time. Experience living and working in resource-
limited environments, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, is strongly preferred. Ability to collaborate
professionally with culturally diverse colleagues and constituencies.
– A strong commitment to social justice is required.
Commitment to Prevention of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Sexual Harassment:
At Partners in Health, we are committed to ensuring that those who benefit from our work- including our
patients, families, and community members – as well as our staff, are treated with dignity and respect
and protected from sexual exploitation, abuse, and sexual harassment. A range of pre-employment checks
will be undertaken in conformity with Partner in Health’s PSEAH policy. Partner in Health will request
information from applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse,
and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left
employment.
Application instructions:
All interested candidates are encouraged to send their functional resume and cover letter to:
on our employment website: https://www.pih.org/pages/employment.
location
JOBS YOU WILL LOVE
