Title: Senior Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Advisor

Location: Harare

Supervisor: Technical Director

Program Summary:

The 5-year USAID-funded Improving MNCH services project’s goal is to Improve maternal, neonatal, and child health (MNCH) outcomes through increasing access to quality MNCH services and strengthening health services in five targeted provinces in Zimbabwe (Manicaland, Masvingo, Matabeleland South, Midlands, and Mashonaland West). This project will provide Technical Assistance (TA) to strengthen technical capacity of the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) at national, provincial, and district level to scale up high impact MNCH Interventions; enhance planning, distribution, and retention of MNCH health workforce in implementation areas; reinforce planning, management, and coordination of essential commodities and equipment procurement.

Position Summary:
FHI 360 seeks a Senior Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (SMNCH) Advisor to lead design and delivery of Objective 1: strengthen technical capacity of MOHCC at national, provincial, and district level to scale up high impact MNCH Interventions ; represent the Activity in national level fora to support technical leadership and coordination of national MNCH activities; oversee design and delivery of subnational activities to strengthen MNCH services, including providing technical assistance at subnational level in coordination with the provincial program teams.The SMNCH Advisor will be based in Harare and support all five targeted provinces. The SMNCH Advisor reports directly to the Technical Director and provides MNCH technical oversight and direction to provincial program teams. This will require frequent travel to focus provinces, districts, and health facilities. The SMNCH Advisor will assist the Technical Director to ensure the overall success of the project and will be responsible for managing the technical direction and implementation of MNCH-related facility and community-based programming and contribute to the technical direction of the project’s health system strengthening activities.

Duties and Responsibilities:
The SMNCH Advisor will work closely with the program teams, under the leadership of the Technical Director, to execute the following responsibilities:

• Contribute to the technical direction of the project related to evidence-based MNCH programming for facility and community-level interventions, based on local and global best practices.
• Provide strategic leadership on MNCH policy and programming in ways that are sensitive and beneficial and in harmony with other MNCH projects and coordinating mechanisms.
• Contribute to program design, implementation, learning, and monitoring and evaluation through active collaboration with project teams and MOHCC structures at national, provincial, district and facility level.
• Oversee the selection of appropriate MNCH technical assistance to meet provincial, district, facility, and community needs.
• Provide guidance and technical support in alignment with Government of Zimbabwe RMNCH policies and strategies, including USAID development priorities.
• Identify technical assistance needs and training resources among project staff, partners, government counterparts and beneficiaries and coordinate technical assistance provision.
• Lead the development and refinement of MNCH capacity strengthening project inputs (training/mentorship/coaching, tools, guidelines, and standards) to support MOHCC interventions.
• Contribute to the development and timely submission of work plans, program budgets, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reports, and other reports and papers summarizing project results and evidence.
• Contribute to the learning agenda by identifying information gaps in MNCH that could be filled by secondary data analysis, literature reviews, field testing of new approaches and collaborative learning events, and lead technical inputs on learning activities related to MNCH.
• Build the MNCH technical capacity of project, provincial, district, and facility teams through various approaches such as technical updates, training, exchange visits, literature sharing, and mentorship.
• Represent the project at stakeholder meetings at national, provincial and district levels.
• Maintain diplomatic and high-quality interactions and clear and consistent communications internally and with partners.

Qualifications and experience:

• Master’s Degree in Obstetrics and Gynaecology or Medical Doctor with a Master’s in Public Health.
• At least five (5) years of work experience in the Zimbabwe health system
• Deep knowledge of the landscape for MNCH programming in Zimbabwe, including related key Government of Zimbabwe and USAID priorities
• Excellent knowledge of Zimbabwe MOHCC national, provincial, district and community-level structures.
• Experience with training, mentorship, and capacity-building of health professionals.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, writing, and oral presentation skills in English.
• Relevant computer software skills, including at a minimum, MS Office.
• Experience working with USG-funded health programs an advantage.
• Demonstrated ability to create and maintain effective working relationships with Ministry of Health and Child Care and key stakeholders, including other implementing partners, at national, provincial and district level.
• Must be a citizen or current legal resident of Zimbabwe.

This job posting summarizes the main duties of the job. It neither prescribes nor restricts the exact tasks that may be assigned to carry out these duties. This document should not be construed in any way to represent a contract of employment. Management reserves the right to review and revise this document at any time.

FHI 360 is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer whereby we do not engage in practices that discriminate against any person employed or seeking employment based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, protected Veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable law.

Our values and commitments to safeguarding: FHI 360 is committed to preventing any type of abuse, exploitation and harassment in our work environments and programs, including sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment. FHI 360 takes steps to safeguard the welfare of everyone who engages with our organization and programs and requires that all personnel, including staff members and volunteers, share this commitment and sign our code of conduct. All offers of employment will be subject to appropriate screening checks, including reference, criminal record and terrorism finance checks. FHI 360 also participates in the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (MDS), facilitated by the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response. In line with the MDS, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any substantiated findings of sexual abuse, exploitation and/or harassment during the applicant’s tenure with previous employers. By applying, job applicants confirm their understanding of these recruitment procedures and consent to these screening checks.

FHI 360 will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws.

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