Program Officer, Early Childhood Development (Siaya) at PATH

PATH has recently received a 2 -year award from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to further work with local partners in the Smart Start Siaya consortium to consolidate executive leadership and strengthen the enabling environment for NCfECD in Siaya county and to scale up Nurturing Care for ECD (NCfECD) into additional geographies within the Lake Region Economic Block (LREB). In this new award, PATH will work closely with KMET, Siaya county and LREB in efforts to establish the foundations for strong NCfECD governance, coordination, and investment in the region

PATH is seeking a Program Officer to support transition ownership of NCfECD assets to subnational government and local partners; sustain and expand government leadership, coordination, and investment for NCfECD programs. This position is based in Siaya

 Specific responsibilities include the following:

• Work with smart start Siaya consortium to continue supporting the Governor and First lady to champion the ECD agenda.
• Provide technical assistance to the office of the Governor to design and execute solutions that can be implemented by different stakeholders across and within sectors to improve child health, nutrition, and development outcomes.
• Work with the office of the Governor to convene relevant stakeholders and identify opportunities to plan and budget for integrated NCfECD.
• Work with the department of health to lead and further institutionalize integration of NCfECD into maternal, neonatal and child health services; support operationalization of cost-effective capacity building strategies including OJTs, CMEs and ward-based peer mentorship.
• Support the operationalization of Siaya as ‘a living university’ in integrated NCfECD service delivery.
• Working closely with Siaya County, coordinate formative assessments and rapid assessment cycles to strengthen the effectiveness of interventions and systems to scale up NCfECD interventions.
• Support dissemination of all relevant policy documents including Integrated ECD Policy, National NCfECD Strategy among others and facilitate discussion on domestication at Siaya county level.
• Support routine acquisition of county, sub-county, and facility level data from various sources for analysis, recording, and dissemination.
• Document project activities by ensuring timely data collection, transmission, and management and by keeping updated project reports.
• Support any dedicated research activities and participate in dissemination forums.
• Provide other technical inputs to the project as needed.

Required Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline—project management, health, nutrition, social studies, ECD, etc.—or an equivalent of education and work experience.
• At least three years of experience working within government health system preferable supporting integration of ECD into maternal neonatal and child health services
• Experience working on issues related to maternal and child health, nutrition, and/or children’s development is preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to work within government structures and coordinate different stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability to work within the health system—with health managers at County, Sub County levels, health facilities and communities
• Sound technical knowledge of issues related to maternal and child health and nutrition and ECD
• Strong capacity building abilities; excellent facilitation, mentorship, and coordination skills
• Field oriented and comfortable with team approach to programming
• Excellent oral, written, and presentation skills