Programme Officer - Community Health at Amref Kenya

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Programme Officer will manage the implementation of Amref’s Learning for Life (L4L): Building a Resilient and Responsive Health Workforce in Africa programme in Kenya. This 4-year programme in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, will be implemented in Kenya, Senegal and Zambia during this first phase. The estimated ratio of health workers per population in Africa is 11.2 workers per 10,000 people, far below the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended ratio of 44.5. It is estimated that the global shortage of health workers will increase from 12 to 18 million by 2030, translating to a shortage of six million health workers. Africa also has the world’s fastest growing population, which presents governments and policy makers with both opportunities and challenges to ensure sufficient livelihood opportunities for its young population. To address these challenges and accelerate the current Universal Health Coverage (UHC) gains, Amref is implementing this innovative, multi-country, multi-million dollar programme with the ultimate goal of contributing to increased and sustainable job creation within primary health care (PHC) sectors across Africa.

Reporting to the PHC Technical Advisor, the Programme Officer will provide technical support during the implementation of the Learning for Life programme’s pillars of health employment, health entrepreneurship, and health ecosystem building. This will stakeholder engagement for continued relevance and alignment of the programme interventions with the national and sub-national levels’ needs and priorities. S/he will facilitate the assessment, training, and convening of ecosystem players to strengthen the primary healthcare health workforce, including Community Health Workers. S/he will also strengthen the Ministry of Health, training institutions' and other relevant public and private 2 sector players’ capacity to strengthen the production and absorption of a fit-for-purpose health workforce.

ABOUT YOU

You are a people person who understands the importance and power of building strong relationships to drive a common and ambitious goal. You are a problem solver, looking at each challenge as an opportunity to find innovation in the way of doing things. You are highly organised and have great attention to detail. You are committed to achieving stellar results and success and are not afraid to dig in get your hands “dirty”.

Stakeholder and partner engagement and management are skill sets that you pride yourself in. You thrive under pressure, can prioritise, are resilient and have a high level of EQ. You are a great communicator and a team player, who’s pragmatic and driven, and ultimately has a passion to deliver impact!

PRINCIPAL RESPONSIBILITIES
PHC Health Care Workers Employment

•  Provide technical expertise, operational support, and supervision throughout all stages of the programme’s processes to ensure optimal implementation in-country and coherence with the multi-country programme.
•  Participate in strategic discussions to inform programme implementation within the programme partnership, and with external stakeholders, to foster collaboration and innovation.
•  Collaborate with critical stakeholders in conducting cross-sectoral assessments to map out health sector and adjacent industries needs to ensure the relevance of the programme interventions.
•  Work with the National and County Governments, Regulatory Bodies and Training Institutions to co-develop, review, or adapt country-specific curricula responsive to training and health ecosystem needs across community, middle, and tertiary levels.
•  Collaborate with critical stakeholders and subject matter experts to develop training resources that include experiential learning and critical thinking modules to enhance essential soft skills in leadership among young leaders in primary healthcare settings.
•  Provide strategic guidance and continuous support supervision to tertiary, midlevel, and community institutions to sustainably train and absorb primary healthcare workers, and leaders with a focus on youth.
•  Facilitate the establishment of knowledge exchange platforms to improve practice in health worker training institutions of primary healthcare workers, promoting peer-to-peer learning exchanges and communities of practice.
•  Support young leaders with mentorships and scholarships to pursue specialized or advanced skills including soft skills in the health ecosystem.
•  Support the day to day management of activity budgets, including processing and accounting of field resources and other financial transactions in liaison with finance teams.
•  Support the development and review of necessary regulations per country and region towards cross-border labour movement and harmonization of curriculum and qualifications.

Health Entrepreneurship Support

•  Work with critical stakeholders in public and private sectors to conduct targeted mapping and vetting of entrepreneurship opportunities in the health and related sectors.
•  Conduct entrepreneurship skills and opportunities mapping among youth and provide training geared towards addressing health ecosystem needs.
•  Work with critical stakeholders to develop and deploy training programmes and networks that enhance the health workforce and affiliated entrepreneurs' skills in business development, social entrepreneurship, and supply chain considerations.
•  Develop, test, and scale sustainable innovative business models, such as Social Franchising, Social Marketing and other entrepreneurship models, management platforms and community groups.

Research and Advocacy

•  Support comprehensive in-country assessments to identify priority gaps in health worker training programmes, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities within the health ecosystem to inform strategic planning and resource allocation.
•  Support the development of evidence-based advocacy and policy and guidelines to enhance health worker training programmes, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities.
•  Provide technical support in developing and reviewing necessary policy guidelines and regulations in-country and the region to harmonize health training programme standards and access to regional training and employment opportunities.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

•  Provide technical support in monitoring and evaluation of the programme to track progress, ensure accountability, and determine impact.
•  Support national health worker data monitoring and audits as required by ensuring reporting in the iHRIS, National Health Workforce Accounts, CHW registry and programme-based tools.
•  Lead in documentation, institutionalization and dissemination of achievements, best practices and lessons learnt in implementing programme interventions.

Policy Engagement and Partnership and networking

•  Facilitate stakeholder policy engagement, including youth, to address identified gaps in the health sector.
•  Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with the health and related sectors, government counterparts, regulators and county stakeholders for programme visibility and relevance.
•  Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders during National and County technical meetings, conferences and workshops to support the co-design and institutionalization of programme interventions.
•  Represent the programme in relevant partner consultative meetings as delegated by the supervisor.

Programme development

•  Participate in concepts development and writing to promote programme growth.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education & Knowledge

•  The ideal candidate should have a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in the health sciences.
• Master’s degree is an added advantage.
•  Training, knowledge and experience in implementing curricula and capacity building of health workforce.

Experience

•  Should have at least 3 years relevant work experience in health workforce related project management, capacity building, curriculum development, and health entrepreneurship.
•  Strong understanding of health systems, training methodologies, and entrepreneurship principles.
•  Demonstrated ability to work effectively with government representatives, for-profit private sector entities, regulatory bodies, donors and other stakeholders.
•  Proficiency in data analysis, report writing, and presentation skills.
•  Experience in working with health care workers at health facilities, and community levels.
•  Experience in working with project funded by large donors.
•  Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as required

Skills and competencies

•  Excellent oral and written communication skills
•  Good coordination, problem solving and networking skills
•  Excellent stakeholder engagement skills
•  Excellent report writing skills
•  Ability to work independently and in isolation
•  Decision making and problem-solving skills
•  Ability to work under pressure, and within strict time limits
•  The ability to plan, organize and prioritize work