Health Programme Manager

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies (NSs). The overall aim of IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by NSs with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.” IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises. IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality. IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services. IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. IFRC also has country cluster delegations and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.

Details / requirements:

Organizational context (where the job is located in the Organization)

The Health Programme Manager (HPM) will work in the Nepal Consortium office based in Kathmandu. The Consortium members (American Red Cross, British Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross and Danish Red Cross) have had a longstanding partnership with the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) having worked closely with them for several years, working alongside in the April 2015 earthquake response and recovery, as well as in the delivery of disaster risk reduction, health and community preparedness programmes. This role is based in Kathmandu with regular field visits to programme areas and will support 2 staff (Project Coordinator and a Senior Health Programme Officer), as well as collaborating with other PMs and PMEAL, finance and admin/logistics teams in the Consortium.

The HPM will report to the Head of Programmes with oversight by the Country Consortium Manager. The HPM has a technical line to CRC Global Health Unit.

Job purpose

The overall purpose of the position is to support the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) in strengthening NRCS HQ and District Chapters capacities and to support the NRCS to develop and implement any assigned health programme (currently, Emergency Health Preparedness and Response, the Rural Emergency and Trauma Systems Strengthening (RETSS) project, and Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child Adolescent  Health (RMNCAH) project and Comprehensive Community Based Health Programme).The HPM will be responsible to support NRCS with the development of project concepts, documents, management and budget control, including monitoring and evaluation, timely reporting, and review in line with programme objectives, indicators, work plans and organizational strategies. The HPM will be responsible to support initiatives to increase the NRCS capacity to prepare for and respond to health in emergencies, provide health services and coordinate with the Government of Nepal and other key stakeholders at the national, provincial and local level. The HPM will work closely with NRCS to promote and enhance strategic and operational integration to enhance efficiency and quality of programming in accordance with the NRCS Health Strategy 2016-20, Health Operational Plan 2018-20. TheHPM will liaisewith the Canadian RC International Operations team in Ottawa and coordinate with the Global Health Unit (GHU) to optimize the technical capacity as and when needed and agreed with the Head of Programmes or Country Consortium Manager. In addition, the HPM will coordinate withthe Red Cross Red Crescent Movement.  This includes work with NRCS, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and other PNSs.

Job duties and responsibilities

Programme Management

  • Provide oversight and guidance for the assigned health projects to ensure the technical quality of the activities as well as projects’ progress as per programme documents, logframe, budget, action plans, donor requirements and risk management analysis including: 
  • Provide technical support to NRCS programme team in planning, revisions and implementation of project action plans and activities.
  • Conduct situational health analysis that highlighting the evolving health needs, gaps, and priorities in context of Nepal and recommend interventions accordingly. 
  • Conduct a regular briefing updates on common communicable diseases outbreaks in the country including potential risks, mapping, and proposed preparedness and response plans.
  • Support NRCS in development and implementation of health project quality assurance system, ensure technical quality of programme activities and monitor the impact of activities and feed this back into the project design and implementation.
  • Provide technical support to NRCS to adopt/develop a contingency plan to sustain essential health and medical services during major outbreaks and pandemic situations assuring safety of all NRCS staff and volunteers.
  • With the assistance from the Senior CEA/GESI/PGI Officer, support NRCS to ensure consistent application of Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA), Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI), PGI (Protection, Gender and Inclusion) and Child Protection policies.
  • Support NRCS to ensure lead agency and donor requirements in all aspects of the projects.
  • Responsible for completion of the projects under her/his responsibility, including developing of ToRs for programme review/evaluation missions and coordinating those missions jointly with the PMEAL team, organizing value-added trainings, monitoring budgets, preparation of reports and project management notes.
  • Develop and plan for the technical review of each of the RETSS, RMNCAH and CCBH project components yearly including but not limited to: clinical curriculums, district-wide ambulance service provision, supply of essential medical equipment and consumables to health facilities and scaled-up health information systems
  • Proactively seek funding identifying and engaging potential donors, identify and formulate jointly with NRCS project proposals to donors, including preparation of project applications, budgets and facilitation and/or undertaking of needs assessments.
  • Actively contribute to the risk management plan and mitigations that identifies the major financial and operational risks and develop and implement mitigation strategies.
  • Provide support to project staff in ensuring that integration of cross-cutting themes is considered in interventions at all levels, especially in project design, budgets, work plans, and trainings.
  • Support NRCS in reviewing, customizing health training curriculums for the Nepali context in line with the MoHP guidance for use by the NRCS Health Services Department across programmes
  • Prepare project agreements, Grant Agreements for compliance and review NRCS reports and provide feedback.
  • Support NRCS mapping partners and devise package of services for implementation of RETSS and RMNCAH projects.
  • Monitor programmes’ progress and quality including field visits to programme sites with NRCS counterparts and provide structured feedback in a way that can improve programmes’ progress, sustainability and impact.
  • With the assistance of the PMEAL team, ensure development of timely quality narrative progress reports and monitoring reports as per lead agency and donor requirements.
  • Support the data analysis generated from the projects and advise on changes of programme design, monitoring tools and data management solutions
  • Ensure mapping of health technical needs to deliver the assigned health projects and coordinate with technical advisors for support as agreed with Head of Programmes and/or Country Consortium Manager.
  • Ensure coordination between the programme components and build synergy with other consortium funded projects in Nepal through sharing of experiences, tools, methodologies, approaches and lessons learned.
  • Ensure quality and integrity of implementation, including adherence to relevant professional standards, technical guidelines, administrative systems, etc. 
  • With the assistance of the PMEAL team, plan and coordinate for final evaluations, end-line assessments, and final reports for the assigned health projects with all relevant stakeholders.
  • In coordination with Red Cross Red Crescent Movement partners (NRCS, Partner National Societies, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, International Committee of the Red Cross) provide technical assistance and advice to NRCS on health technical matters, and pro-actively build excellent team working relationships.
  • Provide technical advisory for field manuals and guidelines, clinical protocols ensuring compliance to global minimum standards; determining equipment and training package needs for the RETSS and RMNCAH projects

Human Resource Management and Development

  • Develop HR plan that assures securing recruitment of sufficient and qualified professionals to fulfil requirements of health project’s activities implementation on the ground. 
  • Assure that recruitment process, at all stages, respect and adhere to most transparent, equitable, and inclusive standards.     
  • Manage, motivate, develop and oversee the performance of staff in line with the organization’s systems, rules and regulations for HR management including staff evaluation, training and career planning. Direct management of staff and monitoring the conduct of staff in relation to the rules and policies of IFRC and NRCS and take actions when needed so that objectives are met (either continuously or on time when relevant).
  • Ensure all staff members receive orientation and appropriate training in accordance with organizational standards.
  • Responsible for ensuring delegation of tasks and secure priority of tasks and time for the individual staff.
  • Perform annual staff appraisals with the staff and develop an HR development plan to be presented to the Head of Programmes and Country Consortium Manager.

Financial Management

  • Act as budget holder for the assigned health projects and manage overall financial aspects of projects that might include:
    • Work with NRCS HQ and Consortium finance team to develop overall, annual and quarterly project budgets.
    • Work with Consortium finance team to support NRCS to ensure proper financial management systems for programmes, support NRCS in participatory budget revision and reconciliation of activities and expenditures. 
    • Monitor programme resource allocation and utilization at all levels (NRCS HQ, Chapter, municipality, community and Consortium) 
    • Provide guidance to draft tentative budgets for new proposals and initiatives to support NRCS health services department 
  • Coordinate and ensure timely and accurate preparation and submission of accurate funds transfer requests and projects’ monthly, quarterly, annual and final financial reports that meet lead agency and donors’ requirements.
  • Support NRCS in timely procurement and contracting process of the projects in accordance with approved budgets, procurement guidelines and provisions as outlined by donors.
  • Coordinate and contribute to the preparation of projects financial audits.

Partnership and Capacity Building

  • Ensure collaborative working relationships with NRCS and strategically collaborate with key stakeholders.
  • Assist NRCS to capture learning from the projects to adjust/harmonize its various related components, processes and structures at HQ and District Chapters’ level.
  • Contribute and assist NRCS in strengthening its strategic approaches and technical capacities in programme management, integrated approaches, and other technical areas as agreed with NRCS and Head of Programmes.
  • Liaise with the CRC team in Ottawa, NRCS Health Department, the MoHP and other identified partners to support the planning, design and implementation of health trainings as agreed with Head of Programmes or Country Consortium Manager.
  • Support NRCS in establishment and management of technical partnerships with academic institutions inside Nepal and outside as well. 
  • Assess the capacity of stakeholders and identify training opportunities for health program staff, volunteers and other stakeholders, in line with the policies of NRCS.
  • Provide technical support to NRCS counterpart in development of the necessary health related technical training contents and materials for the formal and informal training of staff and volunteers of NRCS HQ, DC and communities. Support NRCS in reviewing the training curriculum, methodologies, facilitation as required specific to the Rural Emergency and Systems Strengthening (RETSS), Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child Health projects, and comprehensive community-based health 
  • Support NRCS in developing tailored health strategy and operational plan to assure delivery of priority health package of services that align with NRCS overall strategy and capacity and local health authorities’ goals and priorities.  Actively build the health technical capacity of NRCS staff and volunteers.
  • Support NRCS in the development of warehouse management capacity for a Health ERU including system of storage, inventory, pharmaceutical ordering and replenishment and customization for medical equipment
  • Manage donor/partners relations in close cooperation with the Head of Programmes and Country Consortium Manager. 
  • Support NRCS in effective coordination and liaison with key stakeholders including authorities, local and international organisations, donors and UN-agencies as relevant.
  • Contribute to the NRCS/Consortium Partnership Review Talks.

Compliance

  • Direct responsibility for ensuring that the Programme operates within the policies and procedures of the organization and comply with all relevant legislative rules.
  • Observe all appropriate IFRC HR and security policies and guidelines, particularly with regards to security/safety and health/insurance.
  • Ensure compliance in financial reports and supporting documentation for donors are prepared as outlined in funding agreements.

Representation 

  • Represent the Consortium, on behalf of the Head of Programmes or Country Consortium Manager as requested, with Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, international agencies, government and non-government organisations to ensure transparent, timely and effective cooperation with relevant development partners.
  • Participate in meetings, seminars, workshops and other relevant events as requested by the Head of Programmes or Country Consortium Manager.

Duties applicable to all staff

Other Tasks

1Provide support to NRCS in the event of any disaster and subsequent response operations.
2

Support the IFRC Country office in technical advisory on the health sector for the development and revision and implementation of DREFs and Emergency Appeals 

3

Support NRCS with the deployment of the RCEC and other health in emergencies mobilization in the event of an outbreak/disaster

4Any other tasks specific to this position to be identified and agreed upon by the job holder and line-manager

Position Requirements

Education

Required

Preferred

Master’s degree in public health, health development/management or other relevant fields

X

Project Management Professional (PMP) designation


X

Experience

Required

Preferred

Experience of working for the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement


X

Minimum of 7 years of field experience in health programme management in an international humanitarian organisation (including project design, planning, management of projects, monitoring, reporting budgets, HR) in recovery and/or humanitarian aid.

X

Demonstrated technical understanding of and a minimum of 3 years relevant working experience in humanitarian relief, emergency response setting,  public health.

X

Demonstrated extensive project management skills and experience in the full Project cycle including project design, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.

X

Solid ability to provide team-building and high level of skill in developing, implementing and training others in the tools needed for health programme management .

X

Demonstrated ability to form, mentor, manage and lead a team of technical staff and volunteers to achieve common objectives.

X

Proven experience in development and maintenance of partnerships.

X

Solid experience in financial oversight of multi-million ($US) programmes.



Knowledge and Skills

Required

Preferred

Strong leadership, team player with good interpersonal, communication and presentation skills.

X

Able to communicate and negotiate clearly, effectively and appropriately with internal and external stakeholders

X

Able to prioritize, meet deadlines, and achieve results through collaboration

X

Demonstrated ability to adapt and work effectively in dynamic and demanding operational environment and sometimes under pressure

X

Knowledge on Core Humanitarian Standards


X

Demonstrate an awareness and commitment to GESI, CEA, PSI, Child Protection and other key policies 


X

Excellent analytical skills

X

Ability to facilitate participatory approaches and methodologies with cross-cultural and diverse teams


X

Knowledge of national and sector-specific policies and plans relevant to the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement and within Nepal


X

Experience in conflict resolution

X

Computer skills (Windows, Excel, Word-processing)

X

Ability to work independently and with minimum guidance

X

Languages

Required

Preferred

Fluently spoken and written Nepalese and English
X

Overview

Category Public Health
Openings 1
Position Type Full Time
Position Level Senior Level
Experience 7+ years
Education M.P.H. (Masters in Public Health)
Posted Date 30 Aug, 2020
Apply Before 14 Sep, 2020
City Kathmandu