Job Description

Job title:  

Senior Technical Advisor, Primary Care Expansion

Work Location:

Freetown with 60% travel within Sierra Leone

Department:

Policy & Partnerships / Medical

Report to:

Chief Medical Officer& Senior Partnership Manager, Primary Care Expansion

Line Management

Yes

Organisation 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 in 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. 

Our Work In Sierra Leone:

Partners In Health (PIH) began supporting the government of Sierra Leone in response to the Ebola epidemic in October 2014. Recognizing the large need for continued investments in the health system after Ebola, PIH is committed to long-term health system strengthening in support of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS), guided by the same principles as our emergency response and our work around the world: public sector accompaniment, integrated and comprehensive services, social justice, nimbleness and flexibility, partnership, community ownership, and evidence-based interventions. In the aftermath of the epidemic, PIH is committed to supporting the delivery of comprehensive health services in Sierra Leone, from the community level to the health centre and to referral hospitals.

Position Overview

In the coming years, PIH-Sierra Leone is further strengthening our partnership with Ministry of Health and Sanitation, to scale our health systems strengthening model and ensure that service delivery by PIH, district health management teams and other partners has a strong technical grounding. The Senior Technical Advisor will be a critical part in realizing this vision, overseeing and managing all PIH technical advising and support activities in Freetown and across multiple districts in Sierra Leone. S/he develops technical materials that codify existing PIH systems and tools from our service delivery, helping to ensure that district health management teams—the district-level technical implementers of health plans—are equipped to manage various aspects of project implementation, including hiring critical staff, performing M&E activities, and delivering trainings. The Senior Technical Advisor supervises a team of 4-12 district-based advisors, providing ongoing supportive supervision to help government counterpartsin creating robust implementation plans against national policies. S/he will regularly convene PIH district staff and Ministry of Health and Sanitation counterparts regularly to review human resource needs, facility and QI updates, and overall project plans. The Senior Technical Advisor will be a key representative of Partners in Health-Sierra Leone with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and in technical fora, ensuring alignment and coordination of all PIH activities with national health policy and strategy. This role will report to the Senior Partnership Manager, Primary Care Expansion and the Chief Medical Officer. This is an exciting role to make a significant difference to health policy and health service delivery in Sierra Leone, for an individual that combines very strong interpersonal skills, with clinical and public health expertise, and experience in global health delivery.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Responsibilities

Technical writing

• Oversee the development of, and directly develop high-quality technical documents, e.g., SOPs and guidelines that codify existing PIH systems and processes for replication, such as in clinical algorithms, referral, triage, monitoring and evaluation, quality improvement, and management of clinical operations
• Serve as technical lead and oversee technical planning for a large multi-year donor-funded project to strengthen health systems in Sierra Leone, working closely with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the Project Director overseeing the effort

Representing PIH-SL with policymakers at national and district levels

• Represent PIH-SL in technical working groups and with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, working closely with the Chief Medical Officer and clinical teams to support advancement of health policy and strategy in Sierra Leone and ensure inputs according to PIH mission and vision
• Work with PIH staff and District Health Management Teams on the implementation of clinical systems based on standard tools and processes, to accompany ongoing service delivery efforts
• Lead and facilitate technical trainings and workshops

Increase capacity of District Health Management Teams (DHMT)

• Support DHMTs through assessing DHMT capacity against project goals, and supporting professional development, HR development and policy and service delivery planning
• Assess in particular the clinical / programmatic capacity and the administrative capacity including financial, human resources, M+E, and procurement
• Clarify responsibilities for district health plan outcomes; ensure that each major project component has an “owner” within the DHMT
• Deliver management training on topics such as goal setting, supportive supervision, project planning and management, data for decision-making, and standardized tools

Promote effective clinical staffing (during year 1 in particular)

• Review HR needs assessment against project goals; identify and recommend key clinical and supervisory roles against original plan
• With support from MoHS and PIH, promote best practices in hiring, and support DHMT to make appropriate and timely hires

Team building and collaboration

• Create and manage technical communication channels across DHMT staff, PIH advisors, and MoHS facility lead counterparts
• Support district teams in creating full district project fora that regularly (semesterly) bring together all key DHMT, MoHS, and facility staff in order to develop a project identity and to address shared challenges beyond any one facility or program area
• Promote and model tenets of PIH philosophy such as ‘the patients are our bosses’

Project design and management

• Oversee and support needs assessment process across disciplines
• Co-create with DHMTs tailored district-level health plans with specific actions for the DHMT and for facilities, following the same general phasing and categories of activities (M&E, supply chain, etc.) as in other PIH districts
• Work closely with DHMT counterparts to prepare for district level in-charges meeting
• Oversee PIH components of project reporting; Track progress and raise implementation delays and concerns with PIH project leads and MoHS project leads

Supportive supervision to reports

• Provide supportive supervision to at least four direct reports that will directly serve and accompany DHMTs on a day-to-day basis to roll out tools and processes developed by PIH as part of a larger service delivery program
• Solicit feedback from direct reports on project implementation to inform DHMT technical and operational planning as well as overall planning

Clinical learning and quality improvement (ongoing)

• Lead facility and district level trainings on quality improvement (QI) practices
• Co-facilitate facility level review meetings with DHMT staff
• Oversee rotation of PIH expert clinical and operations leads to accompaniment districts including objectives, timing of visits
• Oversee rotation of DHMT and MoHS staff (especially Clinical lead and Clinical mentors) to Kono learning district and Kailahun to work with their thematic cohort
• Promote effective collaboration between PIH expert leads and any ongoing DHMT counterpart role

Education and Work Experience Requirements:

Required

• Master’s degree in medicine or public health, or other relevant and highly technical advanced degree
• Strong track record in global health delivery, with experience of both service deliveries in low- and middle-income country settings and experience in health policy/working with Ministries of Health
• Track record of successfully delivering complex, fast-paced projects with multiple stakeholders and deliverables, to tight timelines
• Strong management skills, including track record of supervising multiple direct reports  
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite, including Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel
• Strong interpersonal skills, and ability to work effectively with a range of stakeholders
• Strong technical writer, able to produce high-quality technical deliverables, including SOPs, guidelines
• Willingness to spend multiple weeks a month in field locations in rural Sierra Leone
• Ability to work with humility and achieve results, including in settings with resource limitations, through entrepreneurial mindset, planning and persistence
• Passion for PIH’s mission and commitment to social justice and developing a preferential option for the poor in healthcare

Desirable

• Experience with donor-funded projects in public health or international development
• Experience working alongside MOHS and DHMTs in Sierra Leone or similar Africa/low-income country setting
• Previous experience in Sierra Leone
• Previous experience in maternal/child health and/or primary care

Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

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.  By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures