Team Leader Community Engagement

Job description

The Team Leader for Community Engagement will lead the design and day-to-day management of technical assistance efforts to improve capacity of the Government of Zambia in community engagement to increase access to quality services at facility levels for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition. The upcoming U.S. government-funded integrated health system technical assistance project aims to improve the capacity of the public health system to sustainably deliver services across four provinces of Zambia. The project will operate over a five-year period.

This position is contingent upon award from USAID. Zambians are strongly encouraged to apply.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical oversight and strategic direction for the project’s technical assistance efforts to strengthen the health system’s (provincial, district, health facility levels) ability to effectively engage communities
• Oversee the work of district-based staff to assist local counterparts to establish and strengthen community structures, including engaging with traditional and faith based community leaders and institutions
• Establish and implement a system to ensure technical quality and fidelity across target provinces and districts
• Contribute to planning and oversight of efforts to build capacity building of individuals and organizations ln SBC and community engagement for improved reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition services
• Inform work planning, budgeting and costing to effectively integrate and account for SBC and community engagement activities with supported institutions
• Strengthen community monitoring of health facilities and their ability to identify and respond to community health needs e.g. through dashboards, community health committees.
• Collaborate closely with other Team Leaders to ensure harmonization of project approaches
• Provide technical leadership to the development of the project strategic plan, work plan, and project monitoring, in close collaboration with MOH, USAID and other stakeholders
• Lead the formulation of innovative approaches for scale-up of successful community engagement approaches
• Actively participate in relevant technical advisory/working groups and fora
• Work closely with the Chief of Party on setting project priorities and directions, and responding to requests for support from local counterparts
• Work with M&E staff to design and implement a plan to track data/results to inform adjustments in project implementation
• Collaborate with all local stakeholders and implementing partners, particularly those involved in community engagement, to ensure that all approaches align with national priorities, policies, and strategies
• Document successes, lessons learned and challenges of implementation
• Author/co-author abstracts, presentations, and articles for journals and conferences
• Supervise provincial/district-level technical staff
• Manage technical contributions of sub-grantees, including defining scopes of work
• Maintain excellent relationships with USAID and in-country stakeholders and develop rapid responses

Required Qualifications

• A Master’s in public health, behavioral or social sciences, or other relevant degree
• At least 7 years’ experience implementing and/or providing community engagement technical assistance
• Skilled in building capacity of individuals and organizations, especially community-based or community interfacing organizations
• Experience building capacity and mentoring counterparts at various levels of the health system, from the sub-national down to community and facility levels
• Experience engaging and effectively working with traditional and faith based community leaders
• In-depth understanding of Zambian public healthcare system
• Proven track record managing a project team composed of several technical experts and fostering team work
• Familiarity with USAID’s administrative, management and reporting procedures and systems
• Excellent diplomacy skills and a proven ability to establish and maintain interpersonal and professional relationships with USAID, host-country counterparts and representatives from other key stakeholders such as NGOs, CSOs, and the private sector
• Expertise in research to practice—identifying and adapting best practices
• Excellent verbal, written interpersonal and presentation skills in English
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office
• Ability to travel nationally and internationally 30%

Zambian Nationals are encouraged to apply.