MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND SANITATION
INTEGRATED HEALTH PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION UNIT
Background
The Republic of Sierra Leone has received financing from IDA and Global Financing Facility (GFF) toward the cost of the Quality Essential Health Services and Systems Support Project (QEHSSSP). The Project is being implemented by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS). In a bid to continue the implementation of the Project activities and components (Health Systems Strengthening,Project Management and Monitoring and Evaluation etc), MOHS intend to hire the services of two Project staff: (1) Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist and (1) Senior Economist.
Position: Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist (1)
Location: Freetown with frequent visit to the provinces
Reports to: Director – Directorate of Policy, Planning, and Information (DPPI), Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS)
Job Purpose
This position focuses mainly on monitoring and evaluation (M&E), policies, strategies, directorates, programmes and projects performances. The M&E Specialist will be responsible for providing technical support to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) and supervise health M&E officers nationwide. S/he must participate in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of all policies and strategies for the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. S/he will ensure high standard deliverables of M&E in the health sector, including timely qualitative and quantitative reporting. For instance, the position will adequately liaise with IHPAU’s M&E Specialist to provide inputs and review data submitted for World Bank-financed projects, including project development objective (PDO) level indicators and intermediate results indicators such as those whose data will come from the Health Management Information System (HMIS).
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Design and Implement M&E System:
- Develop and implement M&E policy guidelines, strategies, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and tools.
- Recommend options to improve the design, implementation and monitoring of MoHS activities.
- Design data use tools for monitoring and performance tracking.
- Collaborate with IHPAU M&E and project officers to produce timely RF updates of World Bank-financed projects.
- Capacity Development on M&E
- Provide technical support to district M&E staff to ensure compliance with M&E strategies, policy guidelines, plans and logical frameworks.
- Train district M&E staff on concepts, skills, and the use of tools.
- Work closely with district M&E teams and enhance their capacity for proper data collection, reporting and data use.
- Quality Assurance and Analysis
- Lead data quality assessments (DQA) of HMIS and other relevant systems.
- Analyze key national indicators and generate results in easy-to-understand visual formats
- Review field level assessment reports, baseline studies and evaluation reports of MoHS programs.
- Reporting and Documentation
- Prepare the M&E unit’s periodic progress report and submit to supervisor.
- Assist MoHS project team to prepare periodic reports of projects through the provision of M&E related information.
- Collect and/or assist to collect and document case stories, good/best practices documentation, lessons learned; and update and manage that information for public consumption.
- Support the production and dissemination of M&E documents, analytical products (e.g., Health Bulletin, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) Scorecards, surveys, mid-term and end-term assessments/evaluation of policies, strategies and projects documents, and ensure uploading on the MoHS website etc.
- General responsibility
- Work closely with the MoHS project team members and relevant stakeholders to monitor and evaluate project interventions.
- Assist in organizing and facilitate various events such as meetings, workshops, conferences, Annual Health and Award Summits, and seminars for MoHS.
- Attend and contribute to DPPI staff meetings and technical working group (TWG) meetings as assigned by the Director DPPI.
- Carry out other duties and responsibilities related to M&E as assigned by supervisor.
Educational Qualification and Experience
Qualifications
- Master’s degree in Economics, Health Informatics, Public Health, Statistics, Epidemiology, Development, Demography or Project Management.
- MD or PhD in the above areas, or postgraduate qualifications in more than one area noted above, are an added advantage
- Diploma/certificate in M&E, project management or software skills is an added advantage
Experience
- Minimum 7 years post qualification of relevant M&E related experience
- Minimum 3 years supporting research or M&E activities country-wide in the field of health including analysis of existing data and design of data collection activities
- Proven experience with quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, data collection, processing, and analysis.
- Experience in implementation and use of DHIS2 and mobile technology solutions for data management
- Working with and maintaining good relations with international, as well as counterparts and beneficiaries (e.g., International and Local NGOs and government representatives).
- Solid experience in the management of people (delegate, supervise, and mentor) and systems in high-pressure environments.
Competences and Skills
- Fluent in English and any other regional languages
- Strong ICT skills: excellent skills in using MS Office especially Excel, Access, and PowerPoint; and other statistical software: STATA, SPSS, CsPro, etc. preferred.
- Strong analytic, writing (policy), presentation, and communication skills.
- Knowledge in research management and leadership.
- High sense of creativity.
- Good understanding of routine health information systems, and literacy in management information systems.
Key deliverables
- Monthly Staff progress report with clear deliverablesrecruitment@mohsihpau.gov.sl for the period.
- Comprehensive quarterly reports of deliverables and indicators achieved.
- Develop DPPI annual report in collaboration with other staff in the directorate.
- Publication of quality DPPI annual report.
Position: Senior Economist
Location: Freetown, with frequent travels to the provinces
Reports to: Director – Directorate of Policy, Planning, and Information (DPPI), Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS)
Job Purpose
The Senior Economist is a critical part of the DPPI team for health economic policy analysis and reporting. S/he will focus on: (i) mobilizing resources for the health sector (e.g., support formulation of national health sector budget), (ii) addressing resource efficiency/coordination issues via HF analytics, which might include cost-efficiency analyses, (iii) advising health policy formulation, especially via costing and forecasting analyses, (iv) capacity building of staff at the MoHS. HF analyses might be delivered via briefs and reports that will be shared also with colleagues and policy makers with different backgrounds (i.e., non-economists). In focusing on these priorities, s/he will closely collaborate with both internal and external organizations of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) to ensure consistency between health financing and other policies.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Resource mobilization
- Prepare health financing technical reports (e.g., quarterly budget execution reports) that can help inform the health sector budget formulation process, in collaboration with DAF and MoF
- Liaise with other Directorates within MoHS and with the Ministry of Finance to ensure that health sector budget submissions to MoF, or program submissions to Donors, are sound, evidence based and coordinated.
Efficiency
- Provide guidance on cost-effectiveness of services included in the EHSP
- Economic evaluation (CBA, CEA) of health interventions.
- Support activities that enhance efficiency via better coordinated financial planning in the health sector (e.g., resource tracking)
Health policy advisory
- Participate in and inform technical discussions on health financing reforms such as the Sierra Leone Social Health Insurance (SLeSHI), the Free health care policy, and the National Health Financing Strategy.
- Participate in costing exercises of health policies and interventions, and measure gaps between expected resources available and costs
- Design and analyze health policies and develop economic analysis briefs, to be included in those policies
- Review progress and support the implementation of the National Healthcare Financing Strategy.
Capacity building and coordination
- Build capacity of the MoHS Health Financing Unit, monitoring their progress on a quarterly basis
- Organize training sessions on costing and budgeting for program managers prior to budget formulation
- Coordinate with and assist the Health Economics advisor in the Delivery Team of the Honorable Minister of Health.
Educational Qualification and Experience
Qualification
- Master’s degree in one of the following disciplines: Health Economics, Health Financing, Economics with a focus on health, or public health with a focus on health economics
- PhD in the above areas, or postgraduate qualifications in more than one area noted above, are an added advantage
Experience
Minimum of 7 years’ experience working as economist, researcher, quantitative analyst, or financing specialist in social sectors (health, labour, education, social protection), of which 5 must be as economist in the public health sector, or health financing specialist
Desirable, Competencies and Skills
- Knowledge in Performance Based financing (PBF) or Result Based Financing an advantage.
- Knowledge of health policies and operating procedures, including knowledge in Budgeting and Financial Management in the public sector.
- Demonstrated analytical skills, with ability of completing the following analyses (usually, in Excel), and disseminating them also to non-technical audiences:
- quantitative modelling/forecasting (e.g., long term forecasting of health sector resources, costs, and gaps)
- costing of health sector interventions/policies
- budget analysis (e.g., ability to extract and analyse information from public/donor budgets)
- Knowledge of statistical packages such as R or Stata, is an advantage.
- Knowledge of cost-effectiveness analyses and cost-benefit analyses
- Excellent writing and verbal communication skills.
- Excellent interpersonal and problem-solving skills with proven ability to organise workload and work under pressure to meet tight deadlines.
- Demonstrated ability to work on own initiative and to influence others positively.
Professional Development
- Develop and maintain continuing personal and professional development to meet the changing demands in the health sector.
- Monitor own performance against agreed objectives and standards and keep log of own performance for purposes of appraisal.
- Keep up to date on job related issues as appropriate.
- Be willing to work for the Government of Sierra Leone (MoHS) at the end of the contract.
Deliverables
The post holder will deliver the following:
- Monthly Staff progress report with clear deliverables for the period.
- Quarterly update on universal health care (UHC) implementation
- Consolidated half-yearly report on domestic and donor mapping of health resources.
- Quarterly healthcare financing analysis report.
- Consolidated Annual National Health policy briefs.
- Annual bulletin as contribution to DDPI annual report.
To apply, please send your application (a mandatory cover letter and an updated CV with at least 3 references) to the following email address: recruitment@mohsihpau.gov.sl by: 4:00 pm Local Time, Friday, 30th June 2023.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Only email applications sent to the above email address will be included in the pool of applicants to be assessed by MOHS. No hand deliveries will be accepted. Please also note that your CV should contain your full contact details such as residence address, working mobile telephone number, working email address, as well as those of your three referees.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interview and selected candidates will be required to sign a contractual agreement with the Government of Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
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