Programme Officer – Kenya Country Office

Health (RMNH) Programme Officer – Kenya Country Office

Team / Programme: Programmes

Location: Full time in Wajir County 

Grade: TBC

Post Type: National 

Child Safeguarding: Level 3 - the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people

Role Purpose: The Health (RMNH) Programme Officer will be expected to take responsibility for the day to day implementation of two projects: a Maternal and New-born Health (MNH) project  and a Family planning (DIFPARK) project activities in the county by working closely with (sub)county health management teams, public and private health facility staff and community health units (CHVs, CHEWs, CHCs). 

S/He will work in collaboration with existing county department of Health (especially the Reproductive Health and community health strategy focal persons) and the S/CHMTs as well as in close collaboration with the other consortium members to leverage on their expertise and ensure that the county of Wajir benefits from all result areas of the projects.

DIFPARK is an innovative project that seeks to increase uptake and utilization of FP services and methods by Kenya’s rural women, adolescents and girls with a goal of increasing contraceptive prevalence rates, reducing unmet need for family planning and enhancing child spacing by primarily stimulating private FP market growth to reach new FP users hence reducing maternal (and child) mortality. 

GSK Malaria MNH project is yet another innovative initiative that seeks to contribute to a reduction in maternal and newborn mortality by increasing utilization of quality Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) services among communities in northern Kenya, and bolstering the government’s commitment to MNH.

Scope of Role: 

Reports to: Public Health Specialist technically and operationally. Works closely with Area Field office operations and support teams to ensure effective integration and smooth work processes.

Dimensions: Save the Children has been operational in Kenya since the 1950s, providing support to children through developmental and humanitarian relief programmes delivered both directly and through local partners. 

Current programming focuses on child protection, child rights governance, education, health, HIV/AIDS, livelihoods, nutrition and WASH. 

Save the Children has an operational presence in Dadaab Refugee Camp, Garissa, Mandera, Meru and Wajir – with plans to expand into Bungoma and Turkana in 2014. 

We work through partners in many other parts of the country. Currently, we have a staff complement of approximately 240 staff and an operating budget of approximately US$21 million this year.

Staff directly reporting to this post:  none

Key Areas of Accountability:

• Contribute to the planning, implementation and monitoring of all aspects of the GSK health and DIFPARK programmes to meet programme objectives
• Ensure good working relationships maintained with the government authorities (including the County Health Management Team and the various SCHMTs), Religious leaders and community health structures.
• Monitors and ensures that the technical protocols, manuals, guidelines and forms used in the field are in line with validated national MNCH and RH/FP technical tools and guidelines.
• Participates and represents SC in various health coordination forums and at working meetings with partners at field level when necessary.
• Supports in the development of program donor and activity reports with respect to technical formats and deadlines.
• Documents lessons learnt and evidence to support development of other MNCH/FP projects
• Responsible for the day to day implementation of the community and health facility component of the programme
• Provide regular field visits to the supported facilities, communities,   community health volunteers and outreach sites and provides formal visit feedback via Field Visit Reports.
• Organizes regular supportive supervision visits with the sub-county health management  team to Tier 1 sites
• Provides direct facilitative supervision to FP service providers and peer to peer groups including mother/women support groups, religious leaders, teachers and youth groups
• Responsible for all community level reporting (distribution of reporting tools to CHVs and facilities, regular collection of reports from communities/CHVs
• Responsible for ensuring effective and continuously updated data bases for health facilities data, and where possible collation of all community health activities and IEC/BCC/Health Education data from supported communities and partners, plus appropriate data management and analysis.
• Provides technical support  to the health staffs from supported facilities
• Leads public consultation exercises and facilitate community participation, using a variety of techniques to ensure the involvement of the community and organizes regular meetings with community leaders for feedback
• Communicates with operations and support departments (supply requests, stocks, pharmacy, etc. and budget and expense follow ups) and helps solves problems as they arise.
• Resolve conflicts of interest, build consensus and keep communities informed of project progress
• Works closely with the MEAL team to document and disseminate innovative best practices
• To undertake other duties as required by the line manager

Skills and Behaviours (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Accountable to the Public Health Specialist and to self for managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Free to deliver in the best way they see fit, requesting the necessary development to improve performance and achieving results

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves, and drives self for their own personal development
• Future orientated, thinks strategically

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, members and external partners and stakeholders
• Values diversity, respects local customs consistent with Save the Children vision, mission and values and exploits competitive strength

Creativity:

• Seeks new and innovative solutions to work/organizational challenges

Integrity:

• Transparent, open minded and Honest

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in public health or nursing
• Minimum two (2) years’ experience in community maternal and newborn health programming including RH/FP
• Experience working with Community Health Units in community health strategy and in particular implementation of performance-based incentives for CHVs
• Experience working with religious leaders on issues of RH/FP
• Excellent spoken and written English and Swahili
• Strong organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills
• Experience of living and traveling in remote and insecure places. Familiarity with the counties in North Eastern region, particularly Wajir, will be an added advantage.
• Understanding of rights based approaches and participatory concepts and practical experience in similar context. 
• Sensitive to issues affecting children and committed to Save the Children’s Child Safe Guarding policy.
• Strong documentation and report writing skills
• Understanding of operations/ action research desirable
• Experience of and commitment to working through systems of community participation and accountability
• Culturally sensitive with qualities of mentorship and patience
• Commitment to Save the Children Values

How to Apply

The application process is now open and will close on 16th December 2013 at 5.00 p.m. 

To apply for this position, please send a short cover letter and CV to Kenya.jobapplications@savethechildren.org  indicating the position title on the subject line.