Position Overview

Family Health and Nutrition Project (FHN) is a five-year, USAID-funded project that will contribute to reduction of maternal mortality and under five mortality through collaboration with Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ), Ministry of Health (MOH), communities and other local partners to improve health system performance and to deliver high-quality, accessible reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH&N) care.  Working in four provinces, Eastern, Luapula, Muchinga, and Southern, FHN will work with MOH provincial and district counterparts to deliver high-quality services, strengthen health systems, and increase community engagement.

FHN’s District Capacity Strengthening Officers (DCSO) will be guided by FHN technical leads across all objectives, the DSCO will work closely with district health office (DHO) colleagues to deliver FHN technical assistance (TA) in line with the project strategies contributing to medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) and RMNCAH&N Continuum of Care (CoC) annual planning, support during implementation of MTEF activities, monitoring results and recommending adjustments in plans as needed.

Responsibilities

• Foster and establish productive working relationship with DHO staff.
• Support DHO prepare for annual planning by reviewing facility and district performance in order to prioritize interventions.
• Coordinate delivery of specialized TA from FHN technical experts at district and site level.
• Guide DHO to institutionalize strategic interventions including routine on-site mentorship, Facility maternal and neonatal death reviews, service quality assessments, performance assessments, and district integrated meetings.
• Coordinate closely with the DHOs and other implementing partners in the district to ensure appropriate and effective linkages between community based and facility based interventions.
• Support implementation of sustainable service integration across the continuum of care from ANC to the postnatal care period.
• Support DHOs to create an environment where women have a positive experience of care (respective maternity care).
• Conduct site and community visits to monitor MTEF and RMNCAH&N CoC program implementation and provide TA.
• Support DHOs build a robust supervision system that transforms technical supportive supervision to problem solving motivational visits.
• Use standardized project management tools and techniques to define scope, budget activities, and schedule work and introduce project monitoring tools to monitor scope, schedule, and cost of MOH during the year in developing MTEF and RMNCAH&N CoC plans.
• Identify and document program successes, best practices, challenges and lessons learnt
• Support MOH to manage changes during implementation of RMNCAH&N CoC grants in line with grant requirements.
• Submit routine reports for assigned districts in line with FHN reporting requirements including MTEF planning report.
• Coordinate with Provincial TA Lead for FHN direct implementation of activities in assigned districts.

Qualifications

• Degree in public health or related field with 6 to 7  year’s experience
• Strong experience in public health, health administration, public administration, business administration or related field.
• Strong communication and team building skills
• Effective teaching and coaching skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead efficient management processes and systems across a province-wide, decentralized program.
• Proven leadership, strategic thinking, organizational, team-building, and representational skills.
• Strong knowledge of the Zambian health system.
• Previous experience working in Luapula, Muchinga, Southern, or Eastern Provinces.