Senior Advisor, Capacity Strengthening and Partnerships – Integrated Health Services Delivery Accelerator (IHSDA) – (3034)

PROJECT SUMMARY  

The successful candidate will be the International Medical Corps’ Senior Advisor, Capacity Strengthening and Partnerships supporting the USAID – Integrated Health Services Delivery Accelerator (IHSDA) Activity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which aims to improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations across four provinces: South Kivu, Lomami, Tanganyika, and Kasai Central. This activity focuses on strengthening maternal and child health, reproductive health, family planning, nutrition, and malaria prevention. A key component of this initiative is enhancing the capacity of local partners, including government institutions, civil society organizations (CSOs), and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to sustain health system improvements and build resilient, community-based health structures.

The IHSDA promotes a paradigm shift from donor-driven interventions to greater provincial ownership and leadership, supporting the DRC’s goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage.

The Senior Advisor, Capacity Strengthening and Partnerships will emphasize strengthening local capacity, fostering partnerships, and ensure that capacity-building initiatives are tailored to meet the needs of local stakeholders and align with global best practices.

The position is contingent upon successful bidding and donor agreement

JOB SUMMARY  

The Capacity Strengthening and Partnerships Advisor is a key position in the consortium and leads efforts to enhance the technical and organizational capacity of provincial health authorities, local NGOs, and civil society organizations within the scope of the IHSDA. This position plays a crucial role in ensuring that local partners have the capacity, tools, and support they need to lead and sustain improvements in health service delivery, contributing to the long-term success of the IHSDA. This role involves working closely with local partners to assess capacity needs, develop tailored strengthening plans, and deliver technical assistance through various methods such as coaching, mentoring, and formal training. The Advisor will ensure that capacity-building initiatives are locally relevant, sustainable, and aligned with the DRC’s health priorities. The position will define technical thematic priorities and guide corresponding interventions based on the globally recognized standards and latest evidence. The Advisor will also support recipients of the Innovation Fund, ensuring that local NGOs are equipped to successfully implement their funded projects. This role includes strategic planning, technical leadership, support and supervision of staff, internal and external coordination and representation and reporting.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function with or without reasonable accommodation.

MAIN TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Capacity Strengthening and Technical Assistance
•    Lead the design and implementation of capacity-strengthening strategies that are aligned with global best practices and responsive to the needs of local government and civil society partners, drawing on IMC’s tools and methodologies.
•    Conduct organizational and technical capacity assessments of local partners, including Provincial Health Divisions (DPS), and collaboratively with technical leads and subject matter experts develop capacity-strengthening plans that address identified gaps.
•    In collaboration with subject matter experts and project senior leadership, provide technical assistance (TA), coaching, and mentoring government entities, health facilities, and LNGOs to enhance their ability to lead and sustain health system improvements.
•    Coordinate all partners and relevant subject matter experts in project activities related to the development and adaptation of training curriculums, protocols and toolkits, ensuring that suitable training methodologies are being employed, content is well presented, and information is current.
•    Facilitate coordination and oversee all training initiatives, ensuring that curricula are adapted to comply with latest evidence and adjusted to local contexts and effectively build the competencies needed for sustainable health system management.
•    Utilize IMC’s existing capacity-building tools to support the development and adaptation of training materials, toolkits, and guidelines that will enhance the skills and knowledge of local partners.
•    Lead and coordinate the provision of necessary technical assistance to effectively support project monitoring and quality assurance, as well as periodic review of project work plans and activities to ensure strategic use of lessons learned and best practices.
•    Engage with local NGOs applying for the Innovation Fund, providing guidance and support throughout the application, implementation, and monitoring phases to ensure projects align with the strategic goals of the IHSDA and provincial health priorities.
•    Offer ongoing technical support to Innovation Fund grantees to ensure they have the relevant skills to deliver projects that are sustainable, innovative, and contribute to the long-term strengthening of local health systems.

Partnership Development and Stakeholder Engagement
•    Build and maintain strategic partnerships with provincial health authorities, local NGOs, CSOs, private sector entities, and other key stakeholders to foster collaboration and align capacity-strengthening efforts with national and provincial health strategies.
•    Facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration among local partners, encouraging the exchange of best practices and the development of learning networks.
•    Represent the project in provincial and national forums, advocating for policies and initiatives that support local ownership of health system improvements.

Coordination and Reporting
•    Work closely with the senior management team to ensure the seamless integration of capacity-building activities with other project components, contributing to the overall success of the USAID IHSDA.
•    Provide regular updates and technical reports on capacity-building activities, including progress against work plans and key performance indicators, for both internal stakeholders and USAID.
•    Collaborate with the project’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M/E) team to assess the impact of capacity-building interventions and incorporate lessons learned into future programming.
•    Develop technical components of annual work plans, draft quarterly reports, and ensure project technical objectives and deliverables are met in a timely manner.

Security and Conduct 
Contribute to the positive image and overall credibility of the project and organization, notably through adherence to the Code of Conduct and Ethics, including compliance with anti-harassment, safeguarding and PSEA policies

Perform other duties as assigned. The duties and responsibilities listed in this document are representative of the nature and level of work assigned and not necessarily all inclusive.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
•    Typically, a master’s degree in a field of study involving public health, adult learning methodology, international education, or similar. Equivalent combination of relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.
•    Typically, 10+ years of relevant and progressive experience of relevant and progressive professional work experience in designing and facilitating workshops and other learning methodologies for adult professionals
•    Experience leading and/or supporting capacity strengthening initiatives with local stakeholders in related technical areas, including contributing to curriculum development and effective training methodologies for the health sector.
•    Experience providing strategic technical assistance for high-value, multi-partner complex projects implemented in international development and/or humanitarian settings with a focus on emergency preparedness and response, infectious diseases management and prevention, health systems strengthening preferred.
•    Demonstrated expertise in providing capacity-building support to government staff and local NGOs through training, coaching, and mentoring.
•    Experience working in institutional capacity-building for local organizations in the DRC or similar contexts is preferred.
•    Experience providing technical direction, assistance, and oversight for project implementation, measuring performance against targets, as well as leading any necessary training and mentoring staff, partners, and key stakeholders.
•    Demonstrated experience coordinating teams, employing both in-person and remote approaches in various locations.
•    Demonstrated skills in coordinating, facilitating, and managing complex processes with diverse team members, across a large consortium of partners and/or consecutive years of multi-year health project.
•    Strong leadership and management skills with proven ability to lead and motivate multidisciplinary and multicultural project teams.
•    Strong ability to build and maintain strategic partnerships with provincial and local government entities, civil society organizations, and the private sector.
•    Demonstrated strategic thinking, creativity, acute problem solving, and analytical skills.
•    Knowledge of foreign aid architecture, including humanitarian and development funding mechanisms.
•    Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both oral and written.
•    Prior experience working on USAID-funded programs, with a deep understanding of USAID’s Local Capacity Strengthening Policy and localization objectives.
•    Fluency in written and spoken English and French is required.

Willingness and ability to travel to project sites in DRC, including traveling to insecure environments, is required.