Health Program Manager – NES

JOB DESCRIPTION

Title : Health Program Manager

Location :Hasaka (with frequent travel to Deir Elzzor)

Travel :If needed

Job Family and Grade :Program Management & Leadership, M6

Pre hire checks

This role is classified as requiring standard pre-employment checks

1. Scope

Department: Programs

Reporting to: Hub Team Leader

Direct reports: 2 Direct reporting line

Budget responsibility: Yes

Relationship management :internal all departments, external Working groups, donors

2. Context

About Relief International

Relief International (RI) partners with communities impacted by conflict, climate change, and disaster to save lives, build greater resilience and promote long-term health and well being.

Currently, RI is active in 14 countries around the world, including some of the most fragile: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen.

Relief International includes the four corporate members of the RI Alliance: Relief International Inc., Relief International-UK, Relief International-France and Relief International-Europe Under our alliance agreement, we operate with a single, shared management structure.

About our Country Program

Relief International’s Syria Country Office, established in 2012, is a key humanitarian actor in NWS dedicated to supporting vulnerable populations affected by the ongoing crisis. With a comprehensive approach, the program focuses on integrated Health, Nutrition, WASH, and Protection services.

Through direct implementation, a committed team of over 400+ staff members deliver aid to communities in need. Additionally, collaboration with over 1300 staff working in health facilities and woman & girl’s safe spaces and local partners ensures a broader and more effective response. Health facilities serve as entry points, enabling access to communities, camps, and informal settlements. This strategic approach facilitates the provision of essential services where they are most needed. Relief International Syria Country office is a leading responder to health crises, providing primary and secondary health services

3. Job Profile

The Health Program Manager (PM) will be responsible for a Primary Health Care (PHC) program and will be based in Derek-Hassakeh Governorate, NES, with frequent travel to Deir El Zor (DEZ) where the program sites are located. S/he will be responsible for ensuring program objectives are on track, which will require him/her to work constructively with colleagues across his/her team in NES as well as the Syria (Amman Officer) team in addition to close coordination with Syria Health Advisor. The capacity building and monitoring of local staff will be an integrated component of the PM’s work. This position requires an individual who is accustomed to the pace of emergency response programming, has experience in successfully leading a diverse team, does not require close supervision or direction, is flexible and highly responsive, and who maintains a sense of humor in the face of many challenges.

The duty station for this position will be between Derek & Hassaka, however the PM will be expected to spend a minimum of 50% of their time in the DEZ field locations.

4. Key responsibilities

Accountability and Complexity

• Represents RI externally with donors, partners, and communities, which impacts the safety and quality of RI projects, operations, funding and teams.
• Ensures positive relationships externally multiple project donors, partners and communities
• Recognizes and solves typical problems that can occur in various project areas, without supervisory approval; evaluates and provides solutions from established options
• Ensures any concerns, critical information, and lessons learned, are shared with management and implementation teams, to ensure safety, security, and consistent, advocacy messaging
• Follows standardized procedures and practices and receives regular but moderate supervision and guidance

Program Management

• Overall supervision and successful implementation of the Health Program.
• Development of work plans and budget management, in collaboration with the Finance Manager, according to Program outputs and results, and in close coordination with WoS health specialist, provide recommendations for corrective measures/modifications in line with the program needs and donor’s regulation.
• With input from the health and MEL senior focal points, assess the status of current health program, structure, functions and standards and devise a health program quality improvement.
• Manage his or her teams to complete program goals on time and on budget, and ensure his/her team understand their roles and responsibilities, including regular program performance meetings (weekly/bi-weekly) with direct reports to discuss progress, challenges and corrective measures required, and with all Health staff on monthly basis for group discussion to discuss the overall performance of the program and needed support/challenges.
• Systematic Capacity Building of his or her team members, and regular performance review of the direct reports to ensure program and career development objectives are met.
• Evaluate activity progress and determine necessary actions to course correct in collaboration with technical leads and M&E.
• Lead the reporting process at the hub level, with inputs from the Health and M&E coordinators, to ensure reporting is timely and meets institutional and donor requirements. The PM is ultimately responsible for all relevant donor reporting for the Program (Monthly, semi-annual and final reports in addition to ad-hoc reports)).
• In coordination with the technical leads and hub team leader, take the lead in representing RI at relevant Health stakeholder or coordination meetings, and maintain a positive, continuous and visible presence for RI.
• In collaboration with team members, develop and maintain strategic relationships with local partners, local authorities and vendors
• Facilitate donor visits to Program sites as appropriate.
• In Coordination with the direct report(s), develop, maintain and monitor a master field visits plan for the entire health technical, and ensure proper reporting system is in place to capture the findings of the visits.
• In coordination with the direct report(s), Conduct field visits to the project sites on regular basis to ensure all health technical procedures/SoPs and policies (RI, donor, international/locally adapted standards) are properly applied by all field-based staff at the project sites, and that agreed upon corrective measure (identified by programs and MEL) are applied;
• In coordination with the WoS Health specialist and support from the Health Coordinator, plan and lead the delivery of trainings to HFs staff based on the existing/new health SoPs and standards and best practices.
• Through regular remote check-ins with the HFs management, input from the Health staff and building on the in-person field visits, Identify challenges, gaps and areas for improvement in the health services delivered at all health facilities (through reviewing progress reports, MEL reports, field visits, etc.), and provide direct guidance to the staff in addition to the systematic capacity building to address gaps and to improve program quality.
• In coordination with WoS Health specialist, develop training materials and missing/newly required health SoPs, lead the training of relevant health staff and ensure they are applied and followed properly.
• Provide direction to RI NES team during outbreaks of disease or other health emergencies, and that the directions and guidance are trickled down to all staff levels.
• Lead on the design of the RI health sector contingency plan (in coordination with WoS Health specialist, DCD, hub team leader and deputy hub team leader) as part of wider preparedness and adaptive management.
• In coordination with relevant peers and hub team leader, plan the integration of WASH, protection, IYCF, PSS and MHPSS within the health where appropriate, and guide/trickle down the plan to the direct report(s) to ensure implementation.
• Work constructively with support teams to ensure sound administrative practices with regards to record keeping, compliance with RI and donor regulations, communications, etc. including staff recruitment, procurements (running cost management), drugs management from logistic perspective and other expenses related to the program.
• Contribute and lead the Health program input for the grant opening, grant review meetings and grant closeout meetings.

Program Development and strategy development:

• In Coordination with the hub team leader, lead the process of developing, updating and tracking RI-WoS strategy for the hub_Health direction.
• In Coordination with the WoS Health specialist and hub team leader, assess humanitarian needs of populations affected by the Syrian conflict seeking input from technical leads, primary sources (i.e assessment reports conducted in the hub), and secondary sources such as the findings/trends identified through the ongoing health program implementation to feed into the proposal development process.
• Stay up to date with all regional and country-specific response plans by the U.N., donors active in the relevant clusters, and other key actors
• Share methods, approaches and tools with NGO colleagues across the WOS Country Office, and contribute toward NGO’s local response strategy by ensuring programmatic coherence, innovation and responsiveness.
• In Close coordination and guidance from the WoS Health Specialist, lead the proposal development/budget development/modification process at the hub level in consultation with the hub Finance Unit and M&E.

Behavior and conduct

• Ensures that behavior inside and outside of work promotes the values in RI’s code of conduct and safeguarding policies
• Acts with integrity and holds themselves accountable for being respectful, inclusive and professional
• Reports any concerns

Management and leadership

• Ensure the highest standards of behavior inside and outside of work promotes the values in RI’s code of conduct and safeguarding policies
• Be a model for ethical conduct standards for other team members
• Embrace diversity, and model inclusive and equitable behaviour.
• Ensure own actions and the actions of the teams’ members they manage do not adversely impact the safety of the RI team and the vulnerable communities we serve
• Ensure donors, partners and communities are aware of RI conduct and reporting mechanisms
• Ensure safeguarding is embedded in all the work we do
• Be responsible for ensuring a culture and systems in place for reporting
• Report any concerns

5. Person Specification

Skills, knowledge and expertise required for the role.

Essential criteria

• Medical background/degree in medicine
• Minimum of three years professional experience leading, managing, and implementing emergency response programs, preferably in a conflict setting;
• Demonstrated background and knowledge of major humanitarian donors particularly, BHA, ECHO, GIZ, and other institutional donors funding;
• Demonstrated experience in management of health or other relevant sectors is highly desirable;
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, public speaking, and strategic planning skills required;
• Fluent English speaking and comprehension skills required;
• Strong English writing skills required;
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, and tasks efficiently;
• Strong budgeting and budget monitoring skills including a high level of proficiency with MS Excel;
• Demonstrated experience in successfully managing a multicultural team, and a commitment to capacity building;
• Excellent time management skills and resourcefulness with strong attention to detail;
• Demonstrated experience of upholding humanitarian principles and actively engaging the most vulnerable communities. Committed to promoting NGO’s focus on accountability, innovation and partnership building.

Desirable criteria

• Native Arabic speaker preferred

6. RI Values

Guided by the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, as well as “Do No Harm,” Relief International Values:

• Integrity
• Adaptability
• Collaboration
• Inclusivity
• Sustainability