Program Manager, Health Financing Eswatini

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to our mission of saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work at the invitation of governments to support them and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems.

 

CHAI was founded in 2002 in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with the goal of dramatically reducing the price of life-saving drugs and increasing access to these medicines in the countries with the highest burden of the disease. Over the following two decades, CHAI has expanded its focus. Today, along with HIV, we work in conjunction with our partners to prevent and treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Our work has also expanded into cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases, and we work to accelerate the rollout of lifesaving vaccines, reduce maternal and child mortality, combat chronic malnutrition, and increase access to assistive technology. We are investing in horizontal approaches to strengthen health systems through programs in human resources for health, digital health, and health financing. With each new and innovative program, our strategy is grounded in maximizing sustainable impact at scale, ensuring that governments lead the solutions, that programs are designed to scale nationally, and learnings are shared globally.

 

At CHAI, our people are our greatest asset, and none of this work would be possible without their talent, time, dedication and passion for our mission and values. We are a highly diverse team of enthusiastic individuals across 40 countries with a broad range of skillsets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with majority of our staff based in program countries. Learn more about our exciting work: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

CHAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion, and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.

 

Program Overview

 

CHAI is working with countries across Sub-Saharan Africa to support Ministries of Health, Finance, and government to improve access substantially and sustainably to essential health services for their populations, towards the goal of universal health coverage (UHC). Health financing is often insufficient and overly reliant on donors and individuals paying out of pocket at facilities. The Ministry of Health (MOH) in Eswatini strives to achieve UHC by improving equity, efficiency, allocation, and management of financial resources and thereby enabling equitable access to quality health services for their population. This commitment is made against a backdrop of rising health care costs, shrinking domestic finances for health and stagnating donor funding. CHAI Eswatini has been supporting the MOH to strengthen its public financial management (PFM) by building capacity in budget development, budget execution & tracking, efficiency & cost saving initiatives, increasing fiscal space through strategic purchasing and other health financing reforms. Additionally, CHAI has been supporting priority setting and benefits packaging detailing, investment in health service delivery to deliver an optimized package of services.

 

Position Overview

 

CHAI is seeking a Program Manager, Sustainable Health Financing to support the MOH in achieving its health financing reforms. The Manager will oversee CHAI’s sustainable health financing support provided to the MOH; covering Work planning, Budget Development & Execution, Efficiency Initiatives, Resource Mobilization, Investment Cases to Increase Fiscal Space for health and health service delivery. At CHAI, staff members work closely with government partners to support evidence-based decision making and design systems to ensure those resources go as far as possible so that providers can deliver quality care that patients can afford and access. The Manager will also work closely with other CHAI teams at the country and global level, including in Health Financing, Health Systems Strengthening, Infectious Diseases, Sexual Reproductive Health, Non-Communicable Diseases, and others. They will play a key role in shaping CHAI’s health financing portfolio based on the technical support needs of the Eswatini government.

The Manager must be a highly motivated individual with outstanding leadership, management, and problem-solving skills. S/he must be able to support the development and implementation of PFM, Efficiency reforms and health service delivery reforms with significant autonomy, have strong commitment to producing results, and serve as a thought-partner to the team and senior-level officials at the MOH. This position is based in Mbabane, Eswatini and reports to the Country Director.

 

This position is based in Mbabane, Eswatini and reports to the Country Director.

 

Key responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Oversee the strategic direction of the Sustainable Health Financing Program and ensure successful delivery of key projects, working in close collaboration with government stakeholders.
• Play a key technical and strategic advisor role for the team and coordinating additional relevant support from the global team and other experts as needed including supporting the Country Director to engage directly with government on priority topics at all tiers of Eswatini’s health system.
• Supervise a team with diverse professional and educational backgrounds to provide in-depth and high-quality analyses and technical assistance to senior level MOH stakeholders.

 

Key areas will include:

• Act as a sound and technical thought partner to key stakeholders in government, including senior leadership to use evidence for key policy and implementation decisions in health financing reforms, introducing new and creative approaches or strategies.
• Support governments and country teams supporting governments in developing and implementing health financing strategies including changes in service delivery, financing, and management, at regional and national levels. This includes conducting assessments of health systems bottlenecks and public financial management challenges, developing, and implementing plans with government that address service delivery, financing and management bottlenecks, costing and assessing resource gaps and working with governments to mobilize external and domestic resources for their strategies.
• Develop strong working relationships with key stakeholders involved in health financing, especially the Ministries of Health, Finance, and the World Bank.
• Provide technical and strategic insight at the Health Financing technical working group and other high-level meetings as a representative of CHAI.
• Play an active role as member of the CHAI country leadership in the design and implementation of the health financing program in attaining UHC, including identifying fundraising opportunities and developing strategic relationships.
• Build program capacity by continually developing capacity and skills of staff, identifying human resources needs both internal to CHAI Eswatini and the MOH, and leading recruitment of new team members.
• Liaise with the CHAI Global Health Financing Program to share key country insights, and to keep abreast of novel approaches to health financing in other CHAI countries and share Eswatini’s experience with other countries and stakeholders.
• Support knowledge sharing: this includes direct knowledge sharing and the development of relevant documents, publications, and case studies.
• Manage the operations and finances of the program to meet deliverables and reporting requirements within the appropriate timeframes; and
• Pursue opportunities for collaboration with other CHAI teams, supporting cross-cutting workstream contributing towards attaining UHC and helping to build a cross-cutting community of practice within the country, region, and organisation.
• Other responsibilities as requested by supervisor.

This individual will need to manage a growing team and be able to shape CHAI’s engagement and should therefore be technical as well as a strong strategic thinker. CHAI places great value on resourcefulness, responsibility, tenacity, flexibility, independence, energy, work ethic and humility.

• Advanced degree in health economics or financial management; or bachelor’s degree minimum with equivalent experience; a minimum of 5-7 years of experience in demanding, results-oriented environments in the public sector and/or private sector (e.g., management consulting, health financing, health economics, health systems) with at least 3-5 years’ experience working in health care financing or a related area, ideally in relation to developing countries.
• Demonstrated experience shaping and leading complex projects, from strategy design to implementation and managing ambiguity, preferably in the public sector.
• Strong demonstrated team management skills and a passion for mentoring and coaching team members.
• Self-starter with proven experience in launching new projects or initiatives and strong analytical skills.
• Strong communication skills, including delivery of compelling presentations and documents in Microsoft PowerPoint and Word.
• Excellent organizational and management skills, including time management and project management.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously and prioritize and manage projects under pressure.
• Strong quantitative, presentation and writing skills, including proficiency in MS Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
• Strong work ethic, humility, and integrity.
• Exceptional diplomacy and interpersonal skills demonstrated ability to build strong professional relationships with a range of stakeholders in a challenging, multi-cultural environment.
• Strong command of the English language.
• Direct experience working with government institutions, informing development of government strategy, policy, and operational plans, preferably in health financing or health system.

 

Advantages:

• Professional experience working with government authorities in developing countries, with experience in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Familiarity with a broad range of key global health system strengthening challenges, health financing issues and models in developing countries.