Job Description (Roles and Responsibilities) 

Ending Preventable Deaths of Mothers and Children is a top UK Government international development manifesto commitment. In December 2021, the UK published an Approach Paper to guide the implementation of this commitment. Somalia has since been identified as a UK flagship country for this initiative.

This Health Adviser position will support the UK Government’s efforts in Somalia to reduce maternal, newborn and child deaths from preventable diseases. He/she will support the implementation of the UK in Somalia’s Ending Preventable Deaths (EPD) Action Plan in partnership with the Governments of Somalia and Somaliland. Day to day this will involve a combination of health programming and policy Advisory work.

The role will be located organisationally within the Humanitarian, Health, Education and Resilience Team (HHEART) within British Embassy Mogadishu. The role will be physically based in the British High Commission Nairobi but with regular travel to UK offices in Mogadishu and Hargeisa. This Adviser will be a member of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office’s Health Cadre.

Roles and responsibilities

High quality technical advice for the implementation of the UK in Somalia’s flagship Ending Preventable Deaths health and nutrition programme “Better Lives for Somali Women and Children” (£120 million, over 6 years) (45%)

• Within the existing “Better Lives for Somali Women and Children” (£120m over 6 years) programme with UNICEF as the prime implementing partner, the role will lead on evidence, learning and improvement of demand creation and behavior change for maternity services; and the implementation and effectiveness of community health strategies.
• Improve external donor coordination and alignment in the health sector in Somalia, including support on the engagement with the World Bank in setting up, with other donors a health pooled fund with Somalia focused on the essential package of health services. In addition, provide technical advice on the internal FCDO assessment of our readiness to transition UK financing to a World Bank led, health pooled fund mechanism in the next 2 years.

Technical lead on policy development themes within the UK in Somalia Ending Preventable Deaths Action Plan (35%):

• Lead on policy thinking on the private/commercial sector in health delivery to support Ending Preventable Deaths – what are the potential models appropriate to Somalia for increased private sector service delivery of maternal, newborn and child health services; how could these be aligned with and feed into the gov-led public healthcare system; what is the role of government to regulate and enable? Working with other donors in this space and the World Bank.
• Ad hoc leadership and support to other policy areas within the UK in Somalia Ending Preventable Deaths of Mothers and Children Action Plan. This will include engaging with UK supported, externally deployed (e.g. within partners and Ministries) technical assistance on policy themes such as health systems financing, health information systems and/or human resources for health.

Cross-cutting high quality technical support for learning and coordination across EPD Flagship countries which are hyper fragile and conflict- affected (5%) (e.g. Yemen, South Sudan, Afghanistan)

• Support UK Embassies and Missions in fragile and conflict affected contexts to access the latest context relevant research on “what works” to delivery services and build systems in fragile and conflict affected contexts. This will include engaging in existing research being undertaken and/or commissioned by FCDO’s Research and Evidence Division (e.g. EQUAL – evidence and impact for mothers and newborns living in conflict)
• Support the central FCDO Ending Preventable Deaths team to bring together and share learning on what works in both delivering health services and build systems in hyper fragile and conflict affected contexts. Establishing a Community of Practice of these context.

10%:   

• All health advisers are required to provide up to 10% of their time (equivalent to 22 days per year) to support FCDO’s wider health objectives. This might entail support to another country programme such as contributing to an annual review, developing an evidence product or the design and delivery of training for other cadre members or HMG officials. 

Resources managed:

• No line management/staff responsibilities.
• This role will be advisory, including on health/ODA programmes, but not play a formal programme management or governance role (e.g. as a Senior Responsible Owner or Programme Responsible Owner)

This is a FCDO Health Adviser role. The successful candidate will have a demonstrable track record of delivering health outcomes at expert level through strong capability in the health technical competencies. The health competencies of a FCDO health adviser are found here.   Expertise in the 5 competencies is required and will be assessed as part of the recruitment process.

• H1 – Public health – analysis and application of epidemiology and public health intelligence
• H2 – Health Systems Strengthening development – analysis based on experience of health systems development.
• H3 – Health Architecture – analysis of global health context, including the international health architecture.
• H4 – Wider Determinants of health including nutrition – analysis and application of health improvement principles.
• H5 – Evidence, innovation, and evaluation – analysis and application of evidence, innovation and evaluation

In addition, this role requires particular expertise in (i) advancing the relationship between the state and the private sector and (ii) advancing nationally led development of a health system from a very fragile context (often a humanitarian context).

• Language: Somali & English 
• the successful candidate needs to be proficient in both Somali and English