The Africa Frontline First (AFF) Initiative is a collaborative initiative that supports the scaling and strengthening of integrated and sustainable community health delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Under the leadership of H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Financing Alliance for Health, Last Mile Health, Community Health Acceleration Partnership, and Community Health Impact Coalition are currently the key driving partners of AFF. Through unique partnerships between governments, donors, implementers, and technical allies, AFF will support ten countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in building high-functioning, resilient, country-led community health service delivery systems. These systems will include an expanded and institutionalized workforce of 200,000 community health workers across the 10 countries by 2030. AFF works cross three pillars:

• Financing: Advocate, design and support implementation of sustainable funding mechanisms that enable transformed financing
• Political will: Cultivate regional political will and champions to support accelerating community health reforms, including domestic financing.
• Community engagement: Foster peer-to-peer learning to optimize country-led community health performance supported by technical partners

PROJECT OVERVIEW

In collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Zambia, the Financing Alliance for Health (FAH) is implementing a transformative initiative. This project focuses on strengthening primary health care (PHC) and integrating Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child, and Adolescent Health (SRMNCAH) services into community and primary health systems. The initiative aims to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by bolstering strategic health financing, policy frameworks, and healthcare delivery systems. FAH supports governments in designing and implementing sustainable health financing mechanisms that advance equitable healthcare delivery. By addressing barriers to access, resource mobilization, and strategic purchasing, FAH ensures effective integration of SRMNCAH services into PHC systems.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Health Financing Technical Advisor will be embedded in the Ministry of Health to provide strategic and technical leadership to support the Ministry of Health in operationalizing, advocacy, policy development and sustainably financing PHC and SRMNCAH services. The role will focus on strengthening governance, resource mobilization, and health financing mechanisms, ensuring effective integration of SRMNCAH services into Zambia’s PHC framework.

 KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide technical and analytical support in the areas of health financing and governance, cost and cost-effectiveness analysis, resource mobilization, innovative financing mechanisms, and strategic purchasing.
• Support the MoH in strengthening the Health Care Financing Technical Working Group (TWG) and Community Health TWG through regular meetings, updated terms of reference, and actionable plans

• Develop joint annual workplans with the MoH and key stakeholders, ensuring alignment with government priorities and donor requirements.
• Oversee the execution of workplans, monitoring progress, identifying bottlenecks, and facilitating adaptive management.
• Provide technical assistance in implementing resource mobilization, advocacy and strategic purchasing mechanisms for primary and community healthcare services.
• Build capacity within the MoH and other partners on health financing strategies, including investment case development, cost-effectiveness analyses, expenditure tracking, and financing reforms.
• Develop tools and deliver training sessions to enhance skills in resource mapping, allocation, and utilization.
• Facilitate the drafting and refinement of Policy briefs to address gaps in PHC financing, SRMNCAH service delivery and funding.
• Advocate for increased investments in PHC and community health through evidence-based policy recommendations.

• Develop PHC resource mobilization plan and PHC investment case
• Review RMNCAH-N Indicators and Assess Performance Trends
• Provide technical support development and implementation of the National Reproductive Health Policy and strategy and Implementation plan.
• Hold Roundtable discussions between MoF, MoH and Key partners on Health financing Priorities focused on PHC, Community health and RMNCAHN services.
• Represent FAH with external stakeholders, share lessons, and help the organization build new partnerships for impact.

• Act as the primary liaison between FAH, the MoH, and other stakeholders, fostering strong partnerships and alignment.
• Preparation of meeting, project reports and metrics to track the impact of project initiatives and ensure alignment with project objectives.
• Generate and disseminate reports on project outcomes, challenges, and success stories.
• Facilitate cross-country learning exchanges to share best practices and innovations.

CANDIDATE SPECIFICATION: KEY SELECTION CRITERIA

The Financing Alliance for Health is seeking a highly skilled, multi-functional, and entrepreneurial leader with a passion for global health to serve as the Health Financing Technical Advisor.

Key experience areas/competencies should include:

• Master’s degree in medicine, Nursing, Health Economics, Public Health, or a related field.

• Minimum 8 years of experience in health systems strengthening, policy development, and financing in low-resource settings.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage diverse stakeholders effectively.

• Familiarity with Zambia’s health system, governance structures, and financing mechanisms.
• Experience with SRMNCAH programming and PHC integration and Knowledge of donor-funded programs and their operational frameworks.
• Proficiency in project management tools and methodologies.

• Demonstrated experience working with governments and implementing community health programmes, public policy, public sector financing among others.

• Previous work experience in community and public health programming, public financial management, governance, health economics, and overall health systems strengthening.
• Experience and knowledge related to the technical components of public policy and planning, health financing (e.g., costing and cost-effectiveness analysis, resource mobilization, strategic purchasing, national health accounts exercises, resource mapping)
• Experience working with governments in a technical advisory role, especially developing research or other communications materials for policymakers.
• Experience working with major donors, knowledge of funding cycles and proposal development.
• Quantitative analysis experience and skills, especially experience using standard costing tools and developing costing exercises.
• Direct experience in health policy analysis in low- and middle-income countries, or resource-limited settings
• Financing for health: understanding of the core bottlenecks behind health financing, the key steps (costing, resource mapping, gap analysis), and potential options for financing (traditional donors, national resources, corporate and capital markets sources, etc.).
• Quantitative skills and tool development: strong analytical and financial/modeling skills. Broad experience creating and refining analytical tools and approaches, e.g. excel models, ROIs tools.
• Health systems: knowledge and practical work on health systems, and in particular community health systems; experience working with ministries of health and finance as well as major donor organizations will be critical for this role.
• Global mindset and experience: international experience across countries.
• Proactive problem solver: you should also be a proactive-problem solver, flexible, effective at working independently, a self-starter, and able to build your own work plan.
• You will be expected to have excellent oral and written presentation skills, strong computer skills, including MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
• You will also be expected to have full proficiency in English. Additional language skills (French) are an added advantage.
• You will be expected to travel 30+% of the time.
• This position is only open to candidates who are currently located and authorized to work in Zambia.

Compensation

This position offers a competitive compensation package linked to the background and experience of the candidate.

Timing