Programme Leadership and Development:

• Reporting to the PD, lead the implementation of Concern’s Country Health Strategy. Updating in line with Concern Sierra Leone’s country strategic plan which will be updated in 2024.
• Design, implement and manage overall Health Programme at the national level with high quality and ensure participation of community and other stakeholders; Ensuring alignment with Concern Worldwide’s health & organisational policies & strategies.
• Ensure the Concern health development projects are designed in line with global best practices, relevant in country evidence, and in line with the needs of beneficiaries, programme participants and partners in the intervention including Ministry of Health guidelines and strategy.
• Provide technical backstopping to the health teams, ensuring the development, review and utilisation of best practices for specific technical interventions.
• Ensure that the core principles and policies of Concern regarding Concern’s Code of Conduct & Associated Policies (especially the Programme Participants’ Protection Policy and Child Safeguarding), Equality, Accountability commitments, Community Based Complaint & Response Mechanism, and Anti-Fraud Policy are implemented across the health programme, monitored and reported.
• With support of Concern advisors, ensure effective mainstreaming of equality, partnership, protection, environment and disaster risk reduction including how Concern Understands Extreme Poverty approach

Programme integration and partnership development

• Support the project leads to ensure successful roll out of health projects with a collaborative approach (particularly essential for any integrated projects).
• Maintain effective partnerships particularly with Health Development Partners, Ministry of Health at national level and other relevant ministries (e.g. Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, National Secretariat for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy, Ministry of Social Welfare).
• Initiate and develop partnerships with relevant international and national NGOs and CBOs. This includes working with the Partnership Manager to identify and support in the assessment of potential strategic partners.

Proposal Development, Grants and Financial Management

• In line with the country Programme strategy, and in collaboration with the PD, BDKC Manager and Country Finance Controller, analyse funding requirements and opportunities, support positioning and lead/support developing funding proposals of high quality to expand appropriately the health program.
• Prepare health sector annual budget and analyse the need to seek additional funding based on the health Programme strategy.
• Overall responsible for, and to build capacity of direct reports to ensure:
• Effective management of all aspects of donor grants for the health Programme and with the preparation of high quality donor reports as per the donor agreement and submitted on time;
• All projects are on track in terms of implementation and quality of activities as well as budget expenditure through effective planning and monitoring; Manage risks and escalate to line manager when necessary, with suggested solutions/actions
• Monthly cash forecasts and monthly management accounts are prepared/reviewed with comments and tracked by Project Managers/Coordinators and adjust planning accordingly to ensure that budgets are spent effectively;
• All health projects have annual budgets, Detailed Implementation Plans (DIP), with realistic timeframes and milestones, and procurement plans. With the support of the PD, and liaising with relevant departments, ensure that all resources needed (technical, financial, HR) are in place to implement DIP. Regularly review the budget, DIP and procurement plan and update relevant components at least quarterly with project and finance staff.
• Lead in starting up new projects and hand over appropriately to the respective Project lead.
• Support the project leads to close out projects according to internal Concern and donor guidelines.

Human resource management and development

• Line manage direct reports, and ensure they are appropriately managing their teams. Set clear performance objectives, provide regular feedback and conduct performance reviews (in line with Concern processes), holding staff accountable for meeting agreed success criteria.
• Design appropriate and effective mentoring, coaching and career development plans for members of the Health team to build their capacities. This includes liaising with HR to ensure an effective induction when new staff join Concern and regularly providing ongoing technical and managerial support as needed
• With HR, lead in the recruitment process for Livelihoods project teams. This includes updating job descriptions as needed and periodically reviewing the livelihoods sector team staffing structure – with recommendations for any changes to the PD and HR.
• Ensure that work within the Livelihoods team(s) is planned and organised in a way which will meet the organisation’s needs in the most cost effective manner possible; ensuring that team members are given appropriate workloads and are working efficiently.
• Provide technical support to Project managers/coordinators – and wider team with specific focus on clinical and health technical support.

Monitoring, evaluation and learning, Innovation

• Regularly visit programme locations to monitor implementation and quality and coach and mentor staff and partners.
• With the PDQ team:
• all health projects have strong MEAL plans in place, in line with Concern policies and systems, using standard and approved tools, and that the MEAL plans are feasible; indicators set for projects are reflective of project aims and are realistic and measurable;
• evaluation and learning from monitoring is regularly shared with teams and partners for improved performance; Support partners to equally engage in effective MEAL planning and implementation;
• Review meetings (internal and external with partners, project stakeholders and programme participants) are conducted and learning used to adjust programming as necessary;
• Case stories and lessons learnt are captured and shared;
• Fully incorporate Concern’s Accountability and CHS commitments in Health programming design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.
• Ensure production of high quality timely donor reports, monthly internal reports, reports for Service Level Agreements for the Government – that reports reflect contributions from the whole team and partners.
• Lead on writing the country annual report for the health sector with high quality ensuring it reflects contributions from the whole team.
• Ensure that health project related documentation is continuously input and updated in Concern’s grants management system (GMS).
• Chair regular health sector meetings to share learning, challenges and solutions and to ensure beneficiary feedback and project learning is recorded and shared with a wider audience.

Accountability

In line with Concern’s commitments under the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS):

• Actively promote meaningful community participation and consultation at all stages of the project cycle (planning, implementation, M&E);
• Work with relevant colleagues to ensure that the Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) is functional and accessible, that feedback and complaints are welcomed and addressed;
• Work with relevant colleagues to ensure that information about CRM, safeguarding and expected staff behaviour is disseminated among programme participants and communities.

Visibility

• Ensure Concern is represented at a range of national and international technical fora related to our work or future strategic direction (delegate where applicable to Direct reports).
• In collaboration with the PDQ team, ensure that information products, programme briefs and capacity statements are produced and shared within Concern and with external partners and platforms.
• Represent the work of the Health sector through presentations of our work and learning where opportunities allow (and delegate where applicable to the Direct reports).

Staff health and wellbeing

• In collaboration with the procurement and HR departments, give technical inputs to the staff health insurance renewal annually.
• Where necessary and in collaboration with the country management team and HR, ensure staff can access reliable and up to date information on health emergencies.
• In collaboration with the HR team, put forward suggested staff health initiatives to the CMT that can improve the health and wellbeing of Concern Sierra Leone staff.

General

• Promote and protect the reputation of Concern in external settings, ensuring that the organisation’s experience and expertise is well communicated and consistently presented, and that we are looked upon as a professional organisation, guided by policies and our Code of Conduct.
• As a humanitarian organisation, all staff are required to engage / support in emergency response work as may be necessary (training and other support will be provided as appropriate). Actively participate in the periodic updating of Concern in Sierra Leone’s Preparing for Effective Emergency Response (PEER) plan.
• Contribute to the ongoing reviews and updating of Concern in Sierra Leone’s Security Management Plan (SMP), the country strategic plan, and other Concern initiatives.
• Ensure the efficient and transparent use of all project resources in order to maximize the benefit to the targeted communities. Ensure adherence to Concern policies and procedures.
• Promote Equality, especially gender, within the organisation and across programmes, in line with Concern’s Equality Policy and ensure targeting and project implementation is fully informed and led by How Concern Understands Extreme Poverty (HCUEP).
• Any other tasks as may be mutually agreed with the Programmes Director and /or the CD.

Your skills and experience will include:

Essential:

Education 

• Master’s degree in Public health/Community Health /WASH/Reproductive Health or other equivalent relevant experience.

Experience

• Minimum of 3 years international management experience and experience of implementing and managing health programs (including programs relating to primary health care, WASH, Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health, maternal and child health) in development and fragile contexts.
• Experience with Health Systems Strengthening approaches.
• Experience of implementing project cycle management – project planning, monitoring and review and adaptive management.
• Skills and experience in budget development and management, including expenditure tracking
• Skills in leadership, management and communication, building strong performing teams.
• Experience in the capacity building of national staff.
• Skills and experience of liaising, networking, advocating with and influencing senior Government officials and policy makers.
• Experience of fundraising and donor grants management, monitoring of large programmes.
• Proven ability to report on impact/result of programmes with strong technical writing skills.
• Experience in training and application of adult facilitation, participatory methods and rights based approaches.

We also value the following special skills and aptitudes:

• Experience in West Africa preferred
• Experience with donors such as FCDO, USAID or other large health-programme donors
• Experience in mainstreaming gender and equality, protection, conflict, environment/climate and DRR into programming.
• Training of trainers & facilitation skills.
• Working with/managing partner organisations and managing consortia projects.
• Experience in strategic development of country level health programming especially in fragile contexts
• High level of critical thinking and problem solving abilities.
• Experience in Community Based Complaint & Response Mechanism and the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) is an added advantage.