Job Title: Head of Community Implementation, Amref Health Africa
Amref Health Africa was founded in 1957 and has since grown to become the largest African-based international health development organization, currently implementing more than 150 programs which directly reach more than 20 million people across 35 countries in Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Amref has fully-fledged offices in Ethiopia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal, South Sudan, and Zambia; eleven advocacy and fundraising offices in Europe and North America; and a staff complement of over 1,500.
Our vision is to bring about ‘Lasting health change in Africa’, and our mission is ‘To increase sustainable health access to communities in Africa through solutions in human resources for health, health service delivery, and investments in health’. We believe that the power to transform Africa’s health lies within its communities, and therefore strive to ensure that health systems are not only functional but that communities are empowered to hold these systems accountable for the delivery of quality and affordable health care.
ABOUT THE FOREIGN, COMMONWEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICE (FCDO) PROGRAMME
The UK Government (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office – FCDO) has a vision of a world free from Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) by 2030, in line with the SDGs. A programme has been established entitled ‘Support to the Africa-led movement (ALM) to end FGM/C’ to contribute to global efforts to achieve that vision. Amref Health Africa is delivering an ambitious outreach workplan in Kenya, Senegal and at regional and global levels. As part of the management and coordination of the programme, Amref Health Africa is engaging a regional position to support Amref and the consortium’s Community Implementation work in selected countries.
JOB PURPOSE
This is a regional position that will support the consortium’s work in selected countries in Eastern Africa region, Ethiopia and West Africa. This position follows the successful award by FCDO granted to Option Consultancies and its partners. The ending FGM programme’s main goal is to speed up the pace of change to end FGM and ensuring scale up of what works.
The Head of Community Implementation will provide leadership, coordination and technical assistance to Amref Country Offices and those of its consortia partners in delivering a range of community interventions which seek to bring about social norm change on FGM within communities. S/he will be responsible for;
• Providing thought leadership and strategic direction to the ALM consortium, to ensure its community implementation interventions directly contribute to its ‘Theory of Change’ and intended impact of an acceleration in positive changes in social attitudes towards ending FGM/C.
• Providing capacity building of Amref Country Offices and consortium partners and their frontline community champions in social norm change and girl centered programming
• Assure the technical quality of project delivery – linking project technical teams to best practice ending FGM/C programming models, tools, and frameworks.
• Be a consortium champion for girl-centered, gender-sensitive programming that ensures a ‘DoNo-Harm’ policy and approach to delivery.
• Working closely with the Senior Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Lead, ensure all community-based interventions are closely and innovatively monitored and evaluated, spearheading adaptive learning and management across the consortium.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
Strategic and Direction (25%)
• Provide thought leadership and strategic direction to the ALM consortium in relation to its Community Implementation Programming
• Ensure consortium partners clearly contribute to the programmes intended impact of social norm change
• Support the consortium to develop ‘core’ intervention models that are scalable and can achieve and evidence ‘Proof of Concept’
• Support partners to develop interventions that are tailored to their contexts, supported by best practice approaches
• Develop clear strategic frameworks that guide high quality, girl-centered programming
Technical Support and Capacity Building (25%)
• Build the capacity of consortium partners, offering coaching, mentoring and on-demand technical assistance and training in the areas of social-norm change and girl-centered programming in relation to ending FGM/C
• Provide technical oversight to the community implementation components of the programme, including undertaking field visits to consortium partners to oversee implementation, provide on-site feedback on required improvements and generate field visit reports with timely and appropriate follow up on action points
• Develop and disseminate girl-centered manuals, strategies and tools, communications and curriculums
Partnership Management (25%)
• Build strong partnerships with all consortium delivery partners and consortium Prime, getting to know their work and building positive ways of working
• Lead and Chair the Community Implementation Working Group on behalf of the consortium
• Build a solid knowledge of intervention packages and approaches across partners, consolidating and disseminating accessible summaries to all consortium members
• Represent the consortium at relevant meetings and conferences, amplifying positive stories of change from the grassroots
• Create linkages with regional bodies, participating in regional forums to promote the cross-border collaboration with other countries
• Lead in partner and coalition building at the regional and sub regional levels
• Have regular contact with other community implementation roles within Amref working on FGM/C
• Participate in relevant Community of Practice (CoPs) with staff in relevant country offices and HQ units.
Adaptive Learning and Management (25%)
• Work with the MEL Lead to monitor and evaluate the progress and impact of community implementation interventions, ensuring ‘Proof of Concept’ can be demonstrated
• Spearhead adaptive learning, programming and management across the consortium, ensuring true learnings inform the adaptation of the programme
• Support the MEL Lead and in-country MEL staff to adapt methods for provision of quality and appropriate evidence from ongoing monitoring and evaluative initiatives (baselines, midlines, evaluations and reviews) in a rapidly changing, complex and high security contexts.
• Support the compilation of Country Office progress reports, working closely with UK office counter-parts
• Support the development of key research and evaluations
• Support the development of innovate and creative approaches to demonstrating impact and ‘proof of concept’
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
Education and Professional Qualifications
• Master’s degree in Gender Studies, Development Studies, Public Health, International Relations, Human Rights, Social Sciences and/or other related fields.
Required Experience
• At least eight (8) years of professional experience at the regional or/and international level, with proven ability to support coordination of complex community-level interventions, with experience in relevant African countries
• Experience of developing and maintaining successful relationships and partnerships with a diverse range of organizations and consultants
• Extensive experience in facilitating alignment and collaboration among consortium members, diverse groups of stakeholders and other relevant partners in multiple geographies
• Significant experience working on gender (girl-centered programmes), women’s empowerment or ending FGM/C programmes and campaigns
• Experience of supporting country offices, building capacity and offering technical support
• Experience in high profile representation
• Grounded understanding of gender and inclusion attitudes and power dynamics, including why they exist and how they change, and how these attitudes and dynamics shape MERL methods and approaches
• Ability to at times work autonomously combined with an ability to work as part of a consortium leadership team
Knowledge, Skills and Competencies
• Excellent communications, collaborating and influencing skills
• Resourcefulness, highly organized, detail oriented
• Analytical, strategic
• High integrity/ethics, commitment and respect for diversity
• Good interpersonal skills
• Training and presentation skills
• Project management skills
• Problem solving skills
• Proficiency in ICT and strong technical systems acumen
Languages
• Proficiency in French desirable
How to apply
Interested? Please visit our website https://amref.org/vacancies/ to make your application. You will be directed to our online portal where you will need to create an account in order for you to be able to submit your application. Your application should include a cover letter detailing why you are the best fit for this position and your CV with relevant skills and experience. Closing date will be August 26, 2022. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Duly note that Amref Health Africa does not require applicants to pay any money at whatever stage of the recruitment and selection process and have not retained any agent in connection with recruitment. Although Amref may use different job boards from time to time to further spread its reach for applicants, all open vacancies are published on our website under the Vacancies page and on our official social media pages. Kindly also note that official emails from Amref Health Africa will arrive from an @amref.org address.
Amref Health Africa is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Amref Health Africa is an equal opportunity employer and has a non-smoking environment policy.
