Technical Director | Conakry, Guinea | 2024 At Chemonics

  1. Program Overview

Chemonics seeks a Technical Director for the USAID Frontier Health Markets (FHM) Engage project’s new health market development activities in Guinea. FHM Engage is a global cooperative agreement to provide technical assistance supporting local actors to improve the ability of health markets to meet supply-side capacity gaps and consumer preferences and contribute to equitable provision of and access to high-quality family planning and other health services and products in mixed health systems. This will be achieved through strategies and approaches that address the market constraints which inhibit the functioning of local markets. Anticipated results include an improved market environment for greater private sector participation in the delivery of health products and services, and improved equitable access and uptake of quality consumer-driven health products and services, with a particular focus on family planning and maternal health products, services, and outcomes.

  1. Principal Duties and Responsibilities

Based in Conakry, Guinea and reporting to the FHM Engage Guinea Chief of Party, the Technical Director is a senior leadership position that assumes overall technical responsibility and direction for FHM Engage in Guinea. The Technical Director will manage a small but efficient team comprised of a Clinical Service Delivery Specialist, Sales and Products Manager, Global Health Security Specialist as well as technical consultants, as needed. The technical work will include a landscape analysis of local health NGOs in Guinea, a market assessment for select health products and services, and identification of opportunities for strategic private sector engagement to improve health outcomes. This position represents an opportunity to advance locally driven development initiatives and systems change to drive sustainability through a co-creation and co-design process with multiple stakeholders, coaching and mentoring in-country actors as they apply systems-thinking approaches.

Illustrative duties and responsibilities include:

General Responsibilities

  • Oversee market assessments and subsequent market development program design through participatory approaches to (i) define priority market failures to be addressed in family planning, maternal and child health, and global health security ii) identify failures in core market functions of supply and demand related to health products and services, (iii) diagnose root causes of underperformance and design interventions, and (iv) define interventions that will strengthen the enabling environment in the market system.
  • Ensure project activities are consistent with established evidence-based FHM Engage practices, including local market stewardship for sustainability and effective approaches and tools to implement these practices.
  • Oversee the team’s technical work, including analysis and publication of technical reports, case studies, program deliverables, and technical tools on topics related to health market development and private sector engagement.
  • Lead the development of work plans and implementation of FHM Engage activities in Guinea, including strategy development, implementation planning, and technical quality supervision.
  • Catalyse engagements with local and international private-sector actors, civil society, social entrepreneurs, governments, development agencies, and host-country governments to develop a common vision for priority health problems, co-design local solutions, build the resilience of local partner institutions, and build health market systems that can respond to future challenges.
  • Promote sustainability of project activities with effective networking, linkages to other programs, capacity building of project staff, and institutional strengthening of local NGO partners.
  • Establish and maintain highly collaborative working relationships with the Government of Guinea, USAID/Guinea, along with relevant in-country stakeholders; serve a key technical point of contact for USAID and as the principal liaison with USAID staff, institutions, and country partners to exchange information and develop professional relationships.
  • Provide coaching and mentoring support to team members and implementation partners for market facilitation activities.
  • Support the project’s transition of activities to local partners by fostering and facilitating a learning and collaborative environment.
  • Support identification and recruitment of individuals with technical expertise who may be available for short- and long-term assignments.
  • Ensure that all activities are undertaken in full compliance with Chemonics’ standard operating procedures, USAID policies and regulations, and national policies and laws.
  • Coordinate and collaborate with the FHM Engage core teams and activities as well as the other FHM Engage country programs. Act as primary liaison with the Chemonics and consortium partners’ Washington D.C. office for technical matters. Fully engage as a member of the Chemonics staff team, including participating in staff meetings and other Chemonics events, as required.

Promote learning agenda:

  • Share local, contextualized data, lessons, and emerging innovations with the FHM Technical team to promote shared learning.
  • Serves as needed as liaison to USAID/Guinea, the Guinean government, project stakeholders, and counterparts in the private sector.
  • Advise USAID and other stakeholders, as appropriate, on market development technical trends and programming priorities in Guinea.
  • Provide thought leadership to advance health market development approaches, including generating evidence, learning, and innovation to improve the understanding of local health markets and strategies to address market failures.
  • Work with the monitoring, evaluation, and learning team to focus on documenting what is being accomplished, how these accomplishments connect to changes in Guinean health markets, and how the market systems change over time.
  • Proactively use monitoring and evaluation data to adjust programmatic approach and strategies, modify work plans and implementation activities as needed, to ensure the program remains on schedule and meets results.
  • Work with implementing partners, refine and answer questions in line with FHM’s adaptive management learning approach.
  • Bring evidence to action by promoting use of this learning to build country-level understanding of challenges and generation and prioritization of local solutions.
  • Document processes and achievements across the project including oversight of activities to ensure learning is captured and disseminated.
  • Work with the communications team to synthesize key learnings for FHM Engage regular reporting and for internal and external dissemination, including technical working groups, conferences, learning events and blogs.
  1. Expected Start Date

The anticipated start date for the position is May 2024.

  1. Location of Assignment

The location of assignment is Conakry, Guinea

  1. Supervision and Reporting

The Technical Director will report to and be supervised by the FHM Engage Guinea Chief of Party.

  1. Job Qualifications
  2. Master’s degree or higher in public health, business administration, or other related area.
  3. At least 10 years of professional experience in managing global health or related projects, with experience in private sector health markets, pharmaceuticals, family planning, maternal and child health (MCH), malaria, and global health security (GHS) highly preferred.
  4. Significant experience developing and implementing work plans, monitoring budgets, and managing a diverse team of local and international staff.
  5. Demonstrated leadership experience on a USAID-funded project required, preferably as technical director/advisor, chief of party/project director or deputy chief of party.
  6. Proven capacity acting in a high-level representative role and working with different stakeholders, including US and local government officials, and private sector actors.
  7. Experience managing complex relationships with a variety of stakeholders in a multiple partner consortium, including host governments at different levels; private sector actors, experience mentoring staff and working with international and national consultants and staff.
  8. Demonstrated leadership, versatility, integrity, and creativity.
  9. Excellent administrative, organizational, and written and verbal communication skills.
  10. Must be authorized to work in Guinea.
  11. Vue d’ensemble du programme

Chemonics recherche un(e) directeur/directrice technique pour les nouvelles activités de développement du marché de la santé en Guinée dans le cadre du projet Frontier Health Markets (FHM) Engage de l’USAID. FHM Engage est un accord de coopération mondial visant à fournir une assistance technique aux acteurs locaux afin d’améliorer la capacité des marchés de la santé à répondre aux lacunes de l’offre et aux préférences des consommateurs et à contribuer à la livraison et à l’accès équitables au planning familial de haute qualité et à d’autres services et produits de santé dans les systèmes de santé mixtes. Cet objectif sera atteint grâce à des stratégies et des approches qui s’attaquent aux contraintes du marché qui entravent le fonctionnement des marchés locaux. Les résultats anticipés sont l’amélioration de l’environnement du marché pour une plus grande participation du secteur privé à la fourniture de produits et de services de santé, l’amélioration de l’accès équitable et de l’adoption de produits et de services de santé de qualité axés sur le consommateur, tout avec un accent particulier sur le planning familial et les produits, services et résultats en matière de santé maternelle.

  1. Principales fonctions et responsabilités

Basé à Conakry, et sous la responsabilité du chef de mission de FHM Engage Guinée, le/la directeur/directrice technique est un poste de direction qui assume la responsabilité technique globale et la direction de FHM Engage en Guinée. Il/elle dirigera une équipe restreinte mais efficace composée d’un spécialiste de la prestation de services cliniques, d’un responsable des ventes et des produits, d’un spécialiste de la sécurité sanitaire mondiale ainsi que de consultants techniques, selon les besoins. Le travail technique comprendra une analyse des ONG locales de santé en Guinée, une évaluation du marché pour certains produits et services de santé, et l’identification des possibilités d’engagement stratégique du secteur privé pour améliorer les résultats en matière de santé. Ce poste représente une opportunité de faire progresser les initiatives de développement locales et le changement des systèmes afin de favoriser la durabilité par le biais d’un processus de réalisation avec de multiples parties prenantes, en accompagnant et en encadrant les acteurs du pays dans l’application d’approches de pensée systémique.

À titre d’exemple, les tâches et les responsabilités sont les suivantes

Responsabilités générales

  • Superviser les évaluations de marché et la conception ultérieure des programmes de développement du marché par des approches participatives afin de (i) définir les défaillances du marché à traiter en priorité dans les domaines du planning familial, de la santé maternelle et infantile et de la sécurité sanitaire mondiale, (ii) identifier les défaillances des fonctions essentielles de l’offre et de la demande liées aux produits et services de santé, (iii) diagnostiquer les causes profondes de la sous-performance et concevoir des interventions, et (iv) définir des interventions qui renforceront l’environnement favorable dans le système de marché.
  • Veiller à ce que les activités du projet soient conformes aux pratiques de FHM Engage fondées sur des données probantes, y compris la gestion des marchés locaux pour la durabilité et les approches et outils efficaces pour mettre en œuvre ces pratiques.
  • Superviser le travail technique de l’équipe, y compris l’analyse et la publication de rapports techniques, d’études de cas, de résultats de programmes et d’outils techniques sur des sujets liés au développement du marché de la santé et à l’engagement du secteur privé.
  • Diriger l’élaboration des plans de travail et la mise en œuvre des activités de FHM Engage en Guinée, y compris l’élaboration de la stratégie, la planification de la mise en œuvre et la supervision de la qualité technique.
  • Catalyser les engagements avec les acteurs locaux et internationaux du secteur privé, la société civile, les entrepreneurs sociaux, les gouvernements, les agences de développement et les gouvernements des pays d’accueil afin de développer une vision commune des problèmes de santé prioritaires, de réaliser des solutions locales, de renforcer la résilience des institutions partenaires locales et de mettre en place des systèmes de marché de la santé capables de répondre aux défis futurs.
  • Promouvoir la durabilité des activités à travers à une mise en réseau efficace, à des liens avec d’autres programmes, au renforcement des capacités du personnel du projet et au renforcement institutionnel des ONG locales partenaires.
  • Établir et maintenir des relations de travail hautement collaboratives avec le gouvernement de Guinée, l’USAID/Guinée, ainsi que les parties prenantes concernées dans le pays ; servir de point de contact technique clé pour l’USAID et de liaison principale avec le personnel de l’USAID, les institutions et les partenaires du pays afin d’échanger des informations et de développer des relations professionnelles.
  • Fournir un soutien en matière d’encadrement et de mentorat aux membres de l’équipe et aux partenaires de mise en œuvre pour les activités de facilitation du marché.
  • Soutenir la transition des activités du projet vers les partenaires locaux en favorisant et en facilitant un environnement d’apprentissage et de collaboration.
  • Support the identification and recruitment of individuals with technical expertise who may be available for short- and long-term assignments.
  • Ensure that all activities are undertaken in full compliance with Chemonics standard operating procedures, USAID policies and regulations, and national policies and laws.
  • Coordinate and collaborate with FHM Engage core teams and activities as well as other national FHM Engage programs. Liaise with Chemonics and consortium partners office in Washington DC for technical matters. Fully engage as a member of the Chemonics team, including participating in staff meetings and other Chemonics-hosted events as required.

Promoting the learning agenda:

  • Share local and contextualized data, lessons learned and emerging innovations with the FHM technical team to promote collective learning.
  • Liaise, as necessary, with USAID/Guinea, the Guinean government, project stakeholders and private sector counterparts.
  • Advise USAID and other stakeholders, as appropriate, on technical market development trends and programming priorities in Guinea.
  • Provide intellectual leadership to advance health market development approaches, including generating evidence, learning and innovation to improve understanding of local health markets and strategies to address market failures.
  • Work with the monitoring, evaluation and learning team to focus on documenting what is being accomplished, how these achievements relate to changes in Guinean health markets, and how Market systems evolve over time.
  • Proactively use monitoring and evaluation data to adjust program approach and strategies, modify work plans and implementation activities as necessary, to ensure the program stays on schedule and achieves results expected.
  • Work with implementing partners, refine and answer questions in accordance with FHM’s adaptive management learning approach.
  • Turning facts into action by encouraging the use of this knowledge to strengthen understanding of challenges at the national level, as well as the generation and prioritization of local solutions.
  • Document processes and achievements across the project, including monitoring activities to ensure learning is captured and disseminated.
  • Work with the communications team to synthesize key learnings for regular FHM Engage reporting and for internal and external dissemination, including technical working groups, conferences, learning events and blogs.
  1. Expected start date

The start date for the position is planned for May 2024.

  1. Duty station

The duty station is Conakry, Guinea.

  1. Monitoring and reporting

The technical director will report to and be supervised by the head of mission of FHM Engage Guinea.

  1. Professional qualifications
  2. A Master’s degree or higher in public health, business administration or other related field.
  3. At least 10 years of professional experience managing global health or related projects, with experience in private sector health markets, pharmaceuticals, family planning, maternal and child health (MCH) ), malaria and global health security (GHS) strongly preferred.
  4. Significant experience in developing and implementing work plans, monitoring budgets and managing a diverse team of local and international staff.
  5. Demonstrated leadership experience in a USAID-funded project, preferably as Technical Director/Advisor, Group Leader/Project Director, or Deputy Group Leader.
  6. Proven ability to serve in a high-level representative role and work with diverse stakeholders, including U.S. and local government officials, and private sector actors.
  7. Experience managing complex relationships with diverse stakeholders within a multi-partner consortium, including host governments at different levels, private sector actors, experience coaching staff and working with consultants and international and national staff.
  8. Have demonstrated leadership, versatility, integrity and creativity.
  9. Excellent administrative, organizational and written and oral communication skills.
  10. Must be authorized to work in Guinea.

How to apply

Application instructions

Please send an email with your CV and cover letter attached and “Technical Director” in the subject line to FHMGuineaRecruit@chemonics.com by April 24th, 2024. No telephone inquiries, please. Chemonics will contact finalists.

Chemonics is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, or other non-merit factor.

Application Instructions

Please send an email with your CV and cover letter attached and “Technical Director” in the subject line to FHMGuineaRecruit@chemonics.com by April 24, 2024. No telephone inquiries, please. Chemonics will contact finalists.

Chemonics is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization or any other factor not linked to merit.

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