Regional Health Coordinator for Africa At Terre des hommes

Position Start Date : January 1st, 2025

Duration : 12 months with possible extension

Location : Dakar, Senegal

Status : Unaccompanied

Terre des hommes does not set closing dates for this position; recruitment is on-going until the position is filled. Interested candidates are nevertheless advised to apply asap.

Tdh :

The Terre des hommes Foundation (Tdh), with headquarters in Lausanne and an office in Zurich, is the leading Swiss child rights organisation with more than 2000 employees worldwide. We stand together with children to uphold their rights, protect their lives and improve their well-being. We achieve this through innovative programmes focused on health, migration and access to justice, specially designed to have a positive and sustainable impact.

Tdh is currently engaged in a decentralization process under which the Regional Office for Africa will be created in Senegal mid-2025. This will generate managerial changes at both HQ and regional levels. The Health Coordinator for Africa will be a key actor contributing to the establishment of the regional office.

General Context :

The Health Program at Tdh works to contribute to the sustainable reduction of morbidity and mortality of pregnant women, newborns, and children under five, and to the reduction of child malnutrition. Tdh’s Health Program looks for existing accurate life-saving interventions, adapts and implements them in all circumstances including in fragile contexts, and pilots innovative tools, conceived and implemented with renowned partners at local and international level. Tdh leverages and exploits the technological advancements for more cost-effective, impact relevant and efficient country-driven interventions, making them suitable and sustainable for scaling up.

Each action of Tdh’s Health Program is embedded in the local health systems, with a strong focus on developing local partnerships (including with the local private sector, academia, and others), pursue sustainability and economic viability, and aim at scaling it up for systemic changes. Tdh strives to support health systems to maintain their capacity to effectively respond to existing and arising needs in various contexts (emergency, chronic crisis, development) without the disruption of existing services. In exceptional cases and in coordination with local authorities and other actors, Tdh temporarily delivers health services directly to affected populations. The voice of communities, families, local authorities, and partners are heard and integrated in Tdh actions. A user-centric approach guides the conception and development of Tdh activities. Tdh’s Health Program is focused on improving access to primary healthcare services for vulnerable children and mothers in rural and semi-urban areas of Africa, Asia, and MENA regions.

Responsibilities :

The Health Coordinator for Africa ensures the regional impact of Tdh’s health projects and the quality of its interventions. S/he takes care of program management on a regional scale, ensures contextualization and coordinates integration into the region’s matrix organization. S/he reports directly to the Head of Health Program, works in coordination with the Deputies Operations Managers for Africa and country program coordinators, and leads and coordinates the development and implementation of the health strategy, in line with institutional directions, geographical contextualization, complementarity, collegiality, transparency and efficiency at regional level. S/he is responsible for managing, carrying out and steering closely a set of activities within the operational, thematic, administrative, financial, and logistical domains, as well as for the corresponding technical support. Countries to oversee are Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and Kenya. Potentially other countries depending on the expansion of Tdh’s health activities in the region.

Under the supervision of the Head of Health Program, s/he will be responsible to:

• Steer the implementation of Tdh’s Health Program in accordance with the ambitions set out in the strategy, its theory of change and the procedures defined by the organisation.
• Contribute to the development of the Global Health Strategy and its implementation at regional and country level.
• Manage and monitor the health team in Africa, including in managing in a sustainable manner the budget (region and support to delegations) and all necessary resources. Contribute to the global budget and planification exercise by bringing his/her regional dimension.
• Promote and apply the global frameworks, standards, processes, and tools for managing the Health Program in the region and ensures that they are applied at country level.
• Monitor and report on the evolution of contexts and needs to enable timely and appropriate orientations and decision-making (e.g. country of presence of Tdh, mode of intervention, strategic choices, etc.).
• Monitor, analyse, and report on key programmatic indicators for the region (with an operational impact objective) and contribute to institutional performance indicators.
• Support the country office in all matters relating to the operationalisation of the Health Program in the country.
• Encourage and coordinate inter-country exchanges to enhance learning (e.g. sharing of evaluations, good practice, etc.).
• Develop and foster innovation within the program supporting the growth of digital health activities in his/her region.
• Lead and develop program’s strategic partnerships in his/her region building consortia with key organizations.
• Undertake duty travel relating to project/programme assessment and implementation, liaison with counterparts, problem solving, and new project/programme development, as required.
• Be responsible for the visibility of Tdh health programme in Africa, participate to regional working groups, and to events and conferences at regional and international level. Ensure that information is shared to feed into communication and advocacy activities.
• Monitor the health situation in countries where Tdh intervenes in the region providing advice, when required, to the Head of Staff Health and Wellbeing.
• Be responsible for and accountable to beneficiaries, collaborators, and donors, as any other Tdh’s employee.
• Make sure that his/her teams and partners have been instructed in the security policies and the general code of conduct and always comply with them.
• Contributes to fundraising for the Health Program within the region.

The full job description will be shared with the candidates selected to start the recruitment process.

Profile :

Education :

• Master’s degree in Public Health or in a medical field.
• Higher education in development studies, management, international relationships, or other field related to the functions of the position will be an asset.

Experience & Competencies :

• At least 10 years-experience in coordination and implementation of health projects, within NGOs and/or International Organizations, in international cooperation and/or humanitarian context.
• Very good knowledge and understanding of Digital Health, Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition, Health System Strengthening (preferably in Africa).
• Significant experience in developing partnerships, identifying new opportunities, and mobilizing resources.
• Significant experience in program/project management and team management.
• Experience in writing project proposals and managing grants, fundraising, and good knowledge of funding partners.
• Good knowledge and experience of the project management and M&E cycle.

Languages :

Proficiency in French and English. Other languages are an asset.

IT :

High proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite

Conditions:

• Swiss contract
• Gross monthly salary between CHF 5’700.- and CHF 6’100.- depending on experience – x13,36 months
• Insurances: sickness, accident, repatriation
• Annual leaves: 25 days/year
• Flights to duty station and back

Tdh Global Code of Conduct and Risk Management Policies :

• Fully complies with Tdh’s Global Code of Conduct and systematically reports any breach to the Code through the whistleblowing procedure: raises awareness within the Foundation on abuse and violence and the rights deriving therefrom, respecting the rights and dignity of children, members of the communities and our own Staff
• Commits to respecting Risk Management Policies including: Safeguarding Policies (Child Safeguarding Policy, Policy on the Protection against Sexual Exploitation and the Directive on Staff Misconduct at the Workplace), Safety and Security Policy and Anti-Fraud/Corruption and Prevention of the Financing of Criminal Activities Policies
• Commits to reducing the risk of abuse and harm by developing a culture of open and informed leadership within the organization and in our work with children and the communities in which we intervene in.

We offer an exciting and varied work, useful and meaningful, in a team that wants to make a difference for vulnerable children.

Are you interested? Do you want to face this challenge?