Health Program Coordinator – Urabá (based in Turbo and traveling to locations in Necoclí and Apartadó) At Medical Teams International

Role Objective:

The Health Program Coordinator is responsible for providing leadership and coordination to the International Health and Medical Teams activities that provide preventive and primary medical care to returned Venezuelan and Colombian migrants.

Reporting to the Program Manager, this position is responsible for a team of health coordinators and supervisors in both the areas of health system strengthening and community health work supporting migrants and returned Colombians.

The position is the main point of coordination and networking for health technical teams and working groups in Colombia, and represents Medical Teams International with government and associated health actors (including relevant health departments). In addition, the position manages the work plans, budget and reporting of local projects, adapting national strategies to achieve goals in the local context.

Responsibilities:

• Coordinate the implementation of Medical Teams International health projects, including health system strengthening and the community health component. Produce monthly and quarterly work plans and schedules with teams, partners and managers to ensure activity objectives are met.
• Lead, together with the CHW Coordinator, the implementation of the Community Health Program together with the Community Health Coordinator and all community health activities, including the program (recruitment, training, coaching, evaluation and monitoring) of volunteers.
• Lead, together with the HSS Coordinator, the implementation of the health system strengthening program through the management of service contracts with local health entities, facilities and the development and implementation of capacity plans for health facility staff.
• Oversee information management systems for processing beneficiary referrals, voucher distribution, vendor management (including contract and invoice reconciliation), and target population monitoring (case management).
• Coordinate mapping and relationships with service providers (health and/or vouchers) and ensure that selection, contracting and follow-up times are carried out in a timely manner.
• With the Program Manager and Finance Coordinator, develop and manage annual operating budgets and ensure effective monitoring, reporting and financial management of the budget for the Health Strengthening Programs and the Community Health component.
• Ensure sound planning through action plans that are consistent with programme needs and adaptable to changes in the project context, including responding to emerging needs and vulnerabilities of migrants and other target populations.
• Ensure compliance with data management systems to ensure high quality reporting to GIFMM, the Ministry of Health and other donors as required. Maintain strong communication and monitoring of local security situations that could impact project activities or increase risk to implementation teams and volunteers.
• Knowing data on the local context of the program they lead in order to generate local action plans and operational adjustments that result in the appropriate and timely achievement of goals.
• Ensures high quality monthly internal program reporting, including budget management and expense tracking, supports reporting as requested.
• Maintain an emergency preparedness plan within the program and ensure expansion of activities in the event of a disease outbreak or epidemic.
• Ensure the protection of program participants and employees by promoting an environment of awareness and compliance with the provisions of the code of conduct of Medical Teams International’s safeguarding policies against sexual exploitation and abuse and policies for the protection of children and vulnerable adults and sexual harassment policies.
• Provide technical leadership to the community health volunteer program and all health program-related activities, including training, mentoring, and assessing volunteer capacity
• Other tasks assigned or related to your role

Personnel Management

• Provide support and supervision to health program staff to ensure the development of their professional skills.
• With managers and HR, lead recruitment processes for project implementation teams.
• Supports the field team in the implementation and monitoring of work plans, conducting periodic performance reviews of all staff under his/her charge.
• Model excellence in leadership and build effective teamwork and coordination among staff.
• Actively participate in the implementation team as a representative of the program team.
• Mediate between the needs of the program team and those of other areas.

Program quality and technical expertise

• With the support of the Technical Team, it is responsible for making a diagnosis of the local needs of the prioritized communities to ensure that the implementation of the projects meets quality standards and makes use of best practices, ensuring that the health program uses standardized protocols, policies and guidelines, as described by the Ministry of Health and WHO.
• Develop and implement training packages for community health workers and staff, with special care to ensure that activities are responsive to the migrant context and respond to other vulnerabilities, such as lack of safe water, sanitation and gender-based violence.
• Under the guidance of the technical team, the Health Program Coordinator is responsible for implementing the health strategy in their prioritized communities, always taking into account the local context of the communities. Through the Community Health (CHW) and Health System Strengthening (HSS) components, the HPC will ensure the complementarity of these two areas for the implementation of the health program and the different projects to be implemented.
• The Health Program Coordinator is responsible for managing and supervising quality assurance mechanisms within the Health program, as well as corrective actions where appropriate, including assessments to detect changes in health needs, context monitoring, assessments of Health entities and service delivery, and quality assessments of community health activities and case management.”
• Conduct evaluation and monitoring of strengthening plans, donations, and other forms of support for the health system.
• Provide leadership for processes and standards in managing complicated healthcare cases.

Project Development:

• Supports the design, drafting and budgeting of new health proposals, including coordinating feedback from staff, volunteers and beneficiaries on project design and adaptation decisions.
• Ensures the technical and methodological implementation of the program with high quality standards for all interested parties (IPSs, volunteers, staff and suppliers)
• Contributes to strategic decisions regarding the formation of new consortia and partnerships with other NGOs.
• Participate in donor meetings as needed, to advocate for Medical Teams International’s health programs and support health proposals

Coordination, representation and promotion:

• Ensure Medical Teams teams and projects are collaborative and maximize resources (ours and others) in humanitarian activities to improve quality and reach.
• Represent Medical Teams International to the local government, Ministry of Health, UN agencies, international donor agencies, NGOs, faith-based organizations, community leaders and other stakeholders and donors throughout the country, in collaboration with the Program Manager, ensuring the construction of local and articulated networks that allow us to deliver much more comprehensive and quality services to our beneficiaries.
• Ensure participation in health and intelligence roundtables in which MTI is a leader.
• Participate as an active member of the health working groups of the broader sectoral coordination mechanisms.
• Develop strategic partnerships with local organizations, wherever possible.
• Organize, direct and support donor visits and follow-up to health program activities; travel with donors as needed.
• Ensures that accountability is integrated into country strategies, programme design, monitoring and evaluations, recruitment, staff onboarding, training and performance management, partnership agreements and highlighted in reporting;
• Ensure the protection of program participants and employees by promoting an environment of awareness and upholding the provisions of the Medical Teams Safeguarding Code of Conduct against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Safeguarding of Children and Vulnerable Adults and harassment-free workplace policies. Incumbents will remain alert and responsive to any safeguarding risks for children and adults, acquire relevant knowledge and skills to enable them to promote sound safeguarding practices, understand the safeguarding of children and adults policy and procedures, and behave in a manner consistent with Safeguarding.

Required: Health Sciences Professional.

Experience in leadership and team management is required; knowledge in Health Services Management, Public Health or Public Administration and Project Management

Preferred: Master’s degree or other professional health degree such as MPH, or relevant experience in public health project management, with proven certifications in Health Services Management, Public Health, or Public Administration and Project Management

Experience:

• Minimum five years of experience in team leadership and personnel management in an intercultural environment.
• Minimum of four years of professional experience in managing humanitarian health projects in a displacement or conflict crisis.
• Strong experience in managing community health interventions.
• Minimum of 2 years experience working with an NGO
• Experience in working and coordinating with local authorities, UN, donors, international NGOs and coordination mechanisms (e.g. GIFMM, HRT).

Desirable

• Experience working within health systems in Colombia
• Proven experience in developing proposals and designing health programs.
• Proven experience in grant management, preferably UNHCR, PRM, UNICEF.
• Experience in capacity building and developing local staff teams.

Knowledge, skills and abilities

• Team leadership and personnel management.
• Project management
• Detail oriented
• Adaptability to change, ability to work independently in a fast-paced, multitasking environment.
• Teamwork and collaboration
• Excellent intercultural oral and written communication
• Data handling and management with experience in beneficiary/client management systems, as well as tools such as Kobo and Microsoft Office.
• Ability to support the design, implementation and maintenance of monitoring and evaluation tools and frameworks.
• Experience in managing, mentoring and developing the capacity of national staff.