Supervisory Project Management Specialist (Family Health) At US Agency for International Development

USAID/Uganda is seeking for a qualified individual to fill the Supervisory Project Management Specialist (Family Health) position.

The Office of Health & HIV/AIDS (OHH) Team is responsible for one of USAID’s largest and most complex bilateral assistance health programs. Currently, there are five technical units: 1: Health System Strengthening Unit (HSS), 2: President’s Malaria Initiative Unit (PMI), 3. Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), 4: the HIV & TB Unit (HIV/TB) and its PEPFAR sponsored activities, 5: Family Health Unit (FHT), and 6: Strategic Information Unit (SI) which provides support to the Office and other technical teams. The OHH Team is headed by a U.S. Foreign Service Officer who reports directly to the Mission Director.

The FHT Unit is headed by the Supervisory Project Management Specialist (FHT Unit Leader) who is responsible for providing leadership and direction of the unit and in turn reports to the OHH Director or designee. The FHT Unit focuses on: (1) improved health for children under the age of 5 and women of reproductive age activities to address barriers that prevent women from accessing health services through the promotion of gender equity. (2) improving nutrition outcomes using evidence-based interventions at facility and community levels (3) challenges that come with Uganda’s rapidly growing population by working with stakeholders in the public and private sectors to support voluntary family planning and reproductive health. (4) increasing the availability, affordability, and quality of voluntary family planning services within the public health and private system. The FHT Unit leads the nutrition mission portfolio and closely works with the Feed the Future Initiative under the Economic Growth Office and USAID integrated nutrition programs to prevent under-nutrition with economic growth and agriculture programs.

The Specialist is responsible for providing technical leadership to the entire USAID/Uganda Mission and to the USG Mission to Uganda as a whole in the areas of family planning, nutrition, as well as maternal, perinatal and child health (MCH) including facility Water, Sanitation and Hygiene related issues. The Specialist is recognized by the USG and the GoU as an expert in family health, and serves as a key Advisor to Mission Management, the USG Mission in Uganda, to the GoU, and to implementing partners (IPs). The Specialist provides supervision and managerial oversight, and is involved in the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of all USAID/Uganda family health activities. The Specialist provides day-to-day technical management and oversight of the family health portfolio.

The Specialist facilitates communication and ensures collaborative working relationships with high-level decision makers, as well as technical staff, in the Ministry of Health, Regional Health Bureaus, USAID/Washington counterparts, with other government entities, and with other donors and non-governmental organizations working in the health sector. The Specialist represents USAID and the USG on various high-level governing bodies key to family health; serves on GoU technical working groups and donor working groups to advance the policy objectives of the USG and to support coordination and harmonization of health activities in Uganda; and, provides essential communication and liaison within USAID offices and with other USG agencies. The work includes supervision of eight professional and support members of the FHT Unit.

The Specialist provides strategic and technical leadership in the design and implementation of USAID/Uganda family health activities in Uganda. As a senior health advisor for USAID, the Specialist represents USAID and the USG in national and international fora to advise on policies, strategies, and technical issues. The Specialist has an understanding of global health issues, as well as the entire USAID/USG health portfolio, and serves as an Agreement Officer’s Representative/Contracting Officer’s Representative (AOR/COR) or Activity Manager for selected programs/ projects/ activities. As an AOR/COR, the Specialist monitors program performance and progress, identifies implementation achievements as well as problems in performance, and initiates appropriate actions in consultation with other FHT Unit staff, and/or the Deputy and Office Chief, as appropriate. The Specialist overseas the FHT Unit of eight members, including AORs/CORs, and provides mentoring and coaching to the entire OHH in the areas of family planning, nutrition, MCH/ WASH, maternal, perinatal child health issues. The Specialist may be assigned to act for the Office Director and/or Deputy Office Director in their absence or preoccupation.

EDUCATION

Master’s degree, or the local equivalent, in economics, social science, public health, management, social science, or anthropology is required.

PRIOR WORK EXPERIENCE

–Minimum of seven years of progressively responsible, professional-level experience in health-sector program management, with at least four years of that time in strategy and policy development, is required. Experience must have provided the opportunity for project design, program planning, and/or implementation.

–At least two years of experience in development-related work or related fields for USG, other donor agencies, GoU organizations, or private-sector institutions which included project design, performance monitoring, and/or the analysis and interpretation of large amounts of data is required.