Coordinator, SRH Project – Population Services International (PSI) Vacancy Announcement

Position Title:Coordinator, SRH Project

Department: AYSRH/RISE

Reports to: Associate Scale Up Manager – RISE or IFI Manager

Based in: Adama Field Office 

                Tarcha, SWEP-Reginal Health Bureau

                 Dessie Field Office

Level: C2

Required Number: One for each location

Duration of contract: Indefinite based on performance and availability of funds

Remuneration: As per organization pay scale plus other PSI Ethiopia staff benefits.

Application Deadline: April 21, 2023

Who we are?

We’re Population Services International (PSI), the world’s leading non‐profit social marketing organization. We work to make it easier for people in the developing world to lead healthier lives and plan the families they desire by marketing affordable products and services that range from mosquito nets to contraceptives to HIV testing. We are a $560m enterprise based in Washington, DC, operating in the private and public sectors in more than 65 countries.

Join us!

There are over 9,000 “PSI’ers” around the world. It’s a diverse group of entrepreneurs and professionals with an unusually wide range of backgrounds – from the medical industry to the music business – all with unique skills we bring to the job.

PSI/Ethiopia wants to reimagine healthcare, put the consumer at the center, and whenever possible, bring quality care to the front door.  We achieve health impact in Ethiopia by working with both government and private partners and harvesting technology innovation to bring quality care closer to communities, schools, and homes.   We empower consumers by including them in the design of healthcare solutions, offering them more healthcare choices, and helping them to have a voice in influencing national priorities.  We work with all market actors in the health system to understand their needs, designing and delivering solutions so that market systems can sustainably serve consumers for the long term, helping to support the Government of Ethiopia in achieving Universal Health Coverage.

We are looking for SRH project coordinator to support PSI SRH activities in the assigned implementation sites including the Smart Start Scale up Program called RISE (Roadmap to Integrate Smart Start in Ethiopia). This includes support the day-to-day operation of RISE which is a scale up and institutionalization program that involves geographic expansion as well as system influence to embed the Smart Start Innovation in the Ethiopian Public Health System. Under the supervision of the RISE Associate Scale Up Manager( or IFI Manager in the case of Dessie assignment), the project coordinator will be primarily responsible, for the quality implementation of SRH project activities including RISE in the assigned implementation sites/zones.  

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

You will work under the direct supervision of Associate Scale Up manager – RISE or IFI Manager. More specifically, your role and responsibility shall focus on:

Technical Support

• Provide Technical Assistance (TA) on the seamless integration of smart start activities and indicators into the RHB’s( or Zone) work plan, budget, training curricula, monitoring, evaluation and reporting system.
• Support on the promotion and implementation of the national AYH strategy in the region s/he is assigned to work.
• Lead the alignment and cascade of guidance/direction provided by the RISE and MOH leadership, and PSI/E senior leadership in close consultation with the regional Health Bureaus
• Support strengthening of   the relevant AYH and FP TWGs that will support the institutionalization process of RISE at different levels.
• Follow and monitoring of RISE to ensure that Smart Start is incorporated and reflected in pre-services and the revised IRT cascade trainings.
• Assist the design, institutionalization, and implementation of Smart start into local contexts and integrated into the existing system.
• Coordinate and oversee the scale up and expansion of the Smart Start in all woredas targeted for the RISE activities.
• Orient, train, coach, and mentor RHBs, ZHDs and woreda health offices staffs and PHCU teams who are involved in Smart Start integration and scale up activities.
• Ensuring that joint supportive supervisions are conducted as per the plan using the appropriate standards and tools.
• Ensure integration and alignment of RISE in the annual work plans of the RHB ( or Zone)and districts and support the implementation of planned activities.
• Support the establishment and functionality of RISE steering committee at regional and districts level and make follow ups to conduct regular meetings per the agreed TOR.
• Closely workings with the RISE Associated Manger and the teams to track the impact of system influence, scale up, ownership and sustainability over time.

Smart start services delivery

• In collaboration with woreda health offices and PHCUs conduct monthly health post-support visits.
• Provide mentoring and coaching support to HEWs and healthcare providers at PHCUs.
• Ensure that visits are performance-driven and geared towards supporting HPs with poor performance within a quarter.
• Develop quarterly revisions based on monthly Data-to-Action (D2A) outcomes.
• Develop a checklist that shall be used to identify issues related to all technical areas (QA, MERL, SC).
• Provide regular feedback to PHCUs, and woreda health offices.  And support them to draw action points.
• Analyze findings and share learnings for course correction, and continued improvement.
• Provide TA to ensure that HPs and HCs are reporting an increased number of new and continuing adopters of modern contraceptive methods.

Quality of Care

• Implement the quality assurance (QA)/ Quality improvement (QI) of RISE jointly with the regional and district level health bureaus.
• Support Strengthening of the quality of   care of family planning services through smart start counselling including undertaking assessment to identify gaps, developing, and implementing action.
• Ensuring quality of service and the girl’s safety is always at the center of every single activity.
• Work with the Quality Assurance manager cascade the QA/QI tools, SOPs, assets and tracking systems at regional and district level.
• Support Quality Audit activities at regional and district level jointly with the health providers.
• Ensure equitable and quality service delivery on adolescent’s access to modern contraception in accordance with the designed SMART START tools; in compliance with MOH rules and regulations and national guidelines and work closely with government stakeholders to create quality agreements, ensure quality standards are met, and resolve issues related to quality service delivery promptly and effectively.
• Develop and ensure timely execution of the quality audit Plan, coordinate regulatory inspections, and report significant SMART START design fidelity issues and standard clinical quality deficiencies to responsible bodies.
• Generate insight on the experience of married adolescent girls to track on whether they are getting quality service or not.

Health Workforce

• In close collaboration with the training and learning advisor and AYSRH at Hawasa IFI, is expected to plan and execute all the training requirements at regional and district level.
• In close coordination with regional health bureau and woreda health offices and other partners, lead and coordinate the planning and cascade of Smart start training.
• Ensure the proper and timely implementation and quality of IRT TOT and roll out, and the pre-services training.
• Support the integration of smart start training into the HEWs pre-services training curriculum in the region.
• Ensure that the PHCUs and woreda health offices own and integrate smart start training into their plan.
• Mentorship and coaching of HEWs: regularly observe patient-client sessions and provide on-job training and feedback to HEWs and coach them on areas for improvement​.
• Maintain the IRT training database and provoke analysis to make some important decisions.
• Pre-services HEWs training on smart start: engage with health science colleges and provide TA.
• Orientation/ training of Women Developmental Agents (WDAs) and other community structures
• Planning and coordination of the sensitization of members of the WDA on Smart Start​
• Coaching and supervision of HEWs to support WDA activities.
• Prepare and standardize message for WDAs.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Program review at RHBs( or Zonal HO)​: Support program and data review meetings at RHBs​
• Actionable recommendations corrective actions to implementation exigencies documented in meeting reports.
• Regularly reporting and updating the IFI leadership and RHB on progresses at regional level.
• In close collaboration with the MEL Specialist, proactively support the data verification events whenever needed.
• Conducts coaching and mentorship on DHIS2 data management at the RHB, woreda, PHCU and HP level.
• Support for data driven decision making​ through Data-to-Action (D2A) sessions.

Key Result Areas:

• Institutionalization of smart start in the regional and districts key documents, training materials and annual work plans
• Scale up of RISE in different woredas in the assigned intervention sites
• Ensure quality of services, embedment and integration of data need into the RHB system.
• Generate and analyze performance data to support evidence-based decision making.

What it takes to succeed

• Knowledge on the context:  knowhow and experience to work with and for the region-specific Primary Health care system is Key to effectively deliver under the role.
• A self-starter: You have the ability to work independently with minimal supervision; you are someone who is proactive in looking for new opportunities.
• Consistent and determined: Influencing system is time taking and labor intensive which requires to understand people and their interest in doing their routine. Someone who is determined and always look at the bigger picture regardless of the challenges on the daily basis is needed.
• Eager and Passionate to serve young people: RISE is for and with the young people in general and married adolescent girls/couples in particular.
• Communicator: who has excellent interpersonal and written communication skill
• Evidence based decision Maker: capable to interpret both qualitative and quantitative data, transform it into compelling communication material to influence both minds sets and skill sets as system is all about infrastructure as well as people.
• Flexible: who is capable to see other alternatives when trail/attempts fail; someone with strong conviction that CHANGE is possible!