USAID/Mali Project Management Specialist – PMS Health Financing and Private Sector Engagement Specialist

REF No.:  HR-HEALTH-004-2018-PMS (must inserted in the subject line of emails)

GRADE LEVEL: FSN PSC-10 (If an applicant does not meet all required qualifications for the position and is selected for the position).

BASIC FUNCTION: The USAID Project Management Specialist (Health Financing and Private Sector Engagement) is assigned to the Health Systems Team in the USAID/Mali Health Office.  The Specialist is responsible for the planning, monitoring, coordination implementation, and evaluation of a broad range of tasks related to health financing in Mali, including health sector finance reform through domestic resource mobilization, increased transparency and management of health sector resources, and facilitating partnerships between the Government of Mali and the private sector to increase access to and availability and use of high quality health services.  The Specialist serves as the Mission’s lead advisor on sustainable public and private healthcare financing and works with the Health Systems Team Leader and Health Policy Specialist on a wide range of assignments across the Health portfolio.  The Specialist engages with other donors and high-level Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance officials and represents USAID on the Ministry of Health’s multi-donor health financing and health insurance technical working groups. The Specialist will also serve as the AOR for the Mission’s upcoming $25 million health systems strengthening award, as well as serve as Activity Manager for Mission’s existing buy-ins to the “Health Policy Plus” ($6.7 million) the “Human Resources for Health” ($4.9 million) field support projects. S/he also serves as AOR for any public-private partnership awards s/he designs. The incumbent reports to the Deputy Health Systems Team Leader (the Health Policy Specialist).

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:  

Technical Leadership– 40% 

This position represents USAID as a member on multi-donor technical and policy working groups with a particular focus on the governance and accountability action plan committee, health financing working group, and health insurance working group.  The Specialist provides strategic guidance in health financing and health economics to USAID/Mali.  S/he serves as key liaison for all strategic health financing, performance-based methods, costing and health economics issues.  S/he assists the USG team in strengthening the use of expenditure analyses, and economic and financial data to ensure efficient use of resources across service delivery, health systems and health promotion partners.  The incumbent examines various models of service delivery (including results-based financing) and costs them, specifically looking at how resources are moved into programs and where the biggest impact has been.  S/he identifies short- and long-term achievable, sustainable strategies to improve financial systems within Mali’s health sector with a focus on decentralization.  The incumbent represents USAID/Mali and the broader integrated health program at meetings, seminars and conferences in health finance, costing, and health economics.  S/he ensures that all health finance and costing activities are consistent with internationally accepted best practices, relevant to Mali, and adhere to Government of Mali policies.

The incumbent will liaise with high level public and private sector officials to explore and advocate for the establishment of public-private partnerships as a means to increase access to and coverage of quality health services. The Specialist prepares activity recommendations, scopes of work (e.g. for new activities and evaluations), and other required documentation to achieve Mission and Government of Mali health financing objectives.  The Specialist develops and maintains an extensive range of contacts within the private sector (both for- and not-for-profit)—and through these contacts—stays up to date on the constraints to private sector engagement and policies to mitigate them.  S/he develops activities to attract private sector funding for health insurance mechanisms and strengthens partnerships with the public sector.  The incumbent will also track overall funds flow through the health sector.

Last, the incumbent reviews periodic and ad hoc reports to ensure that health financing and private sector objectives are being met.  The Specialist also serves as a member of USAID/Mali’s Country Development Coordination Strategy (CDCS) team to ensure that activities in his/her purview support the Mission’s CDCS. 

Activity Development and Oversight – 40% 

The incumbent takes a lead role in providing technical and programmatic expertise in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of health costing and performance based financing programming.  S/he provides technical leadership in the areas of health systems strengthening in the achievement of results, advising and authorizing USAID implementing partners to undertake specific courses of action consistent with current Mission- funded activities related to governance, management and capacity building. S/he assists implementing partners in the development of achievable, measurable plans and objectives for the implementation of innovative health financing interventions.  The incumbent identifies opportunities for integrating state-of-the-art approaches into the health portfolio and provides technical assessment and recommends strategies to pilot innovative interventions in performance-based financing and health insurance mechanisms.  S/he serves as the lead coordinator and advisor on health costing and performance-based financing activities across the health portfolio.

The Specialist serves as AOR for the Health Office’s upcoming $25 million health systems strengthening award with active technical oversight of the health financing portion of this award.  The incumbent therefore reviews and approves all annual activity work plans and M&E plans and prepares independent government cost estimates, and monitors expenditures.  The Specialist also serves as Activity Manager for the Mission’s buy-ins into the “Health Policy Plus” ($6.7 million of USAID/Mali funds) and “Human Resources for Health” ($4.9 million of USAID/Mali funds) field support projects, and develops and manages new public-private partnership activities.  The Specialist conducts site visits to monitor relevant activities and prepares trip reports that detail findings and recommendations, and provides oral briefings to Health Office leadership.  Last, s/he participates in and/or leads Technical Evaluation Committees to decide on awards.  

Programmatic Coordination– 20%

The Project Management Specialist is the USAID/Mali liaison in substantive meetings with high level public and private sector officials involved with USAID-supported programs, keeping them informed of program status, Government of Mali action needs, difficulties encountered, and other project related issues, including the review of existing strategies and the formation of new policies considering difference of opinions and priorities where health sector financing, reform, and capacity-building are concerned.  S/he coordinates with other technical staff on sub-sector activities contributing to program objectives to ensure they are synergistically working towards the achievement of objectives.  The incumbent coordinates and communicates regularly with other USAID/Mali staff, USAID implementing partners, Government of Mali entities (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Promotion of Investment & Private Sector, and Ministry of Territorial Administration & Decentralization), and development partners  (Government of France, Government of the Netherlands, World Bank, World Health Organization, and Global Fund) on administrative, technical, programmatic and policy issues related to the aforementioned areas.  S/he monitors the political environment and other donor activities to inform USAID/Mali’s funding and programmatic decisions.

To be considered for this position, applicants must meet the minimum qualifications:

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Applicants MUST meet the minimum qualifications below and ONLY preselected candidates will be contacted:

• Malian citizens or local residents at the time of application;
• Education (10 points): A master’s degree or host-country equivalent is required in economics, health economics, finance, business, management, or a field that relates to health in this capacity.
• Prior Work Experience (25 points): At least five years of progressively responsible experience is required in a health policy role related to the responsibilities of the position, such as working with health system finance, health systems policy reform, private sector engagement in the health sector, and/or public-private partnerships and alliances. Experience using health financing approaches to increase access to and use of health services and facilitating private-sector partnerships is desired.  A portion of this work should be in a developing country setting, and/or in the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of health systems or related work for other donor organizations, or Malian public or private sector institutions.  Experience related to development in Mali is desired.
• Language Proficiency (10 points): Level III oral and written English and Level IV French are required.
• Knowledge (25 points): The Specialist must have a good grasp of the health sector in Mali, the institutional factors constraining the Malian health system, private-sector engagement with the health sector, and health financing systems in Mali. Understanding of Mali’s economic, political, and social context related to health financing, and familiarity with USG policies, procedures, and regulations, are also desired.
• Skills and Abilities (30 points): The Specialist must have excellent verbal communication skills and tact. The ability to establish and maintain high-level contacts and good working relationships with counterparts in relevant public and private organizations is required.  Very strong writing skills are required to prepare regular and ad-hoc reports, documentation of program impacts, and briefing papers.  The ability to obtain, evaluate, and analyze data, and to synthesize data and present it to a variety of audiences is needed.  The ability to work effectively in a collaborative team environment, to achieve consensus on policy and administrative matters, and to work under pressure and produce results, is necessary.  The work requires good computer skills and proficiency in various computer software applications, including Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint. 

SELECTION FACTORS: 

To be considered for this position, applicants must meet the minimum qualifications noted above. For applicants meeting the minimum qualifications, further consideration and selection will be based on panel assessment of the selection factors listed below.

Applicants are required to address each of the selection criteria on a separate sheet describing specifically and accurately what experience, training, education, and/or awards or recognition they have received relevant to each criteria described below, and any related considerations.

Management may consider the following when determining successful candidacy: nepotism, conflicts of interest, budget, and residency status.

Full Statement of duties and the qualification requirements are available on https://www.usaid.gov/mali/work-with-us/careers

TO APPLY: All cv/resume and cover letter must be in English; otherwise application package will be considered as incomplete and will be rejected.

Interested candidates for this position must submit the following required documents:

1. A cover letter of not more than two (2) pages describing how the incumbent’s skills and experience fit the requirements of subject position.
2. A resume or curriculum vitae (CV) relevant to the subject position.
3. Copy of Diplômas, degrees, certificates, recommendation letters, etc.
4. Three (3) to five (5) professional references with complete contact information including email addresses and telephone numbers. References should have knowledge of the candidate’s ability to perform the duties set forth in the application and must not be family members or relatives.
5. Full mailing address with telephone, facsimile numbers and email address and should retain for their records copies of all enclosures that accompany their submissions. 

SUBMIT APPLICATION: Indicate the Vacancy Reference Number: HR-HEALTH-004-2018-PMS in the subject line of your email. If this is not properly indicated your submission would NOT be retrieved. 

Email Human Resources Management Office: bamakohrmvacancies@usaid.gov with the above reference in the subject line, or

Local Address for Application Submission: Supervisory Executive Officer, US Agency for International Development -BP 34, Bamako-Mali

CLOSING DATE FOR THIS POSITION IS:  October 24, 2018 at 5:00pm