Uganda: Senior Coordinator, Clinical and Community - Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health

Clinton Health Access Initiative Overview

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries, while strengthening the capabilities of governments and the private sector in those countries to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance. For more information, please visit: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

Program Background

Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health outcomes in Uganda remain below national and global targets despite concerted efforts by policy makers, health managers, service providers, development partners and civil society organizations. While investments in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health have translated into tremendous scale up of essential services for women, children and adolescent girls, indicators still remain poor. For instance, while under five mortality reduced by 50% between 2006 and 2016, neonatal mortality increased over the same period of time from 24 per 1,000 live births to 27 per 1,000 live births; far from the national goal of 10 neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births by 2020.

Maternal mortality is unacceptably high, with a nationwide maternal mortality ratio of 336 per 100,000 live births, indicating that the risk of a woman in Uganda dying due to complications in pregnancy or childbirth is four times the global average and above the national target of 211 per 100,000 live births by 2020. Uganda's modern contraceptive prevalence rate among married women is 35% and only 20% among married adolescents, contributing to a high teen pregnancy rate.

CHAI will implement an evidence based Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health project to support the Government of Uganda address the challenges above. The 4 year project will focus on ensuring that timely and quality Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health services are available and accessible to women, adolescents and children. Working at national, district and community level, the program will focus on equipping, and building the capacity of the health system to ably manage, deliver and sustain improvement in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health programming. The project will be implemented in 5 districts

Position Description

The Senior Coordinator, Clinical & Community, will provide oversight of all technical assistance in community system strengthening interventions. He/She will also be responsible for ensuring the protocols, policies and systems operated within the CHAI supported community and facility level sites move towards the recognized “best practice”. This position requires approximately 40%-50% travel domestically.

1. Quality Improvement

• Ensure adherence to Ministry of Health policies and guidelines on all the program component parts with specific focus on quality improvement
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive database of the status of Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care equipment, mix of health workers, and functionality of village health teams
• Support program assisted Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care facilities to strengthen routine Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response reporting and analysis and work closely with the Senior Coordinator - Workforce Development to integrate action and function components of the Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance Response into clinical mentorship activities
• Work closely with the district coordinators to facilitate review meetings, identify gaps in service provision, define methods to identify and investigate problems and recommend and incorporate corrective actions into a formal plan
• Facilitate and advise quality improvement teams/committees of program supported districts and health facilities on development and maintenance of quality improvement plans to address gaps in service provision

2. Community system strengthening

• Assist the Program Manager in the design, implementation, and monitoring of a high impact, integrated community delivery package for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in supported districts, health facilities and target communities to achieve sustainable behavior change, and to increase demand and utilization of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health services
• Provide guidance and support to Ministry of Health, CHAI and partners in the development of models, approaches and strategies that promote strong community health systems and will identify and track new opportunities for synergies
• Spearhead the development of the program operational plans, overseeing the development and successful implementation of the community health structure capacity building and strengthening
• Provide oversight on the implementation of community activities to support formation and functionality of youth and adolescent groups
• Support the development of data collection systems and tools for the peer and community health structure activities

• Participate in project quarterly and annual review meetings as well as report writing

• A University degree in medicine, public health or applied health sciences

• At least 3 years' work experience

• Experience and skills in at least two or more of the following technical areas:

  • strengthening quality of service delivery programs at the facility and community level
  • integrating health service delivery into community structures

• Advanced proficiency in computer packages such as Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word

• Excellent analytical (qualitative and quantitative) and communication (written and verbal) skills

Advantages

• Master's degree in Public Health or related field
• Public Health experience in developing countries
• Experience with design and implementation of clinical and community based Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health programs

Key competences

• Practical project management experience
• Ability to guide a subset of program/ functional development across related project areas
• Advises supervisor on effectiveness of program, systems or procedures
• Recommends initiatives and priorities within a defined program area or function
• Readjusts work objectives as necessary; keeps supervisor informed
• Can plan and carry out individual work with minimal oversight
• Assists in identifying discrete issues
• Develops presentable insights and recommendations with guidance
• Analyze and draw conclusions from data
• Manage the development and maintenance of databases and tools
• Ability to supervise small to medium sized team(s) or integration of multiple small teams
• Coordinates and establishes credibility with internal and department head level external stakeholders
• Prepares financial and donor reports on project budget execution

PI101459000

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