Position Overview

• CHAI is seeking a Program Associate with relevant experience in primary health care delivery and performance optimization to support CHAI Nigeria’s expanding primary health care performance management work in Kaduna and Kano and coordinate a dynamic team with diverse backgrounds.
• This is a challenging, fast-paced and rewarding position. The Program Associate will report to CHAI’s Senior Program Manager PHC Financing and contribute to building out new areas of work for CHAI in response to government requests. He or she will work with key government stakeholders to develop plans and proposals, engage donors, and mobilize resources, operationalize plans and conduct monitoring and evaluation. He or she will be responsible for documenting and sharing learnings with other CHAI Nigeria teams, CHAI’s global health financing and health workforce teams, as well as in-country partners.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical support to the Kano and Kaduna PHC financing teams to design and implement advanced data systems for collecting, analysing, visualizing, and reporting performance data to facilitate informed decision-making and continuous quality improvement.
• Work with the CHAI Performance Management teams in Kano and Kaduna to design interventions to enhance capability, opportunity, & motivation of HCWs, LGA & State Staff to use performance information to drive service delivery improvement.
• Lead the design of rigorous evaluations to measure impact of the performance management on service uptake and quality in the PHCs across Kano and Kaduna States.
• Oversee program implementation in line with grant documents and ensure alignment with Government priorities and accountability to program funders.
• Collaboratively design theories of change and results frameworks and execute program monitoring of work and process evaluation.
• Represent and communicate CHAI’s work both within CHAI and to external partners, funders, and government stakeholders.
• Coordinate the dissemination of CHAI’s learnings from implementation and lead the development of dissemination materials and toolkits using appropriate channels. This includes leading the development of abstracts for submission to conferences, and posters or presentations if invited to present, as well as manuscripts for submission to academic journals. Support uptake of tools and approaches across other CHAI country offices. Engage and build relationships with partners working in similar areas.
• Conducts regular field visits to program states to monitor data quality and provide technical support to the program staff and M&E consultants.
• Support proposal development efforts by identifying gaps and funding opportunities, developing new concepts to secure funding to expand CHAI’s work in this area, and participating in proposal writing, budgeting, review, and submission process.
• Working with the Senior Program Manager, Program Director and Country Director, participate in donor engagement activities and actively map funding opportunities through donor landscaping and relationship building with donors and partners.
• Stay abreast of the evolving primary healthcare strengthening and health financing landscape, in Nigeria, monitoring key trends in the field.
• Support technical health financing learning within the CHAI Nigeria teams by sharing webinars, online courses, and journal articles, and requesting training sessions from the health financing global team and information sharing sessions from other country teams.
• Building capacity of other program staff on cross-cutting hard and soft skills including written and oral communications, work planning and time management, stakeholder management, and problem-solving, by providing written and verbal feedback, mentorship, and providing opportunities to practice.

Any other responsibilities as directed by the Senior Program Manager, Program Director and Country Director
Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in medicine, Pharmacy, Economics, Business Management, or related discipline
• A minimum of 5–6 years of professional experience in an analytical/project management position (an advanced degree in Public Health, Health Economics, or Business Administration will be an advantage) including experience in the health sector in low- and middle-income countries
• Strong understanding of M&E principles, methodologies, and public health tools
• Proficiency in data management, analysis, and visualization using statistical software (Excel, Power BI, SPSS, STATA, R)
• Exceptional analytical (qualitative and quantitative), presentation, and communication (written and verbal) skills
• Proven project management abilities, including the ability to prioritize tasks, meet deadlines, and work under pressure
• Entrepreneurial mindset, including working independently, self-motivating, and proposing and implementing new initiatives
• Ability to think strategically, handle ambiguity, and problem-solve in a fast-paced, limited structure, multicultural environment
• Ability to be effective in high-pressure situations, handle multiple tasks simultaneously, and set priorities
• Strong interpersonal skills and proven ability to build relationships in a multicultural environment
• English language fluency.

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Responsibilities

• Conduct in-depth budget tracking and other sources of funding assessments with the Kaduna state teams.
• Facilitate a participatory process of evidence-based costed and phased PHC improvement plan development.
• Support the development and ground-testing implementation of PHC plans within a few initial LGAs/Health facilities to deliver the package of services, including the development of micro-plans to guide the ground-testing.
• Develop evaluation strategies and methods for the evaluation of implementation of PHC improvement plans, and ensure documentation of lessons learned and best practices and course correction.
• Conduct SRMNCH needs assessments and gap analyses to understand the preferences of the vulnerable population to generate evidence on the type of services that should prioritize/included to inform updates to the health benefit package.
• Support the key ministries, departments and agencies to identify, mobilize and increase visibility on external and domestic funds through resource mapping and expenditure tracking to ensure adequate and quality services are provided to enrolled beneficiaries in the health insurance schemes in the state.
• Work with the state governments to design context-specific strategies to expand coverage of state health insurance schemes to informal sector and vulnerable populations.
• Support the state health insurance agency and other key ministries, departments and agencies to define and establish a framework that explicitly prioritizes the needs of the vulnerable groups, women and children in the state.
• Work with CHAI state teams to build the management and organizational capacity of state health insurance agency.
• Support program state to develop and cost Vulnerable Population coverage expansion strategy and ensure and facilitate the inclusion of the plan into the state annual budget/MTEF.
• Support the program intervention design including capacity gap assessments in the health insurance agencies, gaps assessment in the implementation of basic health care provision fund in the state.
• Conduct capacity strengthening activities on Basic Health Care Provision Funds and financial management for the state health insurance agency and the state primary health care board.
• Support the state primary healthcare management board to develop yearly annual operational plans and monitoring processes to improve Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and Primary Healthcare service delivery.
• Support the primary healthcare facilities to efficiently manage capitation funds from the basic health care provision fund and insurance schemes to inform changes in guidance and accountability mechanisms.
• Participate in and sometimes, lead, donor engagement calls including providing regular team updates to CHAI global team colleagues.
• Disseminate learnings including through global summits, sessions at conferences, team calls, and development of case studies.
• Stay abreast of the evolving health financing and Primary Health Care landscape, monitoring key trends in the field, and support learning within the country health financing team and across.
• Take initiative to identify new opportunities and take on other responsibilities as needed and as requested by the Senior Program Manager and Country Director.

Qualifications

We are seeking a proactive and resourceful individual with strong analytical and communication skills for this role. Specific requirements include:

• A Master’s degree with 5–7 years of experience including experience in the health sector in low- and middle-income countries; experience supporting Government public institutions for health is an advantage
• Program management experience, working end to end from strategy development to proposal development, through implementation, monitoring and evaluation and reporting, as well as program budgeting
• Ability to write persuasively using evidence and to explain complex concepts to a variety of audiences including donors and partners as well as senior government
• Strong facilitator and oral communicator able to explain complex concepts to a variety of topics and ideas
• Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously and quickly adapt to changing environments
• Entrepreneurial attitude, ability to self-motivate and propose new ideas and solutions
• Full proficiency of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Strong interpersonal skills and proven ability to build relationships in a multiculturalÂ
• Ability to multitask and to be effective in high-pressure environments
• Excellent organizational and problem-solving skills, and the ability to mentor and coach others.

Advantages

• Experience working in strategy consulting
• Experience working in public health
• Experience working with national and/or sub-national Governments/Ministries of Health in developing

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