The Global Development Office of the President (GDOOP) has an opening for a Senior Program Officer to support the GD division’s objectives for strengthening health systems and working on global partnerships that support HSS. The SPO will be managed by the Integrated Delivery team, which is the foundation team that works on primary health care systems, health systems strengthening, health financing, and sub-systems (i.e. supply chain). The SPO’s primary duties will involve managing the foundation’s external relationship with and internal engagement model for the Global Financing Facility for Every Woman, Every Child, which is a recently established platform that provides financial and technical resources to countries to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH-N) and to build sustainable health systems to achieve universal health coverage. The SPO will also spend approximately 20% of their time leading and coordinating the Global Development (GD) Division’s shared goal and collective actions around health systems strengthening (HSS).
The foundation is both a funding and technical partner to the GFF. As a contributor to the GFF multi-donor trust fund (MDTF) housed at the World Bank, foundation funding supports the grants that are made to countries to scale up RMNCAH-N interventions. The foundation’s contribution to the MDTF is financed through the budgets of five distinct internal program and functional teams: Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH); Family Planning; Nutrition; Integrated Delivery; and Program Advocacy and Communications (PAC). Foundation teams also work with the GFF at the country level; with 27 countries currently identified to receive support from the GFF (and an additional 23 countries anticipated by 2023), there are many opportunities for collaboration on RMNCAH-N and HSS between foundation and GFF teams, some of which involve foundation funding.
The SPO will manage guide and build upon a portfolio of work that supports foundation teams and country teams/offices who are interfacing with the GFF Secretariat and GFF partners and serve as an internal advisor on to teams who are working on health systems strengthening. On a day-to-day basis, the SPO will report to the Deputy Director of Strategy, Planning and Management for Integrated Delivery, and will maintain a ‘dotted line’ to GDOOP for HSS activities that are cross-divisional and/or related to specific requests from the GD President for GFF-related issues. The SPO will be working in a highly matrixed environment with many touchpoints across Seattle teams as well as foundational regional offices. The SPO will serve as the liaison between foundation teams who are currently engaging with or aspiring to engage with the GFF Secretariat.
The SPO will be responsible for a spectrum of program and technical activities, including grant management, research and analytics, strategic planning, HSS technical advice/assistance, communication and internal and external relationship management for the GFF. Reporting to the DDSPM for Integrated Delivery, the SPO will have the following core responsibilities:
Strategy & Relationship Management (external facing)
- Serve as the foundation’s liaison to the GFF Secretariat to ensure consistent, high-quality flow of information between foundation and GFF and within foundation teams regarding GFF.
- Organize periodic consultations between the foundation and the GFF Secretariat, including developing and monitoring a shared annual work plan.
- Support foundation’s formal governance roles within the GFF platform, including staffing and advisory support to the GD President (currently chair of the GFF Investors Group) and to Director of Integrated Delivery (currently holds foundation seat on Investors Group and on GFF Trust Fund Committee).
Operational (internal facing)
- Manage grant and supplemental contributions to GFF MDTF; work with Financial Planning & Analysis, Legal, and Operations teams to organize payment schedules across contributing teams; update content for internal strategy reviews; serve as point-of-contact for World Bank operational partners.
- Provide cross-divisional support and information for various teams seeking updates (technical, financial, programmatic) on GFF.
- Implement and adapt foundation’s GFF internal engagement model; participate in internal management committee to ensure various workstreams of are coordinated and consistent with overall model.
- Provide technical and strategy support to foundation teams who are investing ‘bilaterally’ in support of GFF at the country level (i.e. teams making grants outside of the MDTF but still in support of overall GFF goals).
- Lead content development on behalf of teams for various engagement model requirements, including preparing materials for GFF Directors Forum, briefings and materials for foundation leadership, etc.
Technical
- Under the GFF internal engagement model, provide technical oversight and leadership on the GFF results agenda, a cross-cutting initiative which aspires to strengthen country data systems to support monitoring of overall GFF impact on increasing the quality and quantity of financing for RMNCAH-N and HSS.
- Be a resource internally and externally on best practices in health systems strengthening, health sector reform, and improving health systems performance (especially for RMNCH-N outcomes).
- Participate in/represent the foundation in various technical forums relating to the GFF, including working groups, convenings, panels, etc.
- Conduct periodic analysis of GFF investment cases/activities and provide overall knowledge management for GFF.
Additional responsibilities (related to the Global Division shared goal to strengthen health systems). This could include:
- Leading internal working groups and knowledge management regarding cross-team and cross-foundation bodies of work and investments on HSS;
- Supporting the GD leadership team and GD strategy teams to agree and rally around a common HSS taxonomy, frameworks, measurement agenda, etc.
- Keeping up to date on the state of the art of key areas of HSS and health sector reform (i.e. HRH, health financing, etc.), and ensuring that GDLT collective action to improve health systems are informed by these best practices and exemplars.
- Participating in Integrated Delivery HSS and PHC systems strengthening strategy development, implementation and investment efforts, and tying various strands of HSS across the foundation together.
This position reports to the Deputy Director, Strategic Planning and Management (DDSPM), Integrated Delivery and will be based at foundation headquarters in Seattle, Washington. This role is a two-year, limited term employment (LTE) opportunity.
The ideal candidate will have experience working in matrixed, complex organizations, and a working familiarity with the global health and development aid architecture:
- A minimum of 10 years of experience in health systems strengthening, with at least some of that time spent in lower/middle income countries, ideally rotating across various sub-specialties and in a mix of technical and advisory/policy roles.
- Experience living and working in low- or lower-middle income countries for at least 3 years on health systems strengthening/health reform agendas or related fields.
- Demonstrated portfolio of accomplishments working in program design and implementation; deep capabilities in change management, strategic planning, and financial analysis.
- Knowledge of World Bank operations is highly desirable.
- Ability to succinctly and effectively translate technical content for generalist and/or diverse audiences; training in policy analysis/communication highly desired.
- Diplomatic and highly adaptable, able to cope with competing and even conflicting agendas; able to maintain decorum and build internal coalitions; high emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
- Entrepreneurial and energetic; ability to navigate and even thrive in ambiguity.
- A sense of humor is desired, as is a “campaign mentality” i.e. no job is too big or too small or too hard.
- Must be able to travel up to 35% domestically and internationally.