CHAI RWANDA
JOB DESCRIPTION
Title: Program officer- School of Health Sciences /CMHS/UR
Program: Human Resource for Health (HRH)
Job Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Type: Full-Time
Start date: March 2022
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
CHAI Health Workforce Background:
A skilled health workforce is the backbone of every health system and therefore an essential precondition for progress toward universal health coverage (UHC). However, WHO estimates a projected shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030, mostly in low- and lower-middle income countries. The chronic under-investment in education and training of health workers in some countries and the mismatch between education and employment strategies in relation to health systems and population needs are contributing to continuous shortages. These are compounded by difficulties in deploying health workers to rural, remote, and underserved areas. CHAI assists governments to develop their health workforce by enhancing their capacity to train highly qualified health workers and by strengthening national systems to finance, deploy, and manage those health workers.
CHAI’s approach to national heath workforce strengthening emphasizes three strategies:
(i) improving the quality and strategically increasing the scale of education for health workers,
(ii) expanding and optimizing health workforce financing, and (iii) providing technical assistance to governments to strengthen their overall health workforce planning and management systems.
Two key principles guide CHAI’s approach to workforce development. The first is focusing on the right kind of health workers—from community health workers to midwives, nurses, health managers, general physicians, and medical specialists—based on national need and service delivery objectives. CHAI’s approach also emphasizes sustainability by building the institutional capacity of the schools and universities where health workers are trained, training new generations of health professions educators, and developing systems and individual capabilities within governments to better plan and manage their own health workforce.
CHAI’s health workforce programs vary by country, as they reflect the major barriers and opportunities to workforce development in that specific context, as well as the priorities of the host government. Currently, CHAI is focused on health workforce programming in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Position Summary:
The government of Rwanda has developed the National Strategy for Health Professions Development (NSHPD) 2020-2030, a 10-year plan to strengthen and expand the Rwandan health workforce though improved and expanded pre-service training. The strategy outlines national health workforce targets for 37 cadres of providers, and the necessary inputs to training institutions to scale up enrollment and graduation to meet those targets. The government has created a Human Resources for Health Secretariat (HRH Secretariat) to manage implementation of the strategy. The HRH Secretariat works in close collaboration with the College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CHMS) across its five schools at the University of Rwanda (UR) to implement the strategy. The HRH Secretariat has requested CHAI’s support in the implementation of the NSHPD and in different areas.
CHAI is seeking a highly motivated individual with outstanding technical skills to assist the School of Health Sciences at the CMHS in the implementation of the NSHPD at the school level. The Program officer should have technical skills to plan/initiate, execute and monitor routine operations of implementing the NSHPD in close collaboration with the Dean of the School and the Heads of Departments (HODs). In addition, the Program Officer will serve as liaison between the School and the HRHS.
The desired candidate must be able to multitask and work simultaneously on a wide range of quantitative and qualitative tasks and/or small projects and ideally will have worked in the field of health professional education. Successful candidates must have a passion for results, a commitment to excellence, and a demonstrated capacity to work effectively in high pressure situations and able to adapt to fast paced and changing environments internally and externally.
This position will report to the Dean of the School of Health Sciences and is based at the office of the Dean in Kigali, Rwanda.
Key Responsibilities:
Academic and Faculty Planning
- Work closely with the Dean and the HODs to design and implement a systematic approach for teaching planning and scheduling (including routinely revising) to align appropriate permanent and visiting faculty support, as well as clinical placements and medical equipment & consumables required for training.
- Work closely with the Dean and the HODs to ensure that all the mandatory faculty as described in the approved programs specification are recruited on time with focus on the permanent faculty.
- Work closely with the Dean and the HODs to develop a detailed plan for in-country and study abroad faculty development related activities including coordinating scholarships.
- Work closely with the Dean and the HODs to plan and implement curricula development and review to make the programs fit for purpose.
- Work in close collaboration with the UR postgraduate directorate to organize and implement student’s enrollment related activities from the call for applications up the registration.
- Assist the school postgraduate coordinator and HODs to report on progress of academic activities.
- Other responsibilities as needed and required by the Dean.
Academic partnerships organization
- Support the Dean’s office to develop an effective academic partnerships strategy for the school in close collaboration with HRHS.
- Assist the Dean to identify, develop and maintain strong relationships with potential and existing academic partners.
- Work in close collaboration with the Dean ‘office to implement all the activities related to the execution of MoUs and contracts with academic partners and visiting faculty.
Designing, soliciting, and implementing funding for academic and research programs and projects.
- Search and scope academic and research funding opportunities for the school.
- Organise ad-hoc meetings to discuss these opportunities with relevant faculty.
- Support the Dean to develop proposals for funding opportunities, including leading and convening writing teams with content experts, ensuring appropriate inputs are collected and proposals are submitted on time.
- Coordinate the implementation of the awarded grants.
- Work closely with the directorate of research and innovation at CMHS to organize seminars, conferences and/or research days to promote health sciences research and boost collaboration.
Academic Qualifications:
- Master’s degree in health sciences in any other relevant subjects.
Work Experience:
- A minimum of three (3) years of relevant experience.
- Previous roles in research projects or consultancy work.
- Demonstrated experience providing technical assistance to government institutions and preferably higher learning institutions and teaching hospitals would be considered as an advantage.
- Experience working in Rwanda or in other relevant contexts.
Skills and Competencies
- Demonstrates strong verbal and written communication skills.
- Demonstrates strong organizational skills.
- Ability to take a comprehensive, logical, and data-driven approach to solving problems.
- Ability to establish a relationship based on trust with stakeholders at all levels.
- Ability to work independently and effectively in high-pressure, fast-paced environment and handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
- Ability to independently identify systematic challenges and propose evidence-based solutions.
- Ability to cope with a frequently changing environment and adapt to evolving situations.
- Ability to be reliable, responsible, dependable and to fulfil obligations.
Languages
- Fluent in English.
- Knowledge of Kinyarwanda and French would be considered as an advantage.
Application Process:
Interested candidates should email a letter of interest (maximum 1 page) outlining how their background meets the requirements outlined above; CV (maximum 3 pages); and the names of three references with “Program Officer, School of Health Sciences” in the subject line. The deadline for applications is March 11, 2022. Please click on the apply button below and fill out the form to submit your application
