Associate at Clinton Health Access Initiative- Rwanda (CHAI):Deadline: 15-10-2022

CHAI RWANDA

JOB DESCRIPTION

TITLE: Associate

Program: Sustainable Health Financing

Job Location: Kigali

Type: Full-Time

Start Date: Immediate

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 Overview:

The Government of Rwanda strives to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by enabling equitable access to quality health services for their population as outlined in the Fourth Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP IV). This commitment is made against a backdrop of rising health care costs and uncertainty around the future availability of donor funding. While Rwanda is often cited as an example for UHC in Sub-Saharan Africa, in part due to high rates of enrollment in the community-based health insurance (CBHI) scheme; the challenge will be to sustain these gains. Acknowledging this, the Government aims to employ effective, equitable, efficient, and sustainable health care financing approaches and inform reforms of existing financing mechanisms including the national insurance scheme.

CHAI Rwanda’s Sustainable Health Financing (SHF) program works on a day-to-day basis with Government leadership in the Ministry of Health (MoH) and Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB). The goal of our program is to support the Government to sustainably finance health and improve access and quality of health services for all Rwandans and address key challenges in the health sector, towards the goal of UHC. This includes defining priority services for the population; mobilizing and pooling resources for health; and improving the way those resources are spent to improve quality of care while controlling costs.

Position Overview:

CHAI Rwanda is seeking an Associate, Sustainable Health Financing and will be seconded to MoH and will work closely with CHAI Rwanda team to support strategic direction to the growth of the SHF program in Rwanda. The Associate will focus support on improving primary health care, including essential public health functions, which is the most cost-effective way to save lives. Interventions at health centers and in communities can address an estimated 77 percent of maternal, newborn and child deaths and stillbirths, reduce inequities in health outcomes, and prevent people from being pushed into poverty from health spending. The systems created for PHC increase resiliency to disease outbreaks such as COVID-19. They also create a foundation that can be used to progressively expand service coverage from primary health care toward universal health coverage. In Rwanda, PHC is implemented through district health units that works as autonomous planning and implementation units for health facilities at the district, sector and cell levels and Community Health Workers.

CHAI is supporting the Rwanda Ministry of Health (MoH) to improve PHC as an effective engine for accelerating progress towards UHC. The objective of this work is to enhance and accelerate progress towards the HSSP IV targets and UHC. The assignment will also include support to various health financing reforms and operational improvement initiatives, including a provider payment reform for PHC and the revision of the CBHI benefit health package.

CHAI is seeking a highly motivated, entrepreneurial individual with outstanding planning, health financing, management, analytical and communication skills to serve as an Associate for the Sustainable Health Financing team. The Associate must be fluent in English and have excellent relationship building and communication skills. He or she must be able to function independently with minimal oversight and have a strong commitment to excellence with a keen eye for detail. CHAI places great value on resourcefulness, responsibility, tenacity, flexibility, independence, energy, work ethic and humility.

Responsibilities:

The Associate will report to the Sustainable Health Financing Program and his or her responsibility will include, but are not limited to the following:

1. Work closely with MoH and across a range of relevant government institutions to identify key areas that require upgrades and improvements in primary health care, to develop a comprehensive long-term costed plan for driving these investments in and improving PHC, aligned with the vision and priorities of the Government of Rwanda. This will include a credible financing plan for how investments in the health system can be maximized and how external investments in systems can be sustained over time and support the implementation of the plan.
2. Engage with high-level government officials in the Ministry of Health to facilitate alignment on key priorities for accelerating progress on the current health sector strategic plan. This will require activities including:
   1. Assessment of current health sector policies, strategies, and plans to determine initiatives, interventions and activities that are planned, in the pipeline, being implemented or can be effectively and efficiently delivered at the PHC level
   2. Leveraging existing literature and available data to determine established targets, the status of progress towards targets and gaps across the health systems as related to PHC.
3. Develop and leverage existing costing of investment and recurring costs, relevant to PHC over an extended period. This may require additional data collection, tools, and approaches.
4. Map available resources against costs, including external and domestic funds projections, highlighting funding gaps. This will leverage existing information.
5. Develop a robust financing plan and facilitate stakeholder validation of plan, including the role for existing external financing to be re-aligned with this plan, for new external financing, and for increased domestic financing over time.
6. Support the government leadership in the design and implementation of health financing strategies, interventions, and reforms, including provider payment reforms for primary health care, priority setting and benefits package design, financial management, strengthening of donor coordination to support domestic resource mobilization and a sustainable transition towards greater self-reliance. This will include analytical work and engaging MoH team and other stakeholders, the development of literature reviews, concept notes, excel tools, quantitative and qualitative analyses
7. Support the government in resource mobilization plan development both domestically, including private sector engagement and promotion of medical tourism, and external financing to ensure health programs are financed more sustainably through diverse and innovative sources of funding.
8. Support the government to design a sustainable capacity-building strategy for MoH staff in analytical work, and data analysis, including costing, scenario modeling, budgeting, impact analyses, and other quantitative analyses that help assess opportunities to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability in health financing to inform priority reforms.
9. Organize policy dialogues, meetings, and workshops
10. Prepare background papers and technical briefs, and produce high-quality written reports and presentations for engaging stakeholders
11. Other responsibilities as assigned by supervisor.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree with a strong quantitative focus in health economics, public health, or other relevant disciplines.
• Demonstrated knowledge of health financing systems and related concepts, with an ability to review and analyze policies, strategies and plans in health financing and overall health systems.
• At least 5-years of experience in a demanding, results-oriented environment in public or private sector.
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and quantitative skills, including attention to detail and experience in modeling using Microsoft Excel.
• Strong communication skills, including delivery of compelling presentations and documents in Microsoft PowerPoint and Word.
• Effective interpersonal skills, demonstrated ability to build strong professional relationships with a range of stakeholders, and excellent organizational skills
• Ability to work independently, set priorities, and handle multiple tasks concurrently.
• Strong command of English.
• Proven ability to coordinate and manage a multi-stakeholder project and timelines.

Advantages:

• Expertise in strategic planning, prioritization, and budgeting for large scale program implementation, including development of investment cases
• Experience in programs focused on primary health care and health systems
• Experience working with governments in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Familiarity with a broad range of key global health issues, including Primary healthcare, health systems or health financing challenges in developing countries.

Application Process:

Interested candidates should send their application HERE

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for further steps.

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