Technical program director | Monrovia, Liberia | 2023

Chemonics seeks a Technical Program Director for the USAID FHM Engage project in Liberia, to be based in Monrovia, Liberia, with an anticipated start date of April 15, 2023, for one year, with the possibility of extending based on availability of funding. This position will be the primary point of contact in Liberia for all of the USAID-funded FHM Engage activities, including the COVID-19 activity, the Private Sector Engagement Strategy activity, private sector market intelligence in family planning, our support to the JFK Medical Center for IT procurement, and future scopes of work. We are looking for individuals who have a passion for making a difference in the lives of people around the world.

Background

Frontier Health Markets (FHM) Engage is a global cooperative agreement designed to provide technical assistance (TA) supporting local actors to improve the ability of health markets to meet supply-side capacity gaps and consumer preferences and contribute to equitable provision of and access to high-quality family planning (FP) and other health services and products in mixed health systems. FHM Engage is focused on strengthening local health markets by addressing the root causes of market failures in the core market functions to create the necessary behavior change that catalyzes supply and demand to support sustainable change. These root causes as identified through the Market Development Approach are often associated with the stewardship, financing, regulation, and supporting functions of health markets and could be improved by interventions aimed at increased access to financing, balanced application and enforcement of health policy, increased availability and use of health market data, improved donor coordination, and broader platforms for systematic engagement between governments and private sector organizations.

To mitigate challenges in the private sector, USAID/Liberia has provided COVID-19 funding to FHM Engage to support the Ministry of Health’s goal of increasing COVID-19 vaccine access and coverage through the private sector by a) optimizing and integrating the COVID-19 vaccine into routine immunization, and b) improving and integrating data collection and reporting with public sector data systems, specifically for planning and implementing the COVID-19 response and integration interventions in six of Liberia’s 15 counties.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop the planning process for FHM Engage private sector engagement activities for COVID-19 vaccination and integration into routine immunization within a market development approach
• Propose and lead the market research and landscaping process developing useful market and consumer insights for data-driven decision-making by FHM Engage
• Propose and track metrics to measure the effectiveness of FHM Engage market development interventions in private sector engagement for COVID-19 vaccination and integration into routine immunization
• Plan and execute high-quality and effective market development workshops, technical meetings, and stakeholder consultations
• Represent FHM Engage in Liberia as our Technical Program Director at market development engagements with different stakeholders including MoH, Private and Commercial players.
• Identify strategic partnerships in Liberia that could expand coverage in COVID-19 vaccination and routine immunization in Liberia
• Apply market development thinking as a more sustainable way to engage, support, and increase the role of the private sector in the delivery of Immunization services
• Catalyze engagements with local and international private-sector actors, civil society, social entrepreneurs, governments, development agencies, and host-country governments to develop a common vision for priority health problems, co-design local solutions, build the resilience of local partner institutions, and build health market systems that can respond to future challenges
• Promote sustainability of project activities with effective networking, linkages to other programs, capacity building of project staff, and institutional strengthening
• Lead the drafting of high-quality technical documents, including but not limited to presentations, training reports, briefing notes, budgets, national guidelines, quarterly reports
• Oversee routine program monitoring & evaluation activities and donor reporting
• Supervise two full-time technical staff, and oversee the work of short-term consultants and support staff assigned to FHM Engage Liberia

Qualifications:

• Degree in Business or relevant subject required (e.g. finance, entrepreneurship or across a variety of disciplines including strategic account management, marketing, medicine, finance, B/P administration, pharmacy etc.) MBA preferred
• Minimum 10 years’ experience working at the management level of a business enterprise
• Liberian citizen
• Understanding of local healthcare and small and medium enterprises systems in Liberia
• A track record of working collaboratively with host-country government and private sector entities, including business, associations and other organizations
• Experience in social enterprises an added advantage
• Experience in sales and brand management from an FMCG background an added advantage
• Influencing/Negotiation skills: Ability to understand both internal and customer perspectives so as to be able to build a win-win strategy for financial and value-based negotiation.
• Strategic Thinking: Visualizes the way forward, identifying opportunities that add value to the work and to the business.
• Project Management: Organizes work efforts by prioritizing tasks, using resources optimally, establishing appropriate deadlines and ensuring on-time, quality delivery.
• Productive Communication: Plans and delivers ideas and information to others in an impactful manner.
• Market Access: Deep knowledge of the healthcare environment, consumer decision- making processes, product pricing and distribution
• Highly self-driven and passionate about what they do
• Demonstrated leadership, versatility, and integrity
• Demonstrated strong writing and oral presentation skills in English