Senior Policy Advisor, Policy Hub

CHAI Rwanda

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

TITLE: Senior Policy Advisor, Policy Hub

Program: Health Systems Strengthening

Job Location: Kigali, Rwanda

Type: Full time paid

Start date: November 2024

Organizational 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 is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.

Program overview:

A healthy and productive society is among the ambitious targets of vision Rwanda 2050. Despite remarkable achievements in the past two decades, progress in maternal and neonatal mortality, as well as stunting is lagging. At the same time, the country is facing an epidemiological transition, with a growing burden of non-communicable diseases, as well as new and emerging threats. To accelerate progress in maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH), and ensure all Rwandans have affordable access to quality care, the Government has committed to strengthening the primary health care system by identifying four priority PHC reform areas: 1) Strengthening primary healthcare system and public health security; 2) Optimizing health workforce production, performance, and retention; 3) Developing evidence-based medicine and systems; 4) Enhance leadership and management decisions, coordination, and planning by leveraging digital integration.

Executing each of these priorities is dependent on generation and utilization of real time quality data at all levels within the health sector to inform policy decisions, guide implementation, and apply the necessary reform for improvement. Establishing a sustainable culture and consistent practice of institution-wide quality evidence generation and use for policy decision is resource intensive and demands dedicated capacity including a highly skilled team at highest leadership level at MoH.

As such, the Ministry is establishing a new Policy Hub to effect institutionalized data-driven policy analysis and guidance for the implementation of the priority health sector reforms. The Policy Hub is currently stationed within the Planning, M&E and Health Financing department and will work closely with technical departments at all stages of policy development and implementation, and over time will aim to support a sustainable culture of data use for decision making across the health system. The Policy Hub will be complemented by a National Health Intelligence Center (NHIC) charged with leveraging routine evidence generation (where possible, collecting additional data as needed), advanced analytics, interpretation and proactively analyzing and using the information to inform key policy decision.

Position overview

CHAI is seeking a Senior Public Health Policy Advisor as key coordinator for this newly established Policy Hub. The policy advisor will focus on optimal use of existing evidence within the health sector using advanced data analytics tools and technology unit, the National Health Intelligence Center (NHIC) dedicated to serve this purpose to generate quality policy analysis, apply visualization tools (dashboards), policy briefs, and presentations to respond to critical policy questions and inform data driven decisions by leadership and managers across all levels of the health system. In the near term, s/he will focus on the priority reform agenda—including data use to inform the design, planning, resource mobilization, and allocation to strengthen the PHC performance management and improvement system

The policy advisorwill work closely with data scientists within the NHIC and other technical advisors to design and conduct analysis and to interpret and communicate data for decision-making and publication. This could include developing policy briefs and presentations that bring together data to answer critical policy and planning questions. It will also include development of scientific publications, infographic reports, and other communications and advocacy outputs that can also be used to share learnings at local, regional and global levels.

The Advisor will be directly supervised by and accountable to Director, PMEHF department. The priority tasks will be set out by the Head of Department and the hub expert will generate the necessary high quality evidence analysis and policy recommendations to inform decision. The candidate will therefore be seconded to the Ministry of Health reporting directly to the head of the planning department. S/He also reports in parallel to CHAI, HSS Associate Director for specific CHAI-supported initiatives.

Key Responsibilities:

• Ensure full operationalizationof the Policy hub and NHIC. The policy advisor will further align with the MOH on the scope, staffing, and additional support needs for this Policy Hub, as well as how it will be communicated to and interact with the health system.
• Review existing priority policy reform agenda and develop a framework analysis plan. The policy advisor shall review existing priority policy agenda based on existing data from multiple sources and use advanced data analytics tools to generate policy briefs, high level presentations and advocacy documents to mobilize adequate financial resources for implementation.
• Strengthen data use for PHC performance management and system improvement. This includes leveraging programmatic and financial data to conduct key analyses and ensuring that these analyses are available and accessible to users at all levels of the health system.
• Support institutional capacity strengthening and routine practice of generating high quality evidence on project design and implementation. This includes improving on key analyses or tools to answer questions and accelerate progress on the reforms.
• Generate and institutionalize culture of producing high quality scientific evidence generation across all health programs through capacity building of technical departments.The policy advisor will be mandated to produce and support technical departments to generate key policy documents, scientific publications, communications and advocacy outputs such as policy briefs, conference abstracts, and infographic reports that can also be used to share learnings at local, regional and global levels.

Key Requirements:

• Advanced degree in public policy, public health, Health Sciences, health workforce development, supply chain management, or related field.
• A minimum of 8 years of years of experience public health (with a focus on primary health care service delivery and performance management, health workforce development/forecasting/pipeline analysis, and/or supply chain management), preferably in public or NGO sector in Sub-Saharan Africa and base location in Rwanda is preferred.
• Experience in leading complex health reform projects, from reform strategy design, implementation, and evaluation of programs on any of the specialists preferably in the public health sector.
• Demonstrated experience in leading and participating in analyzing, formulating, evaluating, major health related policies.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with the ability to write in a clear and concise manner, including for policy and technical documents such as national strategic plans and guidelines.
• Demonstrated experience in academic writing and evidence-to-policy translation, including a proven track record of developing scientific publications, policy briefs, conference abstracts, and infographic reports (or similar documentation).
• Direct experience working with government institutions, informing development of government health strategy and operational plans in any of specialty areas.
• Ability to think strategically, handle ambiguity and work in a very fast-paced, limited-structure, multicultural environment.
• Entrepreneurial mindset, including ability to work independently, self-motivate, and take initiative.
• Ability to learn on the job quickly and absorb and synthesize a broad range of information.
• Fluency in Kinyarwanda or French is preferred

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 to: Chairwandarecruiting@clintonhealthaccess.org with “Public Health Policy Advisor, Policy Unit” in the subject line. The deadline for applications is 31^st October 2024. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. In compliance with the data protection law of Rwanda, your submission of an application for this position constitutes your consent for the Clinton Health Access Initiative to gather and utilize your personal data solely for the recruitment process.