United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Deputy Health Director-Policy and Innovation

General Description of the Programme

GOAL is seeking to substantially expand the organisation’s health capacity during the first part of 2016. To take these efforts forward the organisation is building an enhanced Health Department based in the UK, which will include an Emergency Medical Team. The underlying rationale for this significant investment is the need to address increased levels of need driven by:

• Increased number and severity of natural disasters


• The debilitating effects of protracted conflicts on health systems


• An increase in numbers of global displaced requiring access to health care


• A need for increased capacity and speed of infectious disease response as evidenced by the recent Ebola response


• Gaps in current service provision in chronic/protracted contexts, especially at secondary level


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  GOAL recognises fully that an effective Health Department must be able to work seamlessly within emergency response, chronic service provision and into recovery and long-term development – often in the same context. In seeking to develop a coherent and holistic Health Department GOAL recognises the following:

  
  


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  An effective Emergency Medical Team capacity is vital to saving lives, supports delivery in fragile contexts and seeks to protect the development investment

  
  


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  The Health Department acknowledges that its ‘core business’ is focused on primary and secondary health support and service delivery in chronic / fragile contexts in coordination with national Governments where possible

  
  


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  An active Health Policy Team looking at advocacy, innovation and analysis is key to underpinning our direct operations

  
  


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  Overlaps exist between objectives and a concentration on ensuring coherent, reliable and consistent operational support between emergency, chronic and development programming is crucial to delivering reliable quality programming. Provide strategic leadership to the GOAL health team in order to achieve the following overarching objective

  
  

Overview of the role

This role will lead on providing the most up-to-date research, analysis, and strategy development on health issues key to GOAL’s mission, including:

• Health in emergency response;


• Community health and behavioural change;


• Maternal and child health; SRH, Secondary Health Care;


• Nutrition;


• WASH;


• HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, cholera, Ebola, and other infectious diseases;


• Health workforce and health systems strengthening;


• Accountability for health financing and outcomes;


• Monitoring and evaluating health responses.

Central to this role is leading on GOAL’s engagement around opportunities for innovation, research and development and new partner engagement in the health sector – including corporate partners, research and academic bodies and Government agencies.

The incumbent will work closely with Country Programmes, technical teams and MEAL teams in London, HQ Dublin, GOAL USA and field.

Key Objectives:

• To ensure appropriate health policy and ethical frameworks are developed, understood and applied;


• To ensure GOAL is appropriately engaged in relevant humanitarian and development health sector policy developments;


• To support appropriate GOAL engagement with wider health research + development and new health innovations;


• Working with the Global MEAL team to ensure that MEAL systems for health responses are in place and fully applied;

Roles and Responsibilities:

Policy

• Working with the Technical Sector leads to provide coherent leadership of GOAL’s Global health policy and deliver on key policy projects identified in the health unit and policy work plan;


• Provide specialist policy advice on GOAL’s health policy internally and externally;


• Provide background analysis and summaries of health policy as it affects GOAL’s work; including analysis of policy documents from other agencies, prepare summaries and to advise on their implications for GOAL;


• Represent the GOAL at a senior level externally and build relationships with key stakeholders;


• Develop/maintain strategic alliances with key civil society and policy organizations focused on health, especially those in the UK, US and Ireland e.g. Schools of Tropical Medicine, PHE, WHO, CDC;


• Ensure appropriate ethical frameworks for health work and partner engagement are designed and applied appropriately in collaboration with the HQ MEAL and Partnership team;


• Lead on the development and writing of GOAL health related policy reports and other products;


• Ensure that the Health Director and other members of Senior Management Team are briefed on critical issues and strategic opportunities;


• Supervise a small policy and health intelligence unit to provide up to date information on critical issues and knowledge management;


• Provide proactive guidance to GOAL’s advocacy, media and field teams as health, WASH and nutrition policies are developed;


• To contribute to advocacy with a specialisation on pro poor health policies where possible using evidence derived from GOAL programming;


• Assist in growing and maintaining GOAL’s credibility and reputation with key external influencers at all levels – including identifying and planning of external policy engagement opportunities.

MEAL

• Liaise with, advise and in collaboration with HQ and Field MEAL Staff, develop and implement innovation and effective MEAL Systems which evidence outcomes;


• Work with the wider GOAL MEAL team to ensure evaluations are analysed and information is used to better inform a lessons learned process and improve future programming.

Innovation

• Act as an ambassador and focal point for ensuring feedback and intelligence from networking on ideas for new innovative health related projects, products and services;


• Support/complete relevant ethical and partnership/funding checks to ensure no ethical conflicts with GOAL’s mission and values; policies and procedures;


• Lead on bids for project funds, or investment, to develop proof­ of ­concept work, prototypes, and pilots for innovation opportunities;


• Lead on the development and implementation of a research and innovation strategy consistent with GOAL and the Health unit’s strategies and develop associated policies to ensuring effective research and innovation outcomes;


• Be responsible for overall monitoring activity with regard to meeting research targets, and monitoring research quality, with technical and project staff;


• Support the monitoring compliance with best practice and integrity in all research and innovation matters.

Skills & Experience

• Substantial experience, with a minimum of 5-7 years working on one or more global health topics in a NGO, government agency, multilateral institution or think tank;


• First-hand knowledge and demonstrable understanding of the world’s global health challenges and financing mechanisms required. Work experience in sub-Saharan Africa a plus;


• Demonstrable understanding of the links between advocacy, policy-making and implementation of programmes;


• Outstanding research and analytical skills, including the ability to synthesize complex policy issues into digestible briefings and communicate to non‐specialist audiences;


• Demonstrated experience influencing stakeholders and establishing and strong partnerships;


• Proven ability to work effectively in a team environment, with strong interpersonal skills;


• Flexible, resourceful and innovative with the ability to manage competing and shifting priorities in a rapidly-changing environment, with occasional heavy workloads;


• Demonstrable experience of managing staff and teams, with experience of virtual management a plus;


• Fluent written and spoken English required. Proficiency in French a plus;


• A commitment to GOAL’s mission and values;


• Ability to apply consistent levels of good judgement and make sound, responsible decisions;


• Ability to maintain the highest degree of confidentiality regarding all aspects of work at all times;


• Ability to think strategically and innovatively and to turn that thinking into realistic plans and workflows;


• Excellent communications, influencing and negotiations skills;


• Ability to devise and control realistic budgets and keep track of income and expenditure delegated to you and your team;


• Understanding and empathy of corporate social responsibility initiatives