Position: Consultant/Senior Consultant - Urban Health Systems

Organization: IIHS

Location: Bengaluru

Apply: https://iihs.co.in/job-application/

Job Description

IIHS seeks a person to join and help consolidate and extend our urban health systems research and practice portfolio. Within a broad adherence to the social determinants of health approach, we are looking for scholars and practitioners whose work takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the urban health systems, with a focus on primary care. IIHS’ approach to urban health systems focuses on institutional, governance, spatial and community based approaches to urban health systems with a focus on heath’s intersections with informal work, housing, sanitation and urban infrastructures, as well as with the delivery of social protection mechanisms.

Current projects reflect this approach and range from the connections between informal work, social protection and health for domestic workers; assessments of urban primary care systems; looking at NCDs (Non- Communicable Diseases) in low income informal settlements; multi-institutional attempts to tackle banner diseases such as dengue in urban areas; the relationships between health, migration and vulnerability in Indian cities; among other research and practice themes.

The position seeks a person committed to being part of building a research and practice cluster at IIHS, actively mentoring a young team, and defining strategic priorities for the institution. This shall be in addition to teaching and training in IIHS’ full-time and short-term teaching and urban practitioner (capacity building) programmes.

Activities and Tasks

Responsibilities would include, but not be limited to, the following:

• Supervising current projects, especially on-going ethnographic studies of the role of NCDs in low income settlements in Bengaluru;
• Being a part of the project teams in Delhi and Bengaluru, undertaking field-based research on intersections between informal work, social protection and maternal and child health;
• Building IIHS’ urban health portfolio through new projects, mentoring and internal capacity building;
• Participation in incorporating urban health perspectives into on-going IIHS projects;
• Curriculum development and teaching on urban health in both short and long-term academic programmes; training and/or assisting in training on relevant modules in IIHS’ executive education (capacity building) programmes;

• Participating in all activities of Institution-Building at IIHS; carrying out tasks as assigned by IIHS; and travelling on IIHS work within or outside the country as and when needed.

Structure and Reporting

The Consultant/Senior Consultant – Urban Health will report to the Senior Lead – Academics & Research at IIHS, and collaborate effectively with a diverse group of internal teams and external individuals/organizations, and students.

Person Specification

The position ideally requires a PhD or MD, preferably in public health, medicine, urban planning, sociology, economics, development studies, among others, though all candidates with proven research and practice track records in urban health will be considered. Candidates with strong records of practice and consultancy in health systems will also be considered. Teaching experience is a plus though not required. Applicants must have a strong publication record. Ideal applicants will have experience of leading medium and large-scale research projects in Indian cities.

Spoken and written proficiency in English and at least one other modern Indian language is required and, among these, Kannada, Tamil, and Hindi are preferred.

This offer is on an exclusive basis, which implies that other professional assignments (whether compensated or not) that bear a potential conflict of interest with IIHS cannot be undertaken.

The search will remain open until the position is filled.