Position: Program Officer - IFA

Organization: Evidence Action 

Location: Bhopal

Apply: https://evidenceaction.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=630

Grade: 4

Number of positions: 1

 About the Position:

The Program Officer -IFA will report to the State Program Manager. Program officer (PO)- IFA, will be the focal for the IFA program in the state and anchor the execution of technical assistance model of Evidence Action for IFA supplementation under Anemia Mukt Bharat in Madhya Pradesh.

The PO- IFA will support the SPM in the adaptation of the organizational IFA program strategy to state context, develop a comprehensive state program implementation plan, assist the government in preparing trainings cascade, community mobilization strategy and effective implementation of AMB components in the state that promotes high program coverage for children and adolescents.

The applicant must possess technical insight for public health & nutrition issues, in depth understanding of health systems, a sense of collaborative team work, and willingness to assist colleagues and travel approximately 20% of their time within state.

Roles & Responsibilities of the position

Policy advocacy

• Coordinate and coordinate with IEC division of state health department to develop a comprehensive community mobilization and IEC strategy that promotes high program coverage, including for out-of-school children.
• Support SPM in advocacy for corrective actions around Evidence Action’s Technical Assistance (TA) areas by preparing briefs based on the data and evidence from the field.
• Support SPM in identification and coordination with partners on leveraging all opportunities for disseminating learnings of IFA to a wider audience through integration of IFA content in school curriculums, operational manuals, issuance of timely directives etc to enhance program engagement.
• Support SPM in planning and organizing a broad range of advocacy efforts, such as stakeholders meeting and dissemination opportunities on AMB.

Program Design & Development

• Coordinate with NO IFA team, work with stakeholders (including departments of Education, Women and Child Development and Health) to ensure that the design and implementation of the IFA program follows standard protocols, Evidence Action’s operational practices and ensuring alignment with Government efforts in order to improve program quality and effectiveness
• Prepare state IFA implementation plan based on the program design in consultation with the SPM and NO IFA team.
• Support in the design of M&E processes and developing data collection tools, in coordination with the MLE team.
• Provide inputs/support in developing state specific community mobilization, mass media and social media strategy and identify need-based IEC and social media materials to be developed.
• Work with Monitoring & Evaluation team (State & NO) for effective utilization of the results and findings for improvement in program quality;
• Assist in developing state IFA program budgets.
• Work with stakeholder departments in preparing training cascade, develop/adapt and maintain high quality of training materials and ensuring effective implementation of training cascade.

Program Management

• Work closely with state teams and SPM to develop and maintain a high level of support to state governments for effective implementation of IFA program
• Develop and manage program work-plans and timelines with team/individual responsibilities assigned to ensure timely and high-quality deliverables for internal and external purposes. Ensure the SPM is kept up to date on progress against the program work plan and timelines.
• Develop guidelines, trackers and tools to be used by state teams for IFA program implementation and monitoring.
• Support the development and review of program activities in consultation with the SPM and prepare reports on a monthly/quarterly basis and identify and correct performance issues
• Carry out field visits to districts to provide program and technical support to field team as needed;
• Work closely with SPC-M&E to qualitatively analyze field monitoring data and provide inputs for better program monitoring and coverage validation.

Knowledge Management (KM)

• Prepare program briefs, process documentation field level success stories and good practices in the state and facilitate dissemination.
• Engage with key stakeholders along with SPM at state on critical technical issues to share findings from EA’s state implementation experiences.
• Ensure program documentation is kept up to date for institutional memory at state level.
• Ensure the IFA program’s knowledge management practices adhere to internal knowledge management guidelines with respect to file storage and access.

Essential Qualifications, Experience, and Competencies

Essentials:

• Post Graduate Degree in public health, nutrition, health management or related disciplines.
• A minimum of 6 - 8 years of experience working in development sector particularly on technical and advisory services with Governments
• Experience working with Government on maternal, child health and nutrition projects of Government in India required.
• Demonstrated successful experience in leading and managing teams.
• Strong knowledge of public sector health systems and programs
• Good knowledge and understanding of public health, socio-economic issues in the state.
• Ability to synthesize information clearly and produce good quality documents keeping to tight deadlines
• Excellent communication, presentation and documentation skills in
• Efficient in using MS office and google tools.
• Exceptional ability to work with minimal supervision, while also proactively and regularly communicating upward relevant progress updates and bottlenecks requiring attention or support from leadership.
• Willingness to travel to field at least 20% of the time.

Desirable:

• Action-oriented, flexible approach and entrepreneurial problem-solver, with an ability to manage multiple competing deadlines
• Highly motivated to achieve exceptional quality of results, and the ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Ability to communicate effectively with people at all levels of the organization.
• Strong interest in the development sector and desire to be a part of a young and diverse team.

Compensation:  The remuneration that will be provided to the chosen applicant will be reasonable with the individual's credentials, experience, and previous pay scale.