Director, Health Systems Strengthening – Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Lesotho II
About MCA
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a U.S. government corporation focused on assisting countries dedicated to good governance, economic freedom, and investing in people. In May 2022, MCC signed a five-year agreement (“compact”) with the government of Lesotho (GoL) aimed at poverty reduction through inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the country.
The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA- Lesotho II), is an entity established by the Government to act as the accountable entity to implement the Compact, with the authority to bind the Government with regard to all Program activities.
Lesotho Compact
The Lesotho Health and Horticulture Compact aims to benefit 2.5 million people by growing, strengthening, and organizing the private sector in Lesotho and improving the government’s coordination to deliver critical services necessary to support private sector development.
It will achieve this goal through investments in Health System Strengthening, strengthening of the business environment and Market Driven Irrigated Horticulture, providing sustainable income for smallholders and increasing climate resilience by replacing rain-fed subsistence farming with irrigated commercial horticulture in select locations.
The GoL is committed to passing several key reforms that will help make this compact successful, including reforms that address gender equality, working conditions and worker safety, as well as land and water rights. All of the compact’s projects focus on overcoming barriers to the economic inclusion of women, youth, and the rural poor.
HEALTH SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING (HSS) PROJECT
The objective of the HSS Project is to improve health outcomes by strengthening Lesotho’s primary health care system. This $75 million project will improve primary healthcare services, including gender-based violence services, expand health financial systems and management capacity, and invest in digital health management services.
MCC will create and staff an MCA in Lesotho to provide management oversight to its Health System Strengthening (HSS) Project within the Lesotho Health and Horticulture Compact, which will run from 2024-2029.
Objective of this position
The MCA HSS Director, leading the HSS project unit, under the guidance of the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO), is accountable for the successful implementation of the HSS project, from initiation to execution, will build collaborative relationships with project stakeholders, partners, and will oversee project budgets, contracts, and grants. The Director ensures the alignment of project execution with the overall objectives of the Compact and the judicious management of its resources. The Director has overall responsibility for monitoring, tracking and reporting on the progress of all activities undertaken and supported by the HSS Project compact and its contractors. The Director will have direct oversight over contractors and grantees and will have final approval authority over all HSS project contractor deliverables, grantee milestones and financial invoicing.
Primary responsibilities
- Lead the project across all activities and ensure that these are aligned to the established strategies, frameworks, budgets and resources defined by the Compact.
- Assess project components and activities as these are developed and implemented to ensure their relevance to the country context and ensure that these are adapted to address requirements in country.
- Based upon assessments of project progress, recommend and ensure remedial approaches to better advance and sustain project quality and sustainability are implemented efficiently and in a timely manner.
- Work with the implementing contractors or grantees to ensure that sustainability is built into every activity from the outset, including working with the Ministries of Health, Gender, Finance, Local Government, Home Affairs, and Communications, Science and Technology to cost activities and build costs into the recurring budget in Years 1-5 of the compact.
- Lead and/or actively participate technical working groups established under the Project.
- Recommend for approval/payment or remediation, all deliverables submitted by HSS project contractors or partners (in the case of cooperative agreements and grantees).
- Engage with the GoL regarding Implementing Entity Agreements, memoranda of understanding and other commitments to support the implementing contractors and partners (in the case of cooperative agreements and grantees).
- Assess the capacity development needs of Ministry of Health and other counterpart ministries or agencies, and lead the development of a capacity development and knowledge transfer strategy.
- Manage the HSS Project Activity Managers to ensure they coordinate effectively; exchange relevant information; properly identify and manage risks; and comply with MCC’s requirements, standards, policies, and guidelines; and incorporate good practices and lessons learned into their work.
- Build and maintain the project team through recruitment, training and development, and performance management of staff to ensure the capacity to deliver the project’s objectives.
- Guide the project team to ensure the use of resources and the implementation of project activities are aligned to the overall project plan, including developing and monitoring a risk management plan.
- Ensure accountability for HSS project compliance with MCC’s Gender Policy and MCA’s Social and Gender Integration Plan.
- Track (in collaboration with MCA-Lesotho II procurement and finance officers) the project financial reporting and ensure the efficient use of resources.
- Track (in collaboration with MCA M&E officers) the implementation of the project activities, reporting regularly on relevant indicators and progress toward HSS project logic.
- Represent the project as an integrated component of the country MCA-Lesotho II program to project stakeholders (e.g. national/local government counterparts, civil society, project beneficiaries, and other health system funders) ensuring that collaborative relationships are built and maintained to facilitate the delivery and effectiveness of the program, including at the Project Steering committee meetings.
- Lead communication efforts with GoL institutions and stakeholders regarding the economic and social importance of primary health care (PHC) and counter gender-based violence, including with parliament and the media.
Requirements
Education
- A minimum of a relevant bachelor’s degree
Experience
- A minimum of 10 years of experience in managing projects successfully, assuring achievement of targeted outcomes within a planned timeframe as evidenced by at least two examples. Experience leading project management can be in any sector.
- A minimum of 5 years’ experience identifying problems or risks in a project and self-identifying and initiating effective solutions to mitigate risk or resolve a problem. Provide at least two examples where the candidate led the process and the results.
- A minimum of 3 years of successful technical contract or grant management experience, as evidenced by at least two examples of how the candidate managed a contract or grant (with a minimum value of at least $50K per annum) to successfully produce deliverables or outcomes within a specified period of time.
- A minimum of 10 years supervising personnel in effective teams, working directly and indirectly to ensure program success with examples of the number of people directly supervised in each position.
Skills
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, evidenced by recently written briefers, papers or reports.
- Proficient in public speaking, evidenced by recent informal or formal presentations.
- Proficient in use of Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, Excel, Power-Point, etc.), file sharing platforms (e.g. Sharepoint), online conferencing/meeting platforms and managing shared calendars across multiple time zones.
Preferred Qualifications/Experience:
It is desirable but not required for the HSS Director to offer the following demonstrated experience, knowledge and competencies:
- Experience in health systems strengthening and/or gender-based violence programming.
- Experience supporting policy reform that facilitates improvements in the provision of Primary Health Care, include gender-based violence prevention or victim care.
- Experience working in Lesotho, Southern Africa or low-middle income countries is preferred.
- A relevant Master’s degree.
How to apply
Complete applications must be submitted on-line, on or before 8th September 2023.
Applications should be accompanied by the following documents:
- Curriculum vitae containing detailed work experience;
- Cover letter confirming interest and availability;
- Soft copies of higher education and professional certificates (if available);
Only applications that are submitted on or before the deadline will be considered.
We thank all applicants. However, note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Submit your application online via: https://lesotho-jobs.tenderwell.app. Hard copy applications will not be considered.