Service Delivery Officer – iCCM at Malaria Consortium – Kaduna and Kano

Country and Project Background

• Malaria is highly endemic in Nigeria and it remains one of the leading causes of childhood and maternal morbidity and mortality in the country. Nigeria is deeply committed to making progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and it recognizes the fact that, without firm efforts to control malaria, achievement of the targets related to child mortality, maternal mortality, and reducing the burden of communicable disease will not be possible.
• Malaria therefore constitutes a significant development challenge for Nigeria. Interventions for reducing malaria burden in the country are documented in the national malaria strategic plan with Government taking the lead in its implementation with the support of all the RBM partners. The DFID funded and Malaria Consortium led malaria programme, SuNMaP, provided technical assistance and other support to the Nigeria National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) covering the period 2008 to 2016.
• The follow on project, SuNMaP2 has been designed to strengthen the management and technical capacity of NMEP, State Malaria Elimination Programme (SMEP) and their stakeholders to drive the implementation of the National Malaria Strategic Plan, 2014 to 2020 and achieve its ambitious targets.
• This will include short term technical assistance and technical assistance embedded in NMEP in key areas of programme management, evidence generation and use, and capacity building across all project outputs and ultimately reducing Nigeria’s malaria burden and strengthening the Government of Nigeria’s health systems capacity to ensure long term programme and impact sustainability.
• One of the components of this programme, as a strategy for increasing access to services, is integrated community case management of childhood illnesses including malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea. The iCCM component will contribute to the overall programme outcomes through:
  • Increased access to care through iCCM services
  • Improved performance of Community Oriented Resource Persons (CORPs) in the provision of care
  • Strengthened links between iCCM services and communities to increase demand
  • Strengthened capacity of FMoH and SMoH to support and sustain iCCM scale-up

Job Purpose

• To work with the State team lead and SuNMaP2 iCCM team; in providing technical support and direct implementation of the iCCM components of the programme in line with the National iCCM Guidelines.

Scope of Work:

• The SDO is responsible for all service delivery interventions of the SuNMaP2 ICCM project activities in the state.
• The officer will specifically work with the State team lead and other programme team members with a focus on the identification, training and equipping of CORPs and their supervisors; ensuring regular supply of iCCM commodities; and sustained quality of service through regular supervision of the community health workers by the supervising health facilities, LGAs and state.

Key Working Relationships:

• The officer working under the line-management of the State team lead and in close collaboration with the state, LGA, community actors, stakeholders and partners, would deliver the iCCM aspects of the programme as per the specified job tasks and expected deliverables.

Key Accountabilities
Technical contributions (50%):

• Develop activity workplan for iCCM drawing from the bigger state work-plan
• Take the lead in all service delivery-related activities in the iCCM workplan and work with other team members to ensure timely delivery of work plan activities.
• Contribute to the mapping of eligible communities for iCCM in the state of assignment working with demand creation officer, the community leaders and existing partners where available.
• Contribute to the finalization of criteria for selection of communities, health facilities and volunteers for iCCM project implementation based on continuum of care approach
• Develop and maintain a database of selected CORPs for SuNMaP2 iCCM and avoid duplication or overlap with other partners’ support.
• Coordinate the planning and roll-out of training of State, LGA and health facility workers and community health volunteers (CORPs) on iCCM.
• Contribute to the finalization of iCCM supervision model and roll-out plan with the state
• Coordinate implementation of supervisory activities to community health volunteers based on finalized supervisory plan
• Work with the demand creation officer to coordinate the selection of communities in the selected LGAs for iCCM implementation
• Contribute to the finalisation of the project performance and M&E frameworks and take the lead in the operationalization of the frameworks
• Technical support for the planning and management of community-based programmes at state level

Project Management (25%):

• Contribute and work with the relevant personnel to prepare all relevant project start-up and planning tools on time
• Contribute to project exit strategy as part of project design and ensure inclusion of relevant activities to promote sustainability within the workplan and smooth transition of the project to government
• Contribute to quarterly lessons identification and learning documentation and dissemination
• Preparation and submission of project service delivery activity reports to Project Manager

Technical Performance Management and Quality Assurance (25%):

• Take the lead in ensuring roll-out of project service delivery activities meet international standard of quality
• Plan and implement quality of care assessment/clinical audit of CORPs periodically and use the findings to improve service delivery.
• Work with the MEAL Officer to plan quarterly Data Quality Assessment at the community level.
• Document evidence and best practices that are related to the project
• Participate in Country Office technical meetings and fora

Person Specification
Qualifications and Experience:

Essential:

• A degree in public health, health policy, epidemiology or another relevant specialty is a minimum requirement
• 3-5 years’ experience working on a community-based programme/project.
• Experience in coordination of large scale trainings and community health worker supervision.
• Previous training on IMCI and iCCM would be an advantage.
• Excellent project planning, management and monitoring and evaluation skills

Work-based Skills and Competencies:
Essential:

• Technical knowledge and skills in control of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea
• Good knowledge of Child Health policy and public health principles
• Familiar with planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of community-based health programmes
• Excellent report writing and presentation skills are also needed