Technical Advisor, Gender and Health Equity

This role was posted on November 5, 2024. Please note that we will review applications on a rolling basis.

The Role

At Last Mile Health (LMH), we are in this together. Are you mission-driven with a commitment to health, social justice and gender equity in the health sector? If so then you may be our Technical Advisor, Gender and Health Equity.  

Last Mile Health (LMH) is seeking a Technical Advisor, Gender and Health Equity,  for an expected 5-year, estimated $23 million Advancing Community Health Activity (ACHA) project in Liberia. The purpose of the activity is to implement Liberia’s community health assistant program in targeted counties, in alignment to and in coordination with Liberia’s national community health program. This program will improve and sustain equitable access to an essential package of integrated quality services at the comm

The activity has three components:

1. Improve quality and integration of community-based services: (preventative, promotive/preparedness/response): In targeted counties, the activity will recruit, train, deploy, and supervise community health assistants and may include engagement with other cadres such as community health promoters including trained traditional midwives (TTM), and community animal health workers (CAHW), and CHHSs. This component also includes CHW training, operations, and supervision for early detection and reporting of Community Event-Based Surveillance triggers including zoonotic diseases.
2. Strengthen leadership, governance, and financing of the National Community Health Program: The activity, in coordination with other donors, will engage at the national level with government, and other partners/stakeholders to strengthen leadership to improve the enabling policy and financing environment in support of community health programming.
3. Enhance Evidence-based Decision Making: This component will contribute to improved capacity among community health stakeholders to collect and use data, apply lessons learned and increase programmatic accountability to inform program supervision, quality improvements and implementation adjustments.

Reporting to the Chief of Party, the Technical Advisor, Gender and Health Equity, will ensure integration of gender transformative approaches across the national community health policy, strategy, planning processes and training and curricula design. This role will ensure there are comprehensive and tangible gender equality strategies that cut across the three components of the USAID ACHA project. This role will also support county implementation teams to adaptively respond to data on service gaps for persons of lower socioeconomic position and excluded demographics, such as adolescent girls, youth, patients in hard-to-reach areas, and persons living under the poverty line.

This position is project-funded, located in Monrovia, Liberia, and is open to Liberian nationals. This position will be hired on a fixed-term contract and is contingent upon a successful award as well as approval by USAID.

What You'll Do

Advancing gender equality in the community health workforce 

• Provide technical assistance to the MOH and stakeholders to ensure that the National Community Health Program and policies are gender responsive and build on findings of the gender assessment conducted in 2022 with a focus on recruitment and workforce development.
• Provide direct mentorship and support to county level staff to ensure that gender responsive strategies are being applied in the direct management of the Community Health Program.
• Work with the County Health Teams and MOH to actively and continuously identify and document gender inequities that exist within the program, their root causes, and assess how the program can adapt to be more gender responsive and inclusive through activities within the NCHAP operational plan.
• Work with the Sr. Director of MEAL to develop and implement gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation frameworks to assess the impact of interventions and track progress towards gender equality goals.
• Monitor, evaluate and document learnings on gender equality activities related to the Community Health program. Provide regular reports on gender-related indicators and recommend corrective actions as needed.
• Work with Community Health Services Department  to establish gender equality technical working group that feeds into the larger Community Health TWG and links across other departments within the Ministry of Health
• Build MOH, County Health Team and other partner’s understanding of gender equality principles and design opportunities within the NCHP.
• Work with Deputy COP to design and deliver training programs and workshops to enhance staff and stakeholder understanding of gender issues.
• Support the development of gender-sensitive tools and resources to facilitate knowledge sharing and learning.
• Work with the Sr. Director of MEAL to analyze data on gender related indicators and prioritize topics for decision making and advocacy with MoH. 

Driving Health Equity for the ACHA project

• Work with Chief of Party (CoP), Deputy CoP,  and Senior Director MEAL to design patient centered approaches to improve PHC access for persons of lower socioeconomic position and excluded demographics, such as adolescent girls, youth, patients in hard-to-reach areas, persons living under the poverty line.
• Work with the CoP and Senior MEAL Director to draft, design and roll out social inclusion assessment activities like patient feedback surveys, client/patient exit interviews etc.
• In collaboration with Deputy CoP, support county implementation teams to adaptively respond to data on service gaps for persons of lower socioeconomic position and excluded demographics, such as adolescent girls, patients in hard-to-reach areas, and persons living under the poverty line.
• In collaboration with the Deputy CoP and County Health Teams, ensure CHAs and CHSSs understand their service delivery performance related to reaching persons of lower socioeconomic position and excluded demographics.
• Conduct regular social inclusion capacity building for stakeholders (CHTs, CSO partners) to reduce marginalization of under-served groups.

Undertake cross-cutting activities on gender and health equity: 

• Work with CoP and Deputy CoP to develop a Gender Analysis and Gender and Social Inclusion Action (GESI) Plan, with development of gender-related indicators and recommending corrective actions as needed.
• Prepare and contribute to quarterly and annual reports for the CoP, tracking project performance against key gender and health equity results and outcomes.
• Prepare reports, draft technical resources, and other products and deliverables on topics related to gender and health equity.
• With oversight from the CoP, lead the improvement and capture of key gender and health equity human interest stories from the USAID ACHA project.
• In the lead up to the midterm policy review, advise the CoP, Deputy COP, and MOH stakeholders on gender and health equity recommendations that can be incorporated in the next community health strategy in order to improve the national program’s gender and health equity responsiveness. 
• Work closely with the CoP, Deputy CoP, and LMH Country Director to ensure gender and health equity messages and strategies are packaged and communicated for key external stakeholders. 
• Serve as part of the USAID ACHA project key personnel team.

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor’s degree required. A Master’s degree in Development studies, Public Health or Public Policy, or other relevant field is a plus. 
• Progressive years in community health or primary health care programming, with at relevant years of demonstrated experience on gender equality and social inclusion projects.  
• Specific experience and expertise on gender analysis, gender mainstreaming, and women’s health. 
• Capacity to quickly grasp issues and concepts and articulate ideas in a synthetic and concise manner  
• Excellent English writing skills    
• Strong project and knowledge management. 
• Professional and persuasive written and oral communication skills.  

You’ll Impress Us If

• Prior experience in the Liberian health sector preferred and working familiarity with the National Community Health Program, its policies, implementation, and metrics. 
• Experience with mentoring and building the capacity of team members and government counterparts to support roll-out of gender. 
• Experience with USAID programs/projects preferred.
• Mission-driven with a commitment to health, social justice and gender equity. 

Compensation information

At Last Mile Health, we strive to reward our employees equitably and transparently. This means that we pay our employees based on a clear and consistent methodology and without regard to identity or personal relationships. We have made this model fully transparent so that everyone has access to all information related to compensation. We hope this helps you better understand Last Mile Health’s values and commitments to our employees. We look forward to answering any questions you may have during the hiring process.

Before applying to this role, please take a moment to learn more about our approach to compensation and how compensation works in each of the countries where we operate. Please find the link to our compensation model and benefits overview below:
 

OVERVIEW OF LAST MILE HEALTH’S COMPENSATION MODEL

Compensation for this position:

The Band for this position: LBR-3

The Liberia salary range for this role is  $34,771 to $48,679  USD dependent upon experience doing an equivalent role. Please note that the compensation is subject to statutory taxes. 

Benefits for this role will be within and in accordance with USAID salary bands, allowables and parameters. Specifics of this will be transparently communicated to candidates who are shortlisted for this role and in line with our compensation policies. 

About Last Mile Health

Last Mile Health partners with governments to design, scale, strengthen, and sustain high-quality community health systems, which empower teams of community and frontline health workers to bring life-saving primary healthcare to the world’s most remote communities. LMH is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. For more information, visit www.lastmilehealth.org.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and value diversity at LMH. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.