Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Advisors at Save the Children Nigeria

Save the Children is a child rights organization working to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. Save the Children established an office in Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, in 2001.  The organization focuses on full spectrum programming - development and humanitarian - with core thematic work in education, child protection, hunger and livelihoods, social protection, child rights governance, health and nutrition.

Activities generally focus on building government capacity in policy development and service delivery, while also working with communities and civil society organizations to build demand and accountability mechanisms, and implementing direct services through specific projects and operational research activities. Working with and through partners such as Action Against Hunger (ACF), Save the Children has also invested heavily in advocacy and campaigns.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Advisor

Location: Gombe, Nigeria

Role Purpose

• The overall aim of the position is to support State Ministries of Health and partner organizations to roll out the new National Integrated Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (IMNCH) strategy, providing technical inputs with respect to newborn and child health and technical leadership on this work for Save the Children in Nigeria.

Key Areas of Accountability
Newborn and child Health Policy & Programming:

• To be responsible for the overall management of Save the Children technical assistance on Maternal, newborn & child health in Nigeria.

Primary Health Care & Child Health:

• To be responsible for the technical inputs for Save the Children assistance on primary health care development and child health in Nigeria with the context of the IMNCH and Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCDA) Strategies.
• To provide health advisory support to the any child Protection Programme in the state.
• To be responsible for activities that will improve the quality of care provided to mothers and children by training frontline health workers on the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI), Essential Care for every Newborn, and the delivery of routine immunisation services.
• To be responsible for activities that would Improve access to quality Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) services for communities, through training of health workers to treat common childhood diseases, and to educate mothers on disease prevention and home care practices to ensure the early detection and treatment of common childhood illnesses within communities
• Provide follow up after training of health workers and ensure that lifesaving commodities and devices are available by government for use in the facilities
• To review documents and take the lead in planning and report writing for the newborn and child health aspects of MNCH work

Cross Cutting
Representation

• To develop and maintain an understanding of major stakeholder agendas and to represent Save the Children and its interests with key players in the health sector in Nigeria (government, development agencies and research institutes) at Federal and State levels.
• To represent Save the Children’s values and mission, as well as the Nigeria programme experience, at strategic national and state fora, and selected regional fora

Documentation and Reporting:

• To prepare and submit quarterly reports
• To pro-actively contribute to national research and advocacy initiatives and support global efforts by drawing on the Nigeria experience while also drawing on lessons learned from other countries to support efforts in country.
• To contribute to Save the Children’s global and national priorities through cooperation with relevant advisers and managers from headquarters, the regional and national levels.
• To lead or contribute to the development of publications for peer-reviewed journals.
• Lead the capacity development of health workers in the state on newborn & child health skills

Misc.:

• As agreed with the Senior Child Health Advisor , contribute:
• To the development of Save the Children UK’s future health strategy (to be reviewed annually) and child survival strategy focus areas, including technical support for specific proposals to secure further funding and comply with all relevant Save the Children policies and procedures.
• Undertake other strategic duties as agreed by supervisors and senior advisers

Skills & Experience
Administrative & General Skills: