Health Financing Specialist at ThinkWell

ThinkWell is a health systems development organization using tailored health financing approaches to help low- and middle-income countries achieve universal health coverage.

We believe that effective health financing systems are essential to ensuring health services are well-resourced, high quality, accessible, and do not cause financial impoverishment by those who use them. We also believe that health financing can serve as a crucial lever to improve overall health system performance.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Health Financing Specialist

Location: Abuja

Job Description

• ThinkWell is recruiting an experienced Health Financing Specialist for the anticipated four year project on Optimizing Health Financing for Primary health Care Interventions in selected states in Nigeria. The project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) Nigeria Country Office to provide technical and advisory support to Kano and Kaduna States in Northern Nigeria. The project will work in partnership with the state Ministries of Health, and other actors to build the capacity of institutions and individuals within the states to improve the planning, financing and performance of the primary health care system.
• The Health Financing Specialist brings strong quantitative skills and research capacity (typically in health economics and financing) as well as a solid understanding of the design, implementation and evaluation of health financing policy reform.
• The Health Financing Specialist reports to the Project/Country Director. This is a full-time position based in Abuja, Nigeria with travel to Kano or Kaduna. Nigerian nationals are encouraged to apply.

Technical Leadership:

• Provide direct technical assistance to ensure high-quality program results and execution across projects in the area of specialization
• Contribute to project work planning, coordinate across external partners and lead their engagement in collaborative projects
• Develop monitoring, evaluation, research and learning tools, indicators and plans
• Collaborate with other ThinkWell programs to ensure programming aligns with the organizations mission and vision, and that program best practices and lessons learned are shared for wide dissemination
• Lead analyses on health expenditure, including out-of-pocket spending, financial forecasting, benefit incidence analysis, resource tracking and cost-effectiveness
• Produce high quality written reports and presentations, including technical documents, project status reports, policy briefs, and publications for conferences and journals
• Support ministries of health and finance on development of state-level health financing strategies, budget planning, preparation and execution, and budget advocacy
• Create graphics and visualizations of quantitative and qualitative data
• Design a sustainable capacity building model to ensure the Ministry of Health counterparts are directly engaged and evolve their health financing competencies and applied knowledge

Requirements

• BA/BS and 10+ years experience or graduate degree and 8+ years experience;
• Substantive, relevant work experience in data management, data analysis, health financing, and health policy in Nigeria;
• In-depth understanding of current and emerging health financing policy and systems reforms in Nigeria;
• Demonstrated capacity to configure and analyze data, including from various large datasets;
• Adept at communicating technical information to non-technical audiences;
• Demonstrated interest and ability in growing staff, mentoring and coaching junior professionals;
• A senior leader, able to rally staff around ThinkWell’s mission and priorities;
• A thoughtful systems thinker with grounded, pragmatic understanding of the complexities of our work;
• Recognized as a leader in the area of technical specialty; strong professional network in the field;
• Demonstrated ability to engage effectively with external strategic partners, donors, and stakeholders;
• Full English fluency and;
• Outstanding cross-cultural communication skills, including the ability to relate respectfully with staff at all levels, ages, genders, nationalities and orientations as well as across work areas;
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 30%.

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.