Senior Program Officer - Family Planning at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people- especially those with the fewest resources - have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Senior Program Officer - Family Planning

Job Requisition ID: B019595
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Job Type: Full-time

The Team

• The Nigeria Country Office (NCO) uses our core comparative advantages to drive impact across the 4 focus areas of the Foundation.
• We make key investments and lead advocacy in our focus areas to help achieve specific national outcomes that address Nigeria's developmental challenges.
• We adopt a one-foundation approach in our work and collaborate with government entities, donors, and other partners in driving a joint vision for Nigeria.

Your Role

• The primary purpose of the Senior Program Officer - Family Planning (SPO FP), Nigeria is to  implement the Foundations’ family planning strategy in Nigeria by conceiving, developing and managing a complex portfolio of grants and technical assistance at federal level and in selected states.
• The focus of the foundation’s work will involve development, testing and scale-up of high impact and cost-effective solutions in selected areas to get results in FP and influence scale across Nigeria and potentially other similar contexts within the region and Africa.
• In addition, the position will play the state lead role to manage the NCO’s relationship and investments in the Lagos State.
• This role reports to the Deputy Director, Health, Nutrition, and Eradication.

What You’ll Do

• Inclusively lead, shape, and manage foundation’s FP portfolio in Nigeria – in alignment with the GON’s strategic direction – with particular focus on scaling FP high impact practices (HIPs) [such as PPFP, post-abortion family planning (PAFP)], data monitoring and use in national programs, addressing FP geographic inequities, and strengthening contraceptive commodity security. The portfolio includes both FP-specific grants, as well as intentionally using and strategically integrating all touchpoints between FP and broader PHC, systems strengthening, and private sector initiatives.
• Lead foundation’s engagement with FP stakeholders in Nigeria, particularly the GON, development partners, civil society, and other private sector players. This entails developing strong partnerships and proactively identifying and pursuing synergies, areas of leverage, and opportunities for co-managed and/or co-financed collaborations to achieve foundation and country goals. 
• Work in partnership with foundation’s NCO and the global FP team to support investments that generate evidence through a comprehensive implementation research agenda in alignment with other in-country partners (e.g. GON, development partners) – working with local research organizations – to inform both country decision-making and where relevant the global public good.
• Lead further development of the Family Planning strategy implementation for the Nigeria Country Office (NCO) of the foundation, in alignment with the foundation’s broader/global Family Planning Program strategy and with other program strategies relevant to Nigeria
• Contribute to the implementation of the NCO PHC transformation agenda, to use all touchpoints between family planning and other health areas as per the NCO Health Plan.
• Develop and manage investments (grants and/or contracts) to implement activities in support of programmatic goals, while ensuring that interventions and investments can be replicated and sustained at scale, and in alignment with the NCO priorities.
• Collaborate with the PAC team (Program Advocacy and Communication) to support the scaling of FP high impact solutions at state and national level through the implementation of critical policies for an enabling environment for Family Planning in Nigeria
• Collaborate with the demand initiative lead to co-design FP demand interventions embedded within the NCO integrated approach to demand especially in Northern Nigeria, while contributing to the IR around Social Norms Change
• Work in partnership with foundation colleagues to implement the NCO integration approach to scaling proven high impact Family Planning practices (PPFP, PAFP, G-ANC) across all the foundation priority states
• Support the FP team in leading the scaling up of the BMGF pilot initiative to support the private informal sector of drug shops through a sustainable policy and regulatory framework for FP and PHC service provision
• Ensure the scale up of proven FP high impact practices (HIP), the expansion of BMGF support to the private informal sector and the support for a comprehensive Implementation Research (IR) and learning agenda.
• Work in partnership with foundation colleagues in Nigeria and Seattle to build and manage relationships with donors, private sector, implementers, and other external partners to develop innovative plans and interventions
• Collaborate with the Monitoring, Learning, & Evaluation (MLE) team at the NCO to ensure high quality results frameworks, monitoring, and evaluation of grants and to enhance use of data to improve program performance and to inform strategic decisions and future investments.
• Conduct thorough analyses of grants and contracts, grantee progress reports; write high quality briefing documents and portfolio reviews that synthesize results and findings for leadership and the FP team.
• Provide impactful thought leadership on a wide range of family planning and reproductive health issues that shape national polices and shape the global discourse and practice.
• Provide leadership and oversight of Lagos State and BMGF partnership through grants, check ins, relationship management, and program reviews.
• Contribute to reporting and strategy review materials for the Nigeria Country Office.
• Implement other duties as assigned

Requirements

• Advanced Degree in Public Health, Public Policy, Medicine, Business or similar disciplines (e.g., MPH, MPP, etc.) is desirable.
• A minimum of 7 years of proven experience in strategic planning, designing, and implementing innovative and impactful approaches to health care delivery at scale, including FP/reproductive health, through public and private channels, inclusive of management consulting and/or startup environments.
• Extensive experience in designing and implementing innovative and impactful approaches to health care delivery, including family planning/reproductive health, through the public and private sectors.
• Strong understanding of data, and ability to use diverse kinds of data to design and manage strategy and investments.
• Experience in programs to support equitable gender outcomes is a plus.
• In-depth experience in broader public health with a strong development orientation backed with excellent management capabilities.
• Experience of integration across disease areas and/or integrating health and "non-health" interventions is a plus.
• Experience in managing complex delivery of health programs, with evidence of achievement of significant results whether directly or indirectly influenced. 
• Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared/joint objectives, both internally and externally. Ability to orchestrate effective decisions across a broad range of issues and partners, assess progress, analyze gaps, and make necessary changes.
• Seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into strategies, concrete theories of change and actions. Ability to think/act like an investor and a creative and generative problem solver. Innovative and open-minded approach; ability to question and challenge colleagues including managers and partners in a constructive manner.
• Manages complexity and ambiguity effectively: Making sense of complex, high quantity and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems - especially in managing relations. Demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, and diplomacy in a complex, fast-paced environment both in Nigeria and in headquarter (Seattle).
• Communicates effectively: Developing and delivering communications that convey complex situations in a clear and concise manner with a broad and diverse audience.
• Demonstrable experience with effective interactions between country level and headquarter offices is critical.

Other Attributes:

• Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic, and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people.
• Ability to travel up to 40% domestically and internationally.
• *Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

Application Closing Date
19th October, 2023.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online