State Health Systems Strengthening Advisor at Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH)

Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH) is a leading Non-Governmental and Not-for-Profit Organization established in 1989 by two eminent and reputable Nigerians who are the most prominent advocates of Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) and Family Planning (FP) programming in Nigeria. ARFH, a Nigerian fully indigenous, Non- Governmental, and Not-for-Profit organization had implemented projects across the 36+1 states of Nigeria on cross cutting programs including Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health plus Nutrition Investment Case (RMNCAH+N), Family Planning (FP), Global fund grants on HIV, TB and Malaria as Prime & Sub recipient, USAID grants on Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) among others.

ARFH since inception consistently contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of rural poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. ARFH has been at the fore-front of Health & community system strengthening, Human resource for health development in Nigeria, supporting the Government of Nigeria to advocate and domesticate health policies into implementation e.g. its task-shifting and task sharing policy through capacity building for all cadres of health care providers including Physicians, Nurse midwives, and CHEWs.

ARFH has its headquarter in Ibadan and operational offices in Abuja, Lagos, and collaborate with State Ministry of Health across the 36 states plus FCT. Our mission is to initiate, promote and implement in partnership with other organizations, developmental, HIV & AIDS, TB, SRH, and family planning program and interventions for young people and adults through capacity building, technical assistance, operations research, and evaluation to improve the quality of life in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: State Health Systems Strengthening Advisor

Location: Kano with frequent travel (up to 70%) to supported states, including Kano, Yobe and Gombe.

Job Purpose

• The State Health Systems Strengthening Advisor will provide high-level technical assistance to State Ministries of Health (SMOHs), State Primary Health Care Development Agencies (SPHCDAs), Local Government Authorities (LGAs), and health facilities to strengthen governance, health systems, routine health information systems, domestic financing, and institutional capacity for sustainable family planning programming.
• The Advisor will lead efforts to strengthen routine data quality, documentation, data validation and triangulation, supportive supervision, programme monitoring, and evidence-based decision-making while supporting states to institutionalize quality improvement mechanisms and increase government ownership of family planning interventions.
• The role will also provide strategic advocacy and technical support to improve budget allocation, timely budget release, domestic resource mobilization, and integration of family planning into state planning and financing mechanisms, ensuring long-term sustainability beyond project implementation.

Working Relationships:

• The State Health Systems Strengthening Advisor works closely with the Family Planning Specialist, who provides overall technical leadership for family planning programming, clinical quality, and capacity building across all CODSAiN-supported states.
• While the Family Planning Specialist leads project-wide family planning technical assistance, the Advisor complements this role by strengthening state health systems, governance, data systems, domestic financing, quality improvement, and institutional capacity within the assigned states to support sustainable family planning programming.
• The Advisor also collaborates with State Programme Officers to ensure coordinated implementation of project activities and alignment between technical assistance, health systems strengthening interventions, and state priorities.

Key Responsibilities
Health Systems Strengthening:

• Provide strategic technical assistance to state governments to strengthen health systems for sustainable family planning service delivery.
• Support institutionalization of quality improvement initiatives across supported states.
• Strengthen governance and stewardship structures supporting family planning.
• Support integration of family planning into state health sector strategic plans, annual operational plans, and routine health system functions.
• Facilitate coordination between SMOH, SPHCDA, HMIS, Logistics Management Coordinating Units (LMCUs), reproductive health programmes, and development partners.
• Identify health system bottlenecks and develop practical solutions to improve programme performance.
• Provide technical oversight to ARFH-supported CBOs to ensure effective management, supervision, and performance of Community-Oriented Resource Persons (CORPs).
• Strengthen the capacity of CBOs to effectively plan, coordinate, monitor, and report community-based family planning interventions.
• Support CBOs to strengthen systems for supervision, performance monitoring, accountability, and quality assurance of CORPs.
• Strengthen coordination and referral linkages between CBOs, CORPs, health facilities, LGAs, and state government structures to improve continuity of care.
• Support CBOs to align community-based interventions with state health priorities, national family planning guidelines, and project objectives.

Data Systems Strengthening and Information Use:

• Strengthen routine health information systems for family planning across supported states.
• Improve the quality, completeness, timeliness, and accuracy of routine family planning data.
• Support routine data validation, triangulation, reconciliation, and verification across DHIS2, NHMIS, LMIS, facility registers, and community reporting systems.
• Establish and institutionalize state-level data quality assurance mechanisms.
• Facilitate routine data review meetings that promote data use for programme improvement.
• Develop practical approaches to reduce discrepancies between service statistics, commodity consumption, and logistics data.
• Support implementation of data quality improvement plans at state and LGA levels.
• Promote the use of data for planning, forecasting, budgeting, and programme decision-making.
• Support CBOs to strengthen supervision of CORPs to ensure accurate documentation of community-based family planning services, referrals, and timely recording of service data in facility family planning registers.
• Strengthen data quality, completeness, timeliness, and use of community-level family planning data by improving coordination between CORPs, CBOs, and health facilities in line with national HMIS requirements.
• Conduct routine data verification and validation to ensure consistency between CORP records, facility family planning registers, and state reporting systems, and support resolution of identified data discrepancies.

Strengthening Documentation and Service Quality:

• Support health facilities to strengthen routine documentation and reporting systems.
• Improve the quality and completeness of family planning registers and reporting tools.
• Ensure alignment between source documents and reported data.
• Conduct supportive supervision visits to improve documentation and reporting practices.
• Mentor health workers on proper recording and reporting of DMPA-SC and self-injection services.
• Strengthen compliance with national HMIS and family planning reporting guidelines.
• Support CBOs to strengthen routine supervision of CORPs to ensure adherence to community service delivery protocols and reporting requirements.
• Ensure CORPs accurately document community services and referrals and that these are appropriately captured in facility family planning registers in line with national reporting guidelines.
• Conduct joint supportive supervision visits with CBOs and government counterparts to assess the quality of CORP supervision, documentation, referral systems, and data recording.
• Strengthen collaboration between CBOs and health facilities to improve completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of community-level reporting.
• Support continuous quality improvement initiatives to strengthen documentation, reporting, and data use across both community- and facility-based family planning services.

Government Stewardship, Policy and Domestic Financing:

• Provide technical support to states to strengthen governance and stewardship for family planning programmes.
• Support the development and implementation of costed family planning operational plans.
• Lead evidence-based advocacy to increase state budget allocation for family planning commodities and programme implementation.
• Engage Ministries of Health, SPHCDAs, Ministries of Finance, State Houses of Assembly, Budget Offices, and Planning Commissions to promote increased domestic financing.
• Advocate for timely release and effective utilization of approved family planning budgets.
• Support integration of family planning into state financing mechanisms, including relevant government funding streams.
• Monitor budget performance and provide technical support to improve budget execution.
• Utilize programme performance, cost-effectiveness, and return-on-investment evidence to strengthen policy dialogue and resource mobilization.

Capacity Strengthening:

• Build the capacity of government counterparts on health systems strengthening, governance, routine health information systems, supportive supervision, programme management, and sustainability, working in collaboration with the Family Planning Specialist on family planning technical capacity-building.
• Train and mentor state and LGA teams on data quality assurance, data use, supportive supervision, governance, quality improvement, and programme performance monitoring, while supporting the Family Planning Specialist in the delivery of family planning technical capacity-building initiatives.
• Strengthen analytical capacity among state M&E officers and programme managers.
• Develop practical tools, standard operating procedures, and job aids to support routine programme implementation.
• Facilitate peer learning and cross-state knowledge exchange.

Community Partner Oversight and Performance Management:

• Provide technical oversight and mentorship to ARFH-supported CBOs in Kano, Gombe, and Yobe States.
• Monitor implementation of CBO workplans to ensure timely delivery of planned activities and achievement of agreed performance targets.
• Conduct routine programme monitoring visits to assess implementation quality, compliance, and performance.
• Review CBO technical and programmatic reports and provide constructive feedback for continuous improvement.
• Support CBOs to strengthen planning, implementation, documentation, monitoring, and reporting systems.
• Facilitate regular performance review meetings with CBO partners to identify challenges and agree on corrective actions.
• Ensure CBO activities align with national family planning guidelines, donor requirements, and ARFH policies and procedures.
• Promote collaboration between CBOs, government institutions, and other implementing partners to maximize programme impact.
• Identify capacity gaps within CBOs and coordinate targeted technical assistance and institutional strengthening initiatives.
• Support documentation and dissemination of community-level innovations, lessons learned, and best practices.

Programme Performance Improvement:

• Monitor programme performance across supported states.
• Analyse routine data to identify trends, bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement.
• Support root-cause analysis of programme performance gaps.
• Develop and monitor implementation of corrective action plans.
• Support routine performance review meetings with government counterparts.

Stakeholder Engagement and Partnership Coordination:

• Serve as ARFH’s technical focal point for health systems strengthening within supported states, working collaboratively with the Family Planning Specialist to ensure that health systems strengthening interventions reinforce high-quality family planning service delivery.
• Maintain strong relationships with key government institutions and development partners.
• Represent ARFH in technical working groups, review meetings, and policy forums.
• Support coordination of partner investments to minimize duplication and maximize programme impact.
• Promote government ownership of project-supported interventions.

Sustainability and Transition:

• Support institutionalization of project interventions within government systems.
• Develop sustainability and transition plans with state governments.
• Strengthen government capacity to sustain programme gains beyond project funding.
• Document best practices, lessons learned, and innovations for scale-up.
• Support implementation of recommendations emerging from programme reviews, maturity assessments, and health systems assessments.

Educational Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Public Health, Health Systems Management, Health Economics, Health Informatics, Epidemiology, Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Policy, Development Studies, or a related discipline.

Experience:

• Minimum of 8 – 10 years of progressively responsible experience in public health programme management, health systems strengthening, or family planning programming.
• Demonstrated experience providing technical assistance to government health systems in Nigeria.
• Experience working with State Ministries of Health, SPHCDAs, and development partners.
• Proven experience in health systems strengthening, health financing, policy advocacy, and institutional capacity development.
• Experience supporting family planning, reproductive health, or RMNCAH programmes.
• Experience using routine health information systems, including DHIS2, NHMIS, and LMIS.
• Experience conducting data quality assessments, supportive supervision, and programme performance reviews.
• Demonstrated experience managing, mentoring, or providing technical oversight to civil society organizations (CSOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), or implementing partners delivering public health programmes.
• Familiarity with donor-funded programmes, particularly Gates Foundation, USAID, UNFPA, or similar initiatives, is an advantage.

Core Competencies
Technical Competencies:

• Health systems strengthening
• Family planning and reproductive health programming
• Health governance and stewardship
• Health financing and domestic resource mobilization
• Policy advocacy and government engagement
• Routine health information systems
• DHIS2, NHMIS, LMIS, and data analytics
• Data quality assurance and data triangulation
• Supportive supervision and quality improvement
• Programme monitoring, evaluation, and learning
• Strategic planning and operational planning
• Budget analysis and public financial management
• Capacity development and mentoring.

Behavioural Competencies:

• Strategic thinking
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills
• Political awareness and diplomacy
• Excellent facilitation and presentation skills
• Ability to build and sustain partnerships
• Results-oriented with strong attention to detail
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work independently while managing multiple stakeholders.

Application Closing Date
17th July, 2026.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online
And
Send their comprehensive Curriculum Vitae and cover letter in only one attachment (MSWord document) explaining suitability for the job to: programs@arfh-ng.org using the job title as the subject of the mail.