UNDP Jobs - 57657- Senior National Project Manager, GAVI Health Syste

Senior National Project Manager, GAVI Health System Strengthening Project - (Open to Indian Nationals Only)

Location :

New Delhi, INDIA

Type of Contract :

Service Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

12-Jul-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

SB-5

Duration of Initial Contract :

One Year initially

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Routine immunisation (RI) against vaccine preventable diseases (e.g. measles, polio, TB, tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough) is one of the most cost effective interventions for reducing childhood illness and mortality. Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) is an ambitious programme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) that aims to reduce morbidity and mortality due to vaccine preventable diseases (VPD). Joint Review Missions and Common Review Missions organized by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on a regular basis) have noted that whilst UIP performance in India has improved overtime, there still remain a number of key constraints impacting immunization coverage in the country. Further, there are significant inequities in vaccination coverage in different states based on various factors related to individual (gender, birth order), family area (area of residence, wealth, and parental education), demography (religion, caste) and the society (access to health care, community literacy level) characteristics.

Some of the main constraints currently preventing India from achieving a quality immunization programme with universally high coverage rates relate to Cold Chain and Vaccine Logistics Management. There is limited cold chain infrastructure and capacity in many states – even for routine UIP vaccines. Systematic efforts to identify gaps and address issues in cold chain and VLM have been conducted in recent years. Key constraints identified include: inadequate and poor infrastructure, HR issues including technical capacities; weak monitoring and MIS issues; and Vaccine management. These constraints have led to high breakdown rate of equipment, overstocking and stock outs, inadequate monitoring and supervision, poor management thus hampering improved vaccine coverage.

The GAVI Alliance-funded Health System Strengthening (HSS) programme is one of the efforts of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) to improve the quality and level of immunization coverage in India.

UNDP under the GAVI HSS grant 2014-2016 will address some of the above mentioned issues by the development of an integrated and innovative solution that aims to provide real time information of vaccines stocks at the various level of the Routine Immunization Programme as well as have real time information on the temperature at the various levels of storage in three state of the country namely Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Moreover, UNDP will strengthen the evidence base for improved policy-making on programmatic areas through a well developed and implemented national M&E plan and research framework.

For the specific purpose above UNDP intends to recruit a Senior National Project Manager to be based at New Delhi. The position will require extensive travel to the designated districts.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall strategic guidance of the Assistant Country Director (Poverty), the Senior National Project Manager is responsible for leading, managing and implementing the project responsibly on time and against set deliverables. S/he is accountable to keep the UNDP senior management informed about the project progress and opportunities and acts as the single point contact for MoHFW for any project related issues on behalf of the UNDP.

Project Team Management:

Manages , guides and mentors a team of nearly 30 technical experts/ project staff based at the National and State level;
Manages HR issues including problem solving and defusing conflicts, finding solutions;
Discharges administrative and other responsibilities associated with the position.

Results Management:

Provides solutions and guidance to the project team for meeting project results in a timely and cost effective manner, with complete buy-in of the MoHFW, donor and the national partners and in keeping with the key organizational mandate and principles of UNDP;
Signs responsible for technical inputs and strategic directions to assess the project progress in line with the monitoring and evaluation indicators and ensure achievement of project outputs as outlined in the project document;
Develops monitoring plan and facilitates the review of the system and capacities relating to the delivery of project;
Undertakes field visits to monitor the implementation of the project and provide technical inputs to address gaps and bottle necks;
Regularly reviews the progress made by all the Project States and steers the work planning process;
Develops the evaluation framework to include baseline, midline and end line project evaluations.

Financial Management:

Guarantees and leads on assuring the integrity of financial systems, review of budget requirements and the consistent application or rules and regulations;
Manage, lead and implement all planning, budgeting, implementing and monitoring processes of the project, and track use of financial resources in accordance with UNDP rules and regulations;
Signs responsible for the prompt and timely delivery of all programmatic activities against all set deadlines;
Signs responsible for the Project’s financial delivery and monitors at all times financial exception reports for unusual activities, transactions, and investigate anomalies or unusual transactions;
Monitors and manages potential risks to the project delivery and is responsible for taking immediate corrective measures to provide timely guidance to project team to mitigate these risks. Escalates issues to UNDP management as needed.

Partnership Management:

The project results are to be achieved in close collaboration and partnership with government, coordination unit, other development partners and vendors. Senior National Project Manager is responsible to ensuring smooth partnership, building synergies , managing potential conflicts and overlaps in working with;
The GAVI, MoHFW and Immunization technical support unit;
Project partners including UNICEF and WHO;
Stakeholders including Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), National Institute of Health and Family Welfare( NIHFW), technical bodies such as Immunization Action Group (IAG) and National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) and civil society organisations;
State level health vaccine structures in project states;
All the project vendors executing electronic vaccine intelligence networks (eVIN) and other research activities;
Represent UNDP in the various technical meetings, resource groups, other forums related to health and immunization.

Knowledge Management:

Prepares aggregate reports on activities, outputs and outcomes to meet internal UNDP requirements and for the MoHFW and donor;
Monitors and manages documentation of the implementation process and analytical learnings from the implementation to inform effective scale up;
Provides periodic status reports, annual reports, case studies, etc. in a timely manner.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Job knowledge and technical expertise

Has strong knowledge of project area and keeps abreast with new developments in areas of professional discipline and seeks to develop herself/himself professionally;
Has sound knowledge of project management tools and utilises these regularly in work and assignments;
Should have analytical, negotiating, communication and advocacy skills.

Results based Management

Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals;
Demonstrates ability to generate innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations;
Ability to work independently and with minimum supervision.

Building and Managing Strategic Partnerships

Identifies common interests and goals and carries out join initiatives with partners;
Makes effective use of resources and comparative advantage to strengthen partnerships.

Advocacy

Brings visibility and sensitizes decision makers to relevant emerging issues;
Uses the opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for advocacy work.

Client Orientation

Demonstrates an understanding of client / partner / donor perspective and strives for high quality client oriented services;
Establishes smooth relationship and enabling environment between clients and service providers.

Leadership and Management

Is results driven and solution oriented, is able to work under pressure;
Uses fair and transparent decision making and calculated risk taking;
Ability to identify problems, propose solutions and take immediate corrective measures.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A minimum of Post-graduation in Business Administration/ Public Health/ Social Sciences from a reputed University / Institution.

Experience:

A minimum of 12 years of professional work in programme and/or project management including financial and programmatic management, research and monitoring;
Of which at least 1 year of experience should have been spent in routine immunization programmes including areas of work such as vaccine logistics and cold chain mechanisms;
Experience in managing information technology driven projects is a must;
Experience in managing and scaling large technology driven projects preferably in health sector will be an asset;
Experience of working in the State Government or other international development organization will be an asset.

Language:

Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English is required.

Travel:

The position will require extensive travel to the designated districts.

Remuneration package is Rs. 2,32,090/ per month (taxable). UNDP also offers additional benefits which include medical insurance coverage and limited pension reimbursement for contract holder and encourages work life balance to its employees.