Programme Health Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist - Global Fund Local Fund Agent

-BanKi-moon, United Nations Secretary-General

The mission of UNOPS is to expand the capacity of the UN system and its partners to implement peace building, humanitarian and development operations that matter for people in need.

Working in some of the world’s most challenging environments, the vision of UNOP is to always satisfy partners with management services that meet world-class standards of quality, speed and cost effectiveness.

By assisting UN organizations, international financial institutions, governments and other development partners, UNOPS makes significant, tangible contributions to results on the ground.

Annually,UNOPS employs approximately 6,000 personnel and on behalf of its partners creates thousands more work opportunities in local communities. With its headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, a network of regional offices as well as operations and project centres, UNOPS oversees activities in more than 80 countries. UNOPS is committed to achieving a truly diverse workforce.

The Global Fund does not have a country-level presence outside of its central Secretariat. Instead, it hires third party Local Fund Agents (LFAs) to oversee, verify and report on grant performance. LFAs are selected through a competitive bidding process.

The Global Fund normally has one LFA engaged in each country where its funds are disbursed. The LFA would give the Global Fund access to local knowledge that may be relevant to the performance.  The Global Fund adheres to the principles of performance-based funding in making disbursement decisions. The aim is to ensure that investments are made only where funding is managed and spent effectively on programs that achieve impact in fighting the relevant diseases (HIV, tuberculosis and malaria).The LFA is thus a crucial part of the Global Fund’s system of oversight and risk management. Its principal role is to provide informed and independent professional advice aboutt he capacity of fund/grant recipients to manage the implementation of activities funded by grant funds (including the recipient’s  capacity to oversee implementation of activities by implementing parties), to make recommendations concerning periodic disbursement of grant funds, to review grant performance when a grant is being considered for renewal, and to provide the donor on an on-going basis with relevant information on issues or risks which might affect grant performance.

The LFA team is expected to have an up-to-date and comprehensive understanding of relevant diseases, how they are prevented, transmitted and treated, and their impact on a specific country. The team assesses the recipients’ institutional and health/programmatic capacities and arrangements to ensure adequate health expertise (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and/or malaria) in the implementation of the donor grant funds. The LFA team also determines whether the recipient has adequate infrastructure and information systems to support grant implementation, including the monitoring of performance of implementing partners and outsourced entities in a timely and accountable manner. The donor has recently adopted an intensive risk management approach to services with enhanced effort toward in-depth verifications and reporting. The identification of financial and programmatic risks with ongoing updates shall be provided the donor with special attention to the overall context of the relevant diseases and grant implementation in country.

The Programme Health and M&E Specialist will be based in-country and report to the LFA Team Leader. The incumbent will be responsible for the technical area of health and disease (HIV, TB and malaria),and responsible for ensuring that all programme/M&E work is of high quality and completed within the timeframe set by the client. The incumbent will also be required to travel in-country when necessary.

 The functions/duties/key results of this job description are genericand may not always be applicable, nor comprehensive, for all jobs under thisjob title.

 The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS. 

Below are some of the key functionalities, which it may vary from duty station to duty station.

The incumbent is required to perform the function of technical programme health and M&E specialist in the relevant country by carrying out the following activities:

Report Reviews:

Reviewing progress update reports and disbursement requests submitted by the grant recipients as per following:

• Verifying grant recipient and implementing partners’ primary records (supporting documents submitted) for accuracy and completeness, and for the correspondence of those, with the summary internal/external reports prepared by the grant recipients  and implementing partners;
• Conducting cross-checks of various primary documents with the summary reports;
• Interviewing grant recipients and implementing partners’ relevant staff members, as well as program beneficiaries, includingTB/HIV patients;
• Debriefing grant recipient and implementing partners’ staff members on the main findings from the UNOPS verifications/reports;
• Cross verification of M&E and health/programmatic data with financial, management and procurement data/information;
• Conduct comprehensive programmatic and M&E analysis and reflect in the programmatic and M&E related sections of the obligatory reporting template

Implementation Reviews:

• Organize and lead recipient assessments, and programmatic reviews to provide informed and independent professional advice to the donor about the capacity of recipients to effectively manage and implement the donor grant funds from a programmatic perspective;
• Conduct regular (preferably monthly) and ad hoc visits to the grant recipients and implementing partners to monitor implementation of the projects (including trainings and other key events) and prepare corresponding reports;
•  Carry out regular monitoring of grant recipient and implementing partner performances and verify the implementation status of the programme and the progress towards reaching set programme targets;  
• Assess reasonableness of the types and quantities (forecasted needs) of TB/HIV/malaria medicines and other health products that are planned to be procured with grant funds;
• Review revised implementation planning documents during grant implementation (workplan, budget, procurement plan, M&E,others), and provide an opinion on proposed changes in programme implementation, effects these changes might have on attainment of programme objectives, proposed budget reallocations and provide recommendations to the client;
• Undertake preliminary quality assurance of the LFA programmatic/ M&E deliverables to be submitted to the donor, to ensure that these are in line with contemporary professional standards; 
• Plan, prepare and lead data verification and data quality exercises including travel to monitor status of grant implementation;
• Monitor and inform the team leader of any developments within the country’s health system which may affect the performance of the grants;
• Immediately raise all suspicious acts,transactions and activities and processes which may pose potential risks,misconduct, mismanagement, misuse and frauds by grant recipients and implementing partners to the attention of the team leader;
• In conducting the above tasks, ensure that relevant guidelines and policies are adhered to including the ones which are related to M&E and programmatic/health functional areas. The respective international guidelines (e.g. WHO, UNAIDS, etc.) shall be also consulted and followed.

 Management & clientrelations:

• Supervise and closely monitor the work of any LFA team programme and M&E staff;
• Ensure that all teamwork, includes inputs of all technical staff, is of high quality and completed within the timeframe, and as per guidelines set by the donor;
• Responsible for completion of the performance management process for assigned staff;
• Contribute to the annual scope of work, cost proposal and the consequent annual work plan of team activities;
• Foster an atmosphere of team spirit, mutual respect and professional independence within the team;
• Assist the donor in grant negotiations;
• Assist the donor in grant closure activities;
• Demonstrate an overall understanding of the grant architecture and in-depth knowledge of all team activities required to be performed as described in the donor manual;
• Remain updated on  donor guidelines and procedures, timeframes for completion of team activities, and the forms and templates to be used in the field of work;
• Perform other duties as per the donor manual and/or as assigned/ required.

·        Health sector experience.

·        Decision making.

·        Ability to analyse.

·        Organizing and quality orientation.

·        Communication skill.

·        Client focus.

·      Ability to interpret performance results of health programs and analyse the implications of such results in the country context;

·        Strong understanding of public health monitoring and evaluation systems;

·        A thorough knowledge of epidemiology and programmatic interventions related to at least one of the three diseases (HIV, TB, or malaria);

·        Understanding of the dimensions of health service quality and familiarity with reviewing and interpreting national service delivery guidelines;

·        Strong interpersonal skills, diplomacy and tact to effectively communicate with senior level officials, multiple stakeholders and professionals from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds; and

·        Strong professional oral communication and writing skills, including the development of reports, oral presentations, and technical/persuasive documents.

·        Experience with larger donors in the area of health is an advantage;

A Graduate Degree (MSc. equivalent) in:

·        Public Health; or

·        Medicine; or

·        Epidemiology; or

Other relevant discipline.

A minimum of 7 years relevant experience in the health sector, notably in monitoring and evaluating health programs in developing countries, and with the following expertise:

(i)      ability to interpret performance results of health programs and analyse the implications of such results in the country context;

(ii)    strong understanding of public health monitoring and evaluation systems;

(iii)   a thorough knowledge of epidemiology and programmatic interventions related to at least one of the three diseases (HIV, TB, or malaria);

(iv)   understanding of the dimensions of health service quality and familiarity with reviewing and interpreting national service delivery guidelines;

(v)    strong interpersonal skills, diplomacy and tact to effectively communicate with senior level officials, multiple stakeholders and professionals from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds; and

Strong professional oral communication and writing skills, including the development of reports, oral presentations, and technical/persuasive documents.