Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF or the Gates Foundation) is the largest private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It was launched in 2000 and is said to be the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world. The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in America, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology. The foundation, based in Seattle, Washington, is controlled by its three trustees: Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. Other principal officers include Co-Chair William H. Gates, Sr. and Chief Executive Officer Susan Desmond-Hellmann.
It had an endowment of US$42.3 billion as of 24 November 2014. The scale of the foundation and the way it seeks to apply business techniques to giving makes it one of the leaders in venture philanthropy, though the foundation itself notes that the philanthropic role has limitations.[In 2007, its founders were ranked as the second most generous philanthropists in America, and Warren Buffett the first. As of May 16, 2013, Bill Gates had donated US$28 billion to the foundation.
Your Role
The Deputy Director – Health Systems Strengthening, Nigeria will lead the development and implementation of the Nigeria team’s strategies in health systems strengthening (HSS), including a focus on primary health care. This role will work collaboratively with programmatic, functional, and cross-division partners within the country office team and across the foundation, to develop and lead a portfolio of grants at the country, regional and global level to achieve results. The focus of the Nigeria team is to enable the work of foundation teams that are involved in the development, testing and scale-up of high impact and cost-effective solutions to achieve sustained impact at scale across Nigeria. S/he will serve as a member of the leadership team, playing a critical role in shaping the direction of the foundation’s HSS work and team management in Nigeria.
The postholder will be based at the foundation’s NCO in Abuja, and report to the Director, NCO.
What You’ll Do
Lead the development and implementation of HSS strategies, action plans, and budgets in partnership with other country office deputy directors, the foundation’s Program Strategy Teams (PSTs) and Global Policy and Advocacy (GPA). Work with leadership to ensure that HSS strategies align with the foundation’s goals in Nigeria and contribute to long-term sustainability and impact. Set priorities, allocate resources, and lead analyses of the portfolio for annual strategy reviews and adjustments. Anticipate trends, evaluate potential strategic trade-offs, and guide decision-making.
Oversee the development of complex grants and contracts, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities. Provide strategic guidance for crafting grants and contracts requiring complex research or analytics.
Design, implement, and monitor health system strengthening strategies that link and contribute to improvements in Primary Health Care, as well as Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCH-N) outcomes. Ensure that strategies are integrated with broader foundation goals and collaborate across teams to drive impact.
In partnership with other Deputy Directors and relevant program officers in charge of country impact at the foundation, design and oversee the implementation of integrated strategies to accelerate the achievements of joint (foundation and others) health and nutrition goals in Nigeria.
Monitor financial and programmatic indicators continuously, collaborating with internal teams to adjust strategies as needed. Identify portfolio risks and develop mitigation and contingency plans.
Represent the foundation to key health-related committees, government platforms, and stakeholders. Advocate for health system reforms and improvements that align with the foundation’s goals. Ensure high quality interactions and clear and consistent communications with government officials, foundation staff, and leadership, grantees and partners.
Manage key external relationships with grantees, stakeholders, and government officials. Conduct site visits, convene meetings, and monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of grants. Ensure effective governance mechanisms for all critical external relationships.
Hire and manage the talent needed to achieve the foundation’s goals. Foster an inclusive team culture and provide leadership to ensure that all team members can thrive and meet performance expectations. Model and coach equitable decision-making and inclusive behaviors. Serve as a senior member of the NCO, overseeing performance management, teamwork, internal communications and contribution towards foundation-wide priorities.
Act as a subject matter expert in public HSS (including health care financing, governance and performance management, human resources for health, supply chain, data, and service delivery).
Serve as a key representative internally in interactions with PSTs and other teams. Advise, mentor, and support colleagues within the foundation and grantees in project design and implementation.
Ensure strategies have clear outcomes, well-defined goals, and measurement activities to track progress toward impact. Develop and implement learning and evaluation activities to assess strategy performance and adjust approaches accordingly.
Experience
The ideal candidate will preferably hold an advanced degree in medicine, public health, health economics, public policy, or similar fields (e.g., MSPH, MHA, MPH, MD, PhD). Certification in epidemiology will be an advantage.
15+ years of proven experience in HSS at country level that leads to programmatic improvements (e.g. immunization, FP, MNCH). The candidate should also have an in-depth understanding of the global health and international development environment; and have experience working in and living in Africa, on health-related work.
In-depth experience in public health with experience of integration across disease areas and in health systems in a low-middle income country. Experience/familiarity with Nigeria (national and sub-national) is preferred.
A track record of leading high performing teams of staff and consultants, managing multimillion budgets and portfolio management.
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.
Strategic thinking – 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 problem solver. Innovative and open-minded approach; ability to question and challenge colleagues including managers and partners in a constructive manner.
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, highly matrixed, fast-paced environment both in country office and at headquarters.
Communicating in complex situations in a clear and concise manner with a broad and diverse audience.
Managing teams of successful self-directed professionals and acting as a partner to team members managing specific portfolios.
Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic, and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people; holds diverse international working experience.
Demonstrated ability to function successfully in a politically demanding environment.
Other Attributes
Sense of humor and positive attitude required.
Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people and a deep commitment to development issues and high standards of personal integrity.
Ability to travel up to 40% domestically and internationally.
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