🇸🇱 Job Vacancy @ Welbodi Partnership – CRADLE Programmes Manager
Job title CRADLE Programmes Manager
Reporting to Country Director
Location Freetown with expected travels
Welbodi Partnership
BACKGROUND
Other
relationships
Works very closely to steer financial, operational and grants compliance, with close contact with donors.
Welbodi Partnership (WP) is a UK-registered charity working to reduce maternal and child mortality and morbidity in Sierra Leone. Since 2008, Welbodi Partnership has worked in partnership with hospital management, health facility staff, and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to improve maternal and child health outcomes in the Western Area of Sierra Leone.
We do this through a range of partnerships models across health system strengthening activities, staff training, hospital improvement projects, and community engagement.
Our vision is that all women and children in Sierra Leone will have access to effective essential healthcare services characterized by respect and dignity for all. Our mission is to build the capacity and effectiveness of the health system in Sierra Leone using evidence-based practice to reduce the number of women and children who are sick, suffer, or die unnecessarily.
Our programmes are bold, future-facing, and innovative and cut across support to Ola During Children’s Hospital, the only national tertiary referral hospital for pediatrics, supporting maternal health and research capacity building across Sierra Leone through implementation of the CRIBS Research Programme.
OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES
- Deliver Lasting Results
- Working in Partnership
- Health Systems Approach
- Valuing People
- Evidence based approach
For further information, please see: www.welbodipartnership.org
CONTEXT
Sierra Leone records one of the highest maternal mortality rates (MMR) in the highest in the world with 1,165 deaths per 100,000 live births – six times the global average. Maternal deaths account for 36% of all deaths in women aged between 15-49 years, the majority of whom will die in a health facility (81.8%). Sierra Leone is a challenging training environment for effective maternal health services, with limited transportation links to the nearest health facilities for antenatal visits, poor availability of well
trained midwifery staff, inadequate resources and diagnostics to monitor pregnancy. Having the right diagnostic equipment to monitor pregnancy at its onset is critical, as it allows for early detection of abnormalities, such as pre-eclampsia, pregnancy induced hypertension, bleeding or infection – amongst the key causes for maternal mortality in Sierra Leone. Early detection ensures that expecting mothers and unborn children get suitable treatment early and locally, and more complicated obstetric conditions are quickly referred to advanced health facilities, where they can be treated before resulting in near misses or death. Yet, availability of blood pressure devices to enable effective vital signs and patient monitoring during ante natal care (ANC) visits is limited in PHUs across the country.
In response, the CRADLE VSA (Community blood pressure monitoring in Rural Africa & Asia: Detection of underlying pre-Eclampsia and shock Vital Signs Alert) measures BP and heart rate (HR) and was developed for use in low-income countries (LMICs) by King’s College London. It has now been used in
over 50 countries. It is portable, cheap, charged with a micro-USB and easy- to-use, even by healthcare providers (HCPs) who are not medically trained. A novel, in-built traffic light system alerts the HCP to abnormal readings, assisting the recognition of hypertension and shock (bleeding or infection) and alerting to the need to act. The traffic lights aid effective prioritisation and treatment, to support timely referrals. Since 2017, Welbodi Partnership has been supporting KCL with scaling up the device and associated training package across Sierra Leone. The second phase of rollout implementation targeting the second half of the country is being implemented under the CRADLE 5 clinical research trial – a randomised effectiveness-implementation type 2 trial, undertaken to evaluate the intervention across eight rural districts in a stepped-wedged design.
The scale up is intended to serve as a flagship programme to assess whether and how CRADLE can and should be rolled out to other countries around the world.
Main purpose of the role
The Programmes Manager is primarily responsible for overseeing Sierra Leone’s national CRADLE 5 programme and associated CRADLE5 Clinical Research Trial under the National Institute and Health Research (NIHR) grant in partnership with King’s College London, University of Sierra Leone and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
The CRADLE programme seeks to introduce novel blood pressure measuring devices and an associated Emergency Obstetric Management training to all health care facilities in Sierra Leone, and coordinate sustainability planning in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, district health medical teams and partners.
Reporting to, and supported by, the Welbodi Country Director and NIHR Consortium Coordinator / CRADLE Research Coordinator, the Programmes Manager will be responsible for ensuring the delivery of high-quality project and research activities, coordinating data collection and monitoring of all research streams under the associated clinical trial and supervising relevant programmes & research staff, whilst supporting donor reporting, overseeing budget spend and maintaining relationships with partners within Sierra Leone. They are responsible for the planning, development, co-ordination and implementation of projects and activities to improve the quality of care delivered at maternal and child health facilities supported by Welbodi Partnership under CRADLE in Sierra Leone.
The main project that the Programmes Manager will oversee is the national CRADLE programme, however they may also be the responsible for other Welbodi projects, including novel associated projects to reduce maternal mortality, working closely with stakeholders to identify potential areas of need.
Specific responsibilities are listed below but will also include other duties necessary for the success of individual projects and of Welbodi Partnership.
| Key Responsibilities: | Measures |
| PROGRAMMES DELIVERY AND PARTNERSHIPS ▪ Contributes to accurate development of a rolling programs implementation plan/forecast. ▪ Overall responsibility for ensuring that the CRADLE 5 NIHR project in Sierra | ∙ # of program forecast submissions done. ∙ Excellent scores/ratings from donor assessments |
| Leone are delivered to a high standard and are in keeping with the organisation’s values. ▪ Oversees the CRADLE 5 project, ensuring deliverables are met in line with the research and project plan, working closely with the King’s College London Research Team. ▪ Facilitates the Monitoring Evaluation Assessment Learning and Research pieces with the MEALR unit manager to collect, analyse, and utilise facility based data to evaluate and improve clinical projects and health outcomes. ▪ Through oversight of DROs, maintains close working relationships with Medical Superintendents and other health facility managers, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, District Health Management Teams, key health sector stakeholders, partners at health care facilities, King’s College London research staff and other NGO representatives and donors. ▪ Overall responsibility for the delivery of timely and high-quality narrative reports for designated projects for donors. ▪ Supports clinical oversight, expertise, and leadership to ensure improvements in the quality of healthcare provided at supported health facilities. ▪ Identifies opportunities to collaborate and develop clinical integration/co ordination with other organisational partners working in the supported health facilities. ▪ Participates in senior management organisational and clinical strategy development and implementation. ▪ Supports research capacity building within the team. | ∙ Evidence of acceptable actual Vs targets on internal WP and external donor KPIs. ∙ # weekly/monthly/quarterly spotlights, newsletters, human interest stories, data submissions done. ∙ # of monthly DHMT meetings e.g MDSR review meetings attended by DROs and reported. ∙ # of joint tasks completed with DHMTs and other partners. ∙ # of timely submission of quality donor reports. ∙ # of clinical quality review data/reports completed (e.g. clinical audits, training assessments, competency assessments etc.) |
| STRATEGIC EXCELLENCE AND STANDARDS ∙ Conduct programme performance review sessions with the DHMTs, research assistants, field implementation teams, DROs, NIHR KCL, MoHS. | ∙ # review meetings, TWGs, attended/facilitated/rolled out. ∙ Evidence of grants/budgets performance management trackers deployed. |
| ∙ Conduct continuous real-time performance tracking against Grants’ KPIs. ∙ Under supervision of the Country Director and in collaboration with management teams, contribute to annual planning (BP) processes. ∙ In collaboration with Operations, Finance and Programs implementation teams carry out high quality reporting of all institutional funding grants/ contracts in Sierra Leone. ∙ Support overall overarching compliance of all teams to Welbodi Partnership high standards of operations. | ∙ # Of BP/annual planning submissions done. ∙ Evidence of grants submission and donor high performance rating scores. |
| RESEARCH PROJECTS ADVOCACY AND SUSTAINABILITY ▪ Work closely with DHMTs, field teams, NIHR coordinator, DPPI, RCH directorate and other partners to build interest in research implementation through communities of practice (COPs). ▪ Support DPPI, RCH directorate, KCL, NIHR to draft roadmaps for institutionalizing formative research for decision making. ▪ Build network with biomedical technicians to conduct regular device performance surveys. ▪ Roll out regular lessons’ dissemination events aimed at planting research implementation as key pillar for improving RMNCAH indices. ▪ Join in advocacy drives to build usage of CRADLE devices as part of essential devices and medicines list. ▪ Build relationships with NEMS, Midwifery, and other institutions with need for CRADLE utilization. | ∙ # of research COPs contributed to ∙ # of national RMNCAH/research policy/legislation/initiatives contributions done. ∙ # of CRADLE device maintenance/repair activities/trainings/visits conducted ∙ # of research COPs contributed to ∙ # of MOUs and relevant collaboration agreements secured |
| GRANTS PROTOCOLS AND FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY ▪ In support to the Head of grants resourcing and compliance, ensures project spending against relevant budgets. ▪ In support to the Finance manager, submits all activity related financial | ∙ Approved, disseminated, and shared annual planning process/document. |
| requests under the CRADLE programme and ensures staff payments are made on time. ▪ Contributes to reviews of monthly management accounts and internal financial reporting related to the programme. ▪ Supports HGROC and FM with the development of timely and high quality financial reports for donors, working alongside project teams, the Welbodi Partnership Finance team and King’s College London research and finance teams. | ∙ Database of relevant donor/grant frameworks |
| STAFF MANAGEMENT ∙ Responsible for managing the programmes teams for CRADLE and CRADLE5, including national and international staff. ∙ Building the capacity of programme and research teams by developing and designing regular training sessions. ∙ Responsible for ensuring that project staff have appropriate objectives, appraisals (using OGSMs and/or OKRs), support and training, and dealing with grievances and disciplinary issues when necessary. ∙ Supports international and local recruitment for Welbodi Partnership projects. ∙ In collaboration with HR/Admin, is responsible for ensuring the safety and security of all programmes staff and participants. | ∙ # Of compliance policies in place. ∙ # of staff webinars, training and CPD seminars facilitated/initiated. ∙ Completion of periodic OGSMs/OKRs. ∙ Participation in drafting business continuity plans as necessary |
| All other duties/functions as designated by Welbodi Partnership Country Director in line with the CP strategicpriorities. | ∙ TBD
|
Skills
∙ Must be a team player and understands the mantra of ‘one Welbodi partnership’. ∙ Demonstrated management and organizational skills, with meticulous attention to detail. ∙ Demonstrated management skills in fast-paced decision-making situations. ∙ Capacity to lead technical conversations on research implementation.
∙ Ability to communicate complex ideas in simplified patterns to line reports is key. ∙ Strategic and innovative thinker with proven ability to communicate a vision. ∙ Excellent IT, interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills.
∙ Demonstrated problem solving skills: providing solutions to challenging situations. ∙ Ability to learn and apply new skills and techniques on the job.
∙ Ability to work effectively with others in a cross-cultural environment, as a leader and influencer.
Personal attributes
∙ Auditable pedigree in projects’ management
∙ Integrity and an ethos of incorruptibility.
∙ Motivated and hardworking.
∙ Openness to learn, relearn and unlearn.
∙ Strong ability to manage time well and work to multiple and strict deadlines under pressure. ∙ Reliable and conscientious approach to duties.
∙ Passionate about improving maternal healthcare in Sierra Leone and a keen interest in Health System Strengthening.
∙ Absolute commitment to teaching and learning and skills improvement of others.
Others
∙ Fluent written and spoken English.
∙ Willingness to accept basic living and working conditions.
∙ Commitment to the goals and principles of Welbodi Partnership.
CRITERIA FOR CONSIDERATION
Qualifications
∙ Bachelors and/or master’s qualification/degree(s) in public health, medicine or related fields, business administration/project management, data sciences management, biomedical sciences and other relevant disciplines.
∙ Additional Post-graduate certifications in project management are an added advantage. (and/or background of relevant pedigree in fast-paced performance-driven social enterprise organizations is also equivalent).
Experience
∙ Previous experience overseeing research implementation projects is key. ∙ Familiarity with the Sierra Leone development and/or humanitarian context is a plus. ∙ At least four years’ upper middle/senior management experience is preferred. ∙ Management- level experience to include performance tracking, OGSMs and/or OKRs in projects and personnel oversight.
∙ Previous experience working with research-focused donors like NIHR, MRC is an added advantage.
∙ Experience in qualitative donor report writing with a proven ability to secure donor funding. ∙ Experience in the charity sector and/or in impoverished, post-conflict, or other challenging environments.
**We are open to considering exceptional and committed candidates with less management experience if they possess the energy and skill set to drive our organization forward.
Knowledge
Knowledge of relevant evidence-based approaches to improving maternal, neonatal, and child health, and of national and international strategies and frameworks in these areas.
Other
Fluency in Krio and/or other local languages desirable.
GENERAL POLICIES PROCEDURES AND PRACTICES
In addition to the key job responsibilities detailed in this job description all employees and volunteers at Welbodi Partnership are expected to comply with the general duties outlined below and detailed in full in our policies.
SAFEGUARDING
Welbodi Partnership is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults. All staff and volunteers are therefore expected to behave in such a way that supports this commitment. Applicants for this position should be aware that if successful, they will be requested to complete a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, or equivalent in countries other than the UK. The Welbodi Partnership complies fully with the DBS Code of Practice.
DATA PROTECTION
Welbodi Partnership complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
Welbodi Partnership is committed to a comprehensive policy of Equal Opportunities in volunteering and employment in which individuals are selected and treated based on their relevant merits and abilities and are given equal opportunities within the organisation. It is the Welbodi Partnership’s policy as an employer to treat all people equally irrespective of race, ethnic origin, nationality, sex, marital or parental status, gender, sexual orientation, creed, disability, age, or political belief.
WORKING CONDITIONS
Welbodi Partnership operates in tertiary and primary healthcare facilities in one of the world’s poorest countries. Consequently, working conditions can be challenging, including many things we take for granted in other working environments, such as running water, power, communications, staff competency and regular supplies of essential medicines and equipment – many of these things are not a given in the environments where we work. Whilst every reasonable effort is made to ensure a safe working environment, this is a challenging context, much of which is out of our control. Welbodi Partnership places a strong emphasis on staff health and well-being and strives to always ensure staff comfort.
JOB REVISION
This job description should be viewed as a guide to the duties required and is not definitive or restrictive in any way. The duties of the post may be varied from time to time in response to changing circumstances.
SALARY/BENEFITS
Based on job competency alignment to internal pay scales. The full remuneration package will be discussed with shortlisted candidates.
APPLICATION PROCESS: The closing date for applications is the 18th of March 2023 – we encourage potential applicants to submit as soon as possible as interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis from earliest candidates’ submissions.
To apply for this position please send your cover letter, CV and contact details of 3 referees in one email to [email protected] using the following subject title: Application – CRADLE PROGRAMMES MANAGER
Please include the following in your cover letter (2 pages maximum):
Reasons for applying to this position Overview of key experience related to this post Your country of residence and nationality Date you are able to commence and duration of availability
Please note CVs should be no more than 4 pages long. Please do not send any additional documentation at this stage.
For any queries relating to the position, please email [email protected].
