Job Description:
A stable and prosperous Pakistan is a top priority in international development efforts of the UK Government. Empowerment and voice of women, girls and marginalized social groups is vital for these efforts to succeed. Therefore, enabling them to articulate their needs and influence legislation, policies and practices which affect them is at the heart of the UK’s development assistance. Better access to reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health and nutrition is an important entry point to achieve this objective.
Pakistan has missed the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). DFID Pakistan therefore is focussing on reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health (RMNCH) including nutrition to support effective implementation of health sector strategies that will lead to achievement of the health MDGs. DFID signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Pakistan supporting the Provincial Health and Nutrition Programme (PHNP) to achieve RMNCH and nutrition results in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
These TORs relate to the Coordination Officer (Advocacy and Accountability)on one component of the PHNP programme - Empowerment, Voice and Accountability for Better Health and Nutrition (EVA-BHN) granted to Palladium.
The objective of the EVA-BHN is to increase the demand for better RMNCH services and nutrition and empower citizens to raise their voices and hold the service providers to account. Women, girls and children with the greatest needs and from underserved backgrounds will be prioritized. Through its activities, EVA-BHN will complement the supply-side interventions by increasing demand and strengthening mechanisms for greater and effective citizen participation and monitoring of health services.
GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:
The primary purpose of advocacy and accountability component on EVA includes triggering and pursuing citizen-centric health policy and practice changes at district and provincial level through galvanizing citizen voices and facilitating the inclusion of these voices in decision making – thus resulting into a more responsive health system. The Advocacy and Accountability team will achieve this through facilitation of interaction between citizens and duty bearers, bringing together the allies and partners for safeguarding and promoting citizen voices, undertaking complimentary direct advocacy with decision makers using EVA produced evidence, building the capacity of citizens and creating an enabling environment for citizens’ voices.
The key interventions in this regard include setting up and facilitating forums at union council, district and provincial level called as Community Group (CG), District Advocacy Forum (DAF) and Provincial Advocacy Forum (PAF). The citizens are facilitated to discuss and debate their health issues on these forums and raise it with the relevant duty bearers for policies and practice changes. Along with facilitating these forums, EVA has also targeted the creation of an enabling environment for amplifying and protecting the citizen voices through identifying allies and partners for citizens on their advocacy agendas. This includes engagement with journalists, religious leaders, provincial parliamentarians and local government representatives as well as engaging with autonomous bodies within the Governments such as Health Care Commission, Right to Information Commission and Right to Services Commission etc. Besides, the citizens are facilitated with different materials from time to time that are developed in the light of their needs such as Advocacy Kits, Citizen Budgets etc. Along with that effort to improve the capacity of the citizens is also undertaken through trainings from time to time. The AA activities are guided by political economy analysis that is undertaken from time to time both and provincial and district level. This analysis help implement the adaptive learning approach implementation in order to adjust and take advantage of the changing environment. This includes collecting and analysing information at regular intervals about the different actors at provincial and district level.
The incumbent of this position will support the A&A component by supporting the coordination of the different activities within A&A component and coordination between A&A and other work streams activities.
ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:
- Support the Director AA in coordination of AA activities including and not limited to DAFs, PAFs, Caucus, Capacity Building, Health Budgets, Local Government engagement, Political Economy Analysis etc
- Update activity calendar/work plan on periodic basis and track the progress against the agreed deadline for the field staff
- Undertake field trips and physically verify the activities against the work plan
- Maintains files in soft and hard with regard to AA activities including DAFs, PAFs, Caucus, Capacity Building, Citizen Budgets, Health Visions etc.
- Support the Director AA in arranging the monthly and quarterly review meetings of AA team as well as meetings with STTA and CCP
- Maintain the record of the all weekly and monthly minutes of the meetings of AA teams and related STTA and track/update the follow-up action
- Undertake the quality assurance checks for the AA related MIS and enter data for Political Economy Analysis.
- Recordkeeping of the media coverage of the AA activities
- Coordination for communication aspects of AA activities such as the printing of materials for different activities, coordinating with communication lead for coverage of events, providing AA content for EVA collateral materials such as newsletters, improving the quality and ensuring the branding of the materials
- Maintain an updated list of stakeholders for AA activities at federal and provincial levels. Keep record of all AA relevant data in soft and hard files including DAF, PAF, Caucus members, LG members profile
- Set up the meetings of AA director with the stakeholders
- Collecting and digging out information from various sources to facilitate the policies and political economy analysis.
- Coordinate with field teams for identifying the content for newsletters and case studies
- Events related coordination such as sending invites, follow up on confirmations, facilitating the participants, preparing budgets, adjusting the advances etc
- Coordinate the field visits both internal and the external related to AA activities
- Coordinate the processing of travel requests of AA teams and STTA for approvals
- Provide support in organizing capacity building sessions as and when required
- Assist the Director AA in lesion with M&E for arranging surveys as and when required
- Maintain close liaison with the Operations and Finance team to ensure the smooth implementation of activities
- Coordination of outsourced activities that will include undertaking necessary documentation such as filling up of recruitment forms, coordination with operations and finance teams, setting up interviews, follow ups on deliverables etc
- Perform any other task as assigned by the Director AA
Qualifications
- Master’s degree in Social Sciences or equivalent.
- At least 3 years of field experience in the Social or Development Sector, is desirable
- Excellent interpersonal communication skills.
- Excellent data management experience and skills required.
- Must be fluent in Urdu and English;
- Computer Proficiency: MS WORD (Advanced user), MS EXCEL (Advanced user), MS OUTLOOK (Working Knowledge), internet search (advance user).
- Must be able to translate documents from English to Urdu
Competencies
- Ability to communicate effectively in English in both verbal and written formats.
- Ability to liaise effectively with a range of stakeholders, including project partners, donors, private sector, NGOs, and government departments
- Strong results orientation and commitment to accountability and value for money
- Strong personal qualities, including integrity, commitment to excellence, equality, openness, inclusiveness, and collegiality