Senior Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist - Public Health Foundation of India (Apply by: 20 May 2014)

Position Vacant : Senior Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist

Position Code : PHFI/2014/102-UPBCM

Place of Posting : Lucknow

Organization Name : Public Health Foundation of India
Public Health Foundation of India,is a public private initiative that has collaboratively evolved through consultations with multiple constituencies including Indian and international academia, state and central governments, multi & bi-lateral agencies and civil society groups. PHFI is a response to redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health.

Structured as an independent foundation, PHFI adopts a broad, integrative approach to public health, tailoring its endeavours to Indian conditions and bearing relevance to countries facing similar challenges and concerns. The PHFI focuses on broad dimensions of public health that encompass promotive, preventive and therapeutic services, many of which are frequently lost sight of in policy planning as well as in popular understanding.

The Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, launched PHFI on March 28, 2006 at New Delhi. PHFI recognizes the fact that meeting the shortfall of health professionals is imperative to a sustained and holistic response to the public health concerns in the country which in turn requires health care to be addressed not only from the scientific perspective of what works, but also from the social perspective of, who needs it the most.

Project Brief:

With a population of about 200 million, UP is the most populous state in India (17% of India’s population). The 2011 census shows that the majority of the population live in rural areas where health indicators continue to severely lag behind national averages. The state infant mortality and neonatal mortality rate (IMR and NMR) are 67 and 49 (AHS 2012-2013) respectively which are higher than national figures. UP’s largely rural demographic faces the greatest burden of these indicators with NMR in rural (52)areas is almost 17 points higher than urban (35)areas ) (ANS 2012-2013). Similar trends exist for IMR and the majority of RMNCH indicators. Insights to address this challenge come from past studies that show that the strongest determinants of IMR and NMR are female education and low levels of socio economic variables (Unicef-India 2012 Fact sheet).

Moreover the rate of reduction of these indicators has been mostly constant over the last decade which suggests the need for alternative approaches. Despite proven family health interventions for reducing neonatal mortality and improving maternal and child health, there is a dearth of scalable community-based demand-side approaches that can take these interventions to scale, thereby ensuring a rapid and sustainable impact on family health outcomes.
For the desired impact on maternal and neonatal mortality reduction, there is a need for strong demand mobilization approach at the community level. Moreover, other family health outcomes including improved maternal and child health can be impacted through community-based strategies that create effective linkages with the health system. The Uttar Pradesh community mobilization project is an ambitious attempt to address this challenge of scale through an alternative demand generation platform of scalable and institutionally robust women’s self-help groups (SHGs) model. The Rajiv Gandhi MahilaVikasPariyojana (RGMVP) has developed a rapidly scalable federated social platform model comprising SHGs, village organization and Block organization that can serve as an operating system on which family health interventions can be layered. This model holds tremendous promise as a platform for community mobilization to expedite changes in family health behaviors and social norms, as well as establish strong linkages with the health system at a local level in order to improve access of health services.

The project goal is to improve coverage of reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child health and nutrition interventions through changes in family health behaviour and improving access, utilization and quality of health services and thus reduce mortality outcomes in mother and children in 100 blocks of UP. This goal will be achieved through the following objectives:

· Create social platforms in 150 new blocks (40+ districts) and 6100 GPs covering 1 million households and members directly.

· Layer health into the both currently existing and new social platforms and increase adoption of evidence-based high-impact RMNCHN behaviors in 100 blocks of 33 districts

· Build partnerships and mechanisms to scale up and sustain RMNCHN health behaviours through social platform interventions.

As the lead agency, PHFI is responsible for overall grant management and coordination with the stakeholders to ensure successful delivery of the program objectives

Job Description / Responsibilities:

The Senior Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist will lead the program’s overall M&E agenda, reporting directly to the Project Director. The fellow will be responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of the strategic M&E framework in the program as well as for providing overall high-level technical oversight, management and support for multiple MLE activities in the project. As a member of the program lead agency, the selected candidate would also directly liaise with MLE counterparts in the consortium and with donor agency to work on the integrated MLE network

· Provide strategic direction on the design and evaluation of all research studies, surveys and MIS initiatives in the project and guidance on the development of strategic goals

· Conceptualise, design LQAS studies & support the capacity of the field implementer(Rajiv Gandhi MahilaVikasPariyojna) in scaling up and strengthening the decentralisation of the LQAS-model across the social platform.

· Organise & co-ordinate Monitoring and Evaluation meetings with key partners and donor agencies to share interim program findings

· Co-ordinate different research instruments to complement & facilitate each other, derive insights & share learnings.

· Conducting research with an expectation to submit papers for journal publication

Support:

· Work in close collaboration with other team members and coordinate with key experts at PHFI to ensure that the research and design incorporate the latest knowledge of research methodologies, MIS and relevant project data during the design implementation of project activities

· Coordinate regular tracking of programme delivery patterns and production of programme delivery reports;

· Visiting and monitoring implementation sites of programs relevance

· Any other strategic, technical support to and responsibilities as discussed with the Programme Director.

· Develop 6 monthly working paper or briefs on key program MLE aspects.

· Work in close collaboration with other team members and coordinate with key experts at PHFI to ensure that the research and design incorporate the latest knowledge of MIS and relevant project data during the design implementation of project activities

· Undertake rigorous evaluation of the program by analyzing data collected from surveys, data collection tools etc.

Qualifications / Experience required

Essential Qualifications:

· Post Graduate in Public health stream-Epidemiology, Bio-Statistics, Demography, Health Economics, Mathematics or Equivalent field

· PhD would be considered a plus point

· Ten to Twenty years of experience designing and implementing monitoring and evaluation of large social sector programs at state, national or international level.

· Experience in health sector preferred

· Demonstrated experience in coordinating and conceptualizing complex projects and processes, conducting policy dialogue and providing technical advisory services, and producing reports or studies.

· International MLE specialists are welcome to apply

Competencies:

· Strong analytical skills and technical expertise in using Excel, Stata,or SPSS

· Drive for Results - Take personal ownership and accountability to meet deadlines and achieve agreed-upon results, and has the personal organization to do so.

· Teamwork and inclusion - Collaborate with other team members and contributes productively to the team's work and output, demonstrating respect for different points of view.

· Knowledge, Learning and Communication - Actively seek knowledge needed to complete assignments and shares knowledge with others, ability to write concisely and effectively,

· Publications in peer reviewed journals would be favoured

Interested and eligible candidates may send in their CV to recruit@phfi.org by highlighting the Position Code (PHFI/2014/102-UPBCM) in the subject line. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for the interview.

Last Date for receipt of applications: 20 May 2014