SENIOR TECHNICAL ADVISOR – ANIMAL HEALTH

Position Title: Sr. Technical Advisor – Animal Health

Location: Monrovia, Liberia

Reports to: Deputy Chief of Party

Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) is recruiting for an anticipated USAID-funded bilateral community health award that aims to deliver quality health services at the community level through community health cadres and their supporting systems.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

The Senior Technical Advisor ­- Animal Health will provide technical leadership for developing, implementing, and supporting animal health activities at the community level in Liberia. They will possess a depth and breadth of technical expertise and experience in animal health, the One Health approach, zoonotic disease prevention, and other related areas. They also will have a solid professional reputation, interpersonal skills, and professional relationships to fulfill project requirements. They will keep abreast of changing technical standards, guidelines, and program development in the areas of expertise. They will be responsible for leading the animal health technical design and implementation of the project, ensuring that it meets appropriate global and national animal health standards and guidelines. They will also be responsible for overseeing social accountability and advocacy strategies to promote positive health outcomes at the community level. They will work collaboratively with the USAID/Liberia Mission, the Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Agriculture, and other entities within the Government of Liberia (GOL), project and implementing partners, and other relevant stakeholders, to continually improve community animal health in Liberia.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

• Ensure a process of using data to inform strategies, work plans, and program direction. Lead and provide guidance to the team for all technical aspects of the project.
• Provide technical expertise and guidance to the development and execution of animal health program activities in support of the project work plan.
• Participate in the development of project deliverables, including work plans, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual reports, and strategies.
• Foster collaboration among partners and stakeholders to help advance innovative solutions for community engagement.
• Review and contribute expertise to project strategies, activity plans, and reports to ensure technical soundness of community animal health activities with relevant related programs (e.g., One Health platform).
• Based on global best practices, provide strategic direction for activities focused on community animal health cadres and animal health technical staff, including capacity strengthening (e.g., training, coaching/mentoring, supportive supervision, etc.).
• Stay abreast of trends and align project strategies with those current trends and the priorities of government stakeholders, implementing partners, and the donor.
• Ensure communication channels and systems are in place to understand the needs and feedback from other interacting human, animal, and environmental health implementing partners and stakeholders working with community cadres in Liberia.
• Ensure communication channels and systems are in place to understand and improve referral systems and linkages between community cadres, health facilities, and other One Health-related systems.
• Recommend processes and mechanisms to improve efficiency and impact and use evidence and data for adaptive management.
• Apply practices and principles that prioritize equitable representation of marginalized and disadvantaged individuals and communities and drive values of diverse perspectives and managerial structures in the design and implementation of community animal health activities.
• Work with the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning Advisor to ensure that program efforts are evidence-based, community-driven and in line with provisions of the award.

Program Management

• Provide leadership for activities across the project framework.
• Represent the project at relevant forums at national level and provide support to the community engagement team to undertake similar roles effectively at regional and lower levels. Represent the community animal health initiatives of the project at all relevant levels of government officials, partners, donors, non-governmental organization (NGO), and private sector representatives.
• Participate in the development of the project’s strategic documents, including work plan and quarterly, semi-annual, and annual reports.
• Seek, select, engage, and monitor qualified consultants and agencies, as needed, to provide technical support.
• Conduct any other relevant duties as assigned by the DCOP and/or the COP or as agreed/assigned during meetings with the broader project team.
• Develop partnerships with relevant institutions and liaise with key line ministries to strengthen/implement project activities.
• Respond to USAID team requests related to progress against targets and provide other programmatically relevant information in a timely fashion.
• Coordinate with other senior staff to ensure strategic project management.
• Mentor local NGOs subcontracted by the project on technical areas.
• Provide support to and build the capacity of partner organizations and existing traditional structures to design and implement community engagement activities.

People Management

• Design and manage effective structure for the technical team.
• Supervise, coach, and mentor staff independently. This may include:
  • Orient and train new staff members.
  • Conduct regular (at least quarterly) check-ins and annual performance reviews with all supervisees.
  • Identify and recommend appropriate professional development opportunities for supervisees.
  • Provide coaching and mentoring to promote continued growth and improvement among supervisees and other staff.
• Ensure all staff have the technical knowledge to complete their job duties.
• Oversee and ensure the quality of work produced by staff or team.
• Lead and build staff capacity in technical work, including strategies, toolkits, communication materials, scripts, job aides, and needs assessments.
• Provide information to others about their quality of work. This includes raising concerns about errors, omission, and poor-quality products to the staff member responsible for that work and requesting revision of work that is not high quality.
• Operate in compliance with all JHU policies and local employment laws.

Technical Work

• Support the design and implementation of community animal health activities in-line with high level strategy design. May include:
  • Lead and build staff capacity in technical work, including strategies, toolkits, communication materials, scripts, job aides, and needs assessments.
  • Generate and envision new activities, ideas, frameworks, and strategies that further high-level goals.
  • Demonstrate willingness to drive project goals and strategic direction in alignment with in-country trends and donor priorities.
  • Use, develop, and model tools, processes, best-practices, and colleague review to ensure all products and documents are of the highest quality possible.
  • In collaboration with CCP’s research and evaluation division, strategically plan for research, monitoring, and evaluation activities.
• Support and lead in-country technical activities, including trainings, workshops, and program support.
• Demonstrate technical expertise in relevant technical areas (e.g., One Health, community health, animal health, social and behavior change, knowledge management, health areas) and build capacity in others.
• Carry out field visits as needed and work with staff in a collaborative manner to strengthen technical capacity.
• Ensure activity integrity technically, administratively, and financially.
• Demonstrate high level technical communication, including writing reports, creating and giving presentations, and facilitating trainings or group discussions.
• Support the collaboration, learning, and adaptation (CLA) agenda for the project.
• Ensure excellence in programs, products, and deliverables to meet program goals.

Partnership, Coordination, and Capacity Strengthening

• Support the Chief of Party/Deputy Chief of Party in seeking, selecting, engaging, and monitoring qualified consultants to support the project.
• Lead and build staff capacity in technical work, including training and curriculum development, supervision materials, strategies, toolkits, communication materials, scripts, job aides, and needs assessments.
• Co-create and co-facilitate training workshops, including developing the agenda, curriculum, manuals, and materials necessary to appropriately train individuals.
• Conduct field visits, as needed, and work with staff and animal health cadres in a collaborative manner to ensure achievement of project objectives.
• Attend meetings and represent the community health initiatives of the project in all relevant levels of government officials, partners, donor, NGO, and private sector representatives.
• Provide mentorship to project and community animal health technical staff. Provide information to others about their quality of work (when appropriate). This includes raising concerns about errors, omission, and poor-quality products to the staff member responsible for that work and requesting revision of work that is not high quality.
• Provide training opportunities to staff, as appropriate.

Professional and Organizational Growth

• Support strategic partnership development and cultivation with relevant Government of Liberia line ministries (e.g., Ministry of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Health) and other key actors, including civil society organizations (CSOs), donors, private sector organizations, implementing partners, to strengthen/implement project activities. Maintain strong collaborative relationships with One Health line ministries, partners, and technical working groups.
• Stay abreast and contribute to global technical knowledge to support community animal health activities.
• Represent the project, CCP, and JHU at relevant external meetings and events. This may include delivering technical presentations, networking, relationship building and initiating and following through with opportunities for collaboration.
• Engage and collaborate with other programs and staff across CCP.
• Recognize and address factors that might strategically impact a program or CCP and lead implementation of solutions.
• Proactively seek opportunities to expand leadership and management skills.
• Request or initiate quarterly check-in meetings with supervisor to assess performance, strengths and areas for improvement in your current position and establish professional goals.
• Identify opportunities for bringing new skills into CCP, including attending JHU courses and seminars, conferences and external trainings.
• Occasional domestic travel required, with potential for evenings and weekend work.

Minimum Qualifications (required)

• Master’s degree in animal health, public health, public policy, or related field. If the candidate does not have a Master’s degree, they should have a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field with a minimum of eight (8) years of professional experience in delivering community animal health services and professional experience working in mid to senior management positions.
• At least seven (7) years’ experience in animal health programming, including providing technical guidance to large and complex activities primarily focused on community animal health cadres and community engagement.
• At least four (4) years’ experience in leading activities related to community animal health, preferably working directly with community animal health workers.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Experience working in Liberia, including excellent knowledge of the various counties and regions, and national issues impacting community health services and community cadres.
• Knowledge of community-led advocacy, social accountability and community governance strategies, particularly in the animal health sector.
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills.
• Experience in successfully engaging the private sector.
• Demonstrated leadership qualities, depth and breadth of management expertise and experience.
• High level of interpersonal, technical, and analytical skills including a demonstrated ability to interact effectively and collaboratively with a broad range of public and private sector counterparts and other key stakeholders.
• Excellent skills and experience in collaborative working relationships with senior level government leadership.
• Experience with integration of gender and youth analysis into health projects and services.
• Ability to work well with others.
• Demonstrated leadership skills and experience in building and maintaining productive working relationships.
• Proven record of building teams and fostering collaboration to achieve program goals, meet program milestones, and produce quality program results.
• Ability to work independently in a high profile, fast-paced and multi tasked environment.
• Demonstrated understanding of USAID priorities.
• Exceptional communication skills in written and spoken

Preferred Qualifications

• Liberian citizenship.
• Prior work experience in the Liberia One Health space.
• Prior work experience in the Liberia health system as a provider (e.g., veterinarian) or practitioner (e.g., community animal health worker).
• Prior experience as a technical expert or advisor in community animal health, community health, or relevant field preferred.

Other Requirements

• May require up to 25% travel in Liberia, and internationally, as needed.
• Collaborate with US-based team on a routine basis.
• Excellent past performance references.
• Other duties may be assigned.

How to Apply

All candidates are encouraged to submit e-mail applications with copies of their current CV, cover letter and three professional referees. Please indicate which position you are applying for in the subject line of the email.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and must be received no later than 11:59 PM Liberia local time on September 20, 2024, at ccpliberia-hr@jh.edu

Late submissions will not be considered.

Please note: This position is contingent upon securing award and USAID approval of key personnel (if applicable).