University Research Co., LLC (URC)
Guided by a strong vision of equitable and resilient systems that respond to people’s needs and emerging threats, URC helps countries and local actors to build, implement, and sustain science-driven, scalable solutions. Established in 1965, URC offers a range of technical expertise to empower governments, communities, and service providers toward strengthening their own health and social systems and improve service quality. We aim to expand access to and improve the quality of services, addressing maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health; global health security and infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria; reproductive health and family planning; nutrition and water, sanitation, and hygiene. In our interactions with each other and our clients, we stay true to our values for transformative change by focusing on:
- Creativity: by unleashing our creativity, we enhance engagement and interaction to improve problem-solving.
- Collaboration: not only our work towards the same vision and mission instill staff with a strong sense of purpose, but also enables us to complement each other’s skills and allocate work to maximize everyone’s strengths.
- Accountability: we hold ourselves responsible for accomplishing goals, completing assignments, and making decisions.
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion: we embrace the importance of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment, where our leadership and staff model behavior that enriches our organization, demonstrates respect for all people, and supports opportunities for all staff.
- Transparency: we understand that when employees deeply trust one another and their leaders, they will be more engaged in their roles because they will not be worried about unfair treatment.
Overview:
URC is searching for an experienced Chief of Party (COP) for the anticipated USAID Health Facility Services Improvement Activity in Benin. The purpose of the is to support the Government of Benin to ensure that health services in select public and private facilities are sustainably improved and effectively utilized to reduce child, neonatal, and maternal mortality. The activity will support the scale-up of evidenced-based high impact interventions, and target appropriate populations, with a specific emphasis on women (including pregnant women), adolescents, and children under five years of age.
Responsibilities:
The COP will provide overall strategic direction and technical, financial, and operational oversight to the Activity. The position combines technical leadership with management support for Activity implementation, technical assistance (TA), and documentation and sharing of results. S/he will have the primary responsibility of liaising with USAID and other key health and non-health public and private sector stakeholders. As part of overseeing and ensuring successful implementation, the COP is expected to lead the Activity’s technical vision and approach along with managing team and consortium members. S/he also will safeguard the Activity’s and URC’s resources by complying with contract terms and conditions, USAID, and all other applicable policies and regulations for mitigating risks of fraud, waste, and abuse in all aspects of Activity operations and administration. Specific responsibilities include the following:
- Responsible for technical leadership and managerial oversight in the Activity design and implementation in alignment with the Activity’s key objectives and expected outcomes.
- Provide overall support during Activity implementation, including overseeing key and non-key personnel, technical support, and all other sub-contractors.
- Provide high level coordination and promote partnership and multi-sectoral collaboration within countries.
- Assume accountability for the achievement of results, ensuring that the quality of activities is maintained at the highest standards, and Activity technical objectives and deliverables are met in a timely manner and are compliant with donor regulations.
- Design and oversee annual activity planning cycle to develop comprehensive annual work plans, assure timely disbursement of funds and results reporting for the project.
- Develop innovative technical strategies for improving impact of activities.
- Ensure timely submission of high quality and comprehensive Activity reports and other deliverables, according to agreed upon deadlines and respond promptly to other informational requests by USAID, as needed.
- Recruit and supervise staff to meet evolving activity demands as required.
- Oversee efficient function in administrative and financial processes in full compliance with URC’s standards, protocols, guidelines, and processes ensuring maintenance of adequate internal controls.
- Report regularly to USAID to ensure transparency and awareness of activities development and implementation, remaining cognizant of problems or issues as they arise.
- Ensure effective compliance with USAID/USG rules and regulations, and URC policies and procedures, as well as in-country laws and regulations.
- Serve as a spokesperson and advocate, representing the Activity to the USG, donors, relevant stakeholders, cooperating agencies, and others.
- Engage partners, consultants, and technical experts at URC home office strategically to support achievement of the Activity objectives in a timely manner.
- Contribute to URC’s overall knowledge management strategies through demonstrative thought leadership and participation at senior levels of influence to strategically direct funding and investments at the local, country, regional and global level.
- Maintain close working relationships and partnerships with Chiefs of Party of other URC-implemented projects globally.
- Perform other related duties as assigned and/or agreed upon with the supervisor/HQ.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Ability to work under pressure in a complex environment and delivery under tight deadlines on a continual basis.
- Strong verbal, written, and presentation skills.
- Strong management, interpersonal, communication, mentoring and facilitation skills.
- Excellent leadership skills and demonstrated ability to coach, mentor, and develop capacity in staff and stakeholders as well as manage and work effectively with teams.
- Demonstrated ability to lead problem analyses to develop evidence-based creative and innovative approaches to improve program design, implementation, and results reporting.
- Demonstrated ability to lead others to translate technical materials into practical tools and approaches.
Qualifications:
Required Experience and Qualifications
- Master’s degree or advanced degree in public health, business administration, or related field.
- At least 12 years of progressive work experience, including senior leadership experience on USG-funded health projects.
- At least 10 years of demonstrated successful leadership experience managing programs with a technical scope similar to the activity, including in virtual settings.
- Experience managing USAID contracts a plus
- Francophone Africa experience required
- Demonstrated experience developing, managing, tracking, and reporting on activities and their associated budgets.
- Demonstrated ability to undertake problem analyses to develop creative and innovative approaches to improve program design, implementation, and results reporting.
- Demonstrated ability to work in complex environments and manage diverse and substantial staff to deliver impact
- Prior experience working with USAID, and other international donors and knowledge of USAID/US Government policies, regulations, and procedures.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills in English and French, demonstrating an ability to communicate with various audiences including stakeholders, partners, and donors.
- Ability to communicate effectively, instilling trust and confidence.
- Experience with health service delivery, system strengthening, and community-based interventions, preferably related to health programming.
- Proven ability to develop productive working relationships with diverse public and private sector stakeholders, USAID, and other donors, implementing partners, and organizations and effectively
- Experience using a Collaborative Learning Plan to inform activity implementation.
- Fluency in English and French (oral and written) is required.