Head of Country Markets

ABOUT SEMA REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Shaping Equitable Market Access for Reproductive Health – SEMA Reproductive Health – is a new, innovative partnership that aims to transform SRH markets so that people everywhere have sustained access to comprehensive, quality, and affordable SRH products. It emerged from a collective reflection by partners that although we have made tremendous improvements in SRH markets, we need to do business differently moving forward.

SEMA is being incubated within Amref Health Africa to rapidly scale and deliver quick wins from the get-go and will spin out to form an independent entity once established. It is overseen by a small governing body (currently 5 voting members) that includes country leaders and donors. And it leverages a Technical Oversight Committee of a diverse group of experts from various countries for strategic and technical advice.

JOB PURPOSE

The role of Country Markets Head is an opportunity for a strategic, passionate, forward-thinking, and creative individual to build and shape how SEMA will work with country and regional stakeholders to strengthen country stewardship of SRH markets and drive toward more healthy, equitable and resilient SRH markets. This role will work with and oversee SEMA country staff to define the strategic approach, partnerships, data/analytics, tools, etc. that SEMA will leverage to support country stakeholders to understand the state of their markets, align on market priorities, and coordinate activities. And s/he will be responsible for gathering and sharing best practices, and identifying common SRH market needs that need to be escalated. In addition, this individual will lead testing and adapting different operational models for how SEMA engages countries and country stakeholders to ensure a broad set of countries take advantage of global or product market opportunities (e.g., improved financing solutions, new technology, improved price/quality). Success for this role over time is that more countries are strengthening their capacity to steward markets and that SRH markets are improving so people can access the SRH products they want and need to control their health and future.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Leadership/Strategy

• Oversee the development and evolution of SEMA’s vision and approach to:
  • Defining and promoting a healthy, equitable, and resilient SRH country market
  • Working in priority countries to align with local stakeholders around understanding and developing strategies to improve local SRH markets and to identify how SEMA can complement the work of others while supporting countries to be stewards of their public and private SRH markets
  • Synthesizing country needs in collaboration with the Data & Analytics team to identify SRH market problems that SEMA could address
  • Engaging with country and regional stakeholders to understand broader market trends and opportunities to guide strategic direction
  • Supporting mobilizing of resources with country-oriented stakeholders to advance agendas
  • Ensuring effective coordination of SEMA supported market interventions within countries to ensure alignment with local stakeholders
  • Building and testing different efficient, operational models to provide strategic SRH market support to a broader set of countries
  • Tracking, reporting, and learning from experience to continually enhance its approach
• Participate in the SEMA Management Team to drive prioritization among country, product, and global market opportunities to guide strategy and resource allocation
• Advise the Head of Global Market to ensure global and product market solutions are driven by the priorities, needs and insights emerging from countries, particularly consumers themselves
• Advise the Head of Data on SEMA’s strategy for how it invests in market data and consumer insights to ensure effective use by country and global stakeholders
• Translate the above in collaboration with other SEMA Management Team into a strategic plan for market activities; track, adapt, and update the strategic plan over time
• Present and gather feedback on SEMA market strategy and activities with the Technical Oversight Committee
• Develop and present market strategy updates and recommendations to Governing Body as necessary

Country Market Oversight

• Recruit and oversee SEMA country staff in each priority country to serve as SEMA’s primary points of engagement in each country
• Oversee Country Leads to ensure they are effectively engaging with country stakeholders, participating in local processes, and gathering information to:
  • Understand the local market context, support a country-led process to develop a market strategy, and identify priorities for how SEMA could complement the work of others to advance the country’s market strategy
  • Identify, propose, develop and manage programmatic investment opportunities to support the local country market strategy
  • Build and manage effective partnerships with critical stakeholders to advance work
• Oversee the SEMA country representatives and ensure they are learning and sharing best practices from each other in country engagement/support
• Develop and oversee SEMA’s approach to (i) monitor country needs and experiences and ensure these issues inform the broader SEMA strategic priorities and (ii) ensure SEMA is tracking how countries are building market stewardship capacity
• Collaborate with the Global Head of Markets to co-design strategies to efficiently provide market support in a broader set of countries so these countries can take advantage of market public goods (e.g., best practices, tools, platforms, improved products, etc.) to expand SEMA’s impact
• Document and share any lessons learned on how to optimize country market strategy engagement with the SEMA Management Team to continuously learn and improve the approach moving forward

Communications/Stakeholders

• Communicate and represent SEMA’s strategy with key stakeholders – including country, regional, and global stakeholders – to build awareness and alignment, gather feedback, guide strategy, develop partnerships, and advance SEMA’s mission
• Develop and manage effective relationships especially with country and regional partners and agencies (e.g., regional SRH civil society networks, Ministers of Health and Finance, Africa Union, regional pharmaceutical agencies, etc.) to represent SEMA and advance common agendas
• Communicate updates on country work to SEMA leadership, working groups and technical agencies

Organizational Development

• Collaborate with and support other SEMA Management Team members to:
• Support effective launch and evolution of SEMA organization including providing input on business model, staffing, and strategic priorities
• Align workplans and activities for organizational effectiveness and impact
• Identify, build, and nurture effective partnerships
• Mobilize funding and meet donor reporting requirements
• Recruit, onboard and manage people to support the desired culture and build a highly functioning, motivated and effective team where people bring their best to work

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education and Professional Qualifications

• Master’s degree or higher in medicine, public health, social science or closely related field

Essential:

• Strategic and visionary leader with proven experience in designing and managing market interventions (e.g., product introduction, reducing product prices, addressing product quality, ensuring consumer insights inform program design) in global health at global and country levels
• 10+ years of professional experience working in market dynamics with understanding of global and country market dynamics (financing/procurement flow, product introduction, public/private service delivery, etc.)
• Demonstrated experience recruiting and managing multi-cultural team providing service/technical support across different African country contexts
• Demonstrated success developing and managing complex partnerships with African country governments related to market areas
• Experience working in sexual & reproductive health & rights markets specifically in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC)
• Experience designing and managing partnerships among diverse sets of players to align on a common strategic direction and execute against the strategy
• Excellent written and communication skills, including areas of presentation and reporting writing, with experience presenting to multi-cultural and executive level bodies

Highly Desired:

• Experience managing investments/contracts with partners and holding them accountable to outputs/results
• Demonstrated experience developing and managing complex partnerships across key global donors and implementing organisations related to market areas
• Experience developing and managing complex market partnerships with pharmaceutical developers and/or manufacturers

Other Qualifications:

• Entrepreneurial and creative mindset: track record in building new initiatives, entities, and/or teams
• Ability to think strategically (where are we going, how to organize the work) and drive project management (plan and manage numerous processes and projects simultaneously and meet deadlines)
• Ability to work independently in an ambiguous and changing environment
• Eagerness to contribute and collaborate to management team working in a start-up environment (i.e., enjoy creating, can be leader and execute on operational tasks where needed)
• Demonstrated effectiveness to work in a multi-cultural work environment and committed to promoting an inclusive culture where everyone is valued and belongs
• Deep personal commitment to sexual & reproductive health & rights, including the right to safe abortion for all who need it
• Language proficiency: English (required); French (highly desirable)