Health Specialist

KEY INFORMATION
Job Title: Health Specialist
Position Type: Part-time
Duration/Level of Effort: Long term
Position Location: Yangon, Myanmar
SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT
Field Support Services Project (FSSP) is a five-year project (March 2021–March 2026) funded by the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and managed by Cowater International. FSSP provides administrative, financial, procurement, and logistical services as well as support to the in-country development programming for the Government of Canada through the provision of technical and assisting GAC in procuring and managing local development initiatives in Myanmar.
Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) seeks to eradicate poverty and build a more peaceful, more inclusive, and more prosperous world. Canada firmly believes that promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls is the most effective approach to achieving this goal. Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls (SDG 5) is central to all its international assistance efforts because it will drive progress toward achieving the other SDGs.
In line with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy and the 10-Year Commitment to Global Health, Canada supports the goal of ensuring that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect. Canada supports that women and girls in all their diversity can decide what to do with their bodies, with their lives and with their futures without question. Within the health sector, Canada places a strong emphasis on improving the sexual and reproductive health and rights, including in fragile and conflict-affected states, and addressing barriers facing the most at risk and marginalized populations. This means integrating sexual and reproductive health and rights into health systems around the world, and ensuring that the needs, interests and lived experiences of LGBTQ2I persons, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and ethnic and religious minorities to realize their fundamental rights are considered.
Currently, Canada supports both technical and financial resources to support health, including through projects such Canada’s contribution to Access to Health and other initiatives that address SRHR and SGBV.
SUMMARY OF THE POSITION
Global Affairs Canada (GAC) requires the services of a National Health Specialist (the Consultant) to provide technical assistance, analytical, and monitoring services about its health (including SGBV and Nutrition) programs.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Working on an ad-hoc basis under the direction of GAC’s Sector Team Lead and in close coordination with the GAC HQ specialists, the expected services of the Technical Health Specialist will include, but not be limited to:
1. Provide Advice and Support to GAC:

• Advise and update GAC on the latest development progress, trends (including donors landscape mapping) and priority challenges related to various health issues such as nutrition, SRHR, immunization, with a focus on contraception and sexual and gender-based violence and others in Myanmar;
• Review, analyze and provide technical comments and recommendations on project documents for GAC-funded projects in Myanmar’s health programming including Project Implementation Plans, annual work plans, progress reports, and evaluations;
• Inform GAC on various processes regarding regional, national, and local policy-making and the role of the health sector in those processes. This includes identifying and assessing relevant information and policy questions at national, and local scale including providing relevant recommendations and lessons taken from those analysis through written health reports and papers;
• Identify GAC on various processes regarding regional, national, and local policy-making and the role of the health sector in those processes. This includes identifying and assessing relevant information and policy questions at national, and local scale including providing relevant recommendations and lessons taken from those analysis through written health reports and papers;
• Advise GAC on various processes regarding regional, national, and local policy-making and the role of the health sector in those processes. This includes identifying and assessing relevant information and policy questions at national, and local scale including providing relevant recommendations and lessons taken from those analysis through written health reports and papers;
• Identify opportunities for synergies among investments across GAC delivery channels (bilateral, partnership, regional, and multilateral) as well as other bilateral/multilateral programmes.
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2. Support for External Coordination and Engagement:

• Support GAC’s role in policy dialogue fora, such as donor coordination groups, INGO Forum, SRHR working group and so on;
• Develop and maintain the networks;
• Participate in, and/or provide technical support to GAC at the Technical Working Groups within the coordination structure;
• Participate in and provide technical support to joint initiatives with other development partners  and stakeholders (e.g., reviews, joint field visits, joint monitoring and evaluation exercises, multi- stakeholder consultations, or events);
• Provide technical advice to help ensure and increase Canada’s visibility in its development activities and policy positions in health sector; and
• Support Canada’s advocacy, outreach activities, and initiatives.
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3. Program/project monitoring and supports:

• Monitor health projects with gender lens through project monitoring missions, discussions with stakeholders and desk reviews;
• Analyze key documents and provide strategic advice relating to the projects/programs including approval documentation, Country Programming Frameworks or Strategies, contractual agreements with the project/program partners, the Project Implementation Plans, Baseline reports, Annual Work Plans, Project Financial and Narrative Reports, etc.;
• Assess project performance against the Logic Model and Performance Measurement Framework including the indicators (and their targets) as well as project risks;
• Provide recommendations for improvement including adjustments and corrective action when problems and constraints hampering effectiveness of implementation have been identified;
• Assess the enabling environment, political/social/cultural/environmental context within which the project/program works, identifying trends and keeping Canada as a donor abreast of actual and potential changes in context;
• Provide other services related to the monitoring of the project such as analysis, document preparation, reviews, facilitating stakeholder coordination workshop at field-level etc. as requested by GAC; and
• Participate in GAC’s field visits as required and provide recommendations to maximize the effectiveness of the project/program.

4. Providing general support for the operation of GAC’s field office activities in Myanmar:

• Support database and data collection;
• Review documents and editorial support; and
• Contribute to communication activities with photos, writing event updates for social media or further publications.

5. Providing oral and written briefing on any of the above services through ad-hoc and regular meetings/conference calls with GAC’s Myanmar Programme sector lead, GAC HQ specialists, and teams.
6. Any other relevant tasks as assigned by the GAC.
JOB REQUIREMENTS
Education:

• Graduate degree (Masters degree required, PhD or equivalent would be as asset) in public health, epidemiology, health economics, health financing, or other health-related fields.

 
Minimum Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of cumulative experience as a senior specialist or senior program manager positions in Myanmar about: sexual and reproductive health and rights, nutrition, health services and systems, public health program management, monitoring and evaluation, health operation research; and
• Proven experience in conducting impact analysis, capacity and vulnerability analysis, and development strategies for health initiatives.

Essential Skills:

• Strong knowledge of Myanmar’s health system at regional, national, and local government level including knowledge of Myanmar’s health strategies, and plans;         
• Knowledge and understanding of the global health context including international health architecture; 
• Knowledge of the context, challenges, and opportunities of health system in low-and middle-income countries;
• Ability to produce clear, high quality analytical written reports on international health and development topics in short timeframes;
• Ability to assess and summarize current research/evidence in one or more of public health technical areas;
• A drive for results, including a proven track record of high standards/accountability for work products, meeting deadlines, and ability to prioritize tasks within his/her work program and strategies for working collectively with others on the team to deliver products of the highest quality;
• Client oriented;
• Demonstrate ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and a professional commitment to promote a culture of gender equality and social inclusion;
• Strong interpersonal, cross-cultural and communication skills; and
• Commitment to teamwork and ability to build constructive and effective relationships.

 
Language Proficiency: Professional level fluency in English is required as most of the reporting will be in English.
EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS
Working Arrangements:

• The Consultant will work from their home base or consulting company/firm office with virtual/in-person meetings/interviews with GAC colleagues and external experts. The Consultant is expected to rely on his/her expertise, conduct an extensive literature review, and perform triangulation by interviewing experts. The drafts produced by the Consultant will be peer reviewed by experts, the result of which should be incorporated by the Consultant. The consultant or consulting company/firm may need to travel within Myanmar and between Myanmar and neighbouring countries.
• The Consultant will report to GAC’s Sector Team Lead. Payment is conditional upon satisfactory delivery of the assignments. In the event that travel to other regions or cities is necessary, all necessary costs will be borne by GAC, through the Field Support Services Project (FSSP).

Duration of the Contract:
The expected duration of the initial assignment is 45 days from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 with a possibility to extend for up to 90 days per 12-month period until 31 March 2026. All reports must be finalized and submitted within this period. The Consultant is expected to start on or around early April.
Payments will be processed monthly upon the presentation of an invoice detailing the level of efforts for each deliverable.
Ownership of Intellectual Property:
Documentation produced by the Specialist in the performance of the work under the contract shall remain the property of the Embassy of Canada to Myanmar.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Interested individual consultant/consulting company/firm must include the following documents when submitting the applications to recruitment@fssp-myanmar.org latest by 25 February 2024.

1. CV indicating all past experiences from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
2. Brief statement as to why the individual / consulting company/firm considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment.
3. Financial Proposal shall be submitted in the following format:
   • The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily rate for up to 90 working days;
   • The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee and when applicable any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract, not including travel expenses.

Qualified women, people with disabilities, people from diverse backgrounds, are strongly encouraged to apply.
We thank all applicants, however only those shortlisted will be contacted.
Evaluation of Applications:
The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of the weighted criteria (70% technical score - comprising of 15% technical qualifications desk review, 25% written test, and 30% score of interviews) and financial score (30%). The proposals that achieve a minimum of 70% for the technical qualifications desk review shall be further considered for an interview and written tests. The financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest-priced proposal received for the assignment.
Technical Score (70%)
 Financial Score (30%)
1. Technical qualifications desk review (based on the criteria and
points listed below) (15%)
2. Written test (25%)
3. Interview (30%)
a)          Technical Qualifications Desk Review
The technical desk review will be based on the following:
CriteriamPoints
1.  Academic qualifications of the Consultant. - 10 points
2. Minimum of five years of professional experiences at a senior level in one or more of the following areas in Myanmar: sexual and reproductive health and rights, nutrition, health systems, public health program management, health service delivery. - 30 points
3. Strong knowledge of current Myanmar’s health system at regional, national, and local government level. - 40 points
4. Demonstrated experience working on gender issues in health programs. - 15 points
5. Consultant’s knowledge of other areas relevant to the assignment. - 5 points
Total points- 100 points

NB: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points (70% of the technical review) will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
ABOUT US
Founded in 1985, Cowater International is a leading global development consulting company. Headquartered in Ottawa and with corporate hubs in Auckland, Berlin, Brussels, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Manila, Nairobi, Singapore and Stockholm, Cowater International has successfully delivered a portfolio of over 2500 projects and assignments in more than 95 countries. We work with governments, private sector actors and communities implementing projects that support socio-economic development, institutional strengthening, environmental improvements, and advance equal opportunities for all. We are a diverse and experienced team committed to building a better tomorrow for the people we serve. Our adaptive approach to management has led to our yearly award-winning work and recognition as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies since 2017.
We thank you for your interest in building a better tomorrow.