Project Officer - mothers2mothers

mothers2mothers (m2m) is an Africa-based NGO that unlocks the potential of women to eliminate paediatric AIDS and create healthy families across eight sub-Saharan African countries. m2m trains, employs, and helps empower HIV-positive women to work as community healthcare workers in understaffed health centres and underserved communities. Through a peer-to-peer approach, these ‘Mentor Mothers’ deliver a range of health services, advice, and support to women and their families. Started in Cape Town, South Africa in 2001 with an initial focus on preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, m2m has innovated and built on its strengths and now provides family-centred support for a range of related health and social issues spanning pregnancy, birth, childhood, and adolescence. It also partners with governments and other NGOs on the adoption of its programme to spread the Mentor Mother Model and its benefits. m2m has a track record of scaling its services and proven impact. To date, m2m has reached over 11M women and children under two, and created more than 10,000 jobs for African women living with HIV. For more, visit www.m2m.org.

Job Title: Project Officer – Accra

The Project Officer will be responsible for the day-to-day planning, coordination, implementation and monitoring of direct service delivery activities at m2m project site(s) including health facilities and community geolocations. The project officer will directly manage site staff (Facility and Community Mentor Mothers) and ensure that direct service delivery activities meet established quality standards. Position is based Accra.

Key Performance Areas

Programme Implementation

• Provide supportive supervision, technical support, and mentorship to Facility and Community Mentor Mothers (site staff) on m2m RMNCH/PMTCT and ECD programme standards.
• Based on identified quality gaps, initiate the development of relevant standard operating procedures (SOPs) and improvement plans for RMNCH/PMTCT and ECD programme implementation.
• Plan and coordinate site staff recruitments for replacements and new projects.
• In consultation with site staff, plan and coordinate site-based programme activities e.g. community dialogues, community-based HIV psychosocial support groups, parenting information playgroup sessions, etc.
• Plan and coordinate donor, head office personnel, Ministry of Health, and other implementing partner site visits.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Collaborate and support SI Officer to ensure data and reporting quality.
• Support the site-level use of m2m quality improvement and strategic management tools, both paper and electronic.
• Data entry of programme data generated monthly at the health facility level.
• Conduct data quality audits on a month-to-month basis in DHIS2 as per existing Standard Operating Procedures.
• Extract data from DHIS2 for report writing and programme performance reviews when required.
• Together with site staff, jointly and routinely review Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement (QA/QI) programme performance reports and institute remedial actions to address any QA/QI issues, with a focus on Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) testing, Active Client Follow-Up (ACFU).
• Support routine programme evaluation activities as required.
• Conduct site-level routine supportive supervision, mentorship and monitoring activities on both programme and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) functions with support from the Strategic Information Officer.
• Contribute relevant information for compilation of project reports.
Training and Capacity Building
• Conduct training needs assessments.
• Planning and coordination of pre-service and in-service trainings
• Co-facilitate pre-service and in-service trainings
• Provide ongoing mentorship to site staff on usage of mHealth applications i.e. CommCare App1 and App2.

Human Resource Management

• Line management of site staff, including performance appraisals, approval and tracking of annual leaves, etc.
• Live and promote m2m values including integrity, honesty, dedication, empathy, compassion and teamwork among m2m staff.

Programme Administration

• Prepare purchase requisitions for programme related materials (M&E tools, site supplies, etc.)
• Ensure prudent use of m2m’s resources at project sites.
• Note-taking and filing of minutes of programme related meetings.
• Monitor and report on any safety and security related incidents involving site staff, e.g. muggings, etc.

Stakeholder Engagement and Representation

• Develop and periodically update stakeholder matrix.
• Support the Technical Specialist to manage external relationships with Ghana Health Services, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection Department of Social Welfare (National, Regional and District), Local CSOs and other stakeholders where required.
• On occasion, represent m2m Ghana at facility, district, region

Qualification Required & Experience

• Degree or its equivalent in Health Sciences (Clinical Medicine, Nursing, Environmental Health, Public Health) or Psychological Counselling
• Minimum of five years’ field experience in public health work with a focus on Early Childhood Development (ECD), Reproductive Maternal Newborn and Child Health (RMNCH), Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT), or HIV/AIDS programming
• Strong technical knowledge of PMTCT/RMNCH/ECD
• Experience with managing staff, especially community health workers.
• Experience in quality assurance and quality improvement
• Experience in data management, including data entry and extraction of reports
• Experience with mobile health (mHealth) applications would be an advantage.

Competencies:

• Ability to lead, motivate, mentor and coach team.
• Ability to work well under pressure, manage multiple tasks and meet tight/competing deadlines independently with sound decision making.
• Self-motivated, analytical skills, team player and results-oriented.
• Excellent communication and writing skills.
• Ability to simplify and communicate technical issues for lay health cadres.
• Computer literate (MS Office suite).
• Fluent in English and local language of the area.

Salary: Competitive salary packages will be negotiable in accordance with m2m’s remuneration policies.

Location: Accra