Senior Program Officer, Family Planning - NewDelhi, India - Gates Foundation

Description

The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofitfighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve.We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities.As a workplace, were committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

In India the foundation, over the past 2 decades, has been working with Indias Central and State governments, community groups, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, the private sector, and development organizations, to achieve our shared goals. Our strong networks and ability to convene intellectual resources from many sectors and regions of the globe allow us to address complex challenges as they emerge or evolve. With a particular focus on Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, we work with partners to develop impactful and sustainable solutions to improve the quality and coverage of key services for the poor and vulnerable. We also work in the states of MP, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Maharashtra to support programs in the Global Growth Opportunities portfolio (urban sanitation, agricultural development, and digital financial inclusion), and gender equality.

This position is a part of the Family Health (FH) Cluster at the India country office which comprise MNCH, Family Planning, and Nutrition portfolios. The partnerships of the ICOs FH cluster include central and state governments, local and international institutions and implementing partners, with a preference on identifying and strengthening local partners to aid transition, sustainability, and diffusion to other non -focus states. In addition, the FH cluster partners strongly with an internal matrix of teams ranging from state focused health systems teams to Seattle-based program strategy teams. Within this, the focus of the India Family Planning (FP) strategy is to expand method choice for birth spacing with a focus on young and low parity segments through the public and private sectors aimed at accelerating progress towards the countrys FP2030 goals. The strategy supports the national government to introduce and scale up innovative approaches that increase supply and demand for spacing methods, with a focus on priority states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, potential diffusion states of Meghalaya and Madhya Pradesh, and other states with large urban populations.

This position reports to the Deputy Director, Family Health, India.

Application deadline: 13th November, 2023.

Your Role

The Senior Program Officer (SPO), Family Planning will shape investments to include a more intentional focus on social and gender norms as determinants of womens agency to choose and practice family planning as well strengthen the health systems engagement and focus on adolescent and young populations. In line with the strategy, the SPO will develop and manage investments that support innovative approaches to improve access, especially among young and low parity women; to improve method mix by introducing new contraceptive methods; to strengthen quality of services through availability of counseling and task shifting in family planning service delivery in public sector; and to optimize private sector delivery channels for quality and coverage. They will also lead on investments that aim to change social norms, especially gender norms that impact decisions related to child-bearing and use of newer contraceptives. The SPO will develop investments that support total market approaches for family planning, using the private sector and partnerships with the government. This role also entails building institutional capability in government and other institutions to ensure sustainability of foundation-supported initiatives and continuous innovation in the delivery of family planning. They will keep abreast of the latest evidence in the space and manage relationships with senior technical officers of national and state governments, donors, and implementing partners to ensure coordination and collaboration for greater collective impact.

What Youll Do

• Lead further development of the Family Planning strategy for the India Country Office (ICO) of the foundation, in alignment with the foundation's broader/global Family Planning Program strategy and with other program strategies relevant to India.
• Develop and manage investments (grants and/or contracts) to implement activities in support of programmatic goals, while ensuring that interventions and investments can be replicated and sustained at scale.
• Work in partnership with foundation colleagues in India and Seattle to build and manage relationships with donors, government, private sector, implementers, and other external partners to develop innovative plans and interventions.
• Collaborate with the foundation's Bihar and Uttar Pradesh initiative teams state Technical Support Units, and other implementing partners to ensure that the family planning program is being implemented in alignment with strategic priorities.
• Collaborate with the Measurement, Learning, & Evaluation (MLE), Policy Advocacy and Communications (PAC), Gender Equality (GE) and Digital Health and Innovation teams (DHI) teams at the ICO to ensure high quality results frameworks, monitoring, and evaluation of grants and to enhance use of data to improve program performance and to inform strategic decisions and future investments.
• Use data and learning from foundation-supported investments and global evidence to consult with grantees and other partners to ensure continuous learning that shapes strategy, policy, and programs.
• Organize partners meetings, convene technical and strategic consultations as needed.
• Conduct thorough analyses of grants and contracts, grantee progress reports; write high quality briefing documents and portfolio reviews that synthesize results and findings for leadership and the family health team.
• Provide impactful thought leadership on a wide range of topics at the intersection of social and gender norms and family planning and reproductive health issues to shape the global, national, and local discourse and strategy formulation.

Your Experience

• Masters/MPH, MBA, PhD or MD with minimum 7 years of experience programming in the areas of family planning & reproductive health services in diverse contexts and their intersection with social and gender norms, including substantive experience in India is desirable.
• Experience in strategy, investment making and managing, and/or policy and advocacy is preferred.
• Extensive experience in designing and implementing innovative and impactful approaches to understanding and intervening in the areas of interplay of social and gender norms with health care service delivery and utilization, including family planning/reproductive health, through the public and private sectors.
• Strong understanding of data, and ability to use diverse kinds of data to design and manage strategy and investments.
• Knowledge of the family planning context in India and the region; and familiarity with related areas of health systems, policy and financing; gender and rights; and socio-economic determinants of health.
• Experience in engaging government, donors, and implementing partners (including the private sector) to develop and effectively manage strategic partnerships.
• Passion for solving complex problems related to delivery of health care, particularly improving access to quality family planning and reproductive health services for women and girls.
• Results-focused and self-motivated with ability to inspire the pursuit of excellence.
• Strong, multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral strategy planning and management skills
• Proven ability to structure and manage high-return, well-risk-mitigated grants, with clear achievements and outcomes; with experience in developing this skill in others.
• Excellent analytical thinking and communications skills, including writing and public speaking skills with a fluency in Hindi and English.
• Familiarity with policy, advocacy, and communications for advancing programmatic goals.

Other Attributes

• Demonstrated ability to work in a highly matrixed and diverse work environment, and also effectively engage diverse external partners.
• Work on complex matters or unique issues requiring diplomacy and judgment.
• Ability to travel up to 40% of time domestically and internationally.

*Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

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Hiring Requirements

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Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion of voices, ideas, and approaches and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.

All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.

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