POPULATION SERVICES INTERNATIONAL, INDIA

JOB DESCRIPTION

TITLE: Chief of Party(COP)
LOCATION: Delhi
DEPARTMENT: Programs
REPORTS TO: Executive Director
SUPERVISES: Program and Shared Services team of the program
CATEGORY: Program Operations

Population Services International, India is a registered Indian Society dedicated to the improvement of public health in India. As a mission, PSI makes it easier for people in the developing world to lead healthier lives and plan the families they desire by marketing affordable products and services. PSI’s core values are Measurement, Honesty, Pragmatism, Collaboration, Trust and Commitment Over the past twenty- seven years, PSI has collaborated with the Government of India and a number of donors to increase the use of modern contraception for family planning, to provide products and services for the health of mothers and children and to decrease the spread of HIV/AIDS and TB. PSI harnesses the vitality of the private sector to address health problems of the low-income and vulnerable populations using social marketing to achieve positive behaviour change by promoting ideas, products and services conducive to better health. Through its social enterprise arm, PSI promotes and distributes multiple health products, using commercial channels and outlets to make available quality health products at affordable prices. For more information, please visit www.psi.org.in

A. ABOUT PROGRAM & POSITION PURPOSE:

About the Program:

FIRE-UP (Fostering improvement in Reproductive Health/Family Planning uptake by Empowering Young Populations Activity). The project goal is to improve the availability and demand for Family planning/Reproductive Health services and products by ensuring widespread access of the products and services by empowering marginalized and vulnerable populations through engagement and an enabling environment, in alignment with the Government of India’s FP2030 vision of providing universal access. The project primarily has its intervention area in the North Eastern states of India.

Position Purpose:

The COP will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of implementation and ensuring high program quality standards with a focus on equity, inclusion and diversity throughout the project span. The COP will also ensure that all project implementation resources are used effectively and transparently in meeting project objectives. As COP, S/he will provide technical and management leadership to the state-level staff, who will implement field activities. S/he will closely work with the health government stakeholders and project’s technical team to ensure rolling out of intervention plan to address the challenges around gender equality, young AY, FP access and people with disabilities, by ensuring health system strengthening outcomes till the last mile.

S/he will set performance targets, implementation plans and supports partnership development and management, including marketing and advocacy of the program to city/state governments, facilitate interested cities to develop proposals and support the selected cities in implementation of core and elective intervention. Further, the incumbent will work closely with partners and donor to develop city governance plan and demonstrate progress in prioritized AY/FP/RH issues, identified through city assessment. S/he will need to relate to and work effectively with people from diverse backgrounds, professional experiences, and personalities. The position may require up to 60% travel. S/he will coordinate, leverage, manage and motivate key players at the state levels such as social marketing organizations, commercial marketers, NGOs, civil societies, local bodies, towards ensuring synergy, achieving results and promote ownership of the results.

This position is subject to award of grant from USAID.

B. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic responsibilities:
• Lead and provide strategic framework to ensure flawless execution and financial viability of the project and to achieve targeted results with a key focus on inclusion and rapid and sustained project goals, objectives and targets;
• Ensure project confirms to the statutory norms as per the guidelines set by USAID and as per its operational policies and regulations.
• Effectively lead the roll out of the project interventions in NE states, to address the challenges around gender equality, young AY, FP access and people with disabilities, by ensuring health system strengthening outcomes till the last mile.
• Manage partnerships and further establish rapport with the stakeholders including Government of India (GOI) Ministry of Health, USAID, implementing partners. Foster strong communication with local partner agencies, local govt. bodies, CSOs with an aim to align them for a common purpose and goal.
• Represent the project at the country office Senior Management team;
Operations Responsibilities:

Planning :
• Lead to setting performance goals/targets for implementation of the project
• Lead the development of implementation strategy with the technical team of the project.
• Plan and monitor the program finances, ensure operational cost efficiency and deliver program outcomes with quality, speed and value.

Implementation and Control :

• Lead on-time implementation of work plan through state team, review of progress and ensure that project targets are achieved as per the annual work plans.
• Lead the implementation of the plan for improving the efficiency of field operations and quality of all aspects of implementation
• Support field team to liaison with state government and partner staff in relevant program component and geography.

Research :

• Contribute to development/improvement of reporting and analysis formats. Work with the Research, Monitoring and Evaluation team to develop appropriate data collection procedures/systems.
• The Director -Programs will be responsible for critically reviewing project performance through field visits, survey data, and program MIS data, creating project dashboards based on real time data collection and generating actionable data that influence choice of innovations. Measure early success and failures of demonstration models within the project.
• Support in documenting learnings from innovations/ demonstration models and support metrics development for scale up of successful model.
• Support project efforts to increase the use of data in city and program decisions.

People Development, Employee Satisfaction :

• Recruit state team according to project requirements, develop and implement systems of performance appraisal, job reviews, transfers and promotions.
• Assess departmental skill sets and ensure the team size and capacities are in line with the project targets
• Identify training needs of field staff based on critical review of the project performance. Work with the technical leads for the project to prepare and implement the plan for providing differentiated inputs for efficiency and quality improvement of field staff.
• Mentor/handhold state lead and others on the job.
• Facilitate creation of a positive organizational climate to enable people optimize their short term and long term performance.
• Carry out other assignments related to field activities and personnel as required and determined by the project management.

Administration, Plan, Monitor and Regulate Budget :

• Manage administrative functions related to implementation of the project.
• Manage the development and administration of the operations budget by reviewing and monitoring of expenditure
Donor Reporting, Dissemination, and Advocacy :

• Develop and maintain strong external relations, in particular with government, donors, and public and private sector partners
• Support efforts to disseminate project results to all key stakeholders.
• Guide the team in compiling and disseminating high-quality periodic reporting in line with donor and PSI requirements (Quarterly and Annual Status reports, quarterly financial reports etc.)
• Contribute to developing advocacy strategies using Spitfire’s Smart Chart Tool to secure support for the program. Liaise with FP division of the MOHFW in New Delhi and Technical Support unit (TSU) in North East and officials in State office of the National Health Mission
• Establish partnerships/sub-contracts with NGOs in program districts and put in place mechanism for their regular review and capacity building
• Provide updates on the progress made, direction, approaches and successes of the program to external and internal stakeholders

C. Qualification, Experience and Skills:

• Master's degree in management, behavioral or social sciences, or related field with at least 15 years work experience
• Demonstrated ability to independently plan and execute complex tasks.
• Experience of implementing large projects in the domain of family planning/reproductive health, gender, GBV, youth programming and others
• Demonstrated experience managing consortiums and building capacity of local organizations
• Demonstrated ability of mobilize commercial partners, HR agencies, Government systems, and other partners
• Proven experience to handle large and diversified teams
• Prior experience in market dynamics and market-based interventions, particularly to improve public health.
• Experience with m-Health approaches.
• Proven track records supporting improved use of data for programmatic decision-making. In-depth knowledge of USAID projects, regulations, compliance, and reporting
• Skills and experience in strategic planning, management, supervision, and budgeting, and managing complex activities involving coordination with multiple program partner institutions.
• Ability to develop and communicate a common vision among diverse partners and the ability to coalesce and lead multi-disciplinary teams, with a bias towards experience with innovative solutions to TB challenges.
• Strong communication skills, both interpersonal and written, to fulfill the diverse technical and managerial requirements of the project.
• Knowledge of USAID policies and procedures as related to program management.
• Proven ability to bring together a diversity of partners from different interest bases and create a business case that benefits all parties.
• Strong managerial ability, including the capacity to set and manage accountability of self and others;
• Penchant for innovation preferred: Ability to foster innovation including transplantation of proven ideas on India soil, prototype new interventions or demonstration models, set metrics for success, recognizes failures fast and refine successful models for scale up.
• Willingness to travel extensively in India 60% of time
• Commitment to improving public health in India;
• Highest integrity, maturity and professionalism

D. COMPETENCIES :

1. Drive change and innovations: Act with urgency for continuous improvement and with a bias towards action; promote development of breakthrough solutions; embrace and advocate innovations that improve results.
2. Develop others: give people challenging assignments to develop their capabilities; provide timely coaching, instruction and feedback, create an environment where failure is seen as an opportunity to learn. Coaches others and helps them develop their knowledge and skills; give people authority to make decisions.
3. Understand Donor and Development Perspective: See PSI from the donor point of view; understand the market forces that impact PSI; understand current donor strategy and where it is likely to lead in the future. Invests time to understand the donor’s priorities, procedures, and systems; Knows donor strategic plans and how they will impact PSI
4. Communicate and Share Information: share information people need to make decisions or avoid problems; keep people informed about all issues that may affect them; Communicates clearly, concisely and to the point; Keeps people informed on a timely basis of change, key events and decisions that may affect them
5. Sector Knowledge: Should have sound knowledge of development sector and its challenges

PSI is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages applications from qualified individuals regardless of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or disability.