Position m-mama Tanzania Program Manager

Location Dodoma or Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Job Status Full time employment

Touch Foundation, an NGO working to save lives and relieve human suffering by strengthening healthcare services in sub-Saharan Africa, providing better access to care and improving the quality of local health systems, is seeking an outstanding individual to join its team as its Program Manager for the m-mama Tanzania Program. The Program Manager will join a team of highly mission-driven professionals with diverse backgrounds and experiences, ranging from management consulting to global public health. The Program Manager will lead the broader m-mama program team, becoming an integral part of Touch’s commitment to improving health in sub-Saharan Africa.

BACKGROUND

Touch Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 2004 to help strengthen the healthcare system in Sub-Saharan Africa. Touch’s founder, Lowell Bryan, a former Director with McKinsey & Company, initially founded Touch to address the healthcare crisis in Tanzania where he understood that the country faced a daunting healthcare environment, with declining life expectancy and increasing maternal and infant mortality. One of the biggest impediments to access to healthcare was the dearth of medical professionals. Touch supported the development of a new medical school in Tanzania, created a program to improve training and delivery of services by graduates of the medical school, and started addressing the most critical challenges in the local resource-constrained health system. The success of Touch’s initiatives in Tanzania led to the expansion of programs across multiple Sub-Saharan African countries. In the recent years and in collaboration Vodafone Foundation and other funding partners, Touch has developed and implemented in multiple countries (Tanzania and Lesotho, and planning to launch in Ghana soon) the m-mama program which tackles maternal and infant mortality by providing emergency transportation to pregnant women and newborns in distress during and after childbirth. Touch’s work is data driven and evidence based, and we strive to share the knowledge and the information obtained through years of implementation with policy makers and other stakeholders globally.

Most of Touch’s staff works in Africa to implement our programs on the ground, with the administrative and development functions centered in the U.S., in New York City. The people who work at Touch are very smart, focused, collaborative and driven to excel which has contributed to the impact that Touch has made.

Overview of the m-mama program

The m-mama program is an innovative and cost-effective at-scale Emergency Transportation System for pregnant women and newborns led by Vodafone Foundation and implemented by Touch Foundation.

Vodafone Foundation and Touch Foundation launched m-mama in 2013 in Tanzania in collaboration with the Government of Tanzania. This program addresses the high rates of maternal and neonatal mortality in rural areas by reducing delays in access to care using safe and timely emergency transportation for pregnant women and newborns experiencing an emergency. The central component of m-mama is an emergency transport system enabled by innovative digital solution to address complications as quickly and effectively as possible.

This digital technology is used to triage a patient remotely 24/7 and then dispatch an ambulance or community driver to bring the patient to a health facility.

In Tanzania, after a successful proof of concept implemented in Sengerema and Buchosa districts, and scaling the program to Shinyanga region, the m-mama program will be scaled up across the country in collaboration with the Government of Tanzania over six years starting from October 2021.

POSITION SUMMARY

We are seeking a Program Manager to lead the implementation and national scale-up of our m-mama program in Tanzania.

The Program Manager will work with Touch’s m-mama program teams and will be supported by a Project Manager and Analysts. He/She will report to the Director of Programs in charge of the m-mama programs and will be under the overall direction of our Chief Program Officer at Touch. Responsibilities of the role may be adapted based upon the experience of the successful candidate.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES

Responsible for overall leadership, management, and implementation of the m-mama program in Tanzania
Provide program implementation oversight to ensure delivery of quality outputs on time and within budget
Function as leading technical expert on m-mama system, operations and processes for implementing partners and government implementers
Build strong and collaborative working relationships with key Government of Tanzania stakeholders – Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MOHCDGE) and Presidents Office – Regional and Local Government (PO-RALG), Regional and Council Health Management Teams (R/DHMTs) while demonstrating high level engagement skills
Manage relationships with funders – Vodafone Foundation and Vodacom Tanzania, implementing partner(s) as designated, and ICT development partners
Convene and conduct meetings with government stakeholders, to provide progress updates, advise of issues and drive key decision
Regular communications with government stakeholders to ensure provision of guidance and oversight from the PO-RALG on implementation of m-mama activities
Lead the program team and collaborate with implementing partner to undertake effective monitoring and evaluation of the program
Participate in decision-making and problem-solving with program leadership to develop and plan the m-mama interventions
Conduct data analyses and prepare reports on program implementation progress and impact for management, donors or other stakeholders
Assist with compliance with donor requirements, Government of Tanzania relevant regulations, and organizational policies and procedures
Contribute to strengthening Touch’s profile with major donors and implementing partners, including Government of Tanzania central authorities, international organizations and prospective funders
Contribute to expanding Touch’s knowledge of the Tanzania health system and international public health issues, including relationships with main stakeholders
Assist with preparation of funding proposals
Contribute to suite of communication vehicles, including conference presentations, articles, and marketing materials
Communicate regularly and effectively with various program partners
As job vacancy announcements cannot be exhaustive, the Program Manager may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above key duties.

QUALIFICATIONS

Knowledge, Education, Skills and Experience:

Minimum 10 years’ relevant professional experience in project and program implementation management
Masters or Doctorate degree in relevant field (e.g., MBA, MPH, MPA, international development) or equivalent demonstrated professional experience
Experience working with and interaction with government and donor stakeholders in Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular in Tanzania
Prior experience managing and tracking complex budgets
Experience in program monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and international development
Strong leadership, stakeholder engagement, negotiation, organizational and problem-solving skills
Excellent attention to detail
Ability to self-manage and work independently without day-to-day oversight to complete deliverables on time and at a high level of quality
Strong analytical abilities, both quantitative and qualitative
Excellent oral and written communication skills, especially in the functional use of Excel, PowerPoint and Microsoft Word
Solid relationship-building skills and cross-cultural sensitivity: ability to interface with external stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds
Good judgment and discretion to represent the Touch Foundation in a highly professional manner, as well as respect for local culture
LEGAL DISCLAIMER

Touch Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, color, sex, age, gender identification, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability. All qualified applications will be given equal opportunity and selection decisions will be based solely on job-related factors. Compensation will be commensurate with experience.