Janaagraha - Project Associate - Urban Healthcare System Reforms

What does it take to be Project Associate Urban Healthcare System Reforms

Core Competencies

1. Effective communication is able to navigate interactions with senior bureaucrats

2. Experience of being a part of large projects, where multiple internal and external stakeholders need to work together quickly and seamlessly

3. Creative problem solving

4. Strong project management abilities must be able to prioritise activities and is good at managing time

5. Persuasive skills to engage with government functionaries and deliver on programme objectives

6. Proactive stakeholder engagement

7. Positive attitude, flexibility, and ability to adapt to a dynamic work environment

Functional Competencies

1. Excellent project implementation skills is able to prepare project action plans and follow through on implementation.

2. Excellent ability to manage a diverse set of stakeholders, in and outside of government

3. Ability to operate with minimal instructions & supervision

4. Ability to manage large high-stakes projects in partnership with external stakeholders

5. Strong command in designing and conducting surveys and interviews

6. Good working knowledge of MS Office - Is able to draft sharp slide decks, and succinct policy memos for project collaterals

7. Strong quantitative and analytical capabilities with a good working knowledge of MS Excel

8. Ability to work with ambiguity should be able to mould abstract ideas into advocacy collaterals

What will the Project Associate Urban Healthcare System Reforms really do?

A) Work on the development of Janaagraha's Urban Healthcare Reforms programme

1. Work closely with the State Project Manager to identify planning and programme needs, opportunities and approaches to strengthen Janaagraha's presence and relevance in the urban healthcare reforms space;

2. Implement and ensure the quality of results for the project deliverables and prepare the medium-term programme plan;

3. Manage the implementation of the programmes communication strategy and plan.

B) Manage the Project delivery

1. Work with the team in the delivery of operational goals; finalize the annual work plan; timely implementation, including providing technical support to the project team members

2. Support the state health leadership in undertaking activities related to urban component of XV FC health grants

3. Assist health department in operationalisation of the all GOs, tracking and ensuring compliance at the ULB & district level.

4. Work with state project manager and lead on formation of all district committees, creating SOPs for their functioning & providing close support as and when needed

5. Customize training modules and ensure guidelines for both grant administration & district health action plans are tweaked to suit urban UPs context, as well as to improve implementing staffs uptake

6. Support project manager to establish reporting accountability framework to ensure that donors are duly informed on a timely basis.

C) Engage with the urban healthcare finance ecosystem

1. Build relationships with government, partners, stakeholders and donors to achieve active collaboration, cooperation and alliances on programme development and implementation;

2. Build relations and partnerships with high level and senior government officials, other stakeholders and NGOs; and participate in all relevant events;

Qualifications and Experience

1. Masters degree or equivalent in public health, business administration, public administration, public policy or other directly relevant fields;

2. 5+ years of experience in government advisory, public finance, public health, business consulting or in a non-profit working in public and infrastructure finance; should have worked in project management role for at least 2 years in their career; preferable in Public Health Sector.

3. Field based experience working with multi-cultural and geographically diverse and spread teams;

4. Preferred should have worked actively on projects with governments on public health systems transformation, capacity building, transaction advisory

What Janaagraha Offers

At Janaagraha, you will be part of a multi-disciplinary team of professionals and passionate citizens who apply cutting-edge technologies and practices aimed at social change in India's cities. We offer a dynamic, driven, remunerative and vibrant work environment for professionals who are passionate about investing their time, skill sets and energy to transform quality of life in India's cities. At work, you will be exposed to a unique combination of policy, practice and platforms and will have abundant opportunities to learn and apply professional skills to complex social challenges.

Remuneration:

Commensurate to the experience.

Project Details

Primary healthcare in India's cities and towns is nascent. Covid-19 has severely exposed its shortcomings. The XV Finance Commission (XVFC) in a welcome move has allocated Rs 26,000 crores for Urban Local Bodies (ULBs, aka municipalities) specifically towards strengthening decentralised primary healthcare. The XVFC has rightly identified and strengthened the need for neighbourhood and city level delivery of public health services in cities, drawing lessons from Covid-19 pandemic. We believe this needs to be leveraged as an opportunity not just for short-term measures, but for more sustainable medium and long-term systems change. Municipalities (referred to in governments as Urban Local Bodies or ULBs) have hitherto not been systematically involved in delivery of public health services in cities. There is therefore a need to not just invest significantly in urban health services (against the backdrop of the pandemic), but to also simultaneously build out a long-term approach to decentralising health infrastructure and services through greater involvement of ULBs. At the heart of this approach is the need to look at primary healthcare alongside city governance, equity and environment, in an integrated and coordinated manner.

However, the current 1-yr project is to respond to a more immediate requirement. It will involve setting up institutional processes, SOPs and rolling out trainings to ensure both states meet all XVFC grant access and deployment requirements, as laid out in the MoHFWs operational guidelines (OG). It will also study the urban healthcare governance landscape with the objective of surfacing systemic gaps and identifying pathways for co-creating solutions. This project is envisaged to be phase 1 of a more longer-term engagement to be finalised over the course of the first one-year phase. The next phase will focus on drawing up a comprehensive roadmap for full devolution of primary healthcare governance to ULBs & deploying a newly designed PFM system ensuring financial sustainability (adequacy of funds) as well as financial accountability (accountability for outputs and eventually citizen outcomes) for primary healthcare in ULBs.