World Health Organization Vacancies 2018

Provide technical support to the Government in scaling up the capacity of the Ministry of Health, at all levels, to address the above health systems challenges as pertains to health financing and human resources for health in Ghana.

Job Description

Job Title: NPO Health Financing

Objectives of the Programme and of the immediate unit or field activity:

The vision of the Ghana health financing is moving towards universal health coverage. The vision is comprehensive including all types of public and private financing. It balances revenue increases and improved expenditure management including efficiency by expanding access of quality service delivery in a sustainable manner.

Health care financing is at the heart of Ghana health sector governance. It involves a process by which funds are mobilized from primary (households and firms) and secondary sources (Government and donors). These funds are accumulated in fund pools (health fund and National Health Insurance Fund) and are used to purchase services and products that promote, maintain and restore health.

Achieving the health system goals of improving health outcomes, providing financial risk protection and increasing system responsiveness requires direct contributions from health financing and clear relationships to other health systems functions.

The distribution pattern of health workers is skewed in favour of the more affluent regions, most of which are in the southern half of the country. The highly skilled professionals like medical doctors and specialized personnel (nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals, etc) are concentrated in Greater Accra region, as well as in Korle Bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals.

The other greatest challenge in Ghana relates to absence of a comprehensive and accurate data base on the health workforce, particularly pertaining to numbers, distribution, historical trends, and attrition.

Organizational Context:

Supervised by the Health Policy, Planning and Coordination Lead, under the overall guidance of the WHO Representative for Ghana, and working closely with counterparts at the respective Regional Office and HQ, the incumbent will provide technical support to the Government in scaling up the capacity of the Ministry of Health, at all levels, to address the above health systems challenges as pertains to health financing and human resources for health in Ghana

Summary of Assigned Duties (Describe what the incumbent has to do to achieve main objectives; include main achievements expected):

The function will support the ministry of health and stakeholders on the following;

Health financing roles;

• Formulation and implementation of policies on good governance for transparency, accountability and inclusiveness
• Pursuing equity in health financing with special emphases on; risk pooling by targeting resources to services for the poor, vulnerable groups, and public health interventions to reducing catastrophic costs of care
• Implementation of practices for high quality health care service delivery
• Innovation in resource mobilization
• Advocacy for the promotion of financial risk protection and equity with special focus on the poor and vulnerable
• Promotion of performance based service delivery which translates into high value for money.

Human resources for health roles;

• Technical support for development, implementation and M&E of the National HRH Policy and Strategy in the context of global/regional Human Resource for Health priorities and/or strategies

• Technical assistance in the development and implementation of effective HRH management practices for recruitment, deployment, retention, including management of migration, and health security
• Fostering national education system for production of all types of health workers, with appropriate skills and competencies in order to deliver integrated package of essential health services;
• Technical assistance for strengthening national HRH information system including national health workforce observatory and national health workforce accounts in the context of health information system

Competencies:

• Communicating in a credible and effective way
• Building and promoting partnerships across the organization and beyond
• Creating an empowering and motivating environment
• Ensuring the effective use of resources
• Fostering integration and teamwork

Functional Skills and Knowledge:

Education (Qualifications):

Essential: First university degree in Social Sciences, Health economics, Health Financing,

Health Systems or public health from an accredited/recognized institute.

Desirable: An advanced university degree in health systems related field, Human Resources Management or Public Health.

Experience Essential:

• At least five years related experience in public health.

Desirable:

Languages:

Excellent knowledge of English. Working knowledge of French or another WHO official language would be an asset.

Other Skills (e.g. IT):

Proficiency in all MS Office applications, spreadsheets and data analysis. Proficiency in epidemiology or statistical software packages would be an asset.