View Vacancy - Prosperity Fund Programme Advisor (Health), C4 (53/19 PTA) -FC

Background and main purpose of job:

This is a great opportunity to deliver a key component of the £1.2bn cross-government Prosperity Fund. New and innovative, the Fund represents a step change in HMG’s approach to promoting economic development and prosperity overseas. The Better Health Programme is recruiting a Programme Advisor to oversee, assess and monitor programme activity in South Africa to ensure intended outcomes and impacts are achieved, and the programme continues to offer value for money.

The cross-government Prosperity Fund (PF) was established under the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) with the primary aim of supporting growth in recipient countries and thereby reducing poverty. As such, it represents a key component of the prosperity pillar of the UK Aid Strategy. But the Fund uniquely focuses on promoting growth in ODA-eligible middle income countries, which are home to around 60% of the world’s poor and where the development challenges remain significant, but at the same time are important business partners and drivers of prosperity. By delivering high impact, strategic multi-year programmes, across high opportunity countries, regions and sectors, the Fund will help create opportunities for international business, including UK companies. As the UK leaves the EU, an even more outward-looking global Britain investing and trading with the fastest growing markets will become increasingly important.

Around 25 multi-year programmes have so far been endorsed by the Ministerial Board. These cover trade, anti-corruption, infrastructure, business environment, health, future cities, education, financial services, energy and outward investment. For more information, see the Prosperity Fund Annual Report 2017/18.

The successful candidate will build relationships and work closely with delivery partners, the government of South Africa, businesses, civil society, Non-Governmental-Organisations (NGOs) and other external stakeholders to ensure successful delivery of the programme. The successful candidate will work with the Head of Prosperity Fund at the British High Commission in South Africa and will coordinate with other posts in the region and government colleagues in the UK to ensure the programme delivers inclusive economic growth, to achieve UK policy objectives and to ensure that the programme complies with OECD rules for ODA. An important aspect of the job will be working with both Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Department of International Trade (DIT) colleagues in South Africa and in the UK to unlock the opportunities created by the programmes’ interventions for increased inward trade and investment, particularly for UK companies.

The post will be based at the British High Commission in South Africa, a vibrant, international organisation, committed to diversity and staff development.

This is a challenging and exciting opportunity to play an influential role in a high-profile and strategic British development initiatives in South Africa, which aims to have a positive impact on economic development and trade, as well as strengthening the relationship between the UK and South Africa.

Roles and responsibilities / what the jobholder will be expected to achieve:

This is a great opportunity to deliver a key component of the £1.2bn cross-government Prosperity Fund. New and innovative, the Fund represents a step change in HMG’s approach to promoting economic development and prosperity overseas.

As part of this, we plan to invest £79.3m multi-year Prosperity Fund programme on Better Health Programme. There is strong interest in this space, given the South African government’s focus on tackling the impact of non-communicable diseases.

We are looking for a pro-active, engaged individual with a passion for delivering development impacts. The job holder will have two main responsibilities around programme implementation (70%) and administration (30%):

Programme advisor role (70%)

• Using technical expertise and operational leadership to effectively deliver the PF Better Health programme in South Africa. Provide NCD and patient safety health expertise alongside delivery partners to maximise high-quality implementation and outcomes of the programme.
• Build wide stakeholder networks in South Africa and in the UK to enable programme implementation and ensure that the programme is de-conflicted with other UK Government programmes and similar development work in the country. This involves close coordination with policy and programme officers in the British High Commission Pretoria and PF Better Health global and regional networks to drive consistency, deliver efficiencies and increase impact through realisation of synergies.
• Plan and implement workshops and other activities, including with government and wider stakeholders to achieve specific programme outcomes and influence sustainable and inclusive infrastructure development in South Africa.
• Facilitate delivery activities, e.g. inward visits by technical advisors and government engagement, and provide reporting of these activities to concerned stakeholders.
• Conduct analysis and research on relevant policy developments in the Better Health space, using this knowledge to shape programme delivery, e.g. analysis of UK priorities and local context and policy shifts.
• Act as representative for the PF Better Health Cities programme to the South African government, working collaboratively with delivery partner(s) and government officials to identify capability gaps, develop technical assistance and then contributing towards implementation of these capacity and capability building activities
• Reflect South African government interests to HMG officers within the British High Commission Pretoria and to relevant HMG officers in London. Understand the broader UK offer and ensure effective communication of these goals with key stakeholders.
• Support partnerships between relevant international organisations and local stakeholders/implementers to drive the development of the programme.
• Support a cohesive set of High Commission objectives under the Country Business Plan of the British High Commission Pretoria by working closely with the Head of Prosperity Fund and policy, programme and commercial colleagues at Post ensure fully coordinated implementation with the other parts of the prosperity programme, relevant to wider British High Commission  Pretoria diplomatic work.
• Collaborate with Department of International Trade colleagues and other relevant cross-government stakeholders in the region and in London to unlock opportunities for increased inward trade and investment, particularly for UK firms, and track UK response to the opportunities.

Programme manager role (30%)

• Manage successful roll out of externally procured contract with international consultancy. Ensure good value for money and monitor implementer compliance (e.g. SLAs). The role will provide strong management of implementing partners ensuring they are performing well, finances are correctly administered and the programme’s benefits are realised. This will include ensuring the programme continues to offer value for money and are well-managed throughout the various delivery stages.
• Ensure that programme activity is run effectively, working alongside delivery partners to ensure key milestones are met and that risks are mitigated appropriately. Feed-into centralised reporting systems, including internal programme reporting, both to wider HMG and into the PF Monitoring and Reporting platform.
• Support the process of quality assurance, approval and commissioning of programme interventions for South Africa.
• Provide specialist technical advice to the programme team, including on Monitoring, Reporting, Evaluation and Learning (MREL), working with the programme team to monitor and evaluate programme effectiveness.
• Maintain a strong network with Better Health programme colleagues in the UK and other partner countries, adapting the programme on the basis of lessons learnt and opportunities arising from potential synergies with other country programmes. (This may involve international and regional travel).
• Deploy British High Commission Pretoria diplomatic levers to support the programme’s primary aim of reducing poverty and deepen the High Commission’s engagement in the infrastructure sector, closely coordinating with Post programme, policy and commercial colleagues

Underpinning Requirements

• Ensure the programme complies with the International Development Act, including the International Development (Gender Equality) Act 2014; meets the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC)’s criteria; is untied; meets UK government transparency commitments on ODA spend; and complies with UK Government audit requirements.
• Support the Prosperity Fund’s policy and guidance on gender equality, women’s economic empowerment and inclusive growth.

Resources managed (staff and expenditure): 

• Resources: The job holder will be responsible for managing the country’s share of the programme’s £79.3m.

• Graduate with a university degree relevant to the job and at least 5 years of experience in a relevant field.
• Experience of delivering complex programmes
• Experience of managing delivery partners
• Understanding of ODA/International development
• Demonstrate expertise in relevant areas like non communicable diseases, patient safety and universal health care.
• At least 3 years’ experience in programme management ideally in a health context.
• A flexible and creative problem-solver, able to come up with innovative solutions to complex challenges.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills including in giving presentations to external audiences, including senior stakeholders.
• Team player driven by values
• Language:  English fluent, written and spoken. Useful to be a native speaker / fluent in one of the other official languages of South Africa.