Senior Technical Advisor, IHR and NAPHS Coordination - Remote (Abuja, Nigeria)

Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL) is a global public health organization with a mission to prevent 100 million deaths from heart disease and to make the world safer from epidemics. We are led by Dr Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  To find out more about our work, visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org and https://preventepidemics.org/ 

RTSL, Nigeria collaborates with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (FMoH&SW), Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), World Health Organization (WHO) and other development partners in Nigeria to implement critical health security interventions. These efforts aim to improve Nigeria's Joint External Evaluation (JEE) scores and ensure compliance with international health regulations (IHR) at national and sub-national levels. Nigeria has recently completed its second Joint External Evaluation (JEE) and is now in the process of developing a new National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS). The NAPHS serves as a strategic improvement framework addressing the identified gaps from the JEE. In partnership with Nigerian government, the World Health Organization and other partners, RTSL has developed several technical tools and programs. These include the Program Management for Epidemic Preparedness (PMEP) initiative to bolster peer-to-peer learning on practical management and leadership skills and the country architecture framework to enable country governments to steer their own national agenda for health security.    

Position Summary: 

The primary function of the Senior Technical Advisor, IHR and NAPHS Coordination is to strengthen the capacity of the national IHR focal point to coordinate the development of the 5-year strategic and annual operational NAPHS, ensure tracking of NAPHS implementation, conduct subnational health security assessments, and develop annual State-level improvement plans that align with state priorities.  

This is a full-time position and may require frequent travel to the field. The Senior Technical Advisor will report to the Principal Advisor and Manager, Prevent Epidemics, Nigeria. 

Core Duties and Responsibilities:

IHR Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and NAPHS and Implementation 

• Guide the development and execution of NAPHS and sectoral plans, integrating insights from previous assessments (AARs, Simex, STAR, 7-1-7). 

• Provide technical assistance to the IHR National Focal Point to ensure compliance with the provisions of the International Health Regulations (2005)  

• Partner with relevant RTSL and external experts (e.g., IHR implementation, surveillance, financing, legislation, and strategic advocacy) to strengthen the country health architecture for the success of preparedness initiatives.   

• Synthesize and apply strategic learning to improve program delivery and develop clear, evidence-informed proposals to support new initiatives.   

Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration 

• Build partnerships with national and international entities to enhance IHR capacities and NAPHS execution. 

• Collaborate with the NCDC to identify and disseminate best practices, lessons learned, and other relevant information related to health security implementation and strengthening of capacities in Nigeria.   

Capacity Development 

• Facilitate and implement initiatives to strengthen and sustain the leadership and management capabilities and culture of officials and teams implementing health security (e.g, PMEP) 

• Align people and processes to establish a multisectoral governance and accountability tool; contribute to preparing and disseminating the quarterly NAPHS bulletin to the relevant stakeholders. 

Strengthening State and National Level Coordination and Advocacy 

• Support ongoing capacity building for state-level emergency preparedness and response, particularly subnational assessments, and the development of State Action Plan for Health Security (SAPHS). 

• Collaborate closely with the NCDC and other NAPHS implementing Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to advocate and mobilize domestic funding for the NAPHS and SAPHS implementation. 

• Travel to the states routinely to provide training and other technical support to the state teams. 

Required Qualifications: 

Education  

• Master's degree or higher in Public Health or related field 

 Experience  

• 10+ years of experience planning, developing and implementing public health or health systems strengthening programming within or with government at the national or subnational levels. 

• 5+ years of experience in health sector strategy development and implementation, complemented by a background in providing technical assistance or mentorship to public health personnel or implementing partners. 

Leadership skills 

• Proven ability to coach and guide senior-level partners from diverse backgrounds.  

• Resilience and adaptability when confronted with complexity, paradox, or ambiguity.  

Management skills  

• Proficient in designing, overseeing, and evaluating programmatic, financial and partner aspects of projects. 

Data and Quality Improvement skills  

• Skilled in performance metrics, monitoring, and evaluation to drive informed decisions.  

• Experience with program evaluation, knowledge management, and quality improvement techniques.  

• Able to assist groups to adopt quality improvement methods into routine practice. 

• Proficient in data analysis, including generating summary statistics, charts, and offering actionable insights.  

Training and Facilitation Expertise 

• Strong facilitator; can design clear agendas and practical curricula and toolkits.   

• Skilled at using best practices in adult learning and behavioral change theory. 

Communication skills 

• Articulate and responsive in both verbal and written communication.  

• Exhibits cultural competence; empathy, humility, and discernment when interacting across different contexts.   

Desired but not required: 

• Extensive experience at the national or subnational level in multi-sectoral coordination, strengthening health security capacities and responding to emergencies and disasters, including infectious disease outbreaks. 

• Knowledge of International Health Regulations (2005) and its monitoring and evaluation framework (IHRMEF) 

• Management or quality improvement credentials (e.g., MBA, PMI, Lean Six Sigma, PMDPro).  

• Specialized training in epidemiology, infectious diseases, health, outbreak and/or emergency management.  

• Have experience in epidemic response and preparedness e.g., in an emergency operations center, or participated in Joint External Evaluations or After-Action Review exercises.  

• Understands Nigeria’s health financing system, including the national and state level budget cycle and processes. 

Travel: Role may require up to 25% travel within Nigeria

Setting: Fully remote with in-country travel; qualified candidates must be based in Abuja, Nigeria  

Term: Two years with possibility of renewal or extension

RTSL accepts and reviews applications on an ongoing basis. We are grateful for your interest in our work and for your application. Unfortunately, due to the volume of applications, we are unable to respond to every applicant. One of our talent team members will contact you if your qualifications match the role.