About the Role
Somalia is an important global geographic priority and matters to the UK. The UK plays a prominent role among international actors in the country, as the UNSC penholder on Somalia, historically a leading donor, and a major player in training military forces.
The Somalia Network operates across four sites: the British Embassy Mogadishu, the British Office in Hargeisa, the British High Commission in Nairobi and the Somalia Team in headquarters. The UK in Somalia brings together approximately 50 staff across a range of disciplines and government departments.
This Health Advisor role will play a critical leadership and delivery position within the UK’s humanitarian and development partnerships in Somalia (including Somaliland). It will also support UK Government global health security objectives in relation to disease outbreak risks. The position sits in the British High Commission Nairobi within the Humanitarian, Resilience and Human Development Team but with regular travel and engagement with platforms in Mogadishu and Hargeisa.
Key Responsibilities
Technical leadership for UK health policy and diplomacy in the context of systems strengthening (30%):
- Oversight and delivery of the UK’s health strategy in Somalia (including Somaliland) covering diplomacy, multilateral finance, and bilateral investment tools to support sustainable health systems strengthening.
- Lead engagement with the Ministries of Health in Somalia and Somaliland, supporting them to radically rethink their health financing and delivery strategies.
- Lead UK engagement with the Global Health Institutions in Somalia (e.g. GAVI, Global Fund, World Bank) ensuring they are well integrated into wider donor positioning.
- Represent the UK in the Health Donor Group, potentially taking on the chair role at the next appointment cycle.
- Lead UK engagement with a wider set of Somali health stakeholders, including the private sector, think tanks and civil society.
- Providing high quality technical information and advice in a timely manner for briefings, communications, analyses, and results data.
Technical leadership for health and nutrition programming within a humanitarian context (40%):
- Lead advisor on approximately £10M per annum bilateral humanitarian and basic services programming covering health, nutrition, and WASH.
- Lead on engaging in the design process of the next phase of World Bank health financing in Somalia.
- Ensure high quality technical programming, partner oversight, and effective finance, risk, and results management for bilateral programming.
- Engage with FCDO and wider Centrally Managed Programmes working in Somalia, including work on Sexual and Reproductive Rights (WISH-D).
Technical leadership for disease outbreak surveillance, preparedness and response (20%):
- Track disease surveillance systems across Somalia, providing early warning and supporting systems strengthening.
- External engagement with national health security partners (Government, UN, NGO, Red Cross) to foster coordination.
- Lead on disease outbreak risk assessment for internal Crisis Management Plans.
Professional Development (10%):
- Contributing to the FCDO health cadre’s delivery and continuous professional development.
Requirements
Essential:
- Health sector relevant degree level qualification (or over 10 years of experience at an expert level in the sector).
- Over 12 years of professional experience in roles relevant to this job specification.
- Must have the right to live and work in Kenya.
- Experience designing and delivering health programmes at scale in fragile and conflict-affected developing country contexts.
- Experience working with a range of stakeholders including government, donors, implementing partners, and multilaterals.
- Strong health system strengthening experience.
- Experience of delivering health outcomes at expert level in health technical competencies.
- Strong communication (written and verbal) and interpersonal skills.
- Personal resilience.
Desirable:
- A demonstrable track record of resilience or experience in Somalia or very similar country contexts.
- Ability to work at pace and under pressure to tight deadlines.
- Ability to prioritize against multiple demands.
