Organization: The Ihangane Project
Location: Ruli, Rwanda
Eligible Citizenship: Rwanda
Application Code: R12-Nat
Job Function: Program / Project Management, Strategic Planning / Consulting
Issue Area: Health Systems Strengthening / Healthcare Access
About
The mission of The Ihangane Project (TIP) is to empower local communities to develop sustainable, effective, and patient-centered health care delivery systems that holistically respond to the needs of vulnerable populations. TIP has been working with Ruli District Hospital and its seven associated health centers to determine key strategies for improving health outcomes within their community. Through our experience in Ruli, Rwanda, TIP has identified a key process to building effective and resilient health systems that connects national approaches to local realities and context. With this process as our foundation, we design, test, implement, and share tools for creating effective frontline health care delivery systems that lead to durable improvements in the health of even the most vulnerable members of resource-limited communities.
A key aspect to our success is TIP’s unique approach to developing meaningful indicators of success and utilizing these indicators to foster continuous quality improvement. Because TIP believes that sustainable health interventions must involve strategies that foster long term behavior change, we include indicators such as ‘hope’ and ‘investment in the future’. Our goal is to demonstrate that there is a crucial linkage between increased hope and investment with increased adoption of healthy behaviors in the home and sustained improvement in health outcomes. As TIP considers replicating and advocating for our work, it is essential that we ensure high quality data that is collected and analyzed efficiently and effectively.
Position Overview
The Business Administration Systems Liaison will utilize The Ihangane Project’s model of stakeholder engagement and collaborative program development to assist in the implementation of recommendations that have been developed by MBA student-led consultation teams. The Liaison will assist stakeholders to further assess the feasibility of recommendations and then oversee implementation of changes when appropriate. Stakeholders include hospital administrators, frontline health care workers, and patients. As recommendations are being implemented, the Business Administration Systems Liaison would also be responsible for gathering baseline data and for designing systems for ongoing evaluation of the interventions.
All prior MBA student projects have been reviewed and prioritized based on stakeholder feedback. A stakeholder retreat was conducted to build a shared vision for the hospital, understand current barriers to reaching this vision, establish a problem-solving framework to work through these challenges and create a road map to reach hospital goals. Priority projects were incorporated into the problem-solving planning process.
Our 2016-2017 GHC Business Administration Systems Liaison worked with the hospital and associated health centers to implement the road map developed from the stakeholder retreat. This includes implementation of prior student-team recommendations, identifying new projects for student teams, and providing support to students while working on projects. In addition, a follow up retreat with be conducted to evaluate our progress together.
Our 2017-2018 GHC Business Administration Systems Liaison will continue working with the hospital and associated health centers to implement their strategic plan and priority projects. The long-term goal is to integrate consistent systems for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) into routine work within the hospital and its associated health centers. The Business Administration Systems Liaison will utilize the TIP Problem Solving Framework to support the hospital as it transitions from individual pilot improvement projects to a robust CQI program.
The key deliverables of this role include the implementation of priority recommendations in collaboration with Ruli District Hospital and TIP, standard reference guides for key projects where appropriate, and the development of standard system for monitoring and evaluation of recommended implementations.
Responsibilities
- Collaborate with the William Davidson Institute, MBA student teams, TIP, and Ruli District Hospital to strengthen and fulfill a three-year strategic plan for work to be performed through this partnership
- Work with stakeholders to improve financial systems at Ruli District Hospital
- Support Ruli District Hospital’s ability to implement prior MBA student recommendations and troubleshoot existing administrative challenges
- Identify useful projects for future MBA teams
- Provide translation for team members when needed
- Collaborate with other TIP team members when projects overlap
- Partner with the Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator to design and implement monitoring and evaluation process for this work
Desired Skills and Experience
Items indicated with an asterisk (*) are required- Bachelor’s degree in business administration, public health, nursing, or related field*
- Preferred: Master’s degree in above fields
- Self-starter, with ability to work both independently and as a part of a team*
- Possess an understanding of the health care delivery infrastructure in Rwanda*
- Interest in emerging markets and health care delivery*
- Proficiency in Excel, Word and PowerPoint*
- Comfortable living in a rural setting, where electricity and internet connection are somewhat unpredictable*
- Empathic and patient problem solver who works well in a team*
- Demonstrated ability to interact professionally with different cultural groups*
- Demonstrated organizational, verbal and interpersonal skills
- Interest in monitoring and evaluation
- Experience with mobile and tablet technology
- Background or training in strategic planning, program development, and consumer analysis
- Experience in design and implementation of standard information collection tools, such as surveys and focus groups
- Knowledge of French or Kinyarwanda a plus
Fellowship Logistics
During the fellowship year, all fellows are provided with:
- A living stipend of $650/month
- Housing and utilities
- Health insurance
- A professional development grant of $600
- An award of $1500 upon successful completion of the fellowship year
- Travel costs covered to and from placement site, training and retreats
*Note: The living stipend and the completion award may be paid out in USD or local currency, as determined by the placement organization.
Living and Working in Rwanda: Fellows are provided with housing and utilities during the fellowship year. Housing arrangements vary based on the placement organization and location within the country and are subject to change. All housing will meet GHC safety standards. Fellows at TIP are provided with a room in a house in a TIP compound. The living quarters are self-contained, meaning that the kitchen, bathroom, living, and sleeping areas are in one building. You may be living with your co-fellow and two additional people, based on the size of the house. It is basic but comfortable, situated in Ruli, a rural community in Rwanda.
