The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries, while strengthening the capabilities of governments and the private sector in those countries to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance. For more information, please visit: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

CHAI Health Workforce Background:

A skilled health workforce is the backbone of every health system and therefore an essential precondition for progress toward universal health coverage (UHC). However, the WHO estimates that there is a global shortage of 17 million health workers. The gap is most acute in Africa (with a shortage of 4.2 million), which bears 24% of the global burden of disease yet has only 4% of the world’s health workforce. CHAI assists governments to develop their health workforces by enhancing their capacity to train highly qualified health workers and by strengthening national systems to finance, deploy, and manage those health workers.

CHAI’s approach to national heath workforce strengthening emphasizes three strategies:

(i) improving the quality and strategically increasing the scale of education for health workers,

(ii) expanding and optimizing health workforce financing, and (iii) providing technical assistance to governments to strengthen their overall health workforce planning and management systems.

Two key principles guide CHAI’s approach to workforce development. The first is focusing on the right kind of health workers—from community health workers to midwives, nurses, health managers, general physicians, and medical specialists—based on national need and service delivery objectives. CHAI’s approach also emphasizes sustainability by building the institutional capacity of the schools and universities where health workers are trained, training new generations of health professions educators, and developing systems and individual capabilities within governments to better plan and manage their own health workforces.

CHAI’s health workforce programs vary by country, as they reflect the major barriers and opportunities to workforce development in that specific context, as well as the priorities of the host government. Currently, CHAI is focused on health workforce programming in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The government of Rwanda has developed the National Strategy for Health Professions Development (NSHPD) 2020-2030, a 10-year plan to strengthen and expand the Rwandan health workforce though improved and expanded pre-service training. The strategy outlines national health workforce targets for 37 cadres of providers, and the necessary inputs to training institutions to scale up enrollment and graduation to meet those targets. The government has created a Human Resources for Health Secretariat (HRH Secretariat) to manage implementation of the strategy. The HRH Secretariat has requested CHAI’s support implementation of the NSHPD.

CHAI is seeking a highly motivated individual with outstanding technical skills to assist the Dean of the School of Medicine and Pharmacy (SMP) with curricula development, implementation, and teaching quality assurance. The Technical Advisor in charge of the curricula and quality assurance will oversee curriculum development and implementation at the School of Medicine and Pharmacy (SMP) at the University of Rwanda (UR). The Technical Advisor will serve as a key strategic thought partner and in-house pedagogy expert in the quality assurance and roll-out of curriculum at SMP. S/he will direct the review and approval of curricula for SMP’s academic programs and will oversee monitoring and evaluation of teaching at SMP. The Technical Advisor will work hand in hand with the Dean of the SMP to provide guidance to a team of professionals engaged in all aspects of curriculum and syllabus development, educational strategy, teaching and learning, student assessment, and educational innovations.

The desired candidate must be able to multi-task effectively and have experience managing multiple work streams. Candidates should also have experience managing relationships with government stakeholders and ideally will have worked in the field of health professional education. Successful candidates must have a passion for results, a commitment to excellence, and a demonstrated capacity to work in high-stress environments.

This position will report to the Dean of the School of Medicine and Health Science and will coordinate with CHAI Rwanda Program Manager -Health Workforce. This position is based at the office of the Dean SMP in Kigali, Rwanda.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Planning

• Provide effective academic and scholarly teaching and learning direction for the school.
• Ensure the achievement of the mission of all programs within the school,  with the focus on teaching, learning and quality assurance, and within the broader university context.
• Serve as the key point-person for all pedagogy at SMP, ensuring cutting-edge, innovative, and evidence-based approaches are used in the development and implementation of courses.
• Participate in and advocate for the allocation of necessary resources to ensure effective implementation of the school's programs.
• Provide a continuous academic leadership support to the Department Chairs/Heads and program coordinators/directors for the development of innovative approaches to education.
• Design, implement, and solicit funding for cutting edge educational research programs at SMP.

Management

• Manage the implementation and ongoing refinement of curricula of undergraduate and postgraduate programs within the school.
• Manage enrollment planning.
• Develop semi-annual plans, reports, and budgets to sustain curriculum development and implementation activities at the SMP.
• Work closely with the teaching teams, including faculty and staff members, to improve educational outcomes at the SMP.
• Develop standards, guidelines, and policies related to teaching, learning, and student assessment at the SMP, including e-Learning, student data protections, and electronic educational records management.
• Participate in curriculum and teaching/learning committees and meetings at both school and college levels, and specifically serve as the facilitator for the School's Curriculum committees.
• Maintain liaison in matters related to teaching, learning and quality assurance with appropriate offices, departments, and programs within the SMP, UR, the College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS), and external partners including the Ministry of Health, the HRHS, Teaching Hospitals and others.
• Perform other duties related to the position as deemed relevant by the dean.

Curriculum Design

• Assist faculty and leadership with the development of innovative and standards-aligned curricula and academic programs.
• Develop a toolkit of innovative pedagogical methods to be used by faculty at SMP.
• Assist the academic and clinical faculty in the development of quality teaching materials for both face to face and distance learning.

Quality Assurance

• Drive continuous quality improvement initiatives and programs within the school and ensure maintenance of standards in accordance with all accreditation requirements applicable to each of the program.
• Oversee all academic quality assurance activities at the SMP, including the design of faculty reviews and assessments to be included in evaluations for reappointment and promotion.
• Oversee the development and implementation of appropriate evaluation methods for students, faculty, and academic programs.
• Play a leading role in quality assurance for internal and external accreditation of the SMP in general and each of its specific academic programs.
• Develop a comprehensive agenda for Continuous Professional Development for the academic and clinical faculty to ensure all faculty members are competent and confident in teaching, learning, assessment, curriculum design and academic leadership.

• At least a postgraduate diploma in health professions education. Primary degree in any health profession and preferably in Medicine with a Msc or specialist degree in Medicine or related disciplines.

Work Experience

• A minimum of three (3) years of relevant experience in health professions education and leadership.
• Experience developing and executing health science academic education and trainings (including online and blended learning academic experiences) in higher education settings and executive education audiences.
• Experience teaching, developing curricula, and implementing programs for students and adult learners.
• Record of success in instructor development and pedagogical improvement.
• A track-record of funded proposals in education research or educational programs.
• Experience applying research to curricular innovations and instructor development.
• Experience working in Rwanda or in other relevant contexts.

Skills and Competencies

• Knowledge of best practices in teaching and learning and emerging technologies.
• Exemplary interpersonal skills: ability to effectively collaborate with culturally diverse staff across departments and countries.
• Availability to work evenings, weekends, and holidays.
• Ability to cope with a frequently changing environment and adapt to evolving situations.
• Ability to be reliable, responsible, dependable and to fulfil obligations.Ability to make decisions through consultation, collaboration and working with close supervision.
• Established leadership and team building capacity.
• Demonstrated ability to negotiate, collaborate, communicate, and facilitate in complex environments.

Languages

• Fluent in English
• Fluency in French strongly desired

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