NGCA Specialist

ABOUT VILLAGEREACHVillageReach transforms health care delivery to reach everyone. We are driven by a vision of a world where each person has the health care needed to thrive. VillageReach’s goal is to reduce inequities in access to quality primary health care for 350 million people by 2030. We work with governments, the private sector, partners and communities to build responsive primary health care systems that deliver health products, information and services to the most under-reached. As a locally driven and globally connected organization, VillageReach has offices in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and the United States.    SummaryThe NGCA+ Specialist provides technical leadership and oversight for the implementation of the NGCA+ portfolio across assigned provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reporting to the NGCA Manager and supervising Provincial Technical Assistants, the position ensures the quality, consistency, and effective execution of integrated interventions aimed at strengthening routine immunization, reducing the number of zero-dose and under-vaccinated children, improving vaccine supply chain performance, enhancing surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases, and strengthening community engagement and demand generation. The NGCA+ Specialist serves as a key link between program strategy and field implementation, ensuring that Provincial Technical Assistants and government counterparts are equipped to deliver high-quality results.

Key Duties and Responsibilities Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties, responsibilities, and activities may change or be assigned at any time.

1. Technical Leadership and Quality Assurance: • Provides technical leadership for the implementation of NGCA+ interventions across supported provinces. • Ensures alignment with national EPI priorities, donor requirements, and VillageReach strategies. • Promotes standardized implementation approaches, tools, SOPs, and best practices. • Supports the development and follow-up of performance improvement plans for low-performing provinces or health zones. • Identifies programmatic risks and recommends mitigation measures. • Provides technical guidance to Provincial Technical Assistants and government counterparts.

  2. Supervision and People Management of Provincial Technical Assistants: • Provides direct supervision and ongoing coaching to Provincial Technical Assistants. • Establishes individual objectives and monitors performance against agreed targets. • Conducts regular one-on-one meetings, field visits, and supportive supervision sessions. • Reviews and provides feedback on technical reports and deliverables produced by Provincial Technical Assistants. • Identifies staff development needs and supports professional growth and learning opportunities. • Contributes to performance evaluations and talent development processes. • Promotes a culture of collaboration, accountability, inclusion, and continuous improvement.

  3. Program Performance Monitoring and Data Use: • Monitors key indicators related to immunization services, zero-dose children, supply chain performance, surveillance, and data quality. • Consolidates and analyzes information across provinces to identify trends and gaps. • Produces analytical briefs and dashboards to support decision-making. • Supports quarterly performance reviews and follow-up of recommendations. • Ensures that corrective actions are implemented and documented.

  4. Capacity Strengthening and Institutional Development: • Develops and implements capacity-strengthening plans for government counterparts and Provincial Technical Assistants. • Facilitates trainings, mentoring, and supportive supervision activities. • Strengthens institutional systems and promotes ownership of program approaches. • Supports the development of transition and sustainability plans. • Encourages peer learning and knowledge exchange across provinces.

  5. Stakeholder Coordination and Representation: • Represents VillageReach in technical meetings related to the NGCA+ portfolio. • Maintains strong working relationships with the Ministry of Health, EPI structures, and technical partners. • Facilitates coordination among supported provinces and stakeholders. • Contributes to planning processes, joint missions, and partner engagements. • Supports advocacy efforts to address systemic bottlenecks affecting immunization performance.

  6. Knowledge Management, Learning, and Innovation: • Documents best practices, lessons learned, and innovations emerging from program implementation. • Contributes to knowledge products, technical briefs, and learning agendas. • Supports operational research, evaluations, and program reviews. • Promotes continuous learning and adaptive management.

  7. Programmatic and Strategic Support • Contributes to annual work plans, budgeting, and activity forecasting. • Supports donor reporting and technical documentation. • Alerts the NGCA Manager to significant programmatic risks and implementation challenges. • Contributes to proposal development and strategic planning efforts when required.

  Competencies:VillageReach has ten (10) Organizational Competencies that describe how we work together and get things done that are grouped into three strategic areas of Achieving Great Results, Setting Direction and, Bringing Others With you. For a full description, please download our Organizational Competency document. Achieving Great Results: 1.      Risk Taking and Innovation ·        Key Behaviors: Comfort with ambiguity, curiosity, adaptability, unconstrained and undeterred creativity, resourcefulness. 2.      Business Judgement ·        Key Behaviors: Getting to root causes, understanding environment, navigating complexity and ambiguity, entrepreneurial energy. 3.      Building Strong Teams ·       Key Behaviors: Trust in Subject Matter Experts (SME’s); radical candor to resolve conflict, hold each other accountable as colleagues, focused on results, commitment to mission. Setting Direction: 4.      Compelling Communication ·        Key Behaviors: Clear and evidence-based communication, audience adaptability, curious listener.  5.      Resilient Self Leadership ·        Key Behaviors: Self-aware, plan how one shows up, emotionally intelligent, use one’s own agency and takes accountability. 6.      Stewardship and Personal Alignment ·        Key Behaviors: Take ownership, display ethical conduct, effective at resource management, alignment of personal objectives with organizational goals and mission, focus on continuous improvement and sustainability. Bringing Others with You: 7.      Influencing Leadership ·        Key Behaviors: Cultivate trust, influences to make change, navigate the matrix structure. 8.      Radical Partnership ·        Key Behaviors: Share information and credit, address conflict, increase impact through collaboration, political and contextual awareness. 9.      Cultivates a Growth Mindset ·        Key Behaviors: Seek out diverse input, demonstrate flexibility in thinking and curiosity, embrace challenges, demonstrate persistence, seek learning opportunities. 10.   Cultural Intelligence and Inclusion ·        Key Behaviors: Continuous learning and ally-ship across cultural lines, challenge prejudice and bias, modeled in one’s own behavior.