Director, Sustainability and Transition – AFGHS-Jhpiego Tanzania

Overview

 

The AFGHS-Jhpiego project is funded by the U.S. Department of State (DoS) to support the delivery of lifesaving, comprehensive maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) and malaria services across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. Aligned with the DoS Government to Government (G2G) MOU with the Government of the Republic of Tanzania, the project aims to improve service and data quality, strengthen health-system integration and resilience, facilitate effective transition, and promote local ownership and accountability for sustained health outcomes.

Jhpiego works closely with the Ministries of Health in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, the Reproductive and Child Health Section (RCHS), the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), the Zanzibar Malaria Elimination Programme (ZAMEP), and Regional Administration and Local Government (RALG) structures to align implementation with national priorities, strengthen government leadership and locally led implementation, and support sustainable transition and oversight.

Position Summary

The Director, Sustainability and Transition provides strategic and technical leadership for the design, implementation, monitoring, and continuous refinement of the AFGHS-Jhpiego sustainability and transition approach across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. Working closely with the Senior Project Director, project technical and operational leadership, and government counterparts, the Director ensures that sustainability, institutionalization, government ownership, and transition are embedded throughout project planning and implementation rather than treated as end-of-project activities.

The Director, Sustainability and Transition leads project-wide sustainability and transition efforts across governance, workforce, financing, service delivery, data and accountability, and community ownership. The role works with government counterparts to assess institutional and system readiness, identify barriers and risks to sustainability, establish transition priorities and milestones, strengthen government capacity, and progressively institutionalize project-supported functions within government policies, plans, budgets, workforce structures, service delivery platforms, supervision systems, data systems, and accountability mechanisms. The Director ensures that the pace and sequencing of transition are informed by evidence of readiness and protect the quality and continuity of lifesaving MNCH and malaria services.

The Director, Sustainability and Transition is accountable for aligning sustainability and transition activities and their technical portfolio with approved project milestones and payment-linked deliverables, monitoring progress, identifying and addressing implementation risks, and ensuring timely achievement and documentation of relevant milestones. The role works across technical, MERL, finance, operations, and field teams to ensure sustainability and transition results are measurable, verifiable, and incorporated into project performance management and adaptive management.

The Director, Sustainability and Transition also brings demonstrated senior-level technical expertise in either malaria or maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) and provides technical leadership in their area of expertise. Working in close partnership with the Senior Project Director, the two positions provide complementary senior technical leadership across malaria and MNCH, ensuring strong technical oversight of both program areas while integrating sustainability and transition throughout implementation and alignment with G2G priorities. The Director works closely with the relevant Technical Directors and government technical counterparts to ensure that effective interventions are designed for institutionalization and sustainable government-led implementation from the outset.

 

This position will be closed on October 15, 2026.

Responsibilities

Sustainability and Transition Leadership

• Provide overall strategic and technical leadership for development, implementation, monitoring, and continuous refinement of the project’s sustainability and transition strategy and associated national and subnational transition plans.
• Provide guidance and oversight into the engagement of sub-awardees under the award to advance sustainability and transition of project activities.
• Ensure sustainability and transition are embedded throughout project design and approaches, annual and regional planning, budgeting, technical assistance, implementation, milestone management, performance monitoring, and learning.
• Lead systematic assessment of sustainability and transition priorities across governance, workforce, financing, service delivery, data and accountability, and community ownership.
• Develop and maintain clear transition pathways identifying functions to be institutionalized or transitioned, responsible government structures, required capacities and resources, timelines, dependencies, risks, and readiness criteria.
• Ensure transition planning begins early and is progressively implemented throughout the life of the project rather than concentrated at project closeout.
• Advise the Senior Project Director and Project Management Team on transition readiness, sustainability risks, institutional constraints, and management actions required to sustain results.
• Ensure transition approaches prioritize continuity, quality, and equitable access to lifesaving MNCH and malaria services.

 Government Ownership and Institutionalization

• Lead development of a project-wide Sustainability and Transition Roadmap that defines what will be sustained, by whom, through which government or local systems, with what resources, by when, and against what evidence of readiness and sustained performance.
• Support field teams to ensure the progressive transfer of leadership, management, implementation, supervision, monitoring, and accountability functions to appropriate government structures.
• Work with government and project teams to assess and strengthen the sustainability of commodity security, procurement, supply-chain, equipment maintenance and other essential systems required to maintain priority MNCH and malaria services after transition"
• Lead scenario planning and sustainability stress-testing to assess the likely effects of changes in donor financing, government resources, workforce, commodities or implementation capacity on continuity of priority services and develop mitigation options

 Senior Technical Leadership – MNCH or Malaria

• Provide senior technical leadership and strategic guidance in either MNCH or malaria, based on the incumbent’s area of expertise.
• Work in close partnership with the Senior Project Director to provide complementary senior leadership and oversight across MNCH and malaria, ensuring strong senior-level oversight of both technical areas.
• Work closely with the relevant Technical Directors and technical teams to ensure interventions are evidence-based, technically sound, aligned with national policies and standards, and designed for sustainable scale and institutionalization.
• Provide senior leadership to government counterparts and represent the project in relevant national technical working groups, task forces, and other forums within the Director’s area of expertise.
• Maintain current knowledge of national and global evidence, policies, standards, and emerging practices within the Director’s areas and support translation of relevant evidence into project implementation.
• Ensure project strategies and approaches explicitly consider government capacity, workforce requirements, affordability, financing, commodities, supervision, data systems, and other requirements for sustained government-led implementation.
• Identify project functions currently dependent on project support and work with technical teams and government counterparts to establish feasible pathways toward institutionalization and government ownership.
• Ensure scale-up decisions are informed by evidence of effectiveness, feasibility, affordability, and sustainability.

 Transition Readiness, Milestones, and Risk Management

• Develop and maintain a project-wide transition monitoring framework that defines transition milestones, readiness criteria, responsible entities, timelines, evidence requirements, and indicators of successful institutionalization.
• Establish mechanisms to routinely assess government and project readiness for transition and identify areas requiring additional capacity strengthening, financing, technical assistance, or management action.
• Conduct and coordinate transition risk assessments to identify institutional, workforce, financing, service delivery, commodity, data, operational, and other risks that could affect continuity or sustainability of services.
• Develop and monitor mitigation actions for identified transition risks and escalate significant risks to the Senior Project Director and project leadership.
• Use transition readiness evidence to inform the timing and sequencing of responsibility shifts rather than transitioning functions solely according to predetermined dates.
• Monitor whether transitioned functions remain operational and maintain required quality and performance after transfer to government leadership.
• Support corrective action where transition results in deterioration in service availability, quality, performance, or accountability.

 Project Milestones and Payment-Linked Deliverables

• Align sustainability and transition activities and the Director’s technical portfolio with approved project milestones and payment-linked deliverables, ensuring implementation priorities, technical assistance, resources, and timelines support timely milestone achievement.
• Work with the Senior Project Director, Technical Directors, MERL, Finance, field teams, and other project leadership to routinely track progress against relevant milestones and identify deliverables at risk.
• Lead corrective actions within the Director’s portfolio where implementation gaps, government readiness, capacity constraints, or other barriers threaten milestone achievement.
• Ensure sustainability and transition results and relevant technical achievements are supported by complete, accurate, timely, and verifiable evidence and documentation required for milestone verification.
• Contribute to preparation and quality review of milestone verification packages and respond to technical or transition-related verification requirements.
• Ensure sustainability and transition indicators and milestones are incorporated into routine project performance reviews and used to guide management decisions and resource allocation.

 Sustainable Financing and Resource Planning

• Work with the Finance Director, technical teams, and government counterparts to identify the costs and resource requirements associated with sustaining priority MNCH and malaria interventions.
• Support government counterparts to progressively incorporate priority interventions and associated recurrent costs into national, regional, council, and other relevant government planning and budgeting processes.
• Identify financing gaps and risks that could affect sustainability or continuity of priority services and support development of feasible mitigation strategies.
• Support analysis of affordability, cost efficiencies, resource allocation, and opportunities for domestic resource mobilization, co-financing, or other sustainable financing approaches.
• Strengthen government capacity for planning, budgeting, resource tracking, and financial accountability related to priority project-supported interventions.
• Ensure transition decisions consider the availability and sustainability of financial resources required for government to assume and maintain functions.

 Workforce and Institutional Capacity Strengthening

• Work with technical teams and government counterparts to identify workforce competencies, staffing, mentorship, supervision, and institutional capacity required to sustain priority MNCH and malaria interventions.
• Develop or coordinate capacity-strengthening approaches that address identified institutional and workforce gaps and are linked to specific transition milestones and readiness criteria.
• Promote institutional rather than solely individual capacity strengthening by embedding competencies, processes, tools, mentorship, and accountability within government structures.
• Strengthen government mentorship, supportive supervision, quality improvement, management, and performance monitoring functions required for sustained service delivery.
• Support development of practical plans for progressive reduction or transition of project-supported technical assistance as government capacity and readiness increase.
• Monitor whether capacity-strengthening investments translate into demonstrated ability of government structures to independently perform and sustain required functions.

 Data, Accountability, Learning, and Adaptive Management

• Work closely with MERL teams to develop and monitor indicators measuring sustainability, institutionalization, transition readiness, government ownership, and continuity of services.
• Ensure sustainability and transition monitoring uses existing government data and accountability systems wherever feasible.
• Use routine performance data, transition assessments, milestone tracking, and implementation learning to identify bottlenecks and guide adaptive management.
• Establish mechanisms to assess whether transitioned interventions and functions continue to achieve expected service quality and health-system performance.
• Document implementation experiences, adaptations, challenges, successes, and lessons related to government ownership, institutionalization, transition, and sustainability.
• Generate and disseminate evidence and practical learning on sustainable transition to inform government, DoS, Jhpiego, and broader health programming.
• Contribute to technical reports, presentations, briefs, abstracts, publications, and other knowledge products related to sustainability, transition, and the Director’s technical area.
• Government, DoS, and Partner Coordination

• Serve as a senior project resource for government and DoS engagement on sustainability, transition, institutionalization, and government readiness.
• Establish and maintain strong relationships with relevant Ministries of Health, RALG structures, NMCP, ZAMEP, regional and council authorities, and other government counterparts.
• Facilitate joint government-project planning and review of sustainability priorities, transition milestones, readiness, risks, and corrective actions.
• Coordinate with DoS implementing partners and other development partners to align transition approaches, reduce duplication, leverage complementary investments, and avoid gaps as responsibilities shift between organizations or to government.
• Strengthen use of existing government coordination and accountability mechanisms to oversee transition and sustained implementation.
• Represent the project in relevant national, subnational, donor, and technical forums on sustainability, transition, and the Director’s technical area of expertise.
• Promote clear roles, responsibilities, communication, and accountability among government, project, donor, and partner stakeholders throughout transition.

 Team Leadership and Management

• Provide leadership, supervision, mentorship, and technical guidance to staff assigned to the sustainability and transition portfolio and relevant area of technical expertise (Malaria or MNCH).
• Working across technical, MERL, finance, operations, grants, and field teams to ensure sustainability and transition are treated as shared project accountabilities.
• Establish clear responsibilities and performance expectations for sustainability and transition activities and monitor progress against agreed actions and milestones.
• Build the capacity of project teams to integrate institutionalization, sustainability, transition readiness, and government ownership into routine implementation.
• Promote a culture of accountability, collaboration, learning, government partnership, and continuous improvement.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the Senior Project Director.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in public health, medicine, nursing, health systems management, health economics, public administration, or another relevant advanced degree.
• Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in complex public health programs, including substantial experience with donor-funded health programs in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Demonstrated senior-level technical expertise and substantial programming experience in either malaria or maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) is required, with the ability to provide senior technical leadership and strategic guidance in that area.
• Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, monitoring, and improving large-scale malaria or MNCH programs and translating national and global technical guidance into effective implementation approaches.
• Demonstrated experience in health systems strengthening, sustainability, institutionalization, localization, transition management, or transfer of donor-supported functions to government leadership.
• Strong understanding of health systems, including governance, workforce, financing, service delivery, data and accountability, and community systems.
• Demonstrated experience working with government to integrate donor-supported interventions into government policies, plans, budgets, systems, and routine implementation structures.
• Experience assessing institutional capacity and transition readiness and translating identified gaps into practical capacity-strengthening and risk-mitigation actions.
• Experience with health financing, costing, government planning and budgeting, or resource sustainability is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to use programmatic, financial, and systems data to inform strategic decisions, identify implementation bottlenecks, and monitor progress.
• Experience with performance-based project management, including management and documentation of milestones and payment-linked deliverables, is strongly preferred.
• Proven experience working with Government of Tanzania institutions at national and subnational levels is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to engage effectively with senior government officials, donors, implementing partners, civil society, research institutions, and other stakeholders.
• Strong strategic thinking, change management, facilitation, negotiation, diplomacy, analytical, communication, and relationship-management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work across technical and operational teams and influence implementation without creating parallel management structures.

Preferred Qualifications

• Fluency in English required; proficiency in Kiswahili strongly preferred.
• Strong leadership, strategic thinking, negotiation, communication, relationship management, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability and willingness to travel regularly across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.

 

 

Jhpiego offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive employee benefits package.

Please apply at www.jhpiego.org/careers

Applicants must submit a single document for upload to include cover letters, resume, and references.

For further information about Jhpiego, visit our website at www.jhpiego.org

                                                                                     

Note: The successful candidate selected for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation.

Jhpiego is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins University affiliate, is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, other legally protected characteristics or any other occupationally irrelevant criteria. Jhpiego promotes Affirmative Action for minorities, women, individuals who are disabled, and veterans.

 

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