Position available: Haiti, Director of Health Services
Ave Christophe, #119 * Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Tel: (509) 221-7641, 513-9082
E-mail: director@fonkoze.org
Director of Health Services
Reporting to: Executive Director, Fonkoze
Location: Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Fonkoze -Haiti's Alternative Bank for the Organized Poor -is Haiti's largest micro-finance institution offering a full range of financial and educational services to the rural-based poor.
Fonkoze is a Haitian Creole acronym for Fondasyon Kole Zepòl, which means, "The Shoulder-to- Shoulder Foundation".
Fonkoze's mission is:
* To demonstrate, on a community by community basis, that extreme poverty can be eliminated in Haiti
* To provide the poor with the tools they need to work their way out of poverty
* To build the economic foundations for democracy in Haiti.
Established in 1994, Fonkoze currently has over 120,000 depositors, over 50,000 active borrowers (99% of whom are women), and 34 branch offices spread throughout every department of Haiti. The services offered by Fonkoze include:
* Solidarity group and individual loans that are used to start or expand a small business;
* Savings products geared towards meeting the needs of the poor;
* Currency exchange services that allow Haitians to change US dollars into Haitian money at a preferential rate;
* Money transfer services that allow Haitians living overseas the opportunity to transfer funds to Haiti at a very low cost;
* Credit/life insurance; and
* Literacy and educational programs including business skills, women's health, children's rights and environmental protection.
Fonkoze's financial and training programs are geared to the needs of poor, undereducated women who operate a small business. People living in poverty do not have access to credit services because they cannot provide formal guarantees required by banks. Women face even greater challenges because they are often excluded from educational and economic opportunities that men traditionally enjoy and cannot find employment in the formal business sector. However, with a small loan and business skills training, women can succeed as entrepreneurs and repay their loans on time.
Because good health and self-esteem directly contribute to a woman's ability to earn income and care for her family, Fonkoze also offers health and human development programs to raise the women's awareness about good health practices.
OUR CHALLENGE:
Fonkoze's goal is to grow to serve over 200,000 clients by 2010. In order to achieve this goal, Fonkoze must be prepared to find a way to increase its clients' access to and utilization of health care services if it is to achieve its mission of eliminating extreme poverty in Haiti and providing
all women with the tools they need to lead their families out of poverty. Financial services are not enough. Financial and educational services are not enough. We now understand that our clients must have access to a full range of financial, educational and health care services, as well as the capacity to use those services, if they are to be successful in improving their families' well-being and defeating poverty.
SCOPE AND RESPONSIBILTY:
Broadly, the Director of Health Services will
* Analyze Fonkoze members' healthcare needs, resources and opportunities on a region-by-region basis,
* Develop a strategic plan to improve the health status of Fonkoze's clients, including evaluating and identifying health indicators and adopting evaluation tools that measure client impact,
* Manage Fonkoze's existing partnerships with healthcare providers, which include Partners in
Health, World Vision, Plan Haiti, and Medishare, and
* Build new partnerships with healthcare providers that will maximize members' access to services, In addition, the Director of Health Services will focus on the following two programs:
* Chemen Lavi Miyò (CLM), which means 'the Pathway to a Better Life'. CLM serves the poorest of Haiti's poor, families with no income-generating assets of any kind. CLM members, who are selected through an exhaustive process, receive intense accompaniment over 18 months, including extensive training, assistance with home repair and access to health care, and the transfer of income generating assets (such as goats, merchandise to sell, seed) to start two mini- enterprises. CLM is a replication of a successful program developed in Bangladesh by BRAC. Fonkoze is piloting it with 150 families in three regions of Haiti. A scale-up to at least 1,000 families is planned for January 2009.
* The Director of Health Services will support CLM in two ways.
* S/he will manage the partnerships that are providing health services to these clients. Currently, the partners are World Vision, Plan Haiti, and Partners in Health.
* Ensure that CLM Case Managers are trained to provide some basic health services to their clients. The exact nature of the services to be provided will be determined in consultation with Fonkoze's partners.
* Microinsurance. Fonkoze's groundbreaking partnership with Alternative Insurance Company (AIC) is already making credit/life insurance available to all Fonkoze borrowers free of any new charge. Thanks to this insurance, families of deceased borrowers no longer are burdened with problems of loan repayment in the midst of their grief. In addition, they receive a small
death benefit that helps with the family's expenses.
* The Director of Health Services will work with AIC to develop a health-insurance product to serve all of Fonkoze's members.
EXPERIENCE / SKILLS REQUIRED:
The ideal candidate will have the following skill sets:
* Experience in health care in resource-poor countries,
* Knowledge of the health care terrain in Haiti,
* Ability to collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative information,
* Knowledge and understanding of social indicators and health, and
* An entrepreneurial attitude.
EDUCATION:
The ideal candidate should have an advanced degree in a health-related field, such as a Masters in Public Health, an RN or Nurse practitioner degree, or an MD. In addition, s/he should also have an MBA or experience in a leadership position in business.
LANGUAGES:
The ideal candidate should have strong communication skills in English, French and Creole and an indepth understanding of Haiti. Knowledge of Spanish would be useful.
TRAVEL:
The position requires travel within Haiti as well as some international travel.
COMPENSATION:
This position offers a competitive salary and benefits package.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Candidates should email resume, cover letter, and salary requirements to:
director@fonkoze.org
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