Background The Eastern and Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) of World Health Organization aims to streamline, fast-track, and directly pay its frontline health workers, vaccinators and other beneficiaries in their bank accounts or mobile money accounts. The Direct Disbursement Mechanism (DDM) that has been implemented in Pakistan and Afghanistan has shown increased transparency, efficiency, and speed of payment directly to community health workers and service providers.
In the new strategy of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative – Delivering on a Promise, covering the period from 2022-2026, there is an impetus to use the collective, accumulated experience and new technologies including of campaign digitization, digital and mobile money payments to health workers and other innovations to enhance worker satisfaction. More generally, WHO in the region is seeking to reduce its reliance on cash transfers for the delivery of public health activities in favor of robust digital payments solutions.
To widen the coverage of digital payments and make it more inclusive, speedy, and transparent, EMRO is piloting a digital payments project in Sudan and Yemen that will use all players including financial institutions and mobile money providers. This will allow WHO to quickly pay all vaccinators, community health workers (CHWs) and service providers directly in their bank accounts or mobile money accounts in order to improve the effectiveness and transparency of campaigns.
- Work to be performed
- Define and articulate the EMRO digital finance vision, strategic direction and operational plans and lead its roll out across the region.
- Coordinate the Regional Digital Finance Steering Committee and provide secretariat support to facilitate critical decision making, oversight and direction.
- Organize stakeholders’ consultations for developing appropriate technologies and solutions; maintaining agile, robust, responsive, and relevant systems, policies, procedures, and tools; and promoting the digital finance ecosystem.
- Coordinate with different donors, stakeholders, and programs to ensure sustainable investment in and promotion of digital payments in the region and represent the region in different fora and partnerships.
- Coordinate with WHO Country Offices (WCOs) and Digital Finance Officers (DFOs) to ensure proper operational planning, standard deliverables, timelines, coherent and compliant actions for overall roll out of digital payments.
- Support implementing partners, country offices, regional office, and other stakeholders as and when necessary to ensure smooth, rapid and secured payment systems.
- Act as a focal point for the mobile network operators, financial institutions, and other parties (consultants, accounting firms, third parties etc.) contracted for the project. Responsible for the close monitoring of service delivery, addressing disbursement issues and ensuring smooth payment of field workers and other operational costs in accordance with agreed upon expectations and timeline.
- Provide technical expertise to identify and support innovations; and continuous improvements around digital payments through development and enhancement of policies, procedures, guidelines, tools and systems.
- Assess the feasibility of further improvements, propose innovative approaches adapted to the context of the Region to fast track digital payments while strengthening accountability and compliance with WHO financial rules and regulations and enhancing value for money for the organization.
- Support and facilitate country office capacity development activities of staff and implementing partners on digital payments processes through trainings, webinars, workshops and presentations.
- Ensure knowledge management, strategic communication and learning opportunities for promotion of digital payments in the region.
- Lead and guide special assessments, reviews and monitoring activities that will bring key insights and learnings helping in overall improvement of digital payments and health system outcomes.
Key deliverables:
- A Regional Digital Payments strategy / approach that is suitable, scalable, and sustainable is developed after wider consultation with all stakeholders in the region.
- An appropriate technological solution that is agile, robust, easily deployable and capable of supporting speedy, transparent, and effective bulk payments in countries is developed and deployed in identified countries after consulting with key stakeholders and players.
- A digital payments system in identified EMRO countries is rolled out in a timely manner and WCOs are fully supported, capacitated and empowered to institutionalize and incorporate it in their regular programs and operations.
- Policies, procedures, systems and work methods are developed and implemented to support speedy and transparent bulk payments at the country level.
- A road map for sustaining, integrating and supporting digital payments in the long run including integrating it with the institutional ERP is developed.
- Qualifications, experience, skills and languages
Educational Qualifications:
- Master’s degree in Finance, Economics, Banking, Business Administration, International Development, or other similar areas.
- A professional accreditation in banking, finance, accounting, project management or related area will be an asset.
Experience: