Senior Health Public Financial Management Advisor

Senior Health PFM Advisor*

Deadline: 1pm (GMT) on 22 October 2026.

*IBP is recruiting for this position in anticipation of funding. Any offer of employment will be conditional upon the required funding being confirmed

Contract length: Full-Time (Initial 1-year fixed-term contract, with view to renew).

Location: IBP's team currently works across a range of time zones, with many colleagues based between UTC-5 and UTC+3. We encourage applications from anywhere, though we take into account time zone compatibility and proximity to our country offices.

Annual salary: IBP Salaries are set with consideration of current market conditions and in comparison with similar not-for-profit organizations. Based on current rates, we would anticipate a gross salary to be offered as per the below locations. *Please note these locations are given to illustrate specific country salary ranges. The salary offered will be payable in local currency, based on local markets and commensurate with experience.

1. • USD41,475 - 43,430 per annum in Nigeria
   • CFA 26,156,180 - 29,214,581 per annum in Senegal
   • ZAR 789,698 - 826,908 per annum in South Africa
   • KES 4,348,190 - 4,553,080 per annum in Kenya
   • EUR 65,000 - 80,000 per annum in Europe
     

Preferred start date: January 2027

Physical demands: Regional and in-country travel will be required. This is a remote role, with prolonged working on a laptop and other display screen equipment around 8 hours each day.

Reports to: Global Lead, Policy and Research

Background

Around the world, public resources are being raised and spent unfairly and ineffectively, leaving millions of people without access to quality public goods and services they need to thrive. Governments often make public resource decisions without much consultation or information from the public. Meanwhile, those with power and privilege very effectively influence government decisions in their favors.

Our goal is to make governments raise and spend public money more fairly, so that everyone has the resources and opportunities they need to thrive and get ahead. To achieve this, The International Budget Partnership (IBP) partners with budget analysts, community organizers, and advocates in more than 100 countries to advance public budget systems that work for people.

Together, we generate evidence, advocate for reform, and build the skills and knowledge of people so that everyone can have a voice in budget decisions that impact their lives. For more information, please visit our website and review our strategy.  

Today, IBP is a globally dispersed organization with staff based in multiple countries with in-depth country work in Nigeria, South Africa, Indonesia, and Francophone Africa. IBP is a US registered 501 c3 with branch offices in Senegal and affiliates in the Netherlands, in South Africa and in Nigeria and a total budget of about USD 14 million a year.

In addition to our in-depth country work, IBP works with partners in more than 30 countries to strengthen budget transparency, participation, and accountability. Although IBP is not a sector-focused organization, in recent years we have focused on specific sectors, such as health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), in selected countries.

Health public financial management (health PFM) concerns how public resources are planned, budgeted, released, spent, reported, and overseen within the health sector. IBP is building a portfolio of technical assistance, capacity strengthening, research, and country-level programming focused on improving the credibility, execution, transparency, and accountability of health spending.

IBP combines a problem-driven approach to PFM reform with an accountability ecosystem approach. Rather than beginning with generic assessments of compliance with good practice, we work with country teams, civil society, government, and other stakeholders to identify concrete problems affecting health spending and service delivery; diagnose their fiscal, institutional, operational, and political causes; and identify feasible ways to address the most important bottlenecks. At the same time, we examine the wider accountability ecosystem around these problems, including the roles, relationships, incentives, and influence of finance and health institutions, oversight bodies, civil society, communities, and development partners. This can include problems with budget releases and execution, resource flows to frontline facilities, procurement and cash management, or coordination and accountability across institutions. Our multi-country work also allows us to identify common problems, share lessons across countries, and engage with regional and global institutions to inform health financing policy and practice beyond individual countries.

About this role

IBP is seeking a senior technical professional to provide technical expertise for its growing health PFM portfolio. The Advisor will provide direct technical assistance and capacity strengthening to country teams and civil society partners; help teams diagnose and address problems in how health resources are planned, budgeted, released, spent, and accounted for; and develop the research methods and diagnostic tools that ground this work in evidence.

The role requires a strong PFM practitioner who can work across health and finance systems and move between hands-on technical support, applied research and diagnosis, and facilitation of problem-solving among diverse actors. The Advisor will help teams understand why specific PFM problems occur and how the institutions, incentives, relationships, and accountability mechanisms surrounding them can enable or constrain reform.

The successful candidate will be able to translate this analysis into feasible strategies for reform and stronger accountability.

Role responsibilities

Essential duties of the job include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Technical Assistance and Capacity Strengthening (50%)

• Provide direct technical assistance to regional and country teams and partners, with a focus on Africa but also covering IBP’s broader partner engagements on health budgets, to diagnose and address health PFM problems, including budget credibility and execution, resource flows, procurement, expenditure controls, reporting, and other constraints affecting the translation of budgets into services.
• Help teams identify the technical, institutional, and political causes of identified problems; map the actors, relationships, incentives, and accountability mechanisms that shape them; and develop feasible strategies for addressing them.
• Facilitate technical dialogue and joint problem-solving among finance/budget and health institutions, subnational governments, civil society, oversight institutions, communities, development partners, and other relevant actors, helping identify where collaboration, oversight, or citizen engagement can contribute to reform.
• Design and deliver capacity strengthening and training for IBP teams, civil society partners, government counterparts, and other accountability actors.
• Facilitate technical dialogue and joint problem-solving among finance/budget and health institutions, subnational governments, civil society, oversight institutions, development partners, and other relevant actors.
• Provide ongoing technical advice and facilitation to IBP teams and partners in English, and in French where possible.

2. Research and Methodology Development (30%)

• Develop and refine practical research methods and diagnostic approaches that combine analysis of specific health PFM problems with analysis of the accountability ecosystems surrounding them, drawing where appropriate on IBP's Open Budget Survey and complementary PFM and health-sector data and tools.
• Conduct or oversee country-level analysis that combines quantitative budget and expenditure data with institutional and political economy analysis to explain why implementation problems occur, which actors and incentives shape them, and where opportunities for reform and stronger accountability exist.
• Conduct or oversee country-level analysis of health budget credibility, execution, resource flows, reporting, and oversight, combining quantitative analysis with institutional and political economy analysis to explain why implementation problems occur.
• Translate findings into actionable recommendations, technical briefs, diagnostic reports, and other products that support country-level problem-solving, reform, and advocacy.
• Identify recurring problems and evidence gaps across countries and use lessons from implementation to strengthen IBP's health PFM methodologies and technical assistance.

3. Coordination and Strategic Alignment (20%)

• Work with IBP's Global Policy and Partnerships team, country Policy Leads, and Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning colleagues to integrate health PFM expertise into country programming, connect learning across countries, and align the work with IBP's broader strategy.
• Coordinate work planning, budgets, and reporting for assigned health PFM projects and activities.
• Represent IBP's health PFM work with donors, government counterparts, technical partners, and relevant policy and technical forums.
• Contribute technical content to concept notes, funding proposals, and donor reports.
• Actively engage and contribute to team meetings, staff meetings, other coordination meetings, and other assigned tasks as required.

Core Competencies/experience

• Minimum 7 years of professional experience providing technical assistance, advisory support, or applied analysis on public financial management, including experience in the health sector.
• Strong technical understanding of PFM systems, particularly budget formulation, program budgeting, budget credibility and execution, resource tracking and financing systems, expenditure controls, and financial reporting, and demonstrated ability to apply this knowledge to practical implementation problems.
• Understanding of health systems and health financing and how they interact with government PFM systems. Direct health PFM or health financing experience is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to diagnose complex PFM problems using quantitative, institutional, and political economy analysis, including analysis of the actors, incentives, relationships, and accountability mechanisms that shape implementation, and translate findings into feasible strategies for action.
• Experience providing hands-on technical assistance for government, civil society, and/or other country-level actors, with experience designing and delivering capacity strengthening also preferred.
• Experience developing or adapting research methods, diagnostic tools, or analytical frameworks for country-level PFM or sectoral analysis.
• Strong facilitation and communication skills, including the ability to convene actors with different institutional perspectives and communicate complex PFM issues clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Extensive experience working across countries and cultures, including engagement with governments, civil society organizations, development partners, and other stakeholders in low- and middle-income countries.
• Commitment to equity and social justice and to strengthening citizen and civil society participation in public resource decision-making and accountability.
• Fluency in English required. Working knowledge of French and familiarity with francophone PFM systems, such as the WAEMU (UEMOA) harmonized public finance framework, are an advantage.

How to apply and key dates

Please complete the online application form, including the short screening questions, submit your CV and provide a cover letter that provides tangible examples of how your skills, knowledge and experience will support your ability to perform the key priorities outlined in the above job description (using no more than 750 words).

Please include as website links in your cover letter, or as attachments to your application, at least two examples of technical assistance, training materials, or written work that relate to health, PFM, or budget accountability.

The recruitment process will involve a technical panel interview and a final panel interview.

Deadline: 1pm (GMT) on 22 October 2026.

First round interviews are planned for the weeks of 2 and 9 November 2026, with final interviews planned for the week of 16 November 2026.