Executive Coordinator - Health Impact Coalition

Interested candidates should consult the "How to Apply" section before applying.

The Health Impact Coalition (HICO) brings together eight Belgian NGOs committed to strengthening health systems and advancing the universal right to health through collaborative action, policy influence, innovation and shared learning. From 2027, HICO will implement a joint DGD programme for 2027-2031 while deepening institutional partnerships, developing joint funding opportunities, strengthening advocacy and external positioning, and progressively building shared services and common functions where these create clear added value for members and partners.

To strengthen its coordination structure in Belgium, HICO is recruiting an Executive Coordinator.

HICO is committed to non-discriminatory recruitment and encourages applications from all persons regardless of origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion.

Position and reporting lines

The Executive Coordinator is HICO’s central executive coordination and accountability role. Reporting functionally to the rotating Chair of the HICO Board of Directors, the Executive Coordinator participates in the Board in a consultative, non-voting capacity and is a member of the weekly Coordination Cell. The role ensures that HICO’s strategy, governance decisions, institutional commitments and cross-cutting priorities are translated into coordinated action and effective follow-up.

The position combines senior-level coalition leadership, programme and operational oversight, institutional funding, advocacy and external relations with hands-on executive secretariat and operational delivery. The Executive Coordinator coordinates HICO’s main bodies and functions, including the Programme Steering Committee, Finance Cell, Operations, Quality & Learning, Communication & Advocacy Team and Shared Services teams, while working closely with the eight member organisations, donors and institutional partners.

This is a senior, hands-on coordination role within a lean coalition structure, complemented by expertise and staff contributed by member organisations. The post holder must be comfortable moving between strategic leadership and detailed execution, from representing HICO in senior institutional settings to drafting Terms of Reference, institutional funding proposals, policy papers, Board documents, agreements or amendments and ensuring their follow-up. HICO coordination works through agreed mandates and does not replace the legal, financial, employer or operational responsibilities of member organisations. The composition and resourcing of HICO’s support functions may evolve in line with future Belgian Cooperation budgetary decisions. As a result, the allocation of responsibilities and the reporting arrangements of those functions may also evolve. The Executive Coordinator will remain responsible for ensuring that HICO’s essential obligations are covered, which may require responsibilities and priorities to be reallocated as available support capacity changes.

Tasks and responsibilities

1. Programme & Operational Oversight, Quality, Learning and Accountability

• Provide overall supervision of HICO’s joint DGD programme and ensure that the governance, management and operational framework required for high-quality implementation is established and functioning effectively, with clear roles, responsibilities, decision-making, escalation, procedures, planning, monitoring and reporting arrangements.
• Functionally supervise and coordinate the Quality & Learning function and Country Leads / Focal Points, ensuring clear mandates, priorities and working arrangements and that programme-level issues are identified, followed up and resolved or escalated as required.
• Maintain an overall view of programme implementation, quality, progress, results, risks and compliance, ensuring that agreed standards, commitments, deadlines and corrective actions are consistently followed and intervening where significant gaps or concerns emerge.
• Guarantee the quality, coherence and timely delivery of programme accountability and reporting requirements, including reporting to DGD and other relevant stakeholders, coordinating contributions from members and HICO functions and contributing directly where necessary.
• Ensure effective follow-up of HICO’s shared digital monitoring platform and joint indicator framework, working with the Quality & Learning function and member organisations to support timely data collection, consolidation, quality assurance and use of results for reporting, learning and decision-making.
• Ensure that programme results, evidence and learning are translated into clear and credible external communication, in coordination with the Quality & Learning and Communication & Advocacy functions, so that HICO can demonstrate its results and contribution to partners, donors and wider audiences.
• Design and oversee HICO’s Reflective Action / Action-Research framework and process to generate evidence on the Coalition’s added value for members, partners and final right holders, and ensure that findings inform programme adaptation, organisational development, shared services, advocacy, institutional positioning and future strategy.

2. Institutional Funding & Formulation Coordination

• Proactively identify, monitor, qualify and assess institutional and private funding opportunities relevant to HICO, its members and partners, including strategic fit, potential HICO configurations, member roles and partner participation.
• Lead the formulation of joint HICO concept notes, proposals and funding applications by establishing the process, timetable, responsibilities, validation steps and final consolidation.
• Personally draft, consolidate or substantially edit proposal narratives, concept notes, partnership frameworks and other formulation documents where required.
• Coordinate donor engagement before, during and after formulation, ensuring that proposals reflect HICO’s strategy, programme evidence and the complementary expertise of its members.
• Steer the further development of HICO’s Institutional Funding shared function, ensuring that opportunity research, donor intelligence and member expertise are translated into concrete funding prospects.

3. Advocacy, Outreach & Institutional Relations

• Act as a principal institutional entry point for HICO, build trusted relationships with Belgian and European public authorities, institutional donors, international organisations, peer networks, academic institutions, strategic partners and, where relevant, media, and represent HICO in high-level institutional and strategic engagements.
• Identify and develop opportunities for policy influence, strategic partnerships, visibility and positioning of HICO as a credible Belgian global-health actor.
• Coordinate the development of common HICO positions and personally draft or coordinate policy briefs, position papers, consultation inputs, institutional notes, talking points, briefing materials and other advocacy products.
• Work closely with the Communication & Advocacy Team and member focal points to align advocacy, external communication, stakeholder engagement and evidence-based messaging.
• Safeguard the distinction between agreed coalition positions and the individual positions or commitments of member organisations, ensuring that no member is legally, financially, operationally or reputationally committed without the required approval.

4. Coalition Governance, Shared Services & Cross-Functional Coordination

• Ensure the effective functioning of the Board of Directors and weekly Coordination Cell, including sound preparation of decisions, clear governance processes, translation of decisions into mandates and responsibilities, and systematic follow-up.
• Coordinate HICO’s main operating branches and maintain an integrated overview of priorities, decisions, deadlines, dependencies and deliverables, ensuring that workstreams remain aligned and that issues are resolved or escalated appropriately.
• Coordinate annual planning and cross-functional priority-setting, consolidate the information required for Board oversight and facilitate collaboration and problem-solving across members and functions.
• Ensure that delegated bodies and functions have clear mandates, responsibilities and decision-making boundaries and that accountability for agreed deliverables remains visible.
• Enable greater operational collaboration across HICO members through shared services, pooled expertise and common approaches, identifying opportunities and supporting the development and implementation of models that improve quality, reduce duplication and achieve economies of scale.

5. Executive Secretariat & Hands-on Operational Delivery

• Prepare and coordinate the documentation required for HICO’s governance and operations, including agendas, decision papers, presentations, briefings, minutes, Terms of Reference, procedures, agreements, amendments and institutional correspondence.
• Prepare or substantially contribute to key institutional outputs, including annual reports, donor-facing documents, policy products, funding proposals and other strategic or operational deliverables.
• Coordinate consultations and validation processes across the eight member organisations, consolidate inputs, identify unresolved issues and move documents and decisions through to completion.
• Organise governance meetings, workshops, institutional events and external engagements, including practical preparation and follow-up where no dedicated support capacity exists.
• Coordinate contracting, procurement, administrative and logistical processes with the relevant host, finance, HR or technical functions, ensuring that required documentation and follow-up are completed.
• Maintain key institutional records, registers and common documentation and step into operational gaps where no other HICO function owns the task, while seeking appropriate longer-term delegation or structural solutions where recurrent needs emerge.

6. Overall Accountability, Risk, Financial Oversight & Organisational Development

• Act as HICO’s central executive point of accountability for coalition-wide delivery and follow-up, ensuring that important commitments do not fall between organisational or functional responsibilities.
• Maintain an overall view of HICO’s annual workplan, governance commitments, institutional engagements, donor deadlines and cross-cutting deliverables, and ensure that material delays, gaps or unresolved issues are brought to the appropriate governance level.
• Maintain and periodically review HICO’s risk framework and risk register, monitor mitigation actions and ensure that significant governance, financial, operational, partnership, compliance or reputational risks are brought to the appropriate governance level.
• Ensure effective planning, monitoring and reporting of the Coalition’s budget, working with the CFO and Finance Cell to maintain appropriate oversight of expenditure, forecasts, shared costs, financial risks and corrective action.
• Coordinate the development and periodic review of HICO’s organisational model, governance arrangements, mandates and resourcing, ensuring that they remain fit for purpose as the Coalition evolves.
• Promote a culture of trust, transparency, learning, collective ownership and clear accountability across HICO, while preserving subsidiarity and the respective responsibilities of member organisations.

Field missions

International travel can be expected according to institutional, and programme needs, including on short notice, for selected country missions and meetings with institutional partners. Frequency and duration will vary according to the Coalition's priorities.

This list of responsibilities may be adjusted through formal discussion and in consultation with the functional supervisor, in line with the evolving needs of HICO.

Job profile

Education and experience

• Relevant higher-education degree or equivalent professional experience in international cooperation, public health, international relations, public policy, management, development studies or a related field.
• Minimum 8 years of relevant professional experience in international cooperation, the NGO/non-profit sector, global health or a comparable international environment, including responsibilities of increasing complexity.
• Demonstrated experience in programme oversight and donor accountability, including planning, implementation follow-up, monitoring, reporting, risk management and coordination of corrective action in complex programmes.
• Demonstrated experience in institutional funding and proposal formulation, including identifying funding opportunities, coordinating multi-contributor processes and producing high-quality funding applications.
• Significant experience in advocacy, institutional relations, external representation or partnership development with public authorities, institutional donors, networks or comparable stakeholders.
• Proven ability to coordinate complex multi-stakeholder and multi-organisational processes without relying primarily on hierarchical authority, and to build effective collaboration between autonomous organisations or functions.
• Experience in the functional supervision, coordination or management of staff, experts or multidisciplinary functions, including setting priorities, clarifying responsibilities and following up on delivery.
• Strong experience preparing high-quality governance, institutional, policy and operational documents, with demonstrated ability to bring processes from initial discussion or decision through to completed and validated outputs.

Assets

• Knowledge of the Belgian international-cooperation ecosystem, DGD and/or the global-health sector.
• Experience working in or with a coalition, consortium, network or membership-based organisation.
• Experience with financial oversight, compliance, organisational development, shared services or cross-organisational change processes.
• Experience with MEAL, learning, evaluation, action research or evidence-generation processes, particularly in multi-partner programmes.
• Experience working in international or intercultural environments and with partners in countries of programme implementation.

Competencies & skills

• Ownership and accountability: Takes responsibility for outcomes, identifies gaps proactively, mobilises the right people and follows issues through to completion.
• Strategic and political judgement: Understands institutional mandates, interests, risks and sensitivities and distinguishes operational decisions from matters requiring governance or member approval.
• Coalition leadership and diplomacy: Builds trust across autonomous organisations, manages differing interests constructively and creates shared ownership while maintaining clear accountability.
• Facilitation, moderation and convening: Able to structure and lead meetings, workshops and multi-stakeholder processes, build convergence and move groups towards clear decisions and follow-up.
• Drafting and synthesis: Excellent ability to turn complex multi-actor input into clear proposals, Board papers, policy documents, reports, Terms of Reference, decisions and institutional communications.
• Organisation and prioritisation: Able to manage multiple simultaneous workstreams, stakeholders and deadlines while maintaining a reliable overview of priorities, dependencies and commitments.
• Communication and public representation: Excellent written and oral communicator, able to represent HICO credibly in high-level meetings, conferences, panels, media engagements, presentations and public-speaking settings and to adapt messages to different audiences.
• Digital fluency: Strong command of Microsoft 365 and common digital collaboration and information-management tools; able to adopt additional tools as required and make appropriate and responsible use of AI to improve quality, efficiency and delivery.
• Adaptability and hands-on mindset: Comfortable moving between strategic leadership, programme oversight, facilitation, institutional representation, drafting, administration and detailed operational problem-solving.

Languages

• Excellent written and spoken English and French are required.
• Dutch is a strong asset.

HICO offers

• A senior, meaningful and varied role at the heart of a coalition of leading Belgian global-health organisations, with significant responsibility for shaping HICO’s development, partnerships and collective impact.
• Contract: open-ended contract (CDI), full-time, based in Brussels.
• Preferred starting date: 14 December 2026.
• HICO’s coordination structure is hosted by Memisa Belgium. The successful candidate will therefore be employed by Memisa Belgium and subject to its applicable employment conditions, salary policy and HR policies.
• The employment package includes a 13th month, meal vouchers, telework/internet allowance, up to 70 days of telework per year, transport reimbursement, hospitalisation insurance and group pension insurance.

How to apply

Please send your motivation letter and CV by November 8, 2026, to [email protected] with "Executive Coordinator " in the subject line.

The motivation letter should be limited to one page and indicate your availability date. The CV should be limited to two pages and include relevant qualifications, professional experience and at least two professional references.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for the next stages of the selection process. These may include written and/or oral assessments, conducted remotely where appropriate. HICO reserves the right to close the recruitment process before the deadline if a suitable candidate is identified.

Applications will be treated confidentially and retained for a maximum of 12 months. HICO is committed to an objective, transparent, ethical, high-quality and non-discriminatory recruitment process.