Location: Harare
Overview:
Founded in 2002 by President William J. Clinton,
the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) is a global health
organization committed to strengthening integrated health systems around
the world and expanding access to care and treatment for HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other illnesses. Based on the premise that business oriented
strategy can facilitate solutions to global health challenges, CHAI
acts as a catalyst to mobilize new resources and optimize the impact of
these resources to save lives, via improved organization of commodity
markets and more effective local management. By working in association
with governments and other NGO partners, CHAI is focused on large scale
impact and, to date, CHAI has secured lower pricing agreements for
treatment options in more than 70 countries. In addition, CHAI's teams
are working side-by-side with over 30 governments to tackle many of the
largest barriers to effective treatment and care.
Malaria
is one of the world's most important causes of illness, death and lost
economic productivity. Over the past decade, dramatic increases in
donor funding have facilitated scale-up of effective interventions to
prevent, diagnose, and treat malaria. This investment has successfully
reduced the burden of malaria in many settings, and some countries have
begun planning to eliminate it altogether. Yet these gains are fragile:
global funding for malaria remains short of what is needed, last
decade's rapid growth in malaria financing appears to have halted, and
resistance to insecticides and drugs threatens to set back efforts.
CHAI’s global malaria program provides direct management and technical
support to countries around the globe to strengthen their malaria
programs and reduce the burden of this preventable, treatable disease.
We support governments to scale up effective interventions for
prevention, diagnosis, treatment and surveillance, with the goals of
sustainably reducing the number of malaria-related illnesses and deaths
worldwide in the short-term and accelerating progress towards malaria
elimination in the long term.
Summary of Position:
CHAI
is seeking a highly motivated individual to help develop and execute
more effective anti-malaria programs in countries in the southern
African region. The region includes both low endemic (Botswana, Namibia,
South Africa, Swaziland) and higher endemic countries (Zimbabwe,
Mozambique). Some of these countries in the region are close to
eliminating malaria (Swaziland) while others have declared the intent to
eliminate malaria in coming years (South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and
Southern Zimbabwe). However, the process of actually eliminating malaria
requires extra ordinary efforts. One of CHAI’s primary areas of focus
for the region is malaria diagnosis. As countries move closer to
elimination, it becomes imperative that all cases are confirmed prior to
receiving treatment with antimalarial drugs and subsequently reported
into the national surveillance system. While most countries in the
region have made great progress on making confirmatory diagnosis
available, work remains to promote and ensure access to affordable and
quality assured malaria diagnostic tools for all. These tools include
malaria rapid diagnostic tests and microscopy in routine case management
practices, but may also include more sensitive, molecular based
diagnostic tools.
To improve diagnosis in
southern African countries, the associate is expected to support the
country teams in developing a diagnosis strategy tailored to each of the
countries and help the teams execute against these malaria diagnosis
strategies. The Associate will be part of the Global malaria team, based
in the region, and will report directly to the global malaria diagnosis
manager and the regional malaria manager.
The
position requires a highly motivated individual with outstanding
analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and communication skills.
The candidate must be able to work independently to drive implementation
and have deep personal commitment to producing results. Past experience
in public health or with malaria programs is desired, but not required.
Successful candidates should be fast learners and strategic thinkers
who are both willing to take on routine tasks such as data entry and
capable of facilitating high-level strategic discussions with a
multi-cultural, multidisciplinary set of actors. CHAI places great value
on the resourcefulness, tenacity, patience, humility, and high ethical
standards of its staff. A strong willingness to travel is a must since
the candidate is expected to support countries across the southern
African region.
Responsibilities:
- Develop and maintain a thorough understanding of the malaria (diagnosis) landscape within the southern African region and globally, including the key priorities, challenges and gaps in order to inform program development
- Develop and maintain strong relationships with CHAI country teams
- Support country teams in developing and executing programmatic goals for diagnosis (e.g. strengthening or establishing diagnosis quality assurance systems, developing materials for health care workers to improve diagnosis utilization and performance, exploring implementation of new diagnostic tools)
- Support country teams in identifying key impediments to these goals and devising targeted solutions to overcome them
- Perform forecasting/procurement and other types of qualitative and quantitative analysis to support country teams
- Draft presentations and reports for national and global teams
- Coordinate meetings and facilitate knowledge sharing between the government program and partner organizations in the region to ensure coordination
Qualifications:
- A university degree plus 2-3 years of work experience
- Exceptional problem-solving solving skills and analytical capabilities
- Excellent written and oral communication skills
- Skill in making persuasive presentations and written reports
- Strong organizational abilities and detail-oriented approach
- Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, set priorities, and work independently
- Strong interpersonal skills and proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships in a multicultural environment
- Patience and thoughtfulness even in high-pressure, stressful situations
- Strong spoken and written English
- Experience working in management consulting, investment banking, or similar fast-paced, output-oriented environments
- Advanced degree
- Knowledge of malaria/ diagnosis/surveillance systems/quality assurance systems/ supply chains
- Experience with infectious disease control programs
- Experience working in a developing country context
- Language skills in Portuguese, Kiswahili
How To Apply:
