Senior Program Officer – NTDs – Francophone Africa
Overview
The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to our mission of saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work at the invitation of governments to support them and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems.
CHAI was founded in 2002 in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with the goal of dramatically reducing the price of life-saving drugs and increasing access to these medicines in the countries with the highest burden of the disease. Over the following two decades, CHAI has expanded its focus. Today, along with HIV, we work in conjunction with our partners to prevent and treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Our work has also expanded into cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases, and we work to accelerate the rollout of lifesaving vaccines, reduce maternal and child mortality, combat chronic malnutrition, and increase access to assistive technology. We are investing in horizontal approaches to strengthen health systems through programs in human resources for health, digital health, and health financing. With each new and innovative program, our strategy is grounded in maximizing sustainable impact at scale, ensuring that governments lead the solutions, that programs are designed to scale nationally, and learnings are shared globally.
At CHAI, our people are our greatest asset, and none of this work would be possible without their talent, time, dedication and passion for our mission and values. We are a highly diverse team of enthusiastic individuals across 40 countries with a broad range of skillsets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with majority of our staff based in program countries. Learn more about our exciting work: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org
CHAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.
CHAI’s global malaria and neglected tropical disease (NTD) program provides direct technical and operational support to countries around the globe to strengthen their programs and reduce the burden of preventable, treatable diseases. We support governments to scale up effective interventions for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance, with the goals of sustainably reducing the number of illnesses and deaths worldwide in the short-term and accelerating progress towards elimination of malaria and NTDs in the long term.
Overview of Role:
NTDs affect more than one billion people worldwide, disproportionately impacting children and the world’s poorest populations. Preventative Chemotherapy (PC) NTDs, which include schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, soil-transmitted helminths, lymphatic filariasis and trachoma, can be prevented and treated with existing medicines and tools, and countries are aiming to eliminate these diseases by 2030. To achieve this goal while operating under significant resource constraints, national NTD programs need to make data-informed decisions to improve strategic planning, mobilize and make efficient use of increasingly limited resources, and inform the targeting and implementation of prevention and treatment campaigns for NTDs. CHAI will work directly with government NTD programs and local partners in focus countries to build sustainable access to and local ownership of high-quality information across the health system and help NTD programs routinely use data and analytics to control and eliminate targeted NTDs.
CHAI is seeking a highly motivated and mission-driven Senior Program Officer to drive the success of this initiative across three francophone focus countries (Benin, Burkina Faso and Senegal), communicating and executing against a coherent vision across countries. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to be part of an exciting initiative that leverages both cutting-edge analytics and routine health systems data to eliminate PC-NTDs.
The Senior Program Officer will have a deep personal commitment to producing results and be able to work independently to drive implementation. They must be a highly motivated, entrepreneurial individual with excellent project management, problem-solving, organizational, relationship management and communication skills. They must exhibit the capacity to facilitate operational and strategic discussions with a multi-cultural, multidisciplinary set of actors, and a willingness to provide support for different tasks. The Senior Program Officer will join an entrepreneurial and close-knit team committed to combatting the global burden of NTDs.
CHAI places great value on the following qualities in its staff: resourcefulness, responsibility, patience, tenacity, humility, independence, energy, and work ethic.
The position will report to the Senior Program Manager, Neglected Tropical Diseases within CHAI’s global malaria and NTD team.
Responsibilities
- Contribute to the strategic vision and thought leadership for how improved NTD analytics and surveillance can accelerate elimination of NTDs in Francophone Africa
- Proactively monitor and manage project execution (planning, implementation, and dissemination) to ensure that expected deliverables and targets are achieved on time and within budget in collaboration with CHAI’s global and country teams
- Serve as a focal point person and mentor to CHAI’s regional and country teams working with national NTD programs
- Drive the implementation of NTD technical strategy and shape a sound technical approach in collaboration with CHAI regional and country teams across countries in francophone Africa
- Review and provide feedback on internal products and documents including strategic plans, budgets, guidelines and standard operating procedures, analysis and implementation updates
- Manage internal and external communication including between CHAI teams, and relevant partners
- Contribute to development of project donor reports, including supporting coordination of regular donor updates, soliciting inputs from relevant teams and ensuring adherence to reporting timelines
- Lead knowledge management for team documents including workplans, scoping materials and internal and external reports
- Ensure project compliance with all administrative, financial, and contractual requirements
- Review and provide input to the budgeting process, including review of expenditures and decisions on reallocating funds
- Represent CHAI at external technical meetings with international and local academic and technical partners
- Other responsibilities as needed
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in public health, or related field
- Minimum of 3 years of professional work experience
- Proven experience in planning and project implementation across multiple countries and working with multiple teams
- Ability to work independently without extensive structural or operational support
- Demonstrated ability to learn quickly
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, with strong spoken and written English
- Exceptional attention to detail
- Excellent organizational skills
- High levels of proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint
- Ability to be effective, calm, and flexible in high-pressure situations
- Ability to adapt to new environments and challenges
- Ability to travel up to 40% - 60% of the year
Advantages
- Master’s degree in public health or related field
- Fluency in both English and French at professional levels
- Knowledge of neglected tropical diseases, or infectious diseases
- Understanding of disease surveillance with knowledge of global health issues
- Experience working in management consulting, investment banking, or similar fast-paced, output-oriented environments
- Experience managing a team of diverse and multicultural staff
- Experience living or working in Africa
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