Associate Global Malaria Harare, Zimbabwe – Jobs Vacancy 2015

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

Advantages:

• 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

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