Associate, Maternal, Neonatal, Child Health, Harare, Zimbabwe Vacancies

Posted: Jun 22, 2016

Associate, Maternal, Neonatal, Child Health, Harare, Zimbabwe

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.

Maternal, Neonatal, Child Health (MNCH)

In 2014, 614 maternal deaths occurred for every 100,000 live births delivered in Zimbabwe. While this represents a 36% decline from the 2010 level of 960 maternal deaths for every 100 000 live births, it still remains unacceptably high. Furthermore, 75 babies per 1,000 live births die before their fifth birthday in Zimbabwe and slightly more than one third of these deaths occur during the first month of life. The majority of maternal and neonatal deaths are caused by a handful of conditions from which death is largely preventable. In response to the need to reduce poor maternal and neonatal mortality rates globally, CHAI has developed a comprehensive strategy focused on averting the preventable deaths that can occur in the 24-48 hour window around the birth process. CHAI’s strategy incorporates innovative and simple interventions that are necessary to deliver straightforward results and improve health outcomes for mothers and their infants. CHAI Zimbabwe is working on refining the global strategy, and align it to the needs of the country in order to support the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) as it strives towards reaching the sustainable development goals.

CHAI is seeking an Associate to support the inception phase of its work on MNCH. The Associate will closely support the Program Manager in fostering relationships with the MOHCC, donors and other teams at CHAI. The Associate will assist the Program Manager in identifying and defining CHAI’s overall strategy within the program area, develop clear operational plans for execution and continually identify opportunities for CHAI to add value and maximize impact. The Associate will lead work on the development of innovative solutions to the MNCH challenges facing the country. The Associate will drive rigor, quality, in the content and on time delivery for CHAI’s MNCH work and will coordinate with other teams within CHAI Zimbabwe to ensure synergies in strategy in support of the Program Manager.
The position requires a highly motivated individual with outstanding analytical grounding and strong problem solving abilities. The Associate will be a highly motivated individual with outstanding credentials, analytical ability, and strong communication skills. The Associate is required to work with government officials and partners, and must have excellent relationship building, communication and negotiation skills and a high degree of self-confidence. She/he must be able to function independently and have a strong commitment to excellence with a keen eye for detail. She/he should also exhibit a number of important personal qualities: resourcefulness, responsibility, tenacity, independence, energy, strong professional ethic and highest level of integrity.This work will necessitate a deep engagement with the government and other organizations working in this space, bringing together different actors and departments to strengthen provision of MNHC services in the country. The position will require travel to meet key stakeholders particularly the Ministry of Health and Child Care and key funding and implementing partners within the MNCH space.

Responsibilities

Support a full diagnostic of maternal neonatal and child health in Zimbabwe, including the following: mapping partner landscape, assessing adequacy of service delivery systems, training, lifesaving equipment, stock management, and emergency transport and communication services and make recommendations on how to implement new strategies for improved maternal and child survival and quality.
Identify challenges to the provision of basic emergency obstetric and newborn care services and recommend potential solutions to gaps
Evaluate key service delivery gaps for mothers and infants within 48 hours of delivery, identify potential efficiencies to be gained and recommend innovative strategies that can be employed to reduce mortality
Support identification of optimal new technologies, aimed at reducing mortality of mothers and infants
Evaluate opportunities for coordinated e-learning and scale up
Develop strong professional working relationships with key stakeholders in government, international partners, donors and NGOs, and ensure maximum coordination of resources and effort
Support preparation of donor and progress reports on the project
Provide guidance to volunteer on direction of the various work streams, strategies, key outputs and troubleshooting of challenges
Oversee day to day activities of overall program
Collaborate with various teams in CHAI (country and global) to ensure quality programming
Develop influential presentation materials that work for varying audiences
Support the development of a work proposal for the following years supported by evidence
Perform other tasks as necessary

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent plus 3 years work experience. Advanced degree is advantageous
Excellent problem solving, analytical and quantitative skills
Ability to work independently and effectively in high-pressure, fast-paced environment and handle multiple tasks simultaneously
Strong interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills, and an ability to build professional relationships with key stakeholders
Ability to learn on the job quickly and absorb and synthesize a broad range of information
Ability to react quickly to ad-hoc requests while managing an existing workload
High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint and Word
Experience working with governments and international partners in country
Experience structuring and leading evidence based decision making processes
Proven track record working in challenging multi-stakeholder environments

Associate, Maternal, Neonatal, Child Health, Harare, Zimbabwe Vacancies