Epidemiologist (Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention) at Malaria Consortium

Location: TBD (London, Abuja or Ouagadougou) Alternative home-based options in highly accessible hub location in West Africa or Europe may be considered
Grade: 10
Role type: Global
Department: Technical
Length of contract: 2 years
Travel involved:  35% (Extensive travel within West Africa to regional and HQ offices)
Reporting to: Line manager: Head of Monitoring & Evaluation
Dotted line manager: Project Director – SMC Indirect reports: N/a

Project Background

• Malaria Consortium led the scale up of seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) in the Sahel through its signature project ACCESS-SMC. The ACCESS-SMC Project was a UNITAID-funded project, led by Malaria Consortium in partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Management Sciences for Health (MSH), and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), which supported National Malaria Control Programs to scale up access to SMC across the Sahel.
• The project delivered 45 million SMC treatments annually to seven target countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and The Gambia), averting an estimated 8 million malaria cases and over 50,000 deaths. By demonstrating the feasibility and impact of SMC at scale, ACCESS-SMC promoted the intervention’s wider adoption. The project will end on February 2018.
• As a result of the success with ACCESS-SMC, Malaria Consortium was named as a Top Charity by GiveWell, and was granted new funds to continue its work on SMC for the next three years, until December 2020. As all Malaria Consortium’s programmes, our SMC work is underpinned by rigorous and high quality research, monitoring and evaluation, and donor’s requirements include advanced analysis of project epidemiological data and routine malaria trends, as well as operational research work related to coverage, drug efficacy and impact analysis.

Job Purpose

• The Epidemiologist will support the epidemiological interpretation of the SMC Programme results, and contribute to Malaria Consortium’s research, especially on study design and data analysis, modelling, and interpretation of findings.
• The postholder will also further develop and support Malaria Consortium’s M&E Community of Practice by exploring research questions that can be addressed through conducting secondary analyses on available data sets, reports and publications writing and coordinating new field research where applicable.
• The postholder will provide technical support and capacity building to country offices and regional technical team as required. 

Scope of Work:

• The Epidemiologist will report in to the Head of Monitoring and Evaluation overall and will be responsible for providing technical guidance to SMC projects, actively contribute to M&E CoP Leaders team and support secondary analyses and reports/publication writing from existing data in line with agreed Terms of Reference.

Key Working Relationships 
Internal:

• SMC Project Director
• Head of Monitoring and Evaluation
• Head of Technical for West Africa and Global Technical Team members
• Regional Programme Manager, West and Central Africa
• Country Technical Coordinators and country level project staff

External:

• Members of global and regional technical working groups such as the SMC Task Force from the WHO Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group
• Academic institutions
• Ministries of Health and National Malaria Control Programmes staff

Key Accountabilities
Technical contributions (60%):

• Lead statistical analysis of research and M&E  data, and contribute to reports and publications to disseminate among partners
• Lead the exploration of research questions of interest for Malaria Consortium using available data through conducting secondary and meta-analyses and/or by applying modelling techniques
• Work with Head office M & E in the planning, design, and implementation of health-related surveillance systems or epidemiologic studies with a focus on malaria and SMC, and participate in the development of field testing of innovative tools and approaches in surveys, rapid assessments, routine data collection and surveillance 
• Prepare detailed statistical reports and analyses of data that include, but are not limited to, specific geographic areas, populations groups, gender, race, age, and socioeconomic status
• Analyse malaria trends and patterns from sentinel sites data and assist in the development of a malaria profile with policy recommendations linked to SMC impact
• Actively contribute in building capacity through the M&E CoP in data management, statistics and data analysis for Malaria Consortium staff and Ministry of Health staff, both internally and externally 
• Lead the other members of the Monitoring and Evaluation team in design and implementation of SMC surveys as well as supporting other M&E initiatives
• Provide technical support to country teams in communicating the results to MoH and partners 

Strategic contributions (20%):

• Contribute to Malaria Consortium’s strategies on knowledge management and data use
• Represent the SMC Project team on global and regional technical working groups and conferences, as required
• Prepares summaries of epidemiologic studies for presentations in community settings or at professional meetings
• Support the organisation’s business development efforts by providing technical inputs to proposal writing and programme design, particularly on epidemiology, general M&E and data analysis
• Support engagement and collaborations with local research institutions and international academia for future partnerships on SMC and malaria research in target countries

Programme management (15%):

• Work as part of the SMC Project team and with the Head of Monitoring and Evaluation and regional technical heads to provide technical assistance to country technical assistant requests as part of the Global M&E Leaders team
• Manage projects and the SMC repository platform as requested
• Participate in the review of programme narrative reports

Communication and advocacy (5%):

• Write peer-reviewed publications on key projects and data analysis exercises
• Contribute to documentation of lessons learnt from the organization’s work including production of learning briefs, learning papers, general documentation and contribution to publications
• Provide technical inputs as required to Malaria Consortium’s advocacy work
• Adaptation of Programming
• Sharing information with team and writing to beneficiaries

Person Specification

Qualifications and Experience
Essential:

• Postgraduate degree in Public Health with focus on epidemiology/bio-statistics or demography
• Extensive experience working in data management and epidemiology in developing countries within government, an international organization or research institution, preferably in Africa
• Significant knowledge in communicable disease control and child health
• Extensive experience in research design and implementation
• Significant experience in the development of  data bases, digital data entry systems (PDA or phone-based, such as iFormBuilder, Magpi, etc.) and statistical analysis software (EpiData, Access, Stata) 
• Excellent writing and presentation skills
• Management and mentoring skills with respect to junior staff
• Ability to work a part of  a multicultural team
• Flexibility and ability to work independently with limited support
• Full professional proficiency in English and French (written and spoken) required (native / bilingual proficiency preferred)

Desirable:

• Previous experience in West Africa, preferably supporting operational research programmes, MoH staff and local research institutions
• PhD qualification

Core Competencies
Delivering quality results:
LEVEL C - Supports others to achieve results:

• Displays a positive and enthusiastic approach and is not deterred by setbacks, finding alternative ways to reach goals or targets
• Supports others to plan and deliver results
• Supports others to manage and cope with setbacks

Analysis and use of information:
LEVEL C - Works confidently with complex data to support work:

• Interprets complex written information
• Works confidently with data before making decisions, for example; interpreting trends, issues and risks
• Acquainted with the validity, relevance and limitations of different sources of evidence

Interpersonal and communications:
LEVEL D - Communicates complex technical and/or sensitive/high risk information effectively:

• Communicates complex operational, technical and strategic issues clearly and credibly with widely varied audiences
• Uses varied communication to promote dialogue and shared understanding and consensus across a variety of audiences
• Influences internal and external audiences on specific issues
• Scans the internal and external environment for key information and messages to support communications

Collaboration and partnering:
LEVEL C - Builds strong networks internally and participates actively in external networks and think tanks:

• Builds strong networks internally
• Participates actively in external networks and/or think tanks
• Engages with relevant experts to gather and evaluate evidence
• Shares and implements good practice with internal and external peers

Leading and motivating:
LEVEL C - Effectively leads and motivates others or direct reports:

• Gives regular, timely and appropriate feedback
• Acknowledges good performance and deals with issues concerning poor performance
• Carries out staff assessment and development activities conscientiously and effectively
• Develop the skills and competence of others through the development and application of skills
• Coaches and supports team members when they have difficulties

Flexibility / adaptability:
LEVEL C - Supports others to cope with pressure:

• Responds positively to change, embracing and using new practices or values to accomplish goals and solve problems and supports others to do the same
• Adapts team approach, goals, and methods to achieve solutions and results in dynamic situations
• Sets realistic deadlines and goals for self or team

Living the values:
LEVEL C - Supports others to live Malaria Consortium’s values:

• Demonstrates personal integrity by using role position responsibly and fairly
• Cultivates an open culture within the wider team, promoting accountability, responsibility and respect for individual differences

Strategic planning, thinking and sector awareness:
LEVEL C - Keeps up to date with the internal and external environment:

• Takes into account economic, political and other business factors when drawing up medium and long-term plans, covering both public and private sectors
• Looks beyond the immediate operations to prospects for new business
• Engages with appropriate internal and external sources to establish major influences on future plans

Salary
$62,305 USD per annum.