Malaria Technical Advisor at Jhpiego - John Hopkins University

 Overview:
Malaria Technical Advisor needed to provide technical oversight in the design and day-to-day management of implementation for an upcoming UNITAID project to expand access to preventive chemotherapy for pregnant women in Nigeria. This project aims to scale up an innovative, community-based approach to expand coverage of intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp), with quality assured sulfadoxine-pyrimithimine (SP), for pregnant women. The project will operate over a five-year period.
The Malaria Technical Advisor will promote the uptake of IPTp-SP as part of a comprehensive package of support for pregnant women to control malaria in pregnancy, participate in district MIP technical advisory groups, and improving databases that monitor MIP achievements. This position will ensure the technical and methodological soundness of activities and, in collaboration with the project team and partners, support the design of service delivery strategies, based on sound and current scientific evidence. S/he will provide technical support to ensure that activities are designed and implemented with high quality and meet project targets. Mentor and build capacity of health workers, in particular CHWs. Address any technical issues at national, TWG and local levels, including advocacy for continued prioritizatin of MiP and increased uptake of IPTp-SP. Responsible for ensuring the technical integrity of project interventions. Develop low-cost job aids and tools that reflect practical solutions to enable District Health Management Team scale-up. Provide technical leadership to support expanded coverage and scale-up of MiP interventions as a core component of focused ANC. Emphasize intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy while reinforcing the multiple interventions associated with ANC (HIV counseling and testing, ITN use, effective case management of pregnant women with signs and symptoms of malaria, and administration of low-dose folic acid). S/he will ensure timely and cost-effective project implementation, reporting of activities.

This position is contingent upon award from UNITAID. Nigerian nationals are strongly encouraged to apply.
Responsibilities:

• Provide technical oversight and ensure appropriate support for the implementation of program activities in IPTp at community and district level
• Coordinate and collaborate closely with other implementing partners in DRC supporting ANC and/or MiP activities to ensure the project is effectively leveraging opportunities to support project goal, outcomes and outputs
• Work with national Ministry counterparts and Supply Chain Manager to support the effective delivery of quality assured SP to community level in project sites.
• Promote WHO’s new recommendations on ANC, IPTp uptake and guidelines
• Work closely with Project Manager to ensure project focus includes implementation driven towards sustainability, replication and scale up.
• Support District Health Management Teams to include community IPTp-SP into annual work plans and prioritize male involvement and reaching adolescents in MIP to improve IPTp uptake.
• Assist in sustaining and improving existing databases that monitor achievements in MIP at district and contribute to provincial and national level achievements
• Provide leadership in creating demand for antenatal care services and MIP services through community approaches and working with civil society organizations targeting pregnant women
• Guide the integration of MIP services with maternal, newborn and child health
• Ensure use of reviewed evidence-based clinical training materials, job aids, and curricula, supervisory systems and other training materials for implementation of IPTp in line with the needs of UNITAID and the Government of Democratic Republic of Congo
• Provide mentoring and capacity building at the individual and organizational level in MIP prevention and treatment
• Lead in-service mentoring sessions, site strengthening, follow-up and supportive supervision to project-supported health facilities, as required by program activities
• Work with colleagues to develop a cadre of IPTp champions who will facilitate links to other community-level health programs/services
• Coordinate site strengthening, follow-up and supervision, advocacy, demand creation, policy support and capacity-building across program sites as required by program activities
• Lead the formulation of approaches for successful delivery of community IPTp in districts, including accessing hard-to-reach populations and integration of services
• Support MIP technical working groups at national and district levels. Actively participate in MIP technical advisory group meetings, and represent Jhpiego in professional forums by participating and presenting in pertinent meetings and conferences
• Analyze potential MIP strategies within the context of the program and explain these, as necessary, to project leadership policymakers, funding agencies, and/or program staff
• Work with health care providers, local authorities, community members and program team members to identify clinical, community-based service delivery issues that impede access to care
• Identify appropriate facility- and community-based strategies to address MIP service delivery gaps
• Identify clinical training needs and assist in the design and implementation of measures to address those needs
• Formulate and test sustainable solutions to service delivery gaps, utilizing cross-cutting approaches such as performance and quality improvement and in-service training/pre-service education
• Advocate with national, provincial, district and community-level health institutions to raise awareness about their role in improving health outcomes in MIP
• Guide DHMTs, professional associations, other district stakeholders in the use of evidenced-based standards for competency in MIP
• Mobilize national level clinical/technical expertise to resolve clinical issues that affect local public policy or program design
• Collaborate with all local stakeholders and implementing partners, especially the Ministry of Health, and other implementing partners, in order to ensure that all activities conform to the national requirements and regulations
• Conduct regular reporting to program and technical staff, of successes, challenges and lessons learned in implementation related to areas of technical expertise
• Document and maintain an inventory of successful tools and approaches for community IPTp
• Lead in development and submission of abstracts, papers and presentations to journals and conferences
• Contribute to annual work planning and preparation of donor reports
• Work collaboratively with finance staff to prepare activity budgets and track expenditures
• Contribute to maintaining excellent relationships with the Ministry of Health and in-country stakeholders and develop rapid responses to UNITAID requests
• Work closely with the Technical Team on setting program priorities and directions, and responding to requests for support from local counterparts.
• Work with M&E staff to design, implement a plan to track data/results related to maternal, newborn and child health
• Contribute to development of the project strategic plan, work plan, and program monitoring, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health, UNITAID and other stakeholders
• Coordinate and monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of the work of short-term consultants as required

Required Qualifications:

• A medical degree (doctor or nursing) or Master’s in Public Health
• At least 8 years’ experience applying malaria in pregnancy programs and or community malaria programs.
• At least 5 years’ experience in managing $10M per year in donor-funded projects and in the design and implementation of overseas health projects; preferably in the East and Southern Africa
• Qualification as a “master trainer”; experience training health workers on clinical aspects related to malaria case management
• Experience building capacity at individual and organizational levels
• Skill in at least two or more of the following technical areas: strengthening service delivery programs, training, performance and quality improvement, monitoring and evaluation
• Experience with a mix of practical technical skills in malaria necessary for strengthening malaria service delivery at the provincial, clinical and community-level
• The ability to liaise with senior MOH officials and dignitaries, executives of NGOs, FBOs, CBOs, the for-profit business community, and senior members of the donor community;
• Demonstrated in-depth understanding of Nigeria healthcare system, particularly the public health system, experience living and working in Nigeria preferred
• Demonstrable analytical skills and experiences to identify and evaluate best practices and state-of-the-art approaches to be utilized by the project
• Strong oral and written communication and presentations skills in French and English
• Familiarity with UNITAID, management and reporting procedures and systems
• Ability to work in a complex environment with multiple projects/tasks, short deadlines, competing deadlines and intense pressure to perform
• Ability to interact with established networks of senior level international health professionals, donors, universities and other partners
• Appreciation for socio-cultural differences in countries, preferably having lived and worked in one or more low resource settings
• Awareness of, sensitivity to, and experience in working in multiple socio-economic settings and with multi-cultural staff and groups
• Ability to develop productive working relationships with counterparts in other agencies and organizations nationally
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office
• Fluent in written and spoken English
• Ability to travel nationally

Jhpiego offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive employee benefits package including: medical and dental plans; paid vacation, holidays and sick leave; personal accident insurance; 403(b) retirement plan; life and disability insurance; travel insurance; education assistance plan and more.

Note: The successful candidate selected for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation.