Senior Malaria Technical Advisor at Management Sciences For Health - MSH

Job ID: 13-10105
Group/Office: HPG
Dept/Unit: GEN (General)
Project/Program: A000 - None Specified
Reports To: Chief of Party

Overview

• MSH seeks candidates for the position of Senior Malaria Technical Advisor for the USAID-funded U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative for States project.
• The goal of the project is to support the Government of Nigeria to deliver high quality malaria services in public and private health facilities and build capacity of stakeholders at the LGA, state, and national level to develop and implement effective policy that will lead to malaria control and elimination.
• The Strengthening Delivery of Malaria Case Management (SDMCM) Project will act as a resource and a catalyst to the MoH and state teams to help achieve the targets and goals agreed upon within the National Strategic Plan for Malaria 2014-2020. The project will focus at the state level primarily on improving service delivery of high quality prevention, diagnosis, and treatment commodities for malaria services.
• At state and national level the project will strengthen health systems and the governance of NMEP and SMEP members to effectively coordinate and roll out cross cutting areas of improvements to the health information system and advocacy, communication and social mobilization for malaria.

Specific Responsibilities

• The Senior Malaria Technical Advisor is a member of the senior leadership team and will support the IDIQ at the central level and liaise with state teams to ensure quality technical service is provided to task orders as needed.
• The Senior Malaria Technical Advisor will be instrumental in the design, development, and management of malaria initiatives and will provide the technical and strategic leadership to stakeholders at every level of the health system.
• The Senior Malaria Technical Advisor will supervise a team of technical advisors that will manage direct service delivery and cross cutting areas as needed in the project and will serve as the Chief of Party during the absence of the incumbent.

Project Management:

• Collaborate with SDMCM senior management team to oversee the implementation of program activities at the federal level and subnational levels.
• Participate in the development and monitoring of the annual work plan and work closely with the COP to ensure that departmental work plans are implemented and monitored on quarterly basis.
• Participate in meetings with the Ministry of Health and USAID/ PMI to share progress, accomplishments, and challenges and ensure common understanding of current as well as future strategic direction with guidance of the COP.
• Assist the COP in in overseeing the quality of reporting to USAID and MOH.
• Serve as Acting COP as appropriate and perform other duties as assigned by the COP.
• Collaborate with the Chief of Party, Director of Finance and Operations, and State Team Director and the MSH Headquarters to allocate and utilize project resources in the most efficient way and ensure effective technical, budgeting and financial management.
• Lead a team of Senior Technical Advisors in both service delivery areas (prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and pharmaceutical management) and cross cutting areas (HMIS, HSS, Private Sector, and ACSM) to deliver quality malaria control and lead to elimination targets.

Vision and Technical Strategy:

• Provide overall technical leadership and strategy for all technical areas as issued within the procurement.
• Support health policy reform initiatives and processes at the NMEP and SMEP to increase efficiencies and decrease the MoH’s reliance on externally funded consultants.
• Oversee improvements to coordination and harmonization at the national level and more effective service delivery at sub-national levels for malaria services focused on prevention and case management. Develop the scale-up of mentoring and supportive supervision programs at all levels of the health system as it relates to malaria control.
• Oversee initiatives at the MoH to evaluate, standardize, and institutionalize policy and control programs including scale up and pilot of interventions. This includes improvements to LLIN distribution (routine and campaigns), improvements to diagnosis through RDTs and microscopy, and accurate treatment of both severe and acute cases of malaria using national treatment guidelines.
• Work with other USAID and donor funded projects and relevant sections within the MoH to ensure that cross cutting areas such as improvements to the HMIS, and ACSM are integrated with other health initiatives and adequately monitored and evaluated to show best practices and value for money.
• Offer guidance for public sector institutional development practices.
• Develop strategies to increase sensitivity to gender equity and female empowerment; accountable for ensuring that gender and capacity development activities are integrated into all project activities.
• Coordinate the project’s work with the private sector.
• Coordinate all consortium partners’ Technical Advisors and their supporting staff in country and globally.

Qualifications and Experience

• Master's degree in Public Health (preferred PhD or MD equivalent), infectious diseases focused on malaria or other vector borne illnesses.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience managing and implementing complex health care service programs in developing countries in a senior management position. (Previous Deputy Chief of Party or Technical Director Experience preferred.) Understanding of US Government policies and procedures, or of other donors, is a plus.
• Experience in public or private sector for malaria prevention and/ or case management services.
• Demonstrated success achieving results in multiple malaria disciplines (e.g., LLIN distribution, malaria prevention, malaria in pregnancy, diagnosis, treatment of acute and severe malaria, academic or operational research in malaria).
• Experience in developing policy and harmonized approaches in a highly diverse population.
• Strong communication skill to fulfill the diverse technical and managerial requirements of the program and to effectively coordinate with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and communicate a common vision among diverse partners and the ability to lead multidisciplinary teams.
• Track record of strong commitment to sharing knowledge, documenting experiences, supporting creative initiatives, and sharing credit.
• Demonstrated strategic agility, diplomacy, conflict management, team building, and interpersonal skills to ensure internal coherence among diverse team members and sub-partners, as well as external relations with the Ministry of Health, civil society, private sector and other stakeholders.
• Familiarity with the structure, systems and policies of the health sector in Nigeria or in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health (preferred).
• Fluent English is required.