Senior Program Officer I - RCCE RMEL Technical Advisor at Breakthrough ACTION

Reports to:                 Director-Research, Monitoring, and Quality Assurance                              

Project Activity:        Risk Communication (COVID & GHSA)

Location:                    Abuja

Duration:                   1 year – extension contingent on funding.

Project Description

Breakthrough ACTION is a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to lead their social behavior change (SBC) programming around the world. Breakthrough ACTION is a partnership led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) in collaboration with Save the Children, ThinkPlace, ideas42, Camber Collective, International Center for Research on Women, and Viamo.

In Nigeria, Breakthrough ACTION (Breakthrough ACTION Nigeria) focuses its efforts on SBC for malaria; maternal, newborn, and child health, including nutrition (MNCHN); family planning/reproductive health; TB; priority zoonotic diseases; and the COVID-19 response. In addition, Breakthrough ACTION supports the capacity strengthening of key stakeholders to design, implement, and evaluate SBC activities.

With recently awarded funding from USAID, BA-Nigeria is recruiting positions to lead and implement Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE), Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), and COVID-19 activities.

Position Summary

This position will support the Director RM&QA to oversee the overall RMEL system for COVID & GHSA workstreams. He/she will be responsible for managing strong relationships with key partners and organizations and providing high-level technical assistance on collecting and using data to inform COVID programming. 

Responsibilities

• Lead all research, monitoring, and evaluation activities related to the COVID and GHSA risk communication and community engagement activities for Breakthrough ACTION Nigeria;
• Work with the Director RM&QA to integrate RCCE monitoring to the overall BA monitoring systems and work with the Risk Communication program managers to implement it;
• Lead programmatic research processes such as desk reviews, gaps assessment, mapping, situation analysis, and behavioral insights.
• Liaise with other partners and organizations involved in COVID response data collection to understand their activities and identify strategic points for collaboration to ensure existing data sources support the implementation of the BA Nigeria work plans;
• Represent Breakthrough ACTION Nigeria at relevant stakeholder meetings, including NCDC, NPHCDA, Presidential Steering Committee, and/or Infodemic Management team meetings. Establish systems to work with the teams, on activities related to RMEL.
• Provide technical assistance to the stakeholders on processes to interpret data from all sources and to transform the data into action that improves the quality of the RCCE response. In collaboration with stakeholders in RCCE and other technical areas, design, analyze and triangulate COVID-19 data.
• Support the Director RM&QA to guide reporting processes amongst technical staff and consolidate program reports, promote learning and knowledge sharing of best practices and lessons learned.
• Work with the RCCE Program Managers to complete monthly and other required donor reporting. Ensure the accurate and timely collection of program data from the field.
• Other duties as identified by supervisor and/or Abuja country office program leads.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This position has no direct supervisory responsibilities.

Minimum Qualification & Skills

• A minimum of a master’s degree in Public Health, Epidemiology, Social Work, Monitoring & Evaluation, Demography, Biostatistics, Statistics, analytics or a related field is required.
• Minimum of 8 years extensive experience with monitoring program implementation using qualitative and quantitative approaches.
• Experience of working on a USAID or US-CDC-funded health-related project is an advantage.
• Experience in developing and coordinating data collection, processing, and analysis systems from multiple sources or program areas is required.
• Proven capacity to facilitate coordination among a diverse range of stakeholders (external and internal).
• Proficiency with word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software.
• Proficient in the use of data processing computer packages (e.g. Stata preferred, EpiInfo, Epidata).
• Proficient in managing large data sets particularly in relation to relational databases
• Demonstrated written, presentation, communication, and organizational skills in English.
• Well-organized, with the ability to track multiple projects and deadlines.
• Ability and willingness to travel as required within and between project states.
• Ability to travel within Nigeria and work successfully within a cross-cultural, multi-sectoral, multi-project team-based environment.