Senior Program Officer – Malaria at Breakthrough ACTION

Summary

The Senior Program Officer – Malaria will work with the Deputy Project Director-Malaria and TB and serve as one of the technical leads for Malaria SBC with focus on health care provider behavior change, community SBC, system strengthening and media strategies. He/She will work to support the unit in articulating strategies and planning activities including capacity building of relevant stakeholders.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities 

In addition to the overall technical inputs to the project as described above, specific duties and responsibilities include the following:

• The SPO – Malaria and TB will provide technical assistance to the project in the areas of malaria social and behavior change (SBC) capacity strengthening, planning, monitoring and evaluating health providers behavior change, community mobilization, and mass media strategies and advocacy.
• The SPO – Malaria and TB will also assist in developing annual malaria SBCC work plan for the project and assist in its implementation including report writing.
• Provide technical support in planning, implementing, and coordinating capacity building activities for Malaria SBC among health care providers including the Behavior Economics approach to fever case management.
• Support the Deputy Project Director -Malaria & TB and Provider Behavior Change Advisor in developing strategies for provider behavior change, provide support to PBC Officers in the states as it relates to malaria and take the lead on documenting implementation successes and challenges in this regard.
• Assist the National Malaria Elimination Program (NMEP) and State Malaria Elimination Programs (SMEPs) to develop; implement and monitor malaria SBC activities based on the 2021 National Advocacy Communication and Social Mobilization Guidelines.
• Represent the Project in malaria technical meetings at national level.
• Develop specific messages that will target malaria behaviors among health care providers, like the compliance with national guideline on IPTp, proper diagnosis before treatment and compliance with treatment of malaria with ACT and work with the digital team to send same to health providers.
• Monitor SBC activities at the health facility to promote providers' positive behaviors to malaria diagnosis and treatment and articulate success stories and lessons learned for documentation purposes including as abstract or scientific articles.
• Work with the project's media team to strategize and review all malaria-related mass media materials including periodic review of media activities to align with donor priorities.

• Design, pre-test and finalize drafts of malaria SBC materials in collaboration with NMEP and other relevant partners
• Provide general oversight for demand creation component of LLIN mass distribution campaigns including capacity building for consultants.
• Review malaria SBC technical resource materials (e.g., training materials, plans, strategy documents, job aids)
• Work with representatives of NMEP, SMEPs, partners, and other stakeholders to share best practices in malaria SBC.
• Work with Project staff both at National and State level to ensure that malaria SBC efforts are evidence-based, community-driven and contribute to the overall goal of the project.

Education and Experience Requirements

• MBBS, MD or related medical discipline
• Master’s Degree in Communications, Social Sciences, Health Education, Public Health or other related field.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in SBC, and at least 5 years’ experience in malaria program management.
• Experience in developing SBC tools and materials.
• Other specific knowledge requirements
•  General knowledge of SBC and its practical application to programs.
• Familiarity with the Nigeria National Malaria Strategic Plan (NMSP 2021-2025) and National Malaria Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilization Guidelines 2021.

Skills

• Proven teamwork and facilitation skills.
• Excellent program management skills.
• Excellent writing and oral communication skills.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to initiate and implement activities with minimal oversight and supervision.
• Proficiency in MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.).