Technical Officer - Community Health Systems at African Union(AU)

Purpose of Job

• The African Union (AU), established as a unique Pan African continental body, is charged with spearheading Africa’s rapid integration and sustainable development by promoting unity, solidarity, cohesion and cooperation among the peoples of Africa and African States as well as developing a new partnership worldwide. Its Headquarters is located in of Ethiopia.
• Officially launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2017 as a specialized technical institution of the African Union, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is Africa's first continent-wide public health agency. Africa CDC envisions a safer, healthier, integrated, and stronger Africa, where the Member States can effectively respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases and other public health threats. The agency's mission is to strengthen Africa's public health institutions' capabilities to detect and respond quickly and effectively to disease outbreaks and other health burdens through an integrated network of continent-wide preparedness and response, surveillance, laboratory, and research programs.
• Africa CDC has six strategic priority pillars: (1) Public health surveillance and disease intelligence; (2) Public health emergency preparedness and response; (3) Public health laboratory systems and networks; (4) Public health information systems; (5) National public health institutes and research and, (6) Disease Control and Prevention 
• In seeking to achieve these strategic objectives, a grant agreement was signed between Africa CDC and the World Bank to ensure the programme delivery capacity is adequate at Africa CDC in three main components: (1) Support to the Africa CDC’s COVID-19 response, (2) Enhancing Africa CDC’s technical and programmatic functions to support AU Member States’ preparedness capacities and, (3) Strengthening Africa CDC’s institutional capacity and operational structure.
• Hence, Africa CDC invites applicants who are citizens of Member States to apply for the position of Technical Officer – Community Health systems for the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Division of Disease Control and Prevention.

Main Functions

• Under the supervision of the Head of Division Disease Control and Prevention, the Technical Officer – community Health Systems will provide technical support for conceptualization and implementation of the continental coordination mechanism for community Health on the continent towards institutionalized, integrated and sustainable community health programs in Africa.

Specific Responsibilities
The Technical Officer will be responsible for the following: 

• Support the development process, validation and implementation of the Africa CDC Community Health systems strategy and ensure linkages to existing cross cutting programs and units at Africa CDC as well as in Member States;
• Support the design and implementation of advocacy activities within Member States for community health systems strengthening across the continent.
• Support Members states to develop community health policy and guidance documents for Community Health Workers advocacy activities.
• Support the conceptualization and implementation of the continental coordination mechanism for community Health on the continent towards institutionalized, integrated and sustainable community health programs in Africa.
• Conduct Member States Capacity building on cross cutting community health workers programs challenges;
• Support the implementation of Africa CDC initiatives/partnership to scale up community health workers programs on the continent. 
• Conduct regional workshops & Webinars for cross country learning, experience and best practices sharing on the role of CHWs in Pandemic Preparedness and Response/ CHWs sustainability.  
• Lead and or support country engagement processes for community health Workers deployment for pandemic response
• Support community health Workers deployment processes, define and assess the deployment impact.  
• Support and organize regional Community Health Worker advocacy workshops for political prioritization and sustainability
• Support Member states to harmonize Community training curriculum towards integrated community health service delivery at the community.
• Work with Member States to support the process of improving Africa CDC access to health-related data through coordination, collaboration and technical assistance; 
• Support the Community Health workforce development including developing specific training curriculum and manuals for various audiences, partner engagement and management, and ensure delivery of various workforce development activities, 
• Develop, review, and disseminate guidelines, standards of practice, protocols and other tools to improve quality delivery in Member States; 

Academic Requirements and Relevant Experience

• University Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health, Medicine, Epidemiology, Health Science, Health-Services Research or related Health discipline with at least 5 years of experience, OR
• An Advanced Degree in, public health, epidemiology, medicine, health science, health services research or related health discipline is an asset with a minimum of 2 years of experience.
• Knowledge of public health programs, health sciences research and health systems strengthening, and experience in supporting projects and programs under government ministries and external donors.
• Familiarity with administrative and management practice and processes typically employed by public health and other public sector programs, particularly in the context of emergency response.
• Knowledge of public health issues in Africa and previous experience working in Africa;
• Knowledge of oral communication techniques and skill in presentation delivery, program consultation and credible verbal response to inquiries.
• Skills in translating technical information into presentations, briefings and reports and funding proposals for both technical and lay audiences.
• Demonstrable experience and in-depth knowledge of operations of the Africa CDC, Regional Coordinating Centers, National Public Health Institutes will be an added advantage.
• Understanding of the African Union way of working and managing associated relationships with Member State entities and partners.

Required Skills:

• Knowledge of public health principals and practice as they relate to the implementation of public health programs and service delivery. 
• Diplomatic, representational, interpersonal and communication skills, including experience successfully interacting with stakeholders and decision-makers in technical and other professional settings. 
• Collect, analyze, and use data to recommend, make and communicate decisions of a technical nature to both scientific and lay audiences. 
• Technical and scientific writing skills, in addition to narrative and financial reporting skills. 
• Translate technical information into presentations, briefings and report and funding proposals for both technical and lay audiences. 
• Project planning and management skills for organizing, planning and executing public health projects from conception through implementation. 
• Demonstrated ability with regard to computer skills, particularly with statistical and other analytic tools, e.g., R and State, and with office software applications such as MS Excel, Power Point and Word.

Leadership Competencies:

• Strategic Insight
• Developing Others
• Change Management
• Managing Risk.

Core Competencies:

• Teamwork and Collaboration
• Accountability awareness and Compliance
• Learning Orientation
• Communicating with Influence.

Functional Competencies:

• Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Job Knowledge and information sharing:
• Continuous Improvement Focus
• Drive for result.

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Tenure of Appointment:

• The Appointment will be made on a fixed term contract for a period of one (1) year, of which the first three (3) months will be considered as a probationary period. Thereafter, the contract may be renewed for a similar period subject to funding availability, satisfactory performance and agreed deliverables.

Gender Mainstreaming:

• The AU Commission is an equal opportunity employer and qualified women are strongly encouraged to apply.

Languages:

• Proficiency in one of the AU working languages (Arabic, English, French, Kiswahili, Portuguese, and Spanish) is mandatory and fluency in another AU language is an added advantage.

Remuneration
The salary attached to the position is an annual lump-sum of US$ 85,212.07 (P2 Step 5) inclusive of all allowances for internationally recruited staff, and US$  66,751.81  inclusive of all allowances for locally recruited staff of the African Union Commission.