About the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance

The Asia Pacific Leaders’ Malaria Alliance (APLMA) is the coalition of the Asia Pacific heads of government who have committed to eliminate malaria in the region by 2030. It is a regional initiative established under the East Asia Summit now with the support of 23 heads of Government throughout the Asia Pacific.  It provides the leadership to accelerate malaria control and elimination and address the risks of inadequate financing and the challenge of drug-resistant malaria. 

APLMA incorporates the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN), the inter-disciplinary platform of national malaria platforms, malaria research institutes, and partner organisations. The APMEN Secretariat is the technical implementation arm that leads in-country needs assessments, program capacity building, cross-regional knowledge exchange, and builds the evidence base for action. 

There is a compelling case for investing in malaria elimination. For areas with high malaria burden, malaria control benefits child survival and economic productivity. For areas with a lower malaria burden, elimination enhances health security. Approaches to tracking, treating and preventing the disease are well established; what remains is maintaining regional political commitment, improving access to commodities and services, sharing technical knowledge and ensuring ongoing financial support to achieve elimination.

The APLMA secretariat is a Singapore-registered non-profit organisation that supports APLMA. It supports regional leadership with resource mobilisation, access to quality malaria commodities and financing, and information and knowledge sharing. 

APLMA is governed by a Board of Directors (BoD) and is currently jointly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security within the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

APLMA is guided by the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Elimination Roadmap developed in 2016. The Roadmap is a framework for shared action towards the goal of an Asia Pacific free of malaria by 2030. The APLMA secretariat supports the implementation of the Roadmap through its rolling 3-year strategic plan and measures progress towards elimination through a “Leaders Dashboard” which tracks progress on a country by country basis.

APLMA’s programs currently run under four workstreams: Leadership, Country Support, Financing and Access. The Leadership workstream addresses the challenge of building commitment for a malaria-free Asia Pacific at the highest levels. The Country Support workstream covers the technical and coordination work of APMEN. The Financing workstream ensures that political commitment can be turned into action by mobilising resources and expanding fiscal space for malaria elimination. The Access workstream addresses the structural requirements of delivering quality malaria services and commodities to those who need them.

Chief Executive Officer Role Profile

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of APLMA is an inspirational, focused, and results-oriented leader who, with strategic guidance from the Board, will lead the delivery of the organization’s mission and vision as articulated in its Strategic Plan, striving to achieve malaria elimination in the region by 2030.

The CEO is responsible for senior-level policy engagement and leadership at the national and regional levels, and accountable for the day-to-day operations of APLMA’s secretariat including support for the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN). S/he ensures APLMA remains relevant, accountable, and transparent in delivering results to Alliance members and its donors.  The CEO thinks and works politically and strategically while addressing bottlenecks and barriers to implementation.

The post holder will also be guiding the creation of a constructive and creative work culture within the secretariat, encouraging innovation, while observing principles of efficiency and integrity. The CEO is in charge of fostering good internal and external relationships and communicates professionally at all levels, for ensuring a positive, accurate, and appropriate public representation of the work of APLMA and APMEN, and working effectively and constructively with the Board of Directors to identify and manage strategic risks and opportunities.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Chief Executive Officer will have the following key responsibilities:

Leadership, Country Support and Stakeholder Relations

• Lead the successful implementation of APLMA’s Strategic Plan, clearly demonstrating results and moving the organization forward in line with the strategy. Engage with the Board on issues that might require adjustments in the strategic priorities of APLMA and APMEN.
• Engage fully with Alliance member governments at senior levels in support of their national malaria control and elimination policies and programs, seeking out opportunities to accelerate elimination where champions or positive policy environments exist and identifying and addressing unmet external assistance needs.
• Work creatively and flexibly to address bottlenecks and barriers to implementation and identify and embrace new developments and opportunities to achieve malaria elimination in the region.
• Ensure the efficient and effective running of the APLMA secretariat to enable delivery of the strategic objectives of APLMA and APMEN. Ensure the APLMA secretariat can demonstrate value for money to its stakeholders. Ensure staff are inspired and motivated to deliver results.
• Maintain good relationships and communication channels with APLMA’s donors to ensure continuity of financing and identify and address potential concerns. Build the case for additional support from other potential donors to increase impact and diversify funding sources.
• Cultivate and maintain positive partnerships with country leaders, civil society organizations, private sector, country level officials, local governments, academia, research, regional and global players in the field of malaria elimination, attention being given to both funders and implementers at all levels.

Maintaining accountability to the Board of Directors

• Ensure relevant and accurate information, as well as logistical and administrative support, is provided to the Board of Directors as needed to carry out their duties including APLMA representation, high level advocacy and fiduciary responsibilities.
• Ensure the Board is fully informed of the strategic activities of APLMA and APMEN, and are aware of progress, emerging risks and opportunities.
• Prepare a report to the Board every six months on APLMA and APMEN’s achievements, progress towards strategic priorities and intended outcomes, including financial summaries.
• Provide specific advice and support to the Board of Directors as requested in relation to regional and global efforts to eliminate malaria.
• Oversee the development of policies and guidelines relating to APMLA’s operational planning and management for approval by the Board of Directors.
• Assist the Board in its regular performance evaluation.
• Serves as ex-officio (non-voting) member of the Board.

Financial Planning and Management

• Work with Board members as appropriate to ensure APLMA can secure ongoing financing to meet the needs of its strategic plan as it works towards malaria elimination in the region.
• Ensure an annual consolidated APLMA budget and financial report is prepared, accompanied by relevant operational plans, targets, and milestones, for Board consideration and approval.
• Ensure that financial guidelines, policies, and practices (including expenditures and accounting) are being implemented according to donor requirements and meet the legal accounting, taxation and reporting requirements of a charity organization within Singapore.
• Ensure timely and complete reporting to donors in line with grant agreements.
• Notify the Board promptly of any major changes in financial obligations and or capacity and seek guidance on appropriate action.

Human Resource Management

• Recruit, lead and maintain a motivated, inspired and innovative team to deliver APLMA’s strategic priorities.
• Cultivate a culture of high performance, collegiality, mutual respect, professionalism and team work amongst all staff and consultants working for APLMA. Enforce equal employment opportunity principles, gender balance and encourage diversity and social inclusion in the workplace.
• Maintain high ethical standards through a clear code of conduct and ensure staff work in a safe and accessible environment according to Singapore’s workplace standards.

Risk Management

• Ensure fraud protection policies, child protection policies, counter-terrorism financing policies, cyber security measures, anti-corruption measures and safeguards are enforced within the workplace, when staff travel as representatives of APLMA and APMEN and when entering into sub-grant arrangements.
• Ensure all staff and consultants conform to APLMA’s code of conduct and ethical behaviors.
• Monitor risks to APLMA and APMEN’s reputation and strategic priorities and notifies the Board of Directors promptly of emerging issues.
• Maintain a risk management plan updated regularly in consultation with all relevant staff.
• Maintain a monitoring and evaluation framework and system to track overall performance of APLMA, mitigate risks and ensure accountability for resources.

Required Competencies

1. Ability to work and think politically and strategically across the region with well-developed political and cultural sensitivity while maintaining a high level of personal and professional integrity.
2. Demonstrated leadership skills working in multi-cultural settings with a focus on achieving results and being innovative.
3. Ability to influence and work collaboratively within and outside of the organization to achieve results.
4. Skills in building and maintaining professional partnerships to achieve common goals and an ability to build bridges between stakeholders who have different agendas.
5. Skills in strategic planning, governance and performance evaluation.
6. Excellent communication and inter-personal skills. Ability to relate to people at many levels.
7. Excellent skills in public speaking. Ability to write clearly and concisely in English.
8. Ability to build regional and global professional networks and partnerships to support malaria elimination.
9. Excellent people management skills, with the ability to build team skills and competencies, and inspire and motivate people from different cultures and backgrounds. The individual must be comfortable with diversity and be respectful of a wide range of faiths, beliefs and experiences.
10. Ability and confidence to delegate duties and responsibilities whenever the need to do so arises and providing full and unconditional support to the delegated individual.
11. Good knowledge and understanding of malaria and malaria elimination strategies in the regional and global contexts is preferred.

Qualifications and Experience

• Post graduate degree (or equivalent experience) in international public health, business management, political science, international development or related fields
• Experience working across Asia and the Pacific, particularly Southeast Asia and Melanesia, and dealing with governments at the highest levels, preferably in the health sector, health security or international development.
• Experience working with or as senior officials in one or more of APLMA’s priority countries in the region.
• Extensive experience in a senior leadership role with experience leading professional and technical teams, and preferably experience working with a Board of Directors or Government Minister.
• Experience leading an organization through change.
• Experience leading and managing an organization’s finances, staff, administration and operations.
• Experience in philanthropy, the not-for-profit sector, and fund development is preferred.

How to Apply

If you wish to be considered for this position, please forward a copy of your CV and a supporting letter in Microsoft Word format, along with any relevant documentation to aplmaceo@sri-executive.comon or before September 15, 2019 at 1700 GMT +8.  All information will be in the strictest confidence as we pride ourselves on our professional service.  We will revert to you as soon as feasible when we have reviewed your application.