Escuintla Associate, Guatemala

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries, while strengthening the capabilities of governments and the private sector in those countries to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance. For more information, please visit: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org.

CHAI’s global malaria program provides direct technical and operational support to countries around the globe to strengthen their malaria programs and reduce the burden of this preventable, treatable disease. We support governments to scale up effective interventions for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance, with the goals of sustainably reducing the number of malaria-related illnesses and deaths worldwide in the short-term and accelerating progress towards malaria elimination in the long term.

Overview of role:

CHAI is seeking a highly motivated individual to work as a part of its Guatemala Malaria Team supporting the Ministry of Health’s National Malaria Program by providing technical assistance and supporting programmatic planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation of effective interventions in the department of Escuintla in southern Guatemala. Over the past five years, CHAI has engaged in the country and helped them make meaningful steps towards orienting their national strategic plans and systems towards the historical goal of malaria elimination.

This position will work as a part of CHAI’s Guatemala team in close coordination with the Ministry of Health and other international partners to design, plan, execute and evaluate the impact of the country´s elimination-focused interventions in Escuintla.

The candidate must be able to work independently to drive implementation and have deep personal commitment to producing results, as well as support the collective design of strategies with a variety of national and international stakeholders. A successful candidate will be highly motivated and hard working with exceptional organizational, problem-solving, decision-making and communication skills.

CHAI places great value on relevant personal qualities including resourcefulness, tenacity, independence, patience, humility, and strong work ethic.

Responsibilities:

Strengthen the capacity of the national and regional malaria program to select and implement interventions aimed towards achieving malaria elimination. Specific activities may include:

· Coordinate with regional and national health authorities and partner organizations to analyze available epidemiological and operational data to select the most impactful and viable strategies.

· Develop local level operational plans; support their implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

· Design training plans and support the development of associated training materials to build Ministry of Health staff and community health workers’ capacity to execute malaria interventions effectively.

· Support the implementation of vector control interventions and other high-risk areas of the country, in coordination with regional health officials.

· Support regional and national roll out of a new surveillance system ensuring rapid and accurate reporting of malaria data from health facilities and community health workers.

· Identify key impediments to the successful execution of the malaria elimination strategy and work with the regional and national health authorities and partner organizations to develop and implement solutions to address bottlenecks.

· Explore the utilization of new tools and interventions to eliminate malaria and develop operational plans and other materials to support the implementation of these tools.

· Collaborate with the Ministry of Health and partner organizations to design and implement epidemiological and entomological studies according to the research protocols.

· Support local level Ministry of Health staff with regular site visits to community health workers and health facilities in Escuintla.

· Work closely with the Program Manager, the Research Associate, the Vector Control Associate and CHAI´s regional tech leads to design and implement a workplan plan based on data.

· Identify strategic areas for expansion or redirection and guide strategic planning or proposal development as needed.

· Serve as a trusted adviser to the national and regional level Ministry of Health staff on malaria elimination.

· Represent CHAI in meetings with partner organizations and Ministry of Health officials as needed.

· Develop and maintain strong, proactive relationships with national and regional health staff involved in malaria elimination.

· Other responsibilities as needed.

Qualifications:

· Bachelor’s degree plus 3 - 5 years of work experience

· Strong problem-solving skills and analytical capabilities

· Strong decision-making skills

· Detail-oriented with strong organization skills

· Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, set priorities, and work independently

· Experience living and working in resource-limited areas

· Ability to work well both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team

· Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build relationships in a challenging environment

· Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)

· Ability to travel extensively (+75%) to Escuintla to support in-field work; comfortable traveling to remote areas

· Written and spoken fluency in Spanish and English

Advantages:

· Advanced degree in public health, public administration, or business

· Experience executing successful health projects, ideally malaria-specific projects

· Experience developing database systems and using statistical software for data analysis

· Experience living and working in Central America, including as a native of the region

· Experience working with governments and institutions from Latin America

· Experience in working with malaria and/or other infectious diseases

If you are interested in applying for this position, please click on the offer Escuintla Associate and follow the instructions indicated.