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

Program Overview

CHAI has partnered with the Government in Lao PDR since 2014, supporting the MOH across several health programs: Supply Chain Strengthening, Malaria Elimination, and HIV and TB Access.  In 2017, CHAI established a new partnership with Gavi, The Vaccines Alliance (Gavi) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Lao PDR to support the National Immunization Program (NIP) and Maternal and Child Health Center (MCHC) to smoothly transition from Gavi funding by 2022. To ensure immunization coverage and equity can be increased and sustained during and post-transition, CHAI is supporting the NIP to: 

• Build sustainable systems at the national and sub-national level for immunization and MCH service delivery in the context of government reforms including towards more integrated care; and
• Build capacity of NIP and MCHC staff to plan, manage and deliver immunization and MCH services

We are seeking a motivated and mission-driven individual with strong analytic, problem-solving, and communication skills to join our in-country Vaccines team as a Senior Associate to support our work in financing sustainability and systems, as well as strengthening leadership, management and coordination of the NIP in the context of Gavi transition. The candidate should be experienced at presenting data and messages powerfully through written documents and presentations; working collaboratively with Government and other development partners; and functioning independently with minimal guidance.

The Senior Associate will report to the Program Manager and will be based in Vientiane, Lao PDR, but may be required to travel within the country up to 25% of the time.

Key responsibilities for this role include, but are not limited to:

Strategic and Programmatic Support

• Support the development and refinement of the vaccines program’s strategic initiatives, ensuring ongoing alignment with the MOH strategic goals and priorities
• Support strengthening of leadership, management and coordination of MCHC by analyzing and identifying locally relevant mechanisms, improving program planning, management and execution as well as building capacity of key personnel of the MOH
• Provide analytical support particularly in areas of immunization financing, costing, budgeting, scenario modeling and any other quantification support as needed
• Support the development of clear operational plans for execution, and continually identify opportunities for CHAI to add value and maximize impact
• Contribute to proposal development needed for future program development
• Develop influential presentation materials that work for varying audiences
• Support the Program Manager to develop and manage work plans, budgets, schedules and logistics plans for key activities

Stakeholder Coordination

• Collaborate with government to ensure skills transfer and government ownership, identify the most critical hurdles to scale-up, and develop innovative strategies to address them.
• Develop strong working relationships with key stakeholders in government, international partners, donors and NGOs and within CHAI, and ensure maximum coordination and best use of resources and effort for successful implementation and scale-up
• Collaborate with internal CHAI global and country teams to facilitate access to key information and stakeholders, provide updates, and leverage core competencies of the various CHAI teams

Donor Relationship Management

• Support coordination with donor organizations to provide progress updates, performance metrics, and other reporting requirements
• Support program and grant management, in collaboration with program and country leadership
• Perform other duties that may be assigned by country leadership

• Bachelor's degree in a related field (Masters-level preferred) with a minimum of 4 years of work experience in a demanding and fast-paced environment
• Exposure to health care and/or health systems strengthening and/or experience working with Government bodies
• Excellent analytical (qualitative and quantitative) skills and communication (written and verbal) skills, including the ability to prepare and present compelling presentations and program planning and memo documents
• Excellent interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills, with proven track record of building strong & effective working relationships remotely
• Proficiency at Microsoft Excel or other data-analysis tools (specialized modeling or programing experience is NOT required)
• Excellent communication skills in English (including synthesis & presentation) with diverse audience
• Excellent ability to work independently, set and achieve ambitious targets with limited guidance, and manage competing and sometimes shifting priorities, often under tight deadlines  

Advantages

• Experience in vaccines and/or health financing
• Experience working in resource-limited settings
• Experience working in pharmaceuticals, management consulting, investment banking, or a similar fast-paced, results-oriented environment
• Fluency in Lao or Thai language

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