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 the Role

Namibia has targeted malaria elimination by 2022. The government has dramatically increased testing and case classification rates, built a comprehensive entomological surveillance system, and enhanced the processes for data reviews and planning, monitoring and evaluation of Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) deployment. These successes are currently allowing the National Vector-borne Disease Control Programme (NVDCP) to better identify malaria cases, quantify importation, understand key drivers of transmission, and select and target interventions more appropriately.

CHAI seeks an Epidemiologist to provide technical support to monitor progress towards malaria elimination and assess the potential impact of interventions in Namibia. The successful candidate will work directly with CHAI staff and government programs to analyze and monitor disease-related data to inform optimal approaches to best target interventions; assess, design, and scale-up disease surveillance systems; monitor and evaluate the success of ongoing efforts to reduce malaria morbidity and mortality; translate results for decision-makers; and develop and manage strong relationships with the NMCP, region teams, and relevant country partners. The candidate must be able to work independently to design, implement and monitor elimination strategies with emphasis on malaria surveillance, control and prevention. The candidate is also expected to provide technical and programmatic support (~25%) to country teams in Angola and Zimbabwe.

The position requires a highly motivated individual with outstanding analytical, problem-solving, organization, leadership and communication skills. The candidate is expected to possess strong communication and organizational skills; work as part of a team to drive implementation; and have deep personal commitment to producing results. This position will be based in Windhoek with travel within the country, and the southern Africa region. He/she will work directly with the CHAI Malaria Manager and regional teams, and execute activities prioritized by the NMCP and CHAI.

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

Surveillance support (30%)

• Supporting integration of data use and analysis in routine programmatic activities at all levels of the health system;
• Supporting development, integration, and institutionalization of malaria information systems, including data collection tools and dashboards;
• Assisting to monitor and evaluate the performance of existing and new surveillance platforms, in collaboration with the health informatics malaria team at CHAI;
• Developing guidelines, SOPs, and training materials for malaria surveillance activities;
• Working with the malaria programme staff to review and identify approaches to achieve interruption of transmission that could be adopted and scaled up within district localities.

Analytical support (30%)

• Organizing and merging available data and assessing its quality and suitability for analysis;
• Conduct relevant statistical, epidemiological and entomological analysis using surveillance and intervention data gathered across multiple sources (e.g. health facilities) to understand key factors for improving and informing decision making on prioritization of interventions;
• Managing and coordinating analytical projects related to malaria epidemiology, intervention targeting (e.g. Indoor Residual Spraying, LLIN distribution, health worker allocations) and surveillance;
• Synthesizing results and communicating them through high-quality presentations, posters, reports, and publications;
• Performing scientific literature review as needed.

Programmatic/operational support (40%)

• Supporting capacity-building at central and peripheral levels through training and systems support in surveillance, epidemiology, and monitoring and evaluation;
• Formulating national and sub-national level training materials with a focus on analytical content (e.g. data management best practices, data quality processes, online data collection tools), and surveillance strengthening
• Assisting with the development of operational plans and accompanying manuals and guidelines to support malaria case detection, case management and vector control activities;
• Developing and implementing M&E plans for CHAI and government program activities;
• Working with region CHAI country associates to translate results to national and sub-national government partners to support evidence-based decision making;
• Developing and maintaining strong working relationships with key stakeholders across government and non-governmental organizations, with support from CHAI program manager and region country associates;
• Any other tasks identified.

• Master’s degree in epidemiology, public health, or other related fields;
• Experience in disease surveillance and strengthening information systems;
• 1+ years of proven working experience in the field of public health, specifically in surveillance, monitoring and evaluation of infectious diseases and disease outbreak response, with an emphasis on malaria;
• Familiarity with monitoring and evaluation of surveillance systems and/or public health programs;
• Proven experience in the epidemiological and spatial analysis of disease data;
• Statistical and/or geospatial analysis programming experience (R, SAS, STATA, ArcGIS, QGIS and/or other relevant software);
• Ability to work independently in remote and unstructured settings and to adapt to new environments and challenges;
• Practical experience in the provision of technical or project management experience on infectious diseases (e.g. malaria, HIV, TB) to government programs in developing countries;
• Excellent planning and coordination skills with proven ability to work within a team setting, and build and maintain strong relationships in a multicultural environment;
• High levels of proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint;
• Excellent written and oral communication (English) skills, problem-solving and strong organizational abilities and detail-oriented approach;
• Enthusiasm for applying research methods to solve global health problems;
• Willingness to travel (30-50% of time).

Advantages:

• Experience living or working in resource-limited settings;
• Experience working with surveillance platforms (e.g. DHIS2), data collection tools (e.g. ODK) and/or data visualization applications (e.g. Tableau);
• Experience conducting and managing epidemiological surveys;
• Fluency in Portuguese.

#jobreference2