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

Malaria is one of the world's most important causes of illness, death and lost economic productivity.  Over the past decade, dramatic increases in donor funding have facilitated scale-up of effective interventions to prevent, diagnosis, and treat malaria. This investment has successfully reduced the burden of malaria in many settings, and some countries have begun planning to eliminate it altogether. Yet these gains are fragile: global funding for malaria remains short of what is needed, last decade's rapid growth in malaria financing appears to have halted, and resistance to insecticides and drugs threatens to set back efforts. CHAI’s global malaria program provides direct management and technical 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.

In Laos, CHAI provides strategic, technical, and operational assistance to the Center for Malaria, Parasitology, and Entomology (CMPE) of the Ministry of Health with a long-term goal to enable Laos to achieve malaria elimination. Laos has a goal of eliminating P. falciparum by 2025 and all forms of malaria by 2030. The overall objective of CHAI’s malaria work in Laos is to ensure CMPE has evidence-based strategies, strong operational plans, and necessary financial resources to effectively implement interventions for elimination. CHAI works closely on a day-to-day basis with CMPE at central and provincial levels to strengthen case management by increasing testing and treatment and ensuring availability of case management commodities and by supporting analytics to improve prevention and response interventions.

Summary of Position

The Associate will be a key member of the CHAI team, providing technical and management support to CMPE for the effective implementation of malaria elimination, with particular focus on all aspects related to the introduction of safe radical cure for P. vivax. In addition to optimizing use of existing tools for radical cure, the Senior Technical Officer will help explore the potential introduction and scale up of new promising tools for radical cure of P. vivax that are about to enter the market. The role requires a high level of coordination within CMPE, UNOPS, WHO, PATH, MMV, UCSF, CSO implementing partners, and the CHAI team at global, central and subnational levels. The Associate will support CMPE on program design, work plans, materials development, training roll out, budget and supply chain inputs, partner coordination, monitoring & evaluation for the new P. vivax project. The Assocaite will also support the provincial team to ensure timely use and analysis of data from DHIS2 to inform response interventions.

CHAI places great value on relevant personal qualities: resourcefulness, responsibility, tenacity, independence, energy, and work ethic. We seek a highly committed and adaptable individual with a track record of delivering quality results with limited resources. They should be able to work independently and effectively in a high-pressure, unstructured environment and handle multiple tasks simultaneously whilst mentoring a team to perform consistently. The ideal candidate will also possess cultural sensitivity and  demonstrate high emotional intelligence, as they will be working closely with the government and external partners. The position reports to the Program Manager. In-country travel and occasional regional travel is expected on an as-needed basis.

• Serve as the focal point and knowledge center for CMPE and external partners on CHAI’s support to eliminate P. vivax malaria in Laos
• Build expertise on P. vivax diagnostic tools and local operational research, and contribute to the overall strategy and theory of change from planning to implementation of these new tools in Laos
• Provide technical support to CMPE to manage the planning, introduction, and phased implementation of safe radical cure of P. vivax
• Regularly monitor the status of P. vivax commodities in country such as G6PD tests and primaquine, and support the development of inputs for routine quantifications and operational budgets for these commodities
• Support CMPE with data collection from DHIS2 and mSupply, analysis, and visualization. Track progress and quality of data, and make necessary updates to the P. vivax M&E framework.
• Support CMPE in developing or revising case management training materials, job aids, and guidelines and support CMPE to conduct trainings for central and sub-national level staff 
• Support CMPE to conduct effective case management supervision visits and on-the-job trainings to poor performing health facilities as identified through data reviews
• Reinforce and expand programmatic reporting and activity tracking tools and processes at central and subnational levels; further the capacity of government staff to conduct activity tracking on a regular basis
• Support CMPE and CHAI subnational teams to ensure high testing and reporting rates by health centers and VMWs. Support subnational teams to regularly review and analyze data from DHIS2 to inform response and interventions
• Follow up on VMW program implementation to ensure alignment with CMPE recommendations
• Track CHAI grant position-relevant deliverables and support donor reporting processes
• Coordinate with CHAI subnational team to simultaneously provide targeted support and relay implementation feedback to central level
• Coordinate closely with CHAI colleagues to ensure comprehensive and seamless case management, surveillance, and program and financial management support to CMPE
• Represent CHAI in external meetings to provide project updates and technical guidance on safe radical cure activities
• Other duties as assigned

• Bachelor’s degree in public health, public policy, or similar;
• 2-3 years of work experience in the private or public sector;
• Strong analytical skills and problem-solving approach;
• Ability to build relationships; navigate complex government processes and influence decision-making in a professional and collaborative manner;
• Advanced Excel skills and exceptional communication skills, including the ability to create compelling, logical presentations, using PowerPoint and other tools, and a structured and assured oral and written communication style.

Advantages

• Candidates with experience in strategic/business process consulting, project/grant management, or operations planning are encouraged to apply;
  Medical or healthcare experience;
• Proven experience on strengthening coordination among diverse stakeholders;
• Familiarity with data collection and reporting tools (including experience using open source data collection tools like ODK, and BI tools like PowerBI and Tableau); comfort with developing complex data collection forms and dashboards preferred;
• Knowledge of malaria and/or other major global infectious disease problems.

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