Country

Lesotho

City

Maseru

Type

Full Time

Program (Division)

Country Programs - Lesotho

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 is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion, and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.

Program to scale-up access to medical oxygen

Treatment for those experiencing acute respiratory distress requires oxygen therapy to support breathing. In Lesotho, medical oxygen comes from three main sources: bedside concentrators, PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) plants and a bulk liquid oxygen (LOX) tank. CHAI began working in Lesotho in 2004 to help the government reduce HIV by introducing better treatment for adults and children and eliminating mother-to-child transmission. CHAI-Lesotho program has grown since its inception to managing multiple projects and programs.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Lesotho, like many other countries, experienced a dramatic increase in the demand for oxygen and endured critical shortages of this commodity across health facilities. The CHAI’s program to scale-up access to medical oxygen in Lesotho aims to support the Government of Lesotho with building a resilient and sustainable national medical oxygen ecosystem. This includes interventions targeted at all levels of the national health system including policy and strategy technical assistance, strategic oxygen infrastructure investments and operations design and support and national medical oxygen market shaping.

Position Overview:

CHAI Lesotho is seeking an experienced and self-motivated Program Associate, Scaling-up Medical Oxygen Access with outstanding analytical ability, technical skills, organization, and communication to support the Ministry of Health build/strengthen the national medical oxygen ecosystem. The candidate must be self-driven, adaptable, and have a high level of comfort with ambiguity and they will be expected to function independently and flexibly with little oversight. CHAI places a high value on relevant personal qualities: resourcefulness, responsibility, tenacity, independence, energy, and work ethic.

The Program Associate will lead the program implementation and provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health to ensure a resilient and sustainable national oxygen ecosystem. The Program Associate will report directly to the Program Manager and will work with the CHAI oxygen program team. They will provide the day-to-day responsibility on program implementation, ensures timely completion and reporting of program activities. They will work closely with the Ministry of Health (MoH) Directorates for Estates Management, Clinical Services, Supply Chain, and others that have a stake in medical oxygen delivery, to provide technical assistance on oxygen supply and delivery. The candidate will be engaging with different health partners while executing this responsibility.

The candidate must be self-driven, adaptable, and have a high level of comfort with ambiguity. They must be self-assured, a fast learner, resilient, and a strong team player. The position will be based in Maseru but frequent travels to the districts will be required.

• Support Ministry of Health in scaling-up Medical Oxygen Access in the country as defined in the national medical oxygen strategy and scale-up plan
• Provide programmatic and implementation support to and ensure complementarity of CHAI’s oxygen support to the MoH to attain overall program objectives
• Ensure effective national medical oxygen stakeholders’ engagement by working with relevant MoH desks and through the National Medical Oxygen Taskforce
• Ensure successful operationalisation of the national oxygen supply chain system
• Support the Estates Management Directorate to develop the first national Reference Medical Oxygen Equipment and Accessories list and overall improvement in physical assets management
• Support establishment of a national Assets Management Strategy and plan under the Estates Management Directorate
• Exhibit and practice exceptional problem-solving skills, entrepreneurial spirit, able to operate without extensive structural or operational support
• Perform any other tasks assigned by the Program Manager

• Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering/Technology required, with a minimum of 5 years' professional work experience in a related and fast-paced work environment
• Experience of working in a multi-stakeholder space and providing technical assistance and working with governments to improve national capacity for oxygen systems strengthening and biomedical engineering/technologies, and equipment maintenance at national and sub-national level
• Excellent problem solving, analytical and quantitative skills, and a commitment to improvement and creative thinking with a capacity to critically assess and develop stronger solutions and processes
• Ability to react quickly to ad-hoc requests while managing an existing workload and meeting deadlines
• High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
• Exceptional interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills, and an ability to build professional relationships with key stakeholders, negotiate and achieve consensus
• Goal-oriented and with high attention to detail

#jobreference2  #region3