Country

India

City

Lucknow

Type

Full Time

Program (Division)

Country Programs - India

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.

CHAI, in partnership with its India affiliate William J Clinton Foundation (WJCF), works in close partnership with and under the guidance of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) at the Central and States' levels on an array of high priority initiatives aimed at improving health outcomes. Currently, CHAI supports government partners across projects to expand access to quality care and treatment for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, tuberculosis, COVID-19, common cancers, sexual and reproductive health, immunization and essential medicines.

Talent is the fundamental driver of WJCF’s success in helping save lives and reduce the burden of disease. WJCF’s organizational values reflect its relentless endeavour of hiring, nurturing, empowering, and celebrating diverse and high calibre individuals who come together to work as cohesive teams. WJCF places a high premium on providing its staff with an enabling environment that encourages entrepreneurship, humility, respect, equal share of voice and fosters high impact innovation to address some of the most challenging healthcare issues. 

Project Background:

India’s Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) is one of the largest public immunization programmes in the world. It caters to 27 million infants and 30 million pregnant women The programme provides access to vaccines against 12 Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPDs)  at the national level and against one VPD at the sub-national level .

Under the strong leadership of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and state governments, the immunization ecosystem has demonstrated a proactive commitment to achieving universal immunization coverage in the country in recent years. This includes health system strengthening efforts towards the introduction of new vaccines , rolling out of data systems , digitization of vaccine cold chain and inventory management , and health worker capacity building . MoHFW plans to scale up a digitized beneficiary management system for Routine Immunization on the lines of the CoWIN Portal for COVID-19 Vaccination and introduce Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine (HPV) and Typhoid Conjugate Vaccines (TCV) in the UIP. 

Based on the NHFS-5 survey data, the number of Zero-Dose children (those who missed pentavalent 1 vaccine after birth) in India stands at around 1.6 million. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan contribute the largest share of zero-dose children in the country . Building atop Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), India aims to reduce the number of Zero-Dose children by 30% by 2026. GoI also intends to eliminate measles-rubella by 2023 through intense Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccine campaigns.

Program Overview:

Since 2015, WJCF has been collaborating with partner governments for achieving the national goal of 90% Full Immunization Coverage in priority states and districts to protect children against high burden and debilitating vaccine preventable diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, rubella, polio, hepatitis, TB meningitis, Hib meningitis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and Japanese Encephalitis. Under the aegis of the state governments of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, WJCF helps government stakeholders improve Routine Immunization outcomes through system strengthening initiatives. Additionally, WJCF also supports the Immunization Division, MoHFW on similar initiatives for sustainable coverage and equity improvements.

For working towards this coverage and equity vision, WJCF focuses on augmenting governance outcomes by capacitating programme managers, data handlers, and frontline workers to undertake data-driven decision making for identifying and immunizing Zero Dose children in a systematic manner on the one hand and strengthen the running programme’s effectiveness for segments whom the system already reaches on the other hand.  This approach is anchored in tools, frameworks, and operating models that are co-created and contextualised in partnership with the government actors themselves. Alongside data-based decision making for programme management, WJCF also works on strategic planning, demand generation initiatives, and supply chain optimization.

Supporting GoUP since 2013, the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP-TSU) works closely with the Department of Health & Family Welfare and the Department of Child Welfare of GoUP to improve the availability, quality, and utilization of critical reproductive, maternal, natal, child and adolescent health (RMNCH+A) interventions and services and has a deep understanding of UP’s health systems, geography and demographics and opportunities. Recognizing the vision and ambition of the GoUP on improving immunization coverage and equity outcomes in the state, WJCF and UP-TSU are undertaking a transformative project to provide support to GoUP at the state and district levels and in prioritized blocks. A purposely-formulated immunization project management unit (PMU) nestled within the UP-TSU anchors this support to GoUP. The PMU designs and deploys catalytic support based on the guiding principles of impact, integration, investment, and innovation. The PMU supports GoUP on the state’s plans for strengthening evidence-informed decision-making, enhancing state capacity to manage, and govern immunization service delivery and augmenting immunization systems in prioritized blocks of the state.

• Support the development of coverage improvement strategies in collaboration with key government stakeholders and development partners in the state
• Support the evidence-based designing and implementing of immunization systems strengthening activities to improve full immunization coverage and quality of immunization service delivery in select districts and blocks
• Closely monitor execution of the work plan, work with the team on problem solving, and pull leadership attention of issues and opportunities
• Under the aegis of the Implementation Lead, provide strategic insight at technical working groups and/or other high-level meetings/conferences as a senior level representative
• Build and maintain trust-based relationships with government stakeholders and key partners at a senior level
• Build program by continually developing capacity and skills of staff, identifying human resources needs and leading recruitment of new team members
• Undertake and guide program reporting and tracking of milestones and outcomes
• Travel extensively to various parts of the state
• Undertake any other duties as requested by the supervisor

• 8+ years of relevant national, state and field level work experience in immunization the public health including engaging with government officials on immunization challenges, conducting multi-stakeholder workshops, and undertaking capacity building for public health functionaries
• Master’s degree in public health, medicine, public administration, management, economics or allied areas
• Exceptional interpersonal skills, demonstrated ability to build strong professional relationships with a range of stakeholders in a challenging, multi-cultural environment
• Excellent analytical (qualitative and quantitative) and communication (written and verbal) skills
• Entrepreneurial mind-set, including ability to work independently, self-motivate, and propose and implement new initiatives
• Motivated to travel frequently to meet the needs of the program and deliver impact effectively
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint and Word
• Fluency in English & Hindi

Preferred:

• Strong understanding of public health/immunization context of UP
• Experience of developing and customizing multi-faceted tools and aids in a public-sector context

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