Country

Rwanda

City

Kigali

Type

Volunteer, International | <6 months

Program (Division)

Universal Healthcare Coverage - Global Health Workforce

Additional Location Description

There is flexibility in the base location for this role, pending leadership approval, with preference for a CHAI program country in East Africa.

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 Health Workforce Background:

The WHO estimates a projected shortage of 10 million health workers by 2030, with the majority of that shortage (7.5 million) falling in low- and middle-income countries. Many of the governments with which CHAI works face significant challenges producing the workforce at the quantity and quality needed to meet the demands of their health systems. In addition, in many of the countries where CHAI works, there is not only a gross shortage of health workers, but the existing workforce is characterized by suboptimal skill mix, distribution and performance—which means that governments are facing significant inefficiencies and unable to get the most out of their existing resources.

The aim of CHAI’s Health Workforce Program is to ensure that our partner governments are able to optimize the number, skill mix, performance and distribution of their health workforces within available resources. When this is the case, governments will be able to make progress toward UHC and PHC by maximizing the extent to which available, high performing, and motivated health workers can provide quality services when and where needed.

Governments are increasingly prioritizing PHC as a step toward UHC. With that in mind and given our strategic focus on resource optimization, CHAI is increasingly working with governments on workforce development for PHC—including community health workers (CHWs). Though CHWs are a cornerstone of PHC, community health systems in LMICs have been particularly plagued by fragmentation, verticalization, and inadequate resources in many of the contexts where CHAI’s work.

CHAI’s Health Workforce Strategy outlines five overarching objectives:

• Objective 1: Align supply and demand - Define health workforce requirements and implement systems to realize targets, including aligning pre-service training supply and strengthening systems for evidence-based deployment
• Objective 2: Improve competency and performance – Strengthen continuous learning and performance management systems and address gaps in pre-service training in order to improve health worker performance
• Objective 3: Reduce inefficiencies – Identify and address sources of inefficiency in workforce financing and programming in order to maximize the impact of available resources, including through advancing government-owned systems for health workforce planning, management, and resource coordination
• Objective 4: Build institutional capacity - Institutionalize government-led systems and structures for health workforce planning, management, and training
• Objective 5: Support governments to define, operationalize and scale national integrated community health systems

Currently, CHAI partners with the governments of Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Laos, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Zambia to strengthen health workforce and community health.

Position Overview:

This role will focus primarily on project management and coordination of CHAI’s support to governments in developing applications for The Global Fund for AIDS, TB, and Malaria (TGF) round four application cycle (2023-2025). Additional support on discrete technical tasks, such as development of activity budgets or drafting of application narrative may be required

Governments are now in the process of preparing assessments and updating disease health system gaps in preparation for the Global Fund application process. This work will move very quickly between now and May 2023 when most countries receiving TGF funding will submit their applications. CHAI has provided technical assistance to governments for over a decade to prepare their TGF applications, working closely with MOH departments to convene stakeholders, compile evidence, and draft application materials. CHAI country teams will interface directly with government and civil society stakeholders. Working in support of CHAI country teams, CHAI program teams across various programs, including vertical programs (HIV, Malaria, TB) and cross-cutting (health workforce, oxygen, diagnostics, etc.) are providing technical inputs and guidance to support CHAI country teams and governments to develop the application. This role will support the behind-the-scenes coordination of these internal efforts to ensure efficient working in a fast-moving multi-team, multi-stakeholder environment. The role will ensure efficient and timely sharing of the latest guidance and ensuring streamlined communication between teams and technical focal points. A large component of this involves knowledge management and ensuring information is effectively documented and accessible to teams when they need it. The role will work closely with a small team of CHAI staff who are managing the support to country teams.

If time allows, this role may also support the efforts of the CHAI Rwanda Health Workforce team to raise funds for the Government of Rwanda to implement its National Strategy for Health Professions Development. This role may also assist with the development of health workforce proposals and investment/business cases in support of government health workforce plans and strategies. This will include researching and identifying funding opportunities; proposal development; building out and managing funding opportunity pipelines and tracking systems; and developing and implementing internal team knowledge management and organization practices.

This role requires a combination of strong written communication capabilities (high proficiency in written English is necessary for editing and review of funding proposals and other technical documents), fundamental analytical skills (proficiency in Microsoft Excel for discrete technical tasks such as developing activity budgets and organizing project management documentation), and high degrees of organization and overall project management.

This role will report to the CHAI Health Workforce Global Team Senior Associate for Strategy and Investment. We are seeking a Volunteer to begin immediately and the project is expected to end May 2023. Depending on the timeline of the engagement, area of interest, and skill set, the role may support other initiatives of CHAI’s Health Workforce Program. Although this is a volunteer position, CHAI strives to make these opportunities cost-neutral for the candidate by covering flights, housing, and a living stipend.

TGF 2023-2025 proposal development support (>80%)

• Provide coordination support within CHAI health workforce team and across other CHAI teams, including:
  • Develop and manage coordination and communication platforms (including via MS Teams, Outlook, and Asana)
  • Track requests for information/support from country teams and flag to relevant CHAI program teams and TGF contacts for response
  • Follow up on requests for information and track frequently asked questions to share in coordination platforms
  • Monitor and review TGF central technical guidance and application process updates
  • Assist with distillation, development, and dissemination of technical and advocacy materials to be shared through internal CHAI coordination structures for onward sharing with government counterparts
  • Collate and organize internal knowledge management platform (Box, Asana) for TGF materials including past TGF application materials, current guidance documents, RSSH and HRH assessment tools and documentations, national strategic plans
  • Share best practices and approach across CHAI country teams via learning webinars and individual coordination touchpoints and calls
  • Coordinate scheduling of calls for program and country teams including the health workforce team and RSSH working group
  • Support development of TGF application support workplans and monitor implementation across CHAI teams, providing reminders of major milestones to relevant teams as needed and identifying potential bottlenecks in implementation and opportunities to draw on effort from other staff
• Where requested, provide technical support on TGF applications in support of CHAI teams Ministries of Health
  • Assist in adaption of relevant technical guidance materials on health workforce, community health and health system strengthening interventions to the country-specific context
  • Develop activity costings, conduct background research on priority interventions and provide consolidated evidence
  • Support in drafting, review, and copy-editing of draft presentations, proposal narratives, and budgets, providing comments and recommendations for clarity

Resource mobilization for Rwanda National Strategy for Health Professions Development (<20%)

• Provide support to priority health workforce assessments, including
  • Update existing Microsoft Excel tools including target setting and pipeline models to update estimates for national workforce targets for medical, nursing, and allied health professionals
  • Support evaluations across dynamic project; assist in developing concept notes, evaluation tools
• Conduct desk review of funders for implementation of NSHPD, assist with the development pitch materials linked to government priorities
• Develop template excel- and word-based costing tools to support assessments and review and standardize formats of existing documentation
  Develop template tools and resources to support project management, including templates for workplans, basic costing, concept notes, and proposals

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent, plus at least 2 years of work experience
• Experience working in project management. Background working in health systems strengthening, health workforce, or health economics is an advantage
• High degree of proficiency and comfort working with Microsoft Excel
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English
• High levels of proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and internet applications
• Ability to communicate effectively with people of varied professional, cultural, and educational backgrounds
• Demonstrated strong problem-solving skills
• Entrepreneurial mindset; demonstrated ability to work independently on complex projects and solve challenging problems in a high-pressure, fast-paced environment
• Exceptional task management skills including developing work plans and tracking tools to meet project deadlines
• Very high attention to detail
• Ability to work with teams across time zones and locations
• Ability to work with humility and achieve results

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