Program Officer, CSO Capacity Strengthening
Overview
The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to our mission of saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work at the invitation of governments to support them and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems.
CHAI was founded in 2002 in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with the goal of dramatically reducing the price of life-saving drugs and increasing access to these medicines in the countries with the highest burden of the disease. Over the following two decades, CHAI has expanded its focus. Today, along with HIV, we work in conjunction with our partners to prevent and treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Our work has also expanded into cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases, and we work to accelerate the rollout of lifesaving vaccines, reduce maternal and child mortality, combat chronic malnutrition, and increase access to assistive technology. We are investing in horizontal approaches to strengthen health systems through programs in human resources for health, digital health, and health financing. With each new and innovative program, our strategy is grounded in maximizing sustainable impact at scale, ensuring that governments lead the solutions, that programs are designed to scale nationally, and learnings are shared globally.
At CHAI, our people are our greatest asset, and none of this work would be possible without their talent, time, dedication and passion for our mission and values. We are a highly diverse team of enthusiastic individuals across 40 countries with a broad range of skillsets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with majority of our staff based in program countries. Learn more about our exciting work: 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 Overview
CHAI began work in Cameroon in 2007 with a focus on improving access to HIV diagnosis, care, and treatment. Since then, the partnership between Cameroon’s MOH and CHAI has evolved from being HIV to a wide range of cross cutting health system challenges across various vertical programs including HIV, Malaria, NCDs, MNCH, Sexual and Reproductive health and the EPI. CHAI has been providing technical support to the Cameroon EPI for the past 10 years, building a good relationship with stakeholders and ultimately positioning itself as the go to partner for generating and providing evidence for decision. CHAI recently obtained a grant from Gavi to embark on the improvement of HPV vaccination coverage through Multi-Age Cohort (MAC) campaigns and engagement with religious and traditional leaders as well as other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
CHAI intends to select CSOs to conduct advocacy sensitization and communication with various stakeholders (such as religious and traditional leaders) and leverage their experience working with communities to improve routine immunization coverage including the HPV vaccine. Religious leaders hold considerable communication influence, and this grant will seek to leverage their influence to bridge the gaps between medical knowledge and cultural sensitivities, nurturing a collaborative dialogue that resonates deeply within communities, to foster a receptive environment for immunization uptake. While working alongside these CSO, CHAI will pay a special emphasis on improving their program performance management (broadly defined as the system, including structures and processes, for setting goals and activity plans as well as monitoring and reviewing progress against them) in order to reach the defined goals effectively and efficiently and thus improving outcomes for key immunization indicators in Cameroon.
Role Overview
CHAI seeks two highly motivated individuals with excellent analytical ability, strong communication and advocacy skills for the role of Program Officer, CSO Capacity Strengthening. This role requires strong organizational and communication skills, as well as the ability to work effectively with diverse partners and stakeholders in the pursuit of sustainable impact.
Reporting to the Program Manager Vaccines, HPV–CSOs, the Officers will play a critical role in supporting multiple CSOs to optimize their performance management via strengthening of their organizational capacity, sustainability planning, and resource mobilization efforts. The Officers will provide CSOs with adequate support, capacity building and strengthening required to optimize advocacy, sensitization and communication with religious authorities and traditional leaders, to leverage their influence over communities to foster an immunization friendly environment needed to drive the uptake of RI vaccines (the HPV vaccine included) thus improving outcomes for key immunization indicators in Cameroon.
This position will be based in Yaoundé, with frequent local travel. The duration of the assignment will be for a period of 12 months renewable, contingent on performance and the availability of funding.
If you are passionate about making a sustainable impact on public health, specifically in the field of vaccines, and possess the skills and qualifications outlined above, whatever your background, we invite you to apply for this exciting opportunity.
Responsibilities
- Conduct a comprehensive assessment of each CSO’s current organization structure, resources, and capacity for sustainability planning.
- Organize workshops to educate the target CSOs on the concept of sustainability planning and its importance in achieving long-term impact.
- Provide training on sustainable resource mobilization, fundraising strategies, and partnership development (including facilitating connections between CSOs and potential partners such as businesses, government agencies, and other non-profits.
- Support CSOs in developing tailored sustainability plans, outlining strategies for generating resources, securing diversified funding sources, maintaining community engagement beyond the project’s duration, and ensuring the continuation of immunization support initiatives beyond the project’s duration.
- Ensure communication and alignment of activities across government and partner stakeholders and across other CHAI programs to ensure coordination and successful execution.
- Work with CHAI’s technical teams and Program Manager(s) to develop and implement a coordinated program of support.
- Support capacity building of key government functionaries on relevant competencies for sustained ownership and delivery.
- Prepares technical notes and submits for review.
- Prepare, review and initial sign off participants statement of payments and follow up on timely payment of participants.
- Prepares and submits expense and activity reports within three days of completion of field activity.
- Perform other responsibilities as requested by program leadership.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Management, International Relations, Public health, Social Sciences, or related discipline with 2 years’ work experience. Master’s degree in a related field will be an added advantage.
- Experience working in public health organization, management consulting, development sector, pharmaceutical, biotechnology or medical device industry or similar fast-paced, output-oriented environments.
- Exceptional analytical (qualitative and quantitative) skills with high level of proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word and Tableau or Power BI.
- Entrepreneurial mindset, including ability to work independently, self-motivate, and propose and implement new initiatives.
- Exceptional communication (written and verbal), interpersonal and stakeholder management capabilities. Demonstrated ability to build strong professional relationships with a range of stakeholders in a challenging, multi-cultural environment.
- Ability to think strategically, handle ambiguity, manage multiple priorities, and problem solve in a fast-paced, limited-structure, multicultural environment.
- Ability to absorb and synthesize a broad range of information, especially clinical, scientific, and technical manufacturing information.
- Willingness to travel extensively especially within program geographies.
- Excellent command of the English language and working proficiency in French.
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PI238698580