Associate, El Paraiso
Overview:
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’s global malaria program provides direct technical and operational 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.
Overview of role:
CHAI is seeking a highly motivated individual to work as a part of its Honduras Malaria Team supporting the Ministry of Health’s National Malaria Program to plan and execute effective programs in the El Paraiso Region of Honduras, with some support to existing programs in Islas de la Bahia. Over the past four years, CHAI has rapidly engaged in the country and helped them make meaningful steps towards orienting their national strategic plans and systems towards historic elimination by 2022. This position will work as a part of CHAI’s Honduras team to support regional leadership in the strategic planning, organization and implementation of malaria activities in the areas of Case Management, Vector Control and Surveillance. The associate will serve as a thought-partner to derive targeted solutions and, as necessary, support reconfiguring current structures, policies, and activities to ensure detailed, feasible plans exist and to build the organizational capacity required to implement case management, surveillance and vector control strategies in the regions.
The candidate must be able to work independently to drive implementation and have deep personal commitment to producing results. A successful candidate will be highly motivated and hard working with exceptional, organizational, problem-solving, and communication skills.
CHAI places great value on relevant personal qualities including resourcefulness, tenacity, independence, patience, humility, and strong work ethic.
Responsibilities:
- Coordinate with Regional Health partners, local authorities and CHAI Honduras team to monitor and evaluate the progress of projects related to the strengthening of the Community Health Workers (CHW):
- Develop the procedures for community health worker (CHW) selection based on local level needs assessment and analytical input, for appropriate targeting of CHW network expansion.
- Make regular visits to Community Health Workers (CHW) to provide supervision and support, as well as identify challenges and potential bottlenecks to be addressed by CHAI team and technical partners.
- Provide project management support and coordination with regional level staff for development of plan to improve impact and methodology for CHW training.
- Identify operational, financial, and management issues that are hindering implementation of necessary structures for improving frequency and quality of CHW supervision.
- Construct data collection system and procedures for data entry and utilization at the local level for malaria case data and monthly CHW supervision data by regional health staff.
- Manage and supervise the project and logistics at the regional level.
- Identify local level supply chain key bottlenecks and constraints for malaria commodities at regional level.
- Attend local level meetings related to compilation of epidemiological, entomological, intervention coverage, operational and financial data for project monitoring and evaluation.
- Support implementation of entomological surveillance activities and appropriate planning, targeting, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of programmatic vector control activities such as indoor residual spraying (IRS), as needed.
- Work in collaboration with regional level to support use of DHIS2 electronic surveillance system for malaria.
- Develop implementation plan for strengthening local level epidemiological and entomological data analysis skills including improving data quality, analysis and utilization for programmatic decision-making for case management and vector control interventions.
- Provide technical assistance to Regional partners in areas such as surveillance, supply chain management, vector control, and operational planning.
- Provide logistical support in partnership with regional staff for implementation of CHW, EHT and regional health staff trainings.
- Identify key impediments to the successful execution of malaria elimination plans and work with the CHAI country malaria team and other partners to develop solutions to rapidly address those bottlenecks.
- Compile inputs and draft necessary presentations/reports for internal stakeholders and donors.
- Provide program and operations updates for progress reports and best practice sharing.
- Serve as a trusted adviser to the regional level Ministry of Health staff on malaria elimination.
- Represent CHAI in partners meetings as needed.
- Develop and maintain strong, proactive relationships with Regional Health staff in involved in malaria elimination.
- Develop and maintain strong, proactive relationships with local community authorities.
- Other responsibilities as defined by the Program Manager.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree plus 3-5 years of work experience
- Strong problem solving skills and analytical capabilities
- Detail-oriented with strong organization and planning skills
- Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, set priorities, and work independently
- Experience living and working in Central America
- Experience living and working in resource-limited areas
- Ability to work well both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team
- Strong work ethic, integrity, credibility, and dedication to CHAI’s mission
- Ability to be effective, calm, and flexible in high-pressure situations, to handle multiple tasks simultaneously and to effectively prioritize
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
- Must be fluent in Spanish; with a professional-level proficiency in English
Advantages:
- Experience executing successful health projects in developing countries, ideally malaria-specific projects
- Experience developing database systems and using statistical software for data analysis
- Experience working with governments and institutions from Latin America
- Experience in working with malaria and/or other infectious diseases
- Driver’s license