Country Support Associate, COVID Treatment Access

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.

CHAI launched the COVID-19 Treatment Access (CTA) program in August 2022 with the goal of reducing the impact of COVID-19 on high-risk individuals. Through the scale-up of screening programs and the introduction of novel oral antiviral therapies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), CHAI seeks to greatly reduce hospitalization and mortality in the populations at the highest risk for progression to severe and critical disease.  The COVID Treatment Access team currently supports programs in Sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Republic of South Africa) and Southeast Asia (Laos) with plans to expand to additional countries across both regions in the coming months. The program will focus supporting ministries of health to implement smart, data-driven strategies for identifying COVID-positive individuals at high risk for severe and critical disease, while in parallel ensuring critical access to life-saving treatment commodities within health facilities.  In addition, the program will support countries to integrate critical COVID-19 services into the broader health system to ensure sustained access to services.  In focal countries, CHAI’s work ranges depending on the specific context and need, and work can include a range of activities, including providing support on procurement, training health care workers, developing monitoring and evaluation systems, and supporting site-level implementation.

Position Overview:

As part of the Global COVID-19 Treatment Access Country Support team, this Associate will support the implementation and scale-up of CHAI’s COVID-19 country programs in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The Associate will support CHAI programs in countries as they begin to scale COVID Treatment Access programs, helping to develop efficient programs which catalyze the scale-up of testing activities, linkage to treatment, and treatment initiation. The Associate will provide support on a wide-range of activities, including providing strategic guidance and planning support, developing programmatic tools to support the roll-out and scale up of programs, providing coordination support across global and country programs, and supporting cross-cutting global work streams, projects, and communications. The Associate will report to the Global COVID-19 Treatment Access Program Manager.

To support this work, we are seeking a highly motivated individual with outstanding credentials, strong analytical abilities, and superior problem-solving and communication skills. The candidate must be self-driven, resourceful, collaborative, adaptable and have a high level of comfort with ambiguity. The candidate should have experience working in fast-paced, multi-cultural environments and is expected to function independently with minimal guidance.

The base location is flexible, with a strong preference for a CHAI CTA program in Sub-Saharan Africa, pending Country Director Approval. Expected travel is 30%.

Provide strategic, technical, and planning support and bandwidth to country programs (60%):

• Support country teams to develop country-level strategy and work plans, coordinated with global CHAI strategy
• Provide day-to-day thought partnership, technical support, and bandwidth across country programs, including but not limited to policy, forecasting, M&E, service delivery and market shaping
• Design and develop high quality deliverables to support the scale-up of country programs, including presentations, concept notes, tools, and models
• Utilize and analyze programmatic data to support the monitoring of country-level program process against milestones, and work with Program Management to identify and mitigate risks to achieving program and grant goals
• Support logistic management of product donation and monitoring of drug availability in country, ensuring strong systems are in place to ensure replenishment system

Provide coordination support across global and country programs (25%):

• Share country updates with broader global team to inform global priorities and keep team members up to date on ongoing areas for support
• Share global priorities, guidance, evidence, and updates with country teams to support development of national COVID-19 test and treat programming
• Collect, consolidate, and share lessons learned and best practices (strategies, tools, and experience) across country programs to maximize impact of learnings
• Provide support on cross-country / global work streams, including internal and external reporting

Support cross-cutting global work streams, projects, and communications (15%):

• Actively participate in cross-cutting strategic planning and problem solving related to the growth, success, and sustainability of the COVID-19 Treatment Access program
• Support drafting program updates, presentations, concept notes, proposals, and meeting plans, as needed
• Lead or support development and implementation of special projects to further global impact, as needed
• Work collaboratively with Global Diagnostic Team (GDT), Global Analytics and Implementation Research (AIR) team, Global Markets Team (GMT), other relevant CHAI global teams, and CHAI country teams to achieve project goals

• Bachelor’s degree plus a minimum of 4 years of experience in a demanding and fast-paced environment
• Strong quantitative skills, including significant experience in data management and data analysis, with high level of proficiency in Excel and ability to use data to inform programmatic decision making and strategy
• Demonstrated strong analytical, problem-solving, and leadership skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to synthesize evidence into effective presentations and written documents with actionable recommendations for broad audiences
• Exceptional diplomatic and interpersonal skills, and an ability to manage challenging multi-cultural, multi-stakeholder situations to achieve intended results
• Self-motivated and comfortable working independently with little oversight
• Ability to absorb and synthesize a broad range of information, with exceptional attention to detail
• Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, set priorities, and work well under pressure
• Technical proficiency in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Willingness to work with a geographically dispersed team across multiple time zones
• Fluency in English, in both written and verbal communications
• Ability to travel extensively to focal countries and other locations as needed for work

Advantages:

• Experience working in management consulting, investment banking, or a similar fast-paced, results-oriented environment
• Familiarity with global health issues and/or national and sub-national planning and programming
• Experience working with Government bodies
• Experience living and/or working in LMICs countries
• Master’s degree preferred

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