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's Vaccines Program

Immunization is one of the most successful public health interventions in history. National immunization programs reach >100 million infants every year and have, across the globe, averted two to three million deaths every year since the launch of the Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI). The introduction of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and rotavirus vaccines could save a further ~1 million lives per year. Furthermore, great advances in the development and financing of new vaccines provides countries the opportunity to further reduce the burden of diseases such as human papillomavirus (HPV).

However, despite these successes, 1.5 million children still die each year of vaccine-preventable diseases. Many of these are in low-income countries, where immunization programs face unprecedented challenges in accessing vaccines and ensuring they reach all targeted children.

Since 2010, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) has worked to save lives and reduce the burden from vaccine preventable diseases by improving access to immunization services in resource-limited settings. CHAI does this by strengthening national immunization programs at the country level, and then leveraging that experience to improve the global immunization ecosystem. Within that effort, CHAI is pursuing six complementary strategic goals:

• Improving affordability and supply security of immunization products;
• Accelerating the uptake of new or under-utilized vaccines;
• Enhancing the performance of vaccine cold chain and supply chain systems to increase effective and equitable immunization coverage;
• Improving the design and implementation of service delivery to reach the unreached;
• Supporting successful transition from Gavi support; and
• Strengthening the management system and capacity of immunization programs.

Global support to improve Cold Chain Equipment (CCE) performance management

CHAI's Global Vaccines Delivery (GVD) program closely supports the national immunization programs in 11 focus countries - Cameroon, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam - and also engages with global stakeholders such as Gavi, WHO and UNICEF to inform global policies and practices. Since 2016, Gavi and it’s Alliance partners have financed procurement of 80,000 refrigerators across 56 eligible low- and middle- income countries (LMICs). Under the Cold Chain Equipment Optimization Platform (CCEOP – a Gavi investment vehicle) and other recent efforts, countries have made tremendous progress upgrading and expanding their cold chain capacity, increasing visibility and active use of data for cold chain equipment (CCE) and supply chain (SC) planning.

While this has improved the quality and reach of cold chain networks in many countries, the systems to maintain and manage CCE are often still weak. Among 13 Gavi countries that conducted EVMAs in 2016-2018, the average score for the maintenance category was ~70%. Though maintenance EVMA scores have improved significantly since 2013, they continue to remain below the 80% target. This reflects weaknesses in both curative maintenance capacity -- which responds to breakdowns -- and planned preventative maintenance -- which provides routine CCE upkeep. As a result, countries face significant health and financial risks, as poor maintenance can significantly reduce the 10-year CCE lifespan, lead to immunization sessions disruptions, and put vaccines at risk of damage.

Additionally, gaps in data systems in countries hinder CCE performance management. Despite improved visibility of CCE performance, fragmentation of data systems and accountability gaps hinder countries’ ability to optimize programmatic performance hindering their effectiveness and efficiency. For example, countries may miss equipment breakdowns as they don't have trusted and real time in the field performance data to pick up design and performance issues or they might lack the ability to ensure service delivery planning considers location and functionality of CCE.

As a result, there is a need to identify high-impact maintenance and data management solutions to achieve longer, more sustained functionality of vaccine refrigerators. This includes exploring alternative maintenance models and strengthening data systems for improving equipment performance management. One such innovative model is Cold Chain as a Service (CCaaS) - wherein the end-user does not procure equipment but pays a service provider for functional cold space over an agreed upon period.

For this role, CHAI will be mainly working with our global partners such as UNICEF and Gavi to support policy changes and implementation and operationalization of performance management systems. There will be some collaboration stakeholders in target countries. This role will have four primary responsibilities including scoping and building up global level support to strengthen vaccines supply chain data systems, supporting cold chain as a service strategy development, leading our global thought leadership to improve in-country and global practices and policies for CCE management, and supporting grant management and reporting in areas of focus.

The base location for this position is flexible, pending leadership approval, with preference for a base location in a CHAI program country in West or Central Africa. Regardless of base location, travel is expected, at least 35% of time, to focus countries and other locations as needed for work.

Overview of role

CHAI is looking for a highly motivated individual that can manage a complex project individually, but can also help us to scope more work and build a successful team. This role will be mainly working with our global partners such as UNICEF and Gavi to support policy changes and implementation and operationalization of performance management systems. There will be some collaboration with stakeholders in target countries. This role will have four primary responsibilities including scoping and building up global level support to strengthen vaccines supply chain data systems, supporting cold chain as a service strategy development, leading our global thought leadership to improve in-country and global practices and policies for CCE management, and supporting grant management and reporting in areas of focus.

Base location for this position is flexible with a strong preference for being close to our partners in Geneva (Gavi) and Copenhagen (UNICEF). We would consider CHAI’s Vaccine Program focus countries within a similar time zone, pursuant to CHAI country team leadership approval. Regardless of base location, travel is expected, at least 25% of time, to global partners and selected focus countries.

Scope and build up global level support to strengthen vaccines supply chain data systems

• Develop productive relationships with key global stakeholders (e.g., Gavi, BMGF, UNICEF Supply Division/Program Division) to identify areas of support and foster effective exchange of know-how and coordination of efforts with partners
• Become a respected and trusted representative and thought leader on cold chain and supply chain within CHAI and within the global immunization community
• Support potential hiring and staffing of team to deliver on identified areas of support in collaboration with CHAI’s regional and technical managers
• Scope new impactful and transformational new work with our existing global partners (e.g., BMGF, Gavi) to support improvement in cold chain management and sustainable data systems

Support cold chain as a service strategy development and planning in partnership with UNICEF and selected country partners

• Support the development of a novel procurement strategy and its implementation plans in partnership with UNICEF. This will include costed implementation planning and preparing for a pilot program with clear objectives and transformational goals
• Work with in-country stakeholders to identify and map context specific implementation of CCaaS to plan for a pilot program and subsequent scaling to sustainable implementation

Lead our global thought leadership to improve in-country and global practices and policies for CCE management

• Inform national and global practices and policies that improve sustainable CCE management based on analytical perspective and lessons learned from CHAI and other partners
• Develop documentation, sharing and effective use of results and lessons learned across countries and externally, if appropriate
• Develop thought pieces and toolkit in area of focus and ensure it is effectively disseminated and use across the program and the global immunization community
• Inform and improve global policies & strategies and their country implementation beyond CHAI focus countries. This will include participation in global working groups (e.g., EPI manager meetings, ESA regional meetings, Immunization Supply Chain Steering Committee, TechNet, etc.).

Support grant management and reporting in areas of focus

• Prepare high-quality updates and reports for donors and CHAI management, including achievements, forward looking strategy and risks/opportunities
• Provide high-value input to action plans to help country teams meet grant objectives and ensure grant translate into sustainable transformational impact

Other responsibilities as needed.

• Bachelor's degree (Masters-level or above preferred) in a relevant field
• Minimum 7 years of work experience in a fast-paced, demanding environment
• Excellent strategic thinker with an ability to communicate strategy and plans effectively
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
• Proven team management skills with a good eye for people development/coaching
• Prior experience working in an environment of high ambiguities and unstructured problems
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with ability to work effectively in a multi-cultural and often remote environment
• Strong ability to understand and present data; familiarity and experience with analysis of qualitative and quantitative data (e.g., modeling, data analysis, business case analysis, study design)
• Strong project management skills, ability to work effectively in a high-pressure environment and handle multiple tasks simultaneously
• Entrepreneurial and result-oriented mindset, including ability to work independently, self-motivate, and propose and implement new initiatives
• Strong commitment to CHAI’s and the team’s mission, dedicated team player
• Ability to travel extensively (at least 35% of time) to focus countries and other locations as needed for work

Advantages

• Master’s degree or above in business, science, or engineering, with a focus on supply chain management is preferred
• Exposure to experience with supply chain systems and cold chain and knowledge of how they operate
• Extensive knowledge of public health systems
• Experience in a top tier management or consulting firm
• Hands-on experience working with government and in developing countries, notably in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Professional proficiency in a second language of a vaccine program country (e.g., French)

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