Senior Program Officer, Maternal Syphilis

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 Maternal Syphilis Program in Zambia

CHAI will be providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Health (“MOH”) to help implement the Maternal Syphilis Program in Zambia. The goal of this support to the Ministry of Health in Zambia is to increase syphilis screening, testing and treatment among pregnant women to prevent mother-to-child transmission of syphilis. Without effective and timely treatment, syphilis infections in pregnancy carry a significant risk of stillbirth, neonatal death, and cognitive and physical disability.

Specifically, CHAI will provide technical assistance to the National Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (“PMTCT”) Program and Laboratory Teams within the MOH in the following areas:

• Strengthening policy, program management, and coordination.
• Improving supply chain management, forecasting, and quantification of key commodities, specifically HIV/syphilis dual tests, syphilis-only tests, HIV-only tests, and benzathine penicillin
• Ensuring high quality training and technical supportive supervision of frontline healthcare providers as implemented through an MOH-led training-of-trainers cascade spanning central, provincial, and district trainers
• Strengthening data collection for data-driven decision making, and effective program monitoring.
• Supporting the government to identify and secure sustainable funding with a focus on continued procurement of dual HIV/Syphilis test kits and Benzathine penicillin

CHAI requires a dynamic, results-oriented individual with strong assimilation, understanding and coordination skills to provide program implementation support to the National Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (“PMTCT”) Program and Laboratory Teams. The applicant should have experience and a strong record of participating in health program management to take up the role of Senior Program Officer, Maternal Syphilis Program. This Senior Program Officer will be part of the Infectious and Non-infectious Diseases cluster working under the supervision of the Program Manager, Laboratory Systems. 

CHAI places great value on relevant personal qualities: resourcefulness, responsibility, tenacity, independence, energy and work.

• Participate in program strategy meetings with key government partners and support implementation of program activities.
• Support the revision of the national HIV and Syphilis testing guidelines to include key strategies on dual HIV/Syphilis testing implementation.
• Maintain an updated dual test adoption work plan / action plan / notes following the conclusion of each dual test working group meeting.
• Provide the Lab Team with technical support to maintain gains in syphilis screening and HIV testing in pregnant women.
• Facilitate product registration of cheaper and better performing WHO prequalified HIV/syphilis dual tests where applicable.
• Participate in annual national forecasting and quantification exercises for HIV/syphilis dual tests, syphilis-only rapid tests, HIV-only tests, and benzathine penicillin.
• Support inclusion oaf HIV/syphilis dual tests, syphilis-only rapid tests, and benzathine penicillin into national and donor support programs.
• Monitor the usage reports of HIV/syphilis tests from facilities to surface any challenges.
• Routinely assessing the stock status of HIV/syphilis dual tests, syphilis-only tests, HIV-only tests, and benzathine penicillin.
• Support the Lab Team to coordinate distribution of HIV/syphilis dual tests, syphilis-only rapid tests, HIV-only tests, and benzathine peicillin from ZAMMSA such that commodities are available in provinces and facilities
• Support the development of a comprehensive curriculum and related job aids covering both syphilis screening and treatment, as needed.
• Support the Lab Team to ensure dual HIV/Syphilis testing components are integrated into the National RTCQI (Rapid Test Continuous Quality Improvement) Program.
• Support the coordination of key performance indicator reporting from Provincial Focal Persons to the National PMTCT Team.
• Support the analysis of provincial reports for presentation in the monthly technical working group meetings.
• Ensure decision making in technical working groups is based on available data from the facilities.
• Document implementation successes and challenges and propose recommendations for improving the quality of the program.
• Perform other duties as assigned from time to time.

• Bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences (Biomedical, Laboratory, Nursing) or Public Health, a Master’s Degree will be an added advantage
• At least 3-4 years of professional experience in demanding, results-oriented environments in the public sector and/or private sector
• Self-motivated and able to work independently as part of a multi-disciplinary country team
• Ability to adapt and work effectively in a high-pressure and fast-paced environment
• Experience implementing health related projects
• Experience extracting data from electronic health data systems.
• Experience in Microsoft office and data analysis using at least one statistical analysis package (Excel, SPSS, Epi-data, STATA)

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