Organization: Clinton Health Access Initiative
Country: Guatemala
Closing date: 18 Oct 2017
Founded in 2002, by President William J. Clinton and Ira C. Magaziner, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (“CHAI”) is a global health organization committed to saving lives, reducing the burden of disease and strengthening integrated health systems in the developing world.
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 Guatemala Malaria Team supporting the Ministry of Health's National Malaria Program to plan and execute effective programs in Escuintla Region of Guatemala. Over the past two 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 2020. This position will work as a part of CHAI's Guatemala team to design, implement, and monitor and evaluate CHAI-supported elimination-focused interventions and help support their scale up on the regional level.
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.
The base location for this position may change to a CHAI program country in Meso-America at a later date due to requirements of the role. This role requires travel to remote regions with limited infrastructure and medical care.
- Facilitate the reorientation of national malaria program towards elimination in Escuintla, specific activities may include:
- Developing operational plans and associated training materials to build Community Health Workers capacity and support effective execution of malaria program in Escuintla.
- Support implementation of vector control interventions in Escuintla and other high-risk areas of the country, in coordination with regional health offices.
- Support pilot and national roll out of a new surveillance system ensuring rapid and accurate reporting of malaria data from health facilities and community health care workers and that all data is appropriately stored and managed to ensure a rapid and effective response
- Identify key impediments to the successful execution of the malaria elimination strategy and other national guidelines and work with the NMCP and partners to develop and implement solutions to rapidly address these bottlenecks
- Explore the utilization of new tools and interventions to eliminate malaria and develop operational plans and other materials to support the implementation of these tools in Escuintla
- Collaborate with NMCP and partner organizations to design and implement epidemiological and entomological studies according to the research protocols
- Conduct regular site-level visits to community health workers and health facilities in Escuintla to identify potential bottlenecks hindering implementation of the studies.
- Work closely with the Country Support Manager, Regional Manager, and the Country Associate to design and implement a response plan based on data generated by the studies in Escuintla.
- Identify strategic areas for expansion or redirection and guide strategic planning or proposal development as needed
- 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 involved in malaria elimination
-
Other responsibilities as needed by the team.
-
Bachelor's degree plus 3 – 5 years of work experience, Master's degree preferred
-
Strong problem solving skills and analytical capabilities
-
Detail-oriented with strong organization skills
-
Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, set priorities, and work independently
-
Experience living and working in resource-limited areas
-
Ability to work well both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team
-
Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build relationships in a challenging politically unstable environment
-
Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
-
Ability to travel extensively (+75%) to Escuintla to support in-field work; comfortable traveling to remote areas.
-
Fluency in Spanish
-
Fluency 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 living and working in Central America, including as a native of the region
- Experience working with governments and institutions from Latin America
- Experience in working with malaria and/or other infectious diseases
- Driver's license
PI99447540
How to apply:
Apply Online
