Organization: Barcelona Institute for Global Health
Country: Spain
Closing date: 17 Jul 2017
The Barcelona Institute for Global Health, ISGlobal, is the fruit of an innovative alliance between academic, government, and philanthropic institutions to contribute to the efforts undertaken by the international community to address the challenges in global health. ISGlobal provides a hub of excellence dedicated to scientific research and the provision of health care. The institute, which originated in a joint initiative of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and the University of Barcelona, has amassed over 30 years of experience in the field of global health. The pivotal mechanism of its work model is the transfer of knowledge generated by scientific research to practice, a task undertaken by the Research, Training and Policy and Global Development departments. Its ultimate goal is to help close the gaps in health disparities between and within different regions of the world.
ISGlobal is seeking a junior Social Anthropologist to work under the supervision of the senior Social Anthropologist for the project “Transforming Intermittent Preventive Treatment for Optimal Pregnancy” (TIPTOP). The project goal of this project is to contribute at reducing maternal and neonatal mortality by expanding access to intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) with quality-assured (QA) sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP).
The five-year project, funded by UNITAID and coordinated by Jhpiego, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University, will increase malaria in pregnancy IPTp-SP coverage and expand antenatal care attendance primarily through Community Health Workers (CHW) in four African countries – Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mozambique and Nigeria. The Jhpiego-led consortium includes Jhpiego as principal recipient and implementing partner responsible to Unitaid for the implementation of the Project and ISGlobal, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, as lead research and evaluation partner. The consortium will work closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Malaria Medicines Venture (MMV) as well as other stakeholders, to ensure that all project outputs are met.
The Project will establish a scalable model across four countries to generate evidence for change and expand access to preventive chemotherapy for pregnant women. TIPTOP will apply a community-based approach that fosters partnership and strengthens the dynamic link between communities and health facilities, especially for the most vulnerable people. A learning-driven approach will be employed throughout the project to guide expansion in a two-phase process and generate sufficient evidence to inform WHO policy recommendations and future actions in each country, in an effort to expand the intervention over the long-term.
ISGlobal is the lead evaluation and research organization and is responsible for implementing a set of studies to generate evidence for global guidance on community IPTp-SP. Specifically, ISGlobal will be responsible for designing and implementing the project’s evaluation plan, as well as designing, analyzing and reporting the operational research studies to assess the cost and acceptability and feasibility of the intervention and its impact. These will be done through household surveys, feasibility and acceptability studies, costing studies —and also assistance to ensure the quality of routine monitoring data.
Responsibilities of the candidate:
Under the guidance of the Project Coordinator and the Social Anthropologist, the candidate will:
Develop study protocols in collaboration with local counterparts in Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mozambique and Nigeria.
Conduct acceptability and feasibility studies in close collaboration with local counterparts.
Develop procedures and guidelines for the conduction of the social research.
Contribute to the development of quality assurance for the data analysis.
Support the Social Anthropologist in the coordination, supervision and performance of training activities with local counterparts.
Report activities of the project.
Supervise data collection activities if required.
Analyze study data and interpret results.
Preparation of talks, results presentations, fellowship applications.
Scientific writing of manuscripts derived of the research activities.
The candidate will be expected to:
Travel when required for the project activities.
Prepare and present records of the activities to the project Social Anthropologist.
Carry out any other duties that are within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job, as requested by the Social Anthropologist.
Qualifications:
University degree in biomedical sciences, humanities or social sciences.
Master degree in social sciences (anthropology, sociology, or other related subjects).
Trained and experienced in qualitative methods.
Experience:
At least 1 year previous experience in social sciences activities (e.g. focus groups, surveys, interviews).
Experience facilitating qualitative group discussions, transcribing and analyzing data.
Desirable:
Working experience in low- and middle-income countries
Ability to adapt to new environments, work effectively as part of the team and use own initiative when required.
Ability to design and develop activities, to achieve milestones and specific deliverables, and to meet deadlines.
Effective written and verbal communication skills.
To have a genuine interest in biomedical research of infectious diseases, maternal health, capacity building and global development.
Competencies:
Full-time schedule and exclusive dedication.
A very good command (advanced level) of the English language and working knowledge (intermediate level) of French and/or Portuguese.
Knowledge of Catalan and/or Spanish is a plus.
Excellent writing ability to elaborate high-quality and concise technical reports. Excellent presentation skills.
Excellent ability of initiative, coordination and team work in multicultural environment, and to interact with local counterparts and other project stakeholders.
Flexibility. Open to new ideas and new working methods, adapt positively to change, exchange views and opinions with colleagues. Able to work independently while understanding own limits.
Knowledge of social science software applications to record and analyze results using specific software (eg. NVIVO, EDNOTE, SPSS, STATA)
We offer:
Full-time position, office-based in Barcelona.
Fixed-term contract for all project length (about 54 months), starting in October 2017.
Salary according to the candidate profile and project budget.
Options to perform a PhD
How to apply:
Please send a CV and a cover letter to: job@isglobal.org with the reference TIPTOP_SSJ. Applications should also include the names and email contacts of 2 referees who can be contacted immediately if shortlisted. The closing date for receipt of application is 17th July 2017.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted
In ISGlobal we are committed to maintaining and developing a work environment in which the values and principles of our organization are respected and equal opportunities between women and men be promoted in each of the areas in which we operate, not tolerating discrimination based on criteria such as age, sex, marital status, race, ethnicity, disabilities, political leanings, religion or sexual orientation.
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