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.
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Program Overview:
The Mekong region is currently targeting elimination of malaria with a phased approach by 2030; Myanmar is a high malaria burden country which contributed 75,159 reported malaria cases in 2018. The Ministry of Health (MOH) Vector Borne Disease Control (VBDC) program has planned immediate implementation of sub-national elimination according to micro-stratification based on Annual Parasite Index (API). Elimination strategies will launch in low endemic townships first, and expand to other areas as case burden decreases. Previously, 60 percent of 52 million total population are considered at risk for malaria; malaria risk is especially high among forest, mining, and plantation-related occupations and those migrating nationally and regionally for economic opportunity. Moreover, there is an urgency to strive for elimination as artemisinin resistance was originally identified in 2008 in the southeastern states bordering to Thailand.
Through additional resources from the Access to Health Fund, 3-Disease Fund, the Three Millennium Development Goal Fund, and the Global Fund and complementary support from over twenty implementing partners, the country has achieved rapid success in scaling up interventions, especially in resistance containment zones. There are a significant number of challenges to achieve targets, including staff shortages, inadequate supply chain management, numerous implementing partners (including providers), and challenging access to quality assured ACTs because of geographical terrain.
Since October 2014, CHAI has been working with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) on priority areas for support which includes strengthening case management and surveillance systems. CHAI provided technical support to NMCP to implement an electronic Logistics Management Information System (eLMIS), called mSupply, in order to manage malaria commodities and use the data for reporting and forecasting. In case management strengthening, CHAI has supported a rapid assessment of availability and access to malaria diagnosis and treatment, support on treatment adherence and transmission hotspot identification. Regarding surveillance system strengthening, CHAI supported NMCP to conduct training on the malaria information system (an Access database) later become web-based, which is currently in 298 of 330 townships nationwide. CHAI has been supporting routine data reviews and analysis together with NMCP.
Position Overview:
CHAI is seeking a highly motivated and flexible individual to serve as Program Officer (Malaria) to support the intensification of malaria control and targeted elimination in Myanmar, in line with the regional drive towards malaria elimination. As a core member of the CHAI country team in Myanmar and CHAIโs global malaria team, the Program Officer will provide day-to-day technical and operational support to the Vector Borne Disease Control (VBDC) Program of the Ministry of Health (MOH) and a strong focus for supporting in optimizing current strategies and developing and executing new strategies to successfully eliminate malaria.
The Program Officer must be a highly motivated, entrepreneurial individual with outstanding problem-solving, managerial, logistical, analytical, and communication skills. They must be able to function independently and flexibly and have a strong commitment to excellence. The position will be based in Naypyitaw with travel to other States/Regions as required.
Qualified candidates may be considered for a more senior level role at the Associate level.
Responsibilities
Support VBDC to strengthen malaria surveillance systems, including:
- Supporting the rollout and monitoring the performance of existing and new surveillance platforms for improved data collection, reporting, data management, automated analysis and data visualization
- Serving as a liaison between developers and users of programs for malaria surveillance data collection, management, analysis and reporting
- Analyzing geographic data with GIS software including mapping malaria incidence and intervention coverage, and support to the maintenance of the master lists for the geographic objects (health facilities and villages) in the malaria surveillance system
- Providing technical support to data focal persons/community surveys conducted by Ministry of Health. This includes development of data collection tools, training material including SOPs, strengthening the technical capacity of the NMCP to manage and use of data at all levels, conducting training and coordinating the survey and ensuring completion
- Supporting NMCP as appropriate to disseminate findings through high-quality presentations, reports, and publications, including for non-technical audiences
- Coordinate with malaria implementing partners on surveillance and M&E activities
- Provide capacity building for central NMCP staff on information system, data management and reporting
- Co-facilitate subnational level training for national staff including staff from WHO and INGOs/NGOs
- Treating all NMCP data and data products (e.g. maps) to be confidential
- Support National systems and other relevant activities as requested by NMCP
Support NMCP and VBDC to strengthen malaria case management systems, including:
- Support protocol and systems development for active case investigation and detection
- Provide technical assistance and strategic guidance to ensure healthcare workers have access to quality diagnostics, and patients have access to high quality medicines
Support data driven decision making by NMCP and VBDC, including:
- Providing technical support regarding the management and analysis of malaria surveillance data, and enhancing NMCP data management: organizing and merging data of variable cleanliness and file type, collate available epidemiological and other relevant data, and assessing quality and suitability for analysis
- Supporting the development, implementation and review of guidelines containing specifications and SOPs aiming at improving the availability, quality (completeness, uniqueness, timeliness, validity, accuracy and consistency) and accessibility of surveillance data and the effective use of surveillance-related technologies across the NMCP
- Support the investigation of high-risk areas to determine factors associated with transmission and collaborate with NMCP and VBDC to develop interventions to reduce each localityโs transmission potentialIdentify key impediments to successful collection of malaria surveillance data and work with NMCP, VBDC and partners to develop solutions to rapidly address these bottlenecks
Identify opportunities for transformational change at the local, state/region and national level which could enhance efforts to eliminate malaria
Qualifications
- University degree with a background in data management or enough professional experience in that area to be considered as equivalent
- More than two years of experience in Malaria or other infectious diseases within a development context
- More than two years of experience working with health information management systems and database management systems (e.g., Microsoft Access, DHIS-2)
- Knowledge of disease surveillance and strengthening information systems, including best practices in data management
- Familiarity with emerging technologies for web or mobile application development for data visualization and analysis
- Fluency in English and Burmese, both written and oral
- Ability to work on complex problems without extensive support
- Efficiency in negotiating and achieving consensus
- Exceptional problem-solving skills and quantitative and qualitative analytical capabilities
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills (written and oral) and ability to build and nurture relationships in a challenging multicultural environment
- Ability to manage numerous work streams simultaneously and to be effective in high-pressure situations
- Ability to work independently on large, demanding projects
- Excellent understanding of MS Office with proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
- Ability to travel domestically
Advantages:
- Fluency in local dialects within Myanmar
- Experience working with geospatial data (shapefiles, rasters etc.) in QGIS, ArcGIS and/or other relevant software
- Advanced degree in public health, clinical medicine, or business
- Experience in training and capacity building
- Experience in monitoring and evaluation
- Experience living and working in Southeast Asia, including as a native of the region
- Experience working with Asian governments and institutions
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