Founded in 2002, by President William J. Clinton and Ira Magaziner, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (“CHAI”) is a global health organization committed to strengthening integrated health systems and expanding access to care and treatment in the developing world. CHAI’s solution-oriented approach focuses on improving market dynamics for medicines and diagnostics; lowering prices for treatment; accelerating access to lifesaving technologies; and helping governments build the capacity required for high-quality care and treatment programs. Since its inception, CHAI’s programs have helped more than 11.8 million people in more than 70 countries have access to CHAI-negotiated prices for HIV/AIDS medicines, saving the global health community billions of dollars.
In 2005, CHAI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Malawi (GoM) to strengthen health systems in the most challenged districts, provide national support to HIV/AIDS drug pricing and programmatic work, support the pilot and scale-up of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) initiatives, expand access to ART for children, strengthen Malawi’s lab system, and scale-up an integrated nutrition Program for children. CHAI’s support to Malawi has expanded to include Human Resources for Health (HRH), Vaccines (pneumococcal and rotavirus), and Health Financing.
At the request of our partner governments, CHAI has developed a health financing program across Africa. Currently, in developing countries, just 40% of the poor have access to basic health services, such as delivering babies in a safe environment. While policymakers are committed to universal health coverage, past growth in funding for health is beginning to slow, resulting in difficult decisions and trade-offs. Our health financing teams work with policymakers in Ministries of Health and key stakeholders to remove financing as a barrier to increased coverage of life saving interventions. We provide decision makers with the necessary programmatic and financial information for evidence-based planning and resource allocation. Furthermore, we help governments move towards a sustainable funding model that is increasingly nationally-owned and managed.
Position Overview:
The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) seeks a Program Manager, Health Financing based in Lilongwe to help the Government of Malawi address critical funding shortfalls in the health sector. The Program Manager will report to the Senior Program Manager, Evidence for Impact Cluster, and will manage a team of 3-5 staff.
The Program Manager will support the government of Malawi identify and overcome health systems constraints to the provision of critical services to the entire population, including leading the quantification of key systems gaps and support the use of evidence in health financing policy decisions through targeted use of data. In addition, the Program Manager will be responsible for supporting the MOH to develop sustainable systems and processes to improve the allocation of donor and government resources to improve availability of services across the country. The Program Manager will lead a team that works closely with senior leaders in the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance as well as donors, NGOs, and civil society organizations.
This is a challenging but rewarding position which will directly impact thousands of people in need of life-saving interventions. It presents an opportunity to work closely with a government that is committed to finding opportunities for sustainable financing of the health sector, providing strategic advice and developing tools that will deliver improved healthcare for the people of Malawi.
Given the nature of the program, and the entrepreneurial environment of CHAI, the program manager is expected to be self-motivated, flexible and able to deliver results quickly with limited structural or operational support. The Program Manager will:
- Serve as a trusted technical advisor to the MoH on a broad range of health financing and health systems strengthening issues, enabling MoH to mobilize more resources into the health sector and distribute them equitably, effectively and efficiently;
- Inform the development of quantitative models to improve efficiency and effectiveness of health sector operations and interventions, with a focus on filling gaps in service availability;
- Support the collection and standardization of donor, government, and partner activity budgets into a common database for tracking health sector investments, including support on data dissemination and institutionalization
- Lead the development of a service readiness assessment at health facilities to identify ways to maximize allocative efficiency and coordination across the health sector;
- Manage data collection, cleaning, validation, and analysis of health systems readiness gaps, including the harmonization with existing health systems data systems in Malawi;
- Facilitate meetings with government and external stakeholders to drive operational and policy changes, including through strengthening processes for donor coordination, increased transparency and alignment to government priorities;
- Develop and carry out proposals to build capacity of MoH and increase sustainability of the aforementioned activities;
- Manage highly-motivated and analytical individuals, enabling high performance and professional growth;
- Drive internal strategic planning and coordinating activities, communication, and deliverables within the Malawi country office, global team, and across several country teams; and
- Manage communication and reporting requirements for internal and program donors.
- other responsibilities as needed
- Master’s degree in Economics or Health Economics, or MPH with coursework/experience in health economics and finance strongly preferred; or Bachelor’s degree with exceptional experience
- Minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience (e.g. in a research institution, government, bilateral or multilateral development agency, consulting firm, NGO or think tank), with increasing levels of responsibility
- Strong program management experience including managing and recruiting teams, developing and executing budgets, creating and implementing work plans, and monitoring both program and staff performance
- Knowledge of and experience in health systems and health care financing and/or public sector financing, particularly in low- and middle-income countries
- Structured thinker with experience analyzing complex datasets to identify key trends and to translate them into actionable options for decision makers
- Strong writer, facilitator and oral communicator able to distill and explain complex concepts to varied audiences
- Exceptional diplomatic and interpersonal skills and ability to build strategic relationships
- Ability to think strategically about long-term program objectives and the detailed steps necessary to achieve them
- Excellent organizational and problem-solving skills without need for extensive structural or operational support
- Ability to multi-task and work effectively in fast-paced, high-pressure situations
- Advanced technical proficiency with MS Excel and PowerPoint
Advantages:
- Experience working with government ministries (Ministries of Health, Finance, and/or local governments)
- Experience working in resource-limited settings and in a multicultural office environment
- Clinical expertise or experience working in health service delivery settings
- Experience conducting large-scale primary research and data collection, cleaning, analysis, and reporting, including the management of research teams
- Experience with or interest in shaping national health policy decisions
- Experience managing medium to large teams
More Information
- Job City Lilongwe
