Associate, HIV Testing Services 184 views0 applications

Overview

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries, while strengthening the capabilities of governments and the private sector in those countries to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance.

Since 2002, CHAI has been a leader in expanding and accelerating access to HIV treatment, reducing the cost of drugs and diagnostic tests, and strengthening the capacity of governments to prevent and diagnose HIV and to initiate people living with HIV on life-saving treatment.

The Associate, HIV Testing Services (HTS), is a member of CHAI’s Global HIV Access Program, supporting the HTS team. The HTS program drives strategy development and execution of country and global activities to reach ambitious targets for identification of PLHIV and initiation on life-saving treatment. The global community faces the challenge of identifying, initiating, and retaining more than 7 million new people on treatment in the next few years. Identification and linkage are the primary limiting factors to ART scale-up. While current testing approaches have been effective at reaching certain populations, they are not reaching all those at risk and will not be sufficient to find the remaining PLHIV. National HIV programs need to be innovative to reach the populations being left behind within resource constrained environments. CHAI is supporting a comprehensive effort to support partner governments to address these challenges and reach their treatment scale-up targets.

This role will primarily support country-level implementation of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) funded grant Driving development of resilient and sustainable national HTS programs (Drive). Drive is a four-year grant, implemented in Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It supports Ministries of Health to build stronger, more resilient, nationally owned HTS programs that have the capacity to develop, execute, and sustain evidence-based HTS strategies. CHAI works closely with Ministries and other partners to drive uptake of effective strategies,, including innovative strategies like HIV self-testing, to find and link people living with HIV to care and to respond to an evolving epidemic.

As part of CHAI’s global HTS team, the Associate will work closely with the HTS Program Manager to support country teams in implementing this work, including technical and project management support. The Associate should have excellent problem solving and analytical skills and be able to work directly with country teams in driving quantitative and qualitative analyses. The Associate will need to build and maintain strong working relationships across CHAI country team as well as with Ministries of Health and partners in country. This requires exceptional interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills. The Associate will also work with the Program Manager in supporting knowledge management, tracking progress against deliverables and objectives across program countries, and fulfilling grant reporting requirements.

Experience working and living in Eastern and Southern Africa will be an advantage. Knowledge of public health in low- and middle-income countries, in particular HIV and HIV testing, is preferred, but not required. There will be opportunity to grow in understanding of specific technical content. The ability to work in a fast-paced environment, balance competing priorities, and function independently are critical.
There is a strong preference that the Associate be based in one of the program countries: Uganda, Zambia, or Zimbabwe. Other countries in the region may be considered, dependent on country director approval.

Responsibilities

• Help develop and execute quantitative and qualitative analyses around major HTS programmatic questions in project countries, with support and supervision from the Program Manager
• Support the development of evidence-based technical advice to Ministries of Health, CHAI country teams, and in-country partners in development and implementation of evidence-based HTS strategies
• Data management, including maintaining up-to-date country-level dashboards with relevant HTS indicators
• Support in translating global evidence and best practices to the country level, including distilling and communicating messages to country teams and other partners
• Monitoring new strategies and research in the global HIV space, identifying and developing update for country and global team members
• Support to general program operations, including meeting coordination and planning
• Support workplanning and tracking of country activities in line with grant deliverables, including support to monthly and annual grant reporting
• Document key country activities and lessons learned for dissemination across country and global audiences
• Provide additional support to country teams and grant activities, as identified with the Program Manager**Qualifications**
• Bachelor’s degree and 3+ years of professional experience
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Exceptional cross-cultural communication and interpersonal skills, including ability to build strong professional relationships with a range of stakeholders in a multicultural environment
• Ability to think strategically, manage competing priorities, and drive work forward with significant independence
• Strong analytical skills, including high level of proficiency with excel
• English language fluency, both written and verbal
• Availability for international travel up to 50% [Note: under normal circumstances, this role would require regular travel across program countries. Travel will depend on the evolving COVID-19 context and any safety or travel restrictions.]

Advantages:

• Background and experience working in public health in resource limited contexts, particularly in HIV
• Work/living experience in Eastern and Southern Africa
• Experience working remotely with a decentralized team
• Familiarity with DHIS and other national data systems

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