In 2002, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) began as the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in the developing world and strengthen health systems there. Taking the lead from Governments and working with partners, CHAI works to improve markets for life-saving medicines and diagnostics, lower the costs of treatments, and expand access to life-saving technologies — creating a sustainable model that can be owned and maintained by Governments.
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.
Position Overview:
The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) seeks an Associate, Sustainable Health Financing (SHF) to help the Government of Malawi (GoM) address challenges of limited resources for health prevention and treatment activities.
The Associate will be based in Lilongwe, Malawi and will report to the Program Manager of the Sustainable Health Financing team within the Health Financing Cluster. The Associate will be responsible for helping the GoM address critical funding shortfalls in the health sector. Malawi faces a challenge of limited resources for health prevention and treatment activities, and CHAI has partnered with the government to seek new sources of financing and to realise maximum impact from existing financing. The Associate will provide strategic advice to the Ministry of Health (MoH) on the financial implications of decisions across the national health system.
The Associate will quantify funding needs and available resources in the health sector, helping the government make health financing policy decisions through targeted use of collected data (e.g. Resource Mapping, Health Sector Strategic Plan Costing), as well as focusing on the efficiency and effectiveness of investments in the health sector. In addition, the Associate will support all other ad hoc requests (budgeting and planning, design and implementation of various health financing strategies, driving operational efficiencies in the health sector, tracking outcomes and impact in the health sector) as requested by the MoH.
The Associate will work very closely with all departments of the MoH, particularly the Department of Planning and Policy Development (DPPD), in addition to cooperating on a regular basis with donors, NGOs, and civil society. This position will have direct and immediate impact on the lives of thousands of patients. It presents an opportunity to work very 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.
Working in close collaboration with MoH, the Associate, Sustainable Health Financingwill:
- Provide robust strategic and analytical programmatic support to the MoH;
- Provide regular reports to the Senior Programme Manager of Health Financing Cluster, Country Director and Global Teams on progress of activities.
- Serve as a trusted technical advisor to the MoH on a broad range of national health financing issues, aimed at building an investment case for more and better-allocated health sector funding;
- Collect, clean and analyze data on various areas of the health sector;
- Advise MoH on mitigating mismatches between funding allocations and cost-effective disease interventions by quantifying funding priorities;
- Develop quantitative models to assess opportunities for improved efficiency and effectiveness of health spending;
- Track and analyze results achieved in the health sector and benchmark them against funding;
- Liaise with all stakeholders in the health sector to drive evidence-based operational and policy changes;
- Assist in building capacity at all levels of the MoH;
- Bring strategic insight to translate data analysis to big-picture takeaways;
- Be a self-starter and work on a team of highly-motivated and analytical individuals;
- Support communication and reporting requirements for programme donors;
- A minimum of a Bachelors’ degree from a well-recognised, high-calibre institution;
- A minimum of 2 years’ professional experience
- Strong analytical skills and advanced technical proficiency with MS Excel and PowerPoint (analytical skills and proficiency levels will be tested during recruiting process);
- Demonstrated experience building and analysing quantitative models to inform decision-making, including experience developing or evaluating financial models;
- Natural ability to build strategic relationships and interact with individuals of different backgrounds;
- Tenacity and a can-do attitude;
- Strategically minded, able to think creatively around long-term programme objectives and the detailed steps necessary to achieve these goals;
- Demonstrated ability to multi-task, be effective in high-pressure situations and adapt to fast-paced and changing environments with a strong commitment to excellence, both internally and externally;
- Excellent organisational and problem solving skills;
- Excellent verbal, visual and written communication skills;
- English language fluency, both written and verbal.
Advantages:
- Bachelors’ degree in Economics or Public Health;
- Professional experience in public sector policy/planning, health policy, public sector finance, banking, management consulting, or other relevant private and public sector experience;
- Experience with VBA coding;
- Experience working with demanding work plans and tight budgets;
- Knowledge of and/or experience with the Global Fund proposal development process and other donor funding mechanisms
- Knowledge, experience and interest in innovative financing approaches for developing countries;
- Chichewa fluency, both written and verbal;
- Experience working in developing countries, particularly in the health sector and in Sub-Saharan Africa; and:
- Experience with and/or interest in shaping national health policy decisions
