Overview:
The USAID-funded Support for Service Delivery- Integrated Services project is a five year award (2011-2016) focusing on increasing access to and improving the quality of essential health services at facilities in 15 districts in the country’s five zones. HIV programming makes up a large component of the portfolio with key intervention areas that include HIV-MNCH integration, prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT), early infant diagnosis (EID), mother-infant pair follow-up (MIP) and HIV Treatment and Care. In addition, additional funding is being sought to strengthen implementation capacity for pre-ART, ART, HIV/TB, and lab systems as part of a comprehensive HIV care and treatment approach.
The Technical Director will be responsible for providing leadership and technical guidance in the development and implementation of HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programs, focusing on integration, scaling up for impact, quality assurance, innovations to improve access and utilization of services/resolve bottlenecks and sustainability. In consultation and coordination with the Chief of Party and HIV senior technical advisors, s/he will lead in the overall management and technical oversight of the SSDI HIV technical areas. This will include implementation of effective strategies to strengthen the capacity of health facilities (and districts) to support pre-ART and ART approaches, integration of FP and HIV services, expansion of TB and HIV interventions and strengthening lab capacity to ensure timely initiation and follow-up for patients requiring ART. S/he is the key link with the technical colleagues at the mission, Ministry of Health, Malawi Defense Force and Jhpiego HQ Technical Directors.
The Technical Director will be responsible for providing leadership and technical guidance in the development and implementation of HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programs, focusing on integration, scaling up for impact, quality assurance, innovations to improve access and utilization of services/resolve bottlenecks and sustainability. In consultation and coordination with the Chief of Party and HIV senior technical advisors, s/he will lead in the overall management and technical oversight of the SSDI HIV technical areas. This will include implementation of effective strategies to strengthen the capacity of health facilities (and districts) to support pre-ART and ART approaches, integration of FP and HIV services, expansion of TB and HIV interventions and strengthening lab capacity to ensure timely initiation and follow-up for patients requiring ART. S/he is the key link with the technical colleagues at the mission, Ministry of Health, Malawi Defense Force and Jhpiego HQ Technical Directors.
Responsibilities:
- Ensure that the project incorporates state-of-the-art research and programming into technical strategies, program design, and implementation in the Jhpiego-led Support for Service Delivery- Integrated Services (SSD-I) program
- Mentor Technical Advisors and project officers to ensure project alignment with national ART/PMTCT guidelines, identify implementation gaps and develop innovative solutions to overcome these gaps
- Identify and implement existing and/or new approaches for site strengthening, follow-up and supervision, advocacy, policy support, capacity-building and M&E across program sites to strengthen HIV outputs and outcomes
- Lead the formulation of approaches for scale up of HIV services
- Actively participate in all Technical Advisory Group Meetings, and represent Jhpiego in professional forums within Malawi and globally
- Identify appropriate facility- and community-based strategies to address HIV service delivery gaps
- Formulate and test sustainable solutions to service delivery gaps, utilizing cross-cutting approaches such as performance and quality improvement
- Guide MOH, professional associations, other national stakeholders in the revision/development of evidenced-based standards for competency in HIV and the related training materials
- Mobilize international level clinical/technical expertise to resolve clinical issues that shape or affect local public policy or program design
- Collaborate with all local stakeholders and implementing partners, especially the Ministry of Health, regulatory bodies, training institutions and other US and international implementing partners, in order to ensure that all activities conform to the requirements, regulations and national standards/protocols
- Provide technical updates to the Chief of Party, and program and technical staff, of successes, challenges and lessons learned
- Contribute to the development of business proposals, technical reports and publications as they relate to HIV
- Author and co-author abstracts and presentations for journals and conference
- Supervise technical staff
- Ensure regular communication with donors to keep donor abreast of project progress, challenges and responses
- Work closely with the Chief of Party and senior technical advisors on setting program priorities and directions, and responding to requests for support from local counterparts
- Work with M&E staff to design, implement and monitor a plan to track data/results related to HIV
- Assume overall responsibility for the sound execution of the SSDI HIV portfolio
- Assist in the preparation of donor reports and project reports
- Foster the translation of project findings into future opportunities. Ensure that these findings and recommendations are disseminated within the local and international community
- Represent the SSDI HIV portfolio in management and decision-making meetings with the Senior Management Team at country level and Jhpiego HQ
Required Qualifications:
- MD with advanced degree in public health or other relevant area
- 10+ years’ experience in expanding access to essential HIV services in resource limited settings
- 5+ years’ experience in managing large ($2M+) donor-funded projects preferably in the sub-Saharan Africa
- Experience training health workers on clinical care of people living with HIV and/or TB
- Experience building capacity at individual and organizational levels
- Ability to coach, mentor and develop technical capacity in national programs and technical staff in the areas
- Experience with a mix of practical technical skills in HIV necessary for strengthening HIV service delivery at the regional, national, clinical and community-level
- The ability to liaise with senior MOH officials and dignitaries, executives of NGOs, FBOs, CBOs, the for-profit business community, and senior members of the donor community
- Demonstrated in-depth understanding of healthcare systems in East and Southern Africa, particularly the public health system
- Experience/understanding of healthcare systems in Malawi will be an added advantage
- Strong oral and written communication and presentations skills in English
- Strong skills in word processing and Excel spread sheets
- Familiarity with USAID or other USG administrative, management and reporting procedures and systems
- Proven track record managing a project team composed of several technical experts and fostering team work
- Excellent written, presentation, communication and organizational skills in English
- Ability to travel up to 30% time
