Following the Success of Today’s Health Program Management Meeting, Another is Scheduled for Monday!
Spring 2015 Course Fair is Just Around the Corner!
Spring 2015 registration is just around the corner! Join us for a school-wide Course Fair and learn more about course offerings from SPH faculty and staff. Please register by Friday, October 18. Contact dallas@bu.edu with questions.
Two-year Fellowship Opportunity in Botswana with the Global Health Fellows Program. Apply by October 31st!
Global Health Fellows Program II
Technical Advisor II: Health Systems Finance Advisor
USAID/Botswana
Location: Gaborone, Botswana
Assignment: Two Year Fellowship
GHFP-II-P3-114
The Global Health Fellows Program (GHFP-II) is a five year cooperative agreement implemented and managed by the Public Health Institute in partnership with Global Health Corps, GlobeMed, Management Systems International and PYXERA Global. GHFP-II is supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
GHFP-II's goal is to improve the effectiveness of USAID health programs by addressing the Agency's immediate and emerging human capacity needs. The program seeks to accomplish this goal first through the recruitment, placement and support of diverse health professionals at the junior, mid and senior levels. These program participants include fellows, interns, corporate volunteers and Foreign Service National professionals. The program then provides substantial performance management and career development support to participants, including annual working planning assistance, and ensures that professional development opportunities are available.
Looking to the future, GHFP-II also seeks to establish a pool of highly-qualified global health professionals that will ensure the Agency's ongoing technical leadership and effectiveness. This objective is supported by an extensive outreach program that brings global health opportunities and specialized career advice to a diverse range of interested individuals, with a particular focus on those underrepresented in the field of globahealth.
BACKGROUND:
The Government of Botswana's (GOB) response to the HIV epidemic has been very successful on many fronts and the US Government (USG) has been a critical partner. The program comprises both public and private sector elements including NGOs, but is heavily dependent upon the public sector delivery system. The situation has given rise to concerns regarding long-term sustainability including rising costs of the HIV/AIDS program, limited availability of domestic resources and declining levels of donor support. Botswana has been identified by the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) as a transition country, and the USG role has now shifted from supporting delivery of HIV/AIDS services to strengthening health systems and building capacity of NGOs and civil society organizations that will be able to sustain service delivery in the long-term. Key in the strengthening of the Health System is supporting the development of robust and flexible options for financing delivery of health care.
PEPFAR is the largest international health initiative ever undertaken by any country to combat a single disease. The first strategic principle of the original five-year Global HIV and AIDS Strategy was to respond with urgency to the global HIV and AIDS crisis. The re-authorization of PEPFAR took the second 5 years of the response into a phase that now focuses on local ownership and sustainability. This focus is reflected in the Botswana/PEPFAR Team's desire to intensify its health systems strengthening (HSS) efforts by standing up a HSS Team to oversee this effort.
USAID is part of the USG President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) inter-agency team in Botswana, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of State, Department of Defense, and the Peace Corps. The Botswana PEPFAR program is organized around the four pillar programs of the USG-GOB Partnership Framework and the Botswana National Strategic Framework II for HIV/AIDS: Prevention; Systems Strengthening; Treatment, Care and Support; and Strategic Information. The Botswana interagency PEPFAR Team implements a sustainable, evidence-based, results-oriented program, leveraging the particular technical expertise of each agency.
USAID manages a large part of the Systems Strengthening portfolio, which currently includes: 1) support to the Ministry of Health (MOH) to strengthen supply chain management, human resources for health, quality improvement, and health financing; 2) support to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to strengthen monitoring systems and policy implementation; 3) support to NACA to strengthen monitoring systems; 4) support to the Gender Affairs Department (Ministry of Labor and Home Affairs) to strengthen GBV district referral and monitoring systems; and, 5) support to civil society organizations to improve organizational development and their ability to deliver HIV-related services in their communities including: orphans and vulnerable children; TB prevention and treatment; HIV counseling and testing; positive health, dignity and prevention for people living with AIDS; prevention, care and treatment for sex workers and other key populations; and prevention and treatment for GBV. The USAID Botswana PEPFAR program supports these activities at the national, district and community levels. USAID has recently been given a much larger responsibility for the HSS element of the PEPFAR portfolio in Botswana, and is in turn strengthening its staffing footprint to support this shift. The new HSS Team will consist of a Health Office Director, who will lead the team, a HSS Advisor, a Public-Private Partnership Specialist, a Supply Chain Specialist, and a Health Systems Finance Advisor (Advisor). The Advisor will receive day to day guidance from the Health Office Director.
INTRODUCTION:
The Advisor will work with in-country entities to increase their domestic resources for health, manage those precious resources more effectively, and make recommendations on purchasing decisions. As a result the use of both primary and priority health services-- including HIV, tuberculosis, maternal & child health, and population & reproductive health services--will be increased. By fundamentally strengthening health systems, the Advisor will assist the GOB to navigate the economic transitions needed to achieve universal health care for its people.
The Advisor will provide technical expertise in Health Systems Financing, working collaboratively with the relevant ministries and PEPFAR implementing partners in capacity building, to develop a strategy and road map for short-term, medium-term and long-term priorities in Health Systems Financing. The Health Finance Advisor will provide technical advice in health financing by working collaboratively with the MOH, the National AIDS Coordination Agency (NACA), the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), PEPFAR implementing partners and other donors including UNAIDS, the World Bank, WHO and the EU. The Advisor will support MOH to develop and implement the National Health Financing Strategy which focuses on using available financial and other resources more effectively and efficiently, protecting and raising revenue, and developing a better public-private mix in financing and delivering health services.
In addition to providing direct technical assistance to the MOH to finalize the strategy, the Advisor will develop scopes of work and guide the technical assistance provided by USAID project-funded health financing experts. The Advisor will facilitate the close collaboration between USAID and the technical assistance provided by WHO to support the MOH in finalizing the strategy. S/he will also work with NACA and UNAIDS to complete the Investment Framework exercise and implement the NACA resource mobilization activities, such as the private sector partnership model for HIV and AIDS in Botswana.
The Advisor may also serve as activity manager for some agreements involving Health Systems Finance projects and other related activities that are expected to expand significantly under this new HSS focus. These could include projects that provide assistance in; costing health services; analyzing the roles of medical aid schemes recommending alternatives to increase enrollment and shift health services away from the public sector to private health practices; out-sourcing non-clinical services to private sector entities; and identifying alternative methods for increasing the health resource base and increasing the efficiency of health services operations, among others. The Advisor will provide programmatic oversight to PEPFAR partners who are responsible for building administrative, managerial, and programmatic capacity within Ministries, Civil Society, the Private sector, and others.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
The primary responsibilities of the Advisor include:
1. Strategic Planning and Program Design (30%):
- Serving as the lead coordinator and technical expert in strategic planning and design of the health and HIV/AIDS financing activities.
- Supporting the management and implementation of health and HIV/AIDS financing plans and policies and ensuring that PEPFAR implementing partners programs are aligned with GOB priorities.
- Remaining informed and up-to-date on technical and management issues affecting the design, implementation and evaluation of PEPFAR health and HIV/AIDS financing activities, including keeping team members current on USAID and OGAC policies and procedures.
- Ensuring that USG-supported health and HIV/AIDS financing activities address the organizational, technical and human dimensions of sustainability in Botswana.
- Collaborating with the GOB and generating wide stakeholder buy-in to develop innovative health financing options.
- Supporting the GOB to develop a detailed work plan for conducting consultations with other key stakeholders to select a health financing model.
- Coordinating technical assistance inputs required to conduct health financing activities.
- Supporting data collection, analysis and reports. Utilizing data to recommend evidence-based actions.
2. Technical Advisor and Activity Management (60%):
- Serving as the technical advisor in health and HIV/AIDS financing to the USAID and PEPFAR teams, PEPFAR implementing partners, GOB counterparts, and the broader USG program.
- Serving as the in-country activity manager for USAID health financing and governance activities in Botswana. In this context, the Advisor is responsible for all aspects of project management for her/his assigned activities, including technical and financial oversight of contractors and consultants, reviewing reports, and approving annual work plans. As appropriate, linking health financing activities to other HSS activities to create synergy and successful implementation of all HSS activities.
- Reviewing and determining the appropriateness of proposed agreement modifications and submitting recommendation to the respective AOR for follow-up action.
- Working with GOB institutions towards institutionalizing health finance related knowledge and expertise, including creation of linkages between the MOH and appropriate departments at the University of Botswana.
- Drafting the health and HIV/AIDS financing sections of the annual Country Operating Plan, the Semi and Annual Progress Reports, Congressional Presentations, Portfolio Reviews, Performance Monitoring Plans, and other key documents. Specific tasks include tracking changes, editing and verifying partners' submissions for completeness and consistency with PEPFAR guidance.
- Disseminating information on health and HIV/AIDS financing activities and results to GOB, USAID, PEPFAR and other key stakeholders in Botswana.
- Ensuring that all program documentation meets both USG requirements and audit inspection standards, and comply with international standards.
3. Other Duties (Approximately 10%)
- Establishing and maintaining contact with counterparts at NACA, the MOH, the MFDP, UN agencies, World Bank, EU and key implementing partners working in HSS and particularly in health financing in Botswana.
Training and Professional Development:
- Keeping abreast of literature and latest developments in health and HIV/AIDS financing.
- Deepening knowledge of health and health financing.
- Participating in interagency and intra-agency working groups as appropriate to SOW.
- Participating in professional continuing education and skills training within the purview of GHFP-II.
REQUIRED SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:
- Master's degree in health financing, health economics, economics, health policy, public policy, public health, or related field.
- Minimum five (5) years' related professional experience in public health financing, health economics, economics, health policy, public policy, or public health with at least two (2) years' experience in an international or resource challenged setting with a preference for in country experience in Botswana.
- Experience conducting health expenditure analysis to inform policy/planning and/or previous experience conducting national health accounts exercise is desired.
- Strong quantitative research skills.
- Ability to interpret regulatory directives and related guidance.
- Good research and presentation skills; able to convey technical information clearly to a non-technical audience.
- Excellent interpersonal skills, tact and diplomacy, required to establish and maintain a wide range of senior level and working level contacts with health financing and HIV/AIDS programs in government, non-governmental, and private-sector circles.
- Ability to work effectively within team and interagency environments.
- Experience communicating, negotiating and working with academic organizations and senior level government officials desired.
- Strong management and analytical skills are required to strategize, develop and implement effective USAID-supported health and HIV/AIDS financing programs; and strong financial management and administrative skills to track the performance of implementing partners.
- Computer proficiency including MS Office (Word/Excel/PowerPoint) and ability to undertake search engine based research. Knowledge of statistical packages (like EPI-info/SPSS/Stata) is preferred.
- Excellent written English language communications skills.
- Ability to obtain medical clearance to live and work in Botswana.
- US Citizenship or US Permanent Residency Required.
SALARY AND BENEFITS:
Salary will be based on commensurate experience and earnings history. The Public Health Institute offers a comprehensive benefits package including professional development programs.
TO APPLY:
All applicants are required to apply for this position through GHFP's online recruitment system at https://www.ghfp.net/recruitment/, which allows you to store your CV, profile and bio data form in our database. A separate cover letter describing your qualifications and experience, interest and familiarity with issues relating to this position, and how this position relates to your career goals is required for each application. All applications must be submitted by 5:00 pm Eastern Time on October 31, 2014.
One Acre Fund seeks Program Associates to manage projects in various Africa Countries
Wanted
Early-career professionals with 2 – 5+ years work experience to serve in a position that combines both field and management experience in Africa.
Job Location
Rural Rwanda or Burundi (French required); Rural Kenya, Ethiopia, or Malawi (English required); Tanzania Regional Capital (English Required).
Duration
Minimum 2 years commitment, full-time job.
Organization Description
Most of the world's poor are farmers, representing the largest and most uniform group of poor people in the world. One Acre Fund is a growing social enterprise in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania that is innovating a new way of helping farm families to achieve their full potential. Instead of giving handouts, One Acre Fund invests in farmers to generate a permanent gain in farm income. We provide farmers with a "service bundle" that includes education, finance, seed and fertilizer, and market facilitation. Our program is proven impactful – every year, we weigh thousands of harvests and measure 50-100% average gain in farm income per acre. We have laser-like focus on generating better lives for the people that we serve.
Job Description
Rapid organization growth translates into great career opportunities for our staff. We invest heavily in careers – we want to develop our next group of country directors, R&D directors, and partnership leaders. In their first year, our program associates lead 3-5 internal consulting projects, such as:
- District partner: Most program associates are initially partnered with a local field director. Program associates are immersed in One Acre’s operations and learn from their local counterpart how to grow an operation of 20+ staff, serving 5,000-20,000 farmers. They in turn also transfer management and computer skills to their counterpart. By working hand-in-hand with country national staff in a regular field operation, our program associates get a feel for operations in the field.
- New operation creation: A program associate in Kenya created and manages the One Acre Fund Customer Engagement team, which is tasked with fielding error claims from farmers, investigating claims, and solving them fairly. Started in 2012 with one part-time employee, the Customer Engagement team has grown rapidly to seven full-time staff members. The team investigated and resolved more than 3,000 cases in 2013.
- Impact innovation: A program associate designed several configurations of a harvest storage product and farmer training, and tried it with a few hundred farmers. The most successful trial demonstrated an increase in harvest profits by more than 10%. The following year, the product was sold to 40,000 farmers.
- Growth innovation: A staffer designed a new viral marketing initiative. She identified our best and most enthusiastic farmers, and turned them into volunteer "replication agents" who are empowered to recruit new groups of farmers. Our staff person designed the trial protocols, trained 10 field staff to test the idea, and observed the trial in-field, resulting in 25% higher client enrollment. This program was subsequently rolled out to 200 field sites and became the foundation of our current farmer recruitment model.
As staff grow into a program manager role, our strongest performers take leadership over a relatively independent pilot, country, or department within the One Acre Fund network, while earning a significant and sustainable salary increase. Examples includes:
- Government partnerships development: One Acre Fund receives frequent requests from African governments to jointly implement nationwide agricultural training, fertilizer distribution programs, and credit programs. A program manager took the lead in setting up our newest government partnership operation, initially to pilot one project. Within a year, this operation had 50 staff and is likely to at least quadruple in the coming two years, to hopefully 2-3 nationwide partnerships.
- Department leadership opportunities: In their second year of service, top performing program staffers are often given the responsibility of running an internal One Acre Fund department like “Scale Innovations.” This department runs dozens of test-and-control trials with 10,000+ farmers that radically tweak our program model, with the goal of significantly increasing our scalability.
- New markets: One Acre Fund has ambitious plans to launch one new country per year. In 2011, a program manager moved to Burundi to direct field operations for an initial 400-farmer pilot. Three years later, One Acre Fund’s Burundi operation serves 21,000 farmers with 110 staff.
Career Growth and Development
One Acre Fund invests in building management and leadership skills. Your manager will invest significant time in your career development. We provide constant, actionable feedback delivered through mentorship and through regular management consulting-style career reviews. We also have regular one-on-one meetings, where we listen to and discuss career goals, and work collaboratively to craft roles that each person can be passionate about. Because of our rapid growth, we constantly have new high-level roles opening up and opportunities in many functions. This results in fast career growth for our staff.
Qualifications
We are seeking exceptional professionals with 2 to 5+ years of work experience, and a demonstrated long-term passion for international development. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:
- Strong work experiences. Examples include a demanding professional work experience, or successful entrepreneurial experience (e.g. starting a field program in a developing country, leading a conference, starting a business, solid Peace Corps accomplishments).
- Leadership experience at work, or outside of work.
- Top-performing undergraduate background (include GPA and test scores on your resume).
- Humility. We are looking for passionate professionals who combine strong leadership skills with good humor, patience, and a humble approach to service to join our growing family of leaders.
- A willingness to commit to living in rural areas of East Africa for at least two years - this is a long-term, career-track role. The ideal candidate will have at least one year demonstrated experience working in the developing world, although this is not a strict requirement.
- Ability to cook / laugh – desirable.
- Language: English required in Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Tanzania, and French required in Rwanda and Burundi. French and Swahili-speakers are particularly encouraged to apply.
Preferred Start Date: Flexible
Compensation
Starts modest. However, this is a career-track role with fast raises for performance, paying a meaningful salary for long-term placement in developing nations.
Benefits
Health insurance, immunizations, flight, room and board.
To Apply
Complete this form. You will be prompted to submit your CV and cover letter. You may also be asked to submit work samples for some positions. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), please submit a copy of your Description of Service (DOS) in the appropriate section.
Follow-up Reading from Yesterday PH Forum: 50 Years of Global Health
If you missed Robert Clays PH Forum talk yesterday, or want more information about his book you can find an electronic copy here: 50 Years of Global Health here: http://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/global-health/50-years-global-health.
mHealth seeks Program Coordinator for Community Based Ebola Response Effort in Guinea
PROGRAM OVERVIEW:
A community-based Ebola response effort is underway through a partnership with the government of Guinea, UNICEF-Guinea and the Earth Institute, Columbia University (New York, USA). Community Health Workers will be deployed in a step-wise fashion throughout the country of Guinea over the course of the next 2 years, starting in Nzérékoré and Conakry, the two regions most affected by the current Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak. The CHWs will be tasked with community outreach, sensitization, contact tracing and surveillance of EVD and will be supported by a smartphone-based mobile platform to facilitate real-time data collection and tracking of patients. This information will feed into analytical dashboards to allow all management levels to follow the local response and target the response effort accordingly. As Guinea moves beyond the EVD epidemic this cadre will focus on strengthening primary health services and continue to be supported by the real-time information system.
JOB FUNCTION:
The mHealth Program Country Coordinator will be responsible for supervising all ICT functions that will be carried out to support a community-based project to address the current Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak.
Read the full Job Description HERE. If interested, please email Anne Liu (aliu@ei.columbia.edu) and Elizabeth Zehe (ezehe@ei.columbia.edu) with your resume and cover letter.
Save the Date for Global Environmental Health Seminar October 10th: Concetrated Animal Feeding Operations-A Blessing or Curse for Global Food Security?
Speaker: James Ferguson, VMD
When: Friday, October 1oth
Where: BU Medical School, L210
Read the flyer to learn more: EH Seminar FlyerFerguson