Position Title: Epidemiologist, Research Associate, Malaria Analytics & Surveillance Team, East and Southern Africa
Overview
The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to our mission of saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work at the invitation of governments to support them and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems.
CHAI was founded in 2002 in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with the goal of dramatically reducing the price of life- saving drugs and increasing access to these medicines in the countries with the highest burden of the disease. Over the following two decades, CHAI has expanded its focus. Today, along with HIV, we work in conjunction with our partners to prevent and treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Our work has also expanded into cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases, and we work to accelerate the rollout of lifesaving vaccines, reduce maternal and child mortality, combat chronic malnutrition, and increase access to assistive technology. We are investing in horizontal approaches to strengthen health systems through programs in human resources for health, digital health, and health financing. With each new and innovative program, our strategy is grounded in maximizing sustainable impact at scale, ensuring that governments lead the solutions, that programs are designed to scale nationally, and learnings are shared globally.
At CHAI, our people are our greatest asset, and none of this work would be possible without their talent, time, dedication and passion for our mission and values. We are a highly diverse team of enthusiastic individuals across 40 countries with a broad range of skillsets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with majority of our staff based in program countries. Learn more about our exciting work: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org
CHAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion, and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.
Overview of Malaria Team:
CHAI’s global malaria and neglected tropical disease (NTD) program provides direct technical and operational support to countries around the globe to strengthen their programs and reduce the burden of preventable, treatable diseases. We support governments to scale up effective interventions for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance, with the goals of sustainably reducing the number of illnesses and deaths worldwide in the short- term and accelerating progress towards elimination of malaria and NTDs in the long term.
Overview of Role:
CHAI is seeking a highly motivated individual with public health experience and demonstrated skills in epidemiological data analysis to plan and conduct analyses of malaria and NTD data, translate results to inform decisions, communicate methods and findings with the malaria and NTD programs and partners, and support programs to strengthen routine data review activities. The individual will collaborate with a diverse team based across multiple countries in CHAI’s Global, Regional and Country Malaria and NTD Teams, as well as with government programs, academic partners and public health agencies. The successful candidate will possess strong communication and organizational skills; be imaginative, pragmatic, and innovative in applying epidemiological expertise to improve real- world health programs; work independently to drive implementation; and have deep personal commitment to producing results.
Flexible to be based in countries across East and Southern Africa, pending approval from country leadership
Responsibilities Regional analytics support (70%)
• Work with CHAI teams, national malaria and NTD programs, and partner organizations to identify analytical needs to inform country and regional decisions and strategies • Develop data analysis plans to ensure analyses address priority questions, including specifying research questions, identifying data needs, and determining appropriate methodologies • Conduct analyses of malaria and NTD data, including retrospective epidemiological assessments, impact evaluations, optimizing intervention packages, and quantifying contribution of drivers of transmission such as rainfall and importation • Translate findings into recommendations on programmatic decisions, including on where to prioritize resources, which interventions to implement, and how to deploy interventions to optimize coverage, efficiency, and impact of available resources • Liaise with academic partners to discuss methods and outputs of advanced analytics (e.g., risk mapping, mathematical modelling) led by these partners, including identifying potential use cases, communicating program priorities, sharing feedback on outputs, and linking outputs to broader strategic discussions • Clearly communicate analytical outputs, including methodology, certainty, and recommendations, with malaria and NTD programs and partners • Monitor and evaluate how analytical outputs are used to inform decisions and compare against previous strategies to understand impact and cost-effectiveness of proposed decisions • Document results and recommendations in reports to be shared with programs and partners
Regional data review and surveillance support (30%) • Work closely with CHAI country teams and malaria and NTD programs to monitor and respond to epidemiological data • Provide recommendations to enhance forums for review and use of epidemiological data, such as data review meetings, outbreak investigations, campaign monitoring meetings, and data quality assessments, and provide direct support to these forums as needed • Strengthen data review tools such as dashboards and action plan templates • Provide technical review and guidance on data analysis and use workstreams across the region • Support malaria and NTD programs to monitor and strengthen surveillance systems by supporting surveillance assessments, data quality audits, review of surveillance indicators, and surveillance trainings • Support development, integration, and institutionalization of malaria and NTD information systems with an emphasis on the integration of data use and analysis in routine programmatic activities, including reviewing and developing data collection tools, dashboards and data use guidelines • Help cultivate a culture of data-use within malaria and NTD programs by training CHAI and program staff on analysis of epidemiological, entomological, and programmatic data and using data to inform country strategy planning and program implementation • Develop and maintain strong working relationships with CHAI country and regional teams, key stakeholders across government, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions • Document lessons learned and best practices on data review and use for cross-country exchange and knowledge management • Any other tasks identified.